Richard reported in after the Kamloops/Interior 300 on Saturday (May 7). It was a casual e mail message, not intended as a newsletter submission.

Interior 300: Sorrento - Okanagan
by Richard Blair

Hello Cheryl, Karen and Eric: This is only a preliminary report on the Interior 300km as I have not yet talked to all 12 riders who participated ... Names and finish times are as follows: Bob Goodison 13:30; Bud MacRae 13:59; Randy Benz 14:20; Bob Boonstra 14:20; Rob Bernhardt 14:25; Richard Blair 14:37; and Larry Voth 16:40. I do not have times for Lindsay Martin, Jeff Oh, or Norm Brodie [ed: we have them now]. Phil Rumming DNF'd turning at the 105km mark because of a bad knee and Harold Bridge DNF'd at 205km in Vernon.

The ride started in Sorrento at 0600 with clear skies and cool temperature. The skies stayed clear, but the temperature increased to the mid-20s through the Okanagan. Westside Road along Okanagan Lake involved some significantly steep hills -- big rollers which took a lot out of you. Randy Benz's altimeter had us put in 10,000 feet of climbing on the ride, but my altimeter showed us at 2,791m, or 9,070 feet. I don't know why the difference, but perhaps because Randy is so much taller than I his altimeter gets to a higher point on the hills than mine does! Or maybe he just found some extra hills to climb. There was road construction on Westside Road which held us up for varying amounts of time. Jeff and Lindsay were stuck there for 50 minutes while others squeezed through after a couple of minutes wait. We had a tail wind south bound through the Okanagan to Kelowna and then had the pleasure of a headwind most of the way back to Sorrento through Vernon and Salmon Arm. All in all, a good ride with the route designed by the Sorrento hill beater, Bob Goodison.

Results

May 9, 2005