On an ugly plane and signs

I participated in the Metropolitan Challenge today. It began at the Mont St-Bruno ski hill. To start with, there was a fair bit of the suburb of St-Julie to go through which starts and stops. Then there was a long stretch of open ground with the wind at our backs. My average speed was over 25 km/h at one point, then the route went along the western bank of Richelieu River for quite awhile before crossing at Beloeil.

It continued up the River, passing under a train bridge which is vague notorious for being the site of the Canada's worst railway accident. In 1864, a train full of immigrants failed to stop at a red signal and consequently went into the Richelieu River as the swing bridge was open. 99 people died. The swing bridge was at the left of the picture below.

A bit further up the River, the road went past a small airfield whose largest aircraft caused me to stop and take a picture.

 This rather ugly aircraft is a Short SC.7 Skyvan. It is a 1960s era medium weight utility aircraft designed for simple and cheap construction leaving out such refinements as pressurization and retractable landing gear. Strictly utilitarian, its boxy construction made easy to load cargo. According to Google, this one (C-GUWW) is owned by a sky diving company which isn't hard to believe. I also believe that at some point it had its engines replaced as it features five-bladed propellers rather than the original three-bladed ones.

Lunch was in the town of Richelieu. Mummy arrived a fair bit after me, but we had a chat.

I set off for the remaining 40 kms or so. In Chambly, there was some confusing directional signs that led many a participant astray. Several kilometers later, a pair women cyclists noticed that I had the map of the event on hand and asked if we were on the right road. I replied, "Yes," then added, "At least, I hope we are!" We were in fact on the route, and after crossing a bridge and returning towards Chambly, we were later riding down the western side of the Richelieu River. This was a bit of head scratch-er as according to the map, we weren't supposed to be there. However, there were Vélo-Québec signs.

We went through St-Basile-le-Grand which is best known to me as the site of a big tire fire in 1990. Then it was through the suburb of St-Bruno and back to the car. It was quite hot by the end.

My stats were: 4:41:30 biking time, 102.44 km distance, average speed of 21.8 km/h and 47.3 km/h maximum speed.

There were some fun signs which I photographed, along with my thumb in one case.

How's that for a name?

"Beware of snow blown by wind gods"

Beware of deer jumping over turtles

 

(If I lived nearby, I'd be tempted to swap the order the signs just to be annoying! :-) )