Dount Ride
I did the donut ride this weekend in Toronto and since a number of people on this forum had provided me with information about it and asked about it I thought I’d send you a little “first impression” ride report.
First of all the ride meets on all weekends and holidays somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00am. I heard conflicting reports so showed up at 8:30 and we left at 9! The starting point is the Great Canadian Bagel shop at Laird & Egglinton in up-town Toronto and is called the Donut ride since the GCB used to be a donut shop.
Normally the ride is big and fast. This weekend wasn’t a huge exception. As I waited the normal group arrived and by 9am there were about 15 people at the GCB. As we rolled out of town the group picked up many other cyclist along the route including Olympians Michael and Dede Barry. It’s not often you get to go on a group ride with an Olympian so having them both along was an added bonus (plus it meant the pace was pretty damn high for the first half). We rolled out of town at a moderate pace and it was only after about 25km that the pace really picked up and the group splintered. There was a huge surge just south of King City (1st sprint I think) and that split the group in 3rds – 1/3 at the front, 1/3 chasing and the rest riding at their own pace in a slower moving pack. After the King City sprint the group re-formed and then split directions with 20km of hills for those who wanted extra riding (I took that option) and a straight shot to the bakery which serves as the ˝ way point for the rest. The hills were killer – all short, all fast and the group split a bit again. Some of us got spit off and made it back into the albeit smaller group (about 15 people) to ride back to the bakery. This ˝ way point made it about 60km.
From the bakery there are two ways back into down town Toronto one about 40km and the other about 60km. I stayed with the long pack the whole way and we rode a long way east then came back into town through Scarborough and ended up all the way down at Bloor before working back up to Egglinton. The whole ride took about 4:15 and was 120km. The first 25 and the last 20km are in and out of the subdivisions so are not at high speed – about 20-25 km/h but then anything out of town was higher paced.
As previously stated on this forum – this is a roadie group ride. There were zero aerobars on this ride and this time of year almost everyone was on their old beater roadie with fender and down-graded components. I was expecting to be ignored by most people on the ride and even though I sat in the main pack all day and talked to 3 different people a bit. I’m a bit a fault there as I didn’t make a point of approaching anyone, but it’s certainly not the most approachable group. However if you want a hard ride with lots of different options and you life in Toronto this is a good group ride. I’ve heard that there are a number of pretty serious triathletes that do the ride often, but do use their road bikes for it.
Personally I would recommend the ride to anyone who wants to get better at riding in a pack, who wants to do long miles on the weekend and who is comfortable talking to themselves for long periods of time. I think the trepidation shown by a few of my Toronto friends toward the ride in unfounded – you just need to be prepared to ride long (120+ km) and hard for about ˝ the time. In the summer the ride continues much longer with options of up to 180 – 200km I’m told some times.
For comparison sake - I did get gapped (i.e. dropped by about 200m) a couple times on the ride - but rode back into the front pack each time. I'm a strong cyclist, but certainly nothing special. I've riden between 5:25 & 5:35 for my last three IM splits.
I did the donut ride this weekend in Toronto and since a number of people on this forum had provided me with information about it and asked about it I thought I’d send you a little “first impression” ride report.
First of all the ride meets on all weekends and holidays somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00am. I heard conflicting reports so showed up at 8:30 and we left at 9! The starting point is the Great Canadian Bagel shop at Laird & Egglinton in up-town Toronto and is called the Donut ride since the GCB used to be a donut shop.
Normally the ride is big and fast. This weekend wasn’t a huge exception. As I waited the normal group arrived and by 9am there were about 15 people at the GCB. As we rolled out of town the group picked up many other cyclist along the route including Olympians Michael and Dede Barry. It’s not often you get to go on a group ride with an Olympian so having them both along was an added bonus (plus it meant the pace was pretty damn high for the first half). We rolled out of town at a moderate pace and it was only after about 25km that the pace really picked up and the group splintered. There was a huge surge just south of King City (1st sprint I think) and that split the group in 3rds – 1/3 at the front, 1/3 chasing and the rest riding at their own pace in a slower moving pack. After the King City sprint the group re-formed and then split directions with 20km of hills for those who wanted extra riding (I took that option) and a straight shot to the bakery which serves as the ˝ way point for the rest. The hills were killer – all short, all fast and the group split a bit again. Some of us got spit off and made it back into the albeit smaller group (about 15 people) to ride back to the bakery. This ˝ way point made it about 60km.
From the bakery there are two ways back into down town Toronto one about 40km and the other about 60km. I stayed with the long pack the whole way and we rode a long way east then came back into town through Scarborough and ended up all the way down at Bloor before working back up to Egglinton. The whole ride took about 4:15 and was 120km. The first 25 and the last 20km are in and out of the subdivisions so are not at high speed – about 20-25 km/h but then anything out of town was higher paced.
As previously stated on this forum – this is a roadie group ride. There were zero aerobars on this ride and this time of year almost everyone was on their old beater roadie with fender and down-graded components. I was expecting to be ignored by most people on the ride and even though I sat in the main pack all day and talked to 3 different people a bit. I’m a bit a fault there as I didn’t make a point of approaching anyone, but it’s certainly not the most approachable group. However if you want a hard ride with lots of different options and you life in Toronto this is a good group ride. I’ve heard that there are a number of pretty serious triathletes that do the ride often, but do use their road bikes for it.
Personally I would recommend the ride to anyone who wants to get better at riding in a pack, who wants to do long miles on the weekend and who is comfortable talking to themselves for long periods of time. I think the trepidation shown by a few of my Toronto friends toward the ride in unfounded – you just need to be prepared to ride long (120+ km) and hard for about ˝ the time. In the summer the ride continues much longer with options of up to 180 – 200km I’m told some times.
For comparison sake - I did get gapped (i.e. dropped by about 200m) a couple times on the ride - but rode back into the front pack each time. I'm a strong cyclist, but certainly nothing special. I've riden between 5:25 & 5:35 for my last three IM splits.