Ottawa

Who needs a Swedish Sauna, when you can just visit Ottawa. It was so humid while I was there last week that there were awesome thunder and lightening storms each night as the humidity built up during the day.

I was visiting a couple of friends in Ottawa, one that I met on the plane to NZ last year. Really makes it a small world.

While I was there, I crossed the bridge, back to Quebec to ride in a big park in Gatineau.

http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/bins/ncc_web_content_page.asp?cid=16297-16299-9970&lang=1

As I didn't know where I was going, I was quite relieved to have car pass me with a mtn bike on the roof. So I followed him into the park and ended up joining Bryan and his mates for a two hour hill climb.

I find there's a common misconception out there, that if you race elite, you are always fast. Sure, in general, someone who rides all the time is faster, but I think the real time that elite riders are fast are when they are fresh, and that is not often. My ride in Ottawa was day 7 of a hard training week with a race in the middle of it, so needless to say I was a bit fatigued, not to mention aclimatising to the swimming pool lurking in the air. phew. yeah, yeah, I'll stop mentioning the humidity in this part of the country by the time I return to my dry Okanagan :)