Peace Rider Extremely Cool
by E. W. (Wim) Kok

Here's a recent e mail message from Peace Region brevet coordinator Wim Kok in Fort St. John. The early season ride reports from Wim are always fun because can be increadably cold, or snowy, or both. This message is from April 1. [EF]

Hello Eric and Cheryl:

Here is the first result of the Peace Populaire series: I did the 50 km pre-ride on Saturday March 31/07. Roads were clean. It was pretty dismal weatherwise. When I came home the insides of both waterbottles were coated with half a cm of ice. Had not seen this before.

50 km: (A) Wim Kok  2:02
Conditions: Temp: -5 C Winds: NNW 28- 37 kph Windchill: -14C Sunny

Today Sunday (April 1/07) we had a combination of a club race and the scheduled 25/50 km populaires. The conditions made yesterday look like a cold picnic. Just to give you an idea, here are the conditions of today:

Temp: -10C Wind: NNW 28-37 kph Windchill: -19C Light snow and blowing snow.

For rider safety in terms of frost bite danger and possible poor visibity we kept the distance to 20 km, then went home for hot chocolat milk. We are looking at rescheduling the populaires.

[By the way the forecast calls for lows of near -20 C in the next few days] No need to feel sorry, just identifying an alternative for anyone concerned about riding in the rain.


Cheers,

Wim

(in preparation for PBP)

PS: Hope the Pacific Populaire went well

April 4, 2007