Eric got in touch with Michel Richard and Karen Smith following his DNF on the Vancouver Vancouver Vancouver 600 …to fill in the details. Karen and Michel live in Chilliwack.
Hi Karen, Hi Michel,
You’re probably wondering what on earth happened yesterday. Here’s the story.
I decided that I might be able to finish one more 600 if the route was flat enough, so I volunteered to join the VVV Summer 600 organizing team to work on the route. I was tasked with modifying Etienne’s “Spring Easy” 600 from 2025… to make it even easier. Skipping ahead — yesterday morning’s forecast was for “chance of showers”, which I wasn’t too pleased about, but I decided to ride anyway.
The skies opened up at 138 km near Rosedale as I was heading east to the Bridal Falls on-ramp to Hope. About 4 km into Highway 1 I had a flat. It was staples, two of them. Photos attached. An awful place to repair a flat, but I thought “I can do this”.
It was a slightly narrow shoulder, and those trucks were whipping by inches away. It was really loud too, with those fast-moving vehicle tires sloshing over the wet pavement. It was going to be hard to focus on the repair. And there were other problems: my reading/repairing glasses were fogged-up and dripping; I was saturated and getting colder; and I was also uncomfortably close to the time limit. Maybe I shouldn’t do this. Yes, maybe I should just get out of there as quickly as possible.
There were gaps in the traffic, so I crossed the highway thinking that I could hitchhike back to Popkum. The road on that stretch was narrowed by barricades. I wanted to get to the end of the barricades before asking for help so that a car would have room to pull over safely. Then a welcome sight. Ahead on the shoulder someone was walking towards me in the pouring rain, without rain gear. A car was visible, parked just beyond the end of the barricades. My rescue.
The person walking towards me was impossibly cool 21-year-old “Savannah” who was on her way to a baby shower in Chilliwack. She single handedly maneuvered my bike into her hatchback while I looked on shivering. In the car she said “I can take you anywhere you like in Chilliwack.” Well… you can probably see where this is going.
She dropped me in front of your house under the now sunny skies. No answer at your front door. Darn. I wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do, but I went into your back yard thinking that it would be a comfortable place to make the repair. I started by trying to warm up in the small pool of sunshine at the door into your garage. Called Sian. She said to find a hotel. But I was warm enough at that point to think about fixing the tire and riding back to Vancouver.
About this time, your very friendly neighbour said “Hi” over the fence and wondered if I was making a delivery. Ok, makes sense – your doorbell triggered a message that you received remotely, and you texted your neighbour. It was a little awkward trying to explain why the delivery guy had made himself so at home in your back yard, but with the help of the texts you were sending, he was ready to believe that you guys knew me. Phew! He (with wife’s voice in background) then switched to hospitality mode and asked if I needed anything or wanted to use the bathroom. But my tire was now almost fixed, and I was ready to go.
Out on the road, I was briefly back on the 600 route and had the pleasant surprise of running into Mike Gottlieb, Dave King and Murray Tough, already back from the Hope loop. They mentioned that Meghan Deutscher and Gowa Kong had had a catastrophic tire issue, and had also DNFed. It was a brief encounter – they were soon well up the road. I got as far as Triple O’s on No 3 Road and called an Uber.
All this is to say I’m sorry to have invited myself into you back yard without asking. I should have phoned first, but I was in crisis mode at the time. In any case, THANKS!
I hope you are enjoying New Brunswick.
Eric
Additional: Karen and Michel were ok with Eric squatting in their back yard.
