Richie took up cycling 4 years ago and has become fully engaged in it. 2 years ago he raced in Sardinia, Italy. Later this year he is going to Vimy Ridge to do a ride to raise money for Wounded Warriors.
Today was his first ride of the season at Caleb Pike, near Langford, about 20 minutes from here. It was about a 2 km course. There were three classes of riders, A, B & C. Group "A" would do 18 laps, "B"-16 laps and "C"-14 laps. Ritchie was riding in the "B" class.
Here he is with Caroline......
.....and us moments before the race.
They had a staggered start between the groups.
You can see Ritchie in the light blue shirt in the middle of this pack coming around a steep downhill turn.
Here he is trying to break away from a few guys in his pack.
They had to climb this steep hill just before the finish line.
Evidently the regular scorekeeper didn't show up, which caused a lot of confusion between the volunteer scorers. As his group passed the start/finish line with four laps to go, the one scorer yelled out "Last Lap", so the next time they came up this hill they were pedaling their guts out as they sprinted to the finish, only to hear her call out "3 laps to go!".......Are you kidding???? The race ended in confusion as some tried to pedal on and others couldn't go any further. They finally decided that the race would not count in the standings. Nice.
We went from there to Bear Mountain for lunch.
This is a high end community that is based around the Bear Mountain Golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus.
This was started by Len Barrie, a former NHL player. He owned property next to a golf course and cut down a couple of trees (on the Golf course) to improve his view. The course rescinded his membership so in revenge, he built and developed Bear Mountain.
The development of Bear Mountain resort has been criticized for damaging sensitive ecosystems and historic native sites. Currently, the Bear Mountain resort is under court protection from creditors. Apparently Barrie was a bit of a scumbag.
Anyways, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Jack's (Jack Nicklaus) Place.
The chainsaw (it's been chromed) he used to cut down the trees is on display there.
We stopped at the Songhees Wellness Centre to see this Loon that the father of a friend of Ritchie's created. Lots of beautiful native artwork out here.
Then on to Saxe Point Park for this beautiful view.
We returned home to watch Jordan Speith dominate The Masters.
A slower more relaxing day.
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