Wednesday May 23rd - Media Launch, Snows falling

Today was a full day geared towards officially launching this bike trip! Yesterday wrapped up the fitness testing portion and today was all about the final preparations for the ride to begin tomorrow. A media event, held at COP Calgary, showcased all the athletes in our team jerseys symbolically riding off to a shotgun start. The two rides around COP were fairly indicative of what lays ahead, a bit of confusion, getting used to bikes, and cold fingers!

I am currently at the Lake Louise Inn settling in for my last nights rest before the grind begins. As I look out my window the snow is falling....yes...I said snow. The rules have been set that the only reasons we'll pull out from riding is for thunderstorms and snow. Tomorrow we'll face one of our easier days with only 90km's and no major climbs. The goal tomorrow is to learn how to ride as a group, figure out what group matches our ability, and to begin finding (however difficult it may be to find something you never possessed) our biking legs.

Some nights we'll be in hotels, other nights hostels. With no cell phone service through most of the ride and an obvious lack of regular internet access my updates may be less regular than I had hoped. However, unless otherwise noted, I'm still alive and riding somewhere between Lake Louise and Whistler! :)

My feelings heading into this ride include anxiety, excitement, curiosity, and drive. At the very least, after the next 10 days I'm sure we'll have many stories to tell. When it comes down to it, I'm extremely excited to start this journey. This is living.

K