A long day so a half hour earlier start. My team is on breakfast prep so I was up at 5:15 (or technically at 5 I woke up to the Frisian anthem, A member of my team had it as his alarm. We were ready to go early but we had to wait for a couple of cyclists who had to load the gear truck. We ended up leaving at our usual time of 7 instead of the time the rest of the cyclists left at 6:30. Just east of Winnipeg is a monument marking the longitudinal centre of Canada so we planned to head there but with confusing directions we ended up going an extra 10 km, which wasn't bad in itself, but on an already long day we definitely felt it. We made it to that monument and took photos and then went back on route heading directly into a headwind. It took a very long time to get to the second rest stop because we had bypassed the first. However when we got there, a group of cyclists was still there so we weren't too far behind. There had been six of us in a line drafting, but after the rest stop the 3 faster ones sped on ahead. We were fighting a headwind or crosswind all day which is very exhausting. The roads were fairly flat but the grade was a very gradual uphill which didn't help. A huge blessing came in the form of trees,that have reappeared after many days of open prairies. They gave us some relief from the wind. We were very glad to see each rest stop and since Bonita, Sara and I were the very last ones we got treated like queens! We passed quite a few churches today, considering how rural we are, including a few Ukrainian ones and an old school building. We figured we were last anyway so we went in and looked at the school. At the last rest stop we caught up to the group who usually brings up the tail. We rode with One cyclist Gary, at his pace for the last 10km or so. We are camped in small town Vassar at their park, which has very spotty service. We arrived in camp at 5:45 pm, so it was a very long day. We had a delicious dinner and then we had ice cream to celebrate Andy and Jenny's (a rest stop couple) anniversary and their becoming grandparents yesterday. Bonita, Sara and I went for a swim in the pool that is 20 feet from our tent!!! It was so refreshing. We are tired and tomorrow (Tuesday) we cross into the states so I am not sure when I'll be able to update my blog next.
170.2km
9h 1min
18.9Km/h avg speed
348m Elevation climbing