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In an effort to put in some km’s prior to next week’s Pacific Populaire, Agnes, Miranda and I went for a 61km ride yesterday. Traffic was light due to the long weekend and the weather was cool and overcast, making for a decent enough afternoon cycle.

I really enjoyed the route, cobbled together from the 50km & 100km Populaire routes currently listed on the BC Randonneurs’ website (I say “current” since they were different only a month ago when I last checked). So, in the interest of creating resources that other local cyclists can use, here’s a brief review of our route.

• West 10th Ave. to MacDonald. Meeting up at VGH, we ambled west on 10th — this is a new bike route created only last year (or the year before?) and has signals for all major intersections. It’s slow due to all the lights/stops, but has virtually no traffic, a big plus in this area.
• North on MacDonald, then West on 4th Avenue. Not much to say here, except that the left turn onto 4th is much easier during light traffic. But you knew that already.
• NW Marine to UBC Endowment Lands. This beatiful stretch takes you down past Jericho Beach, Locarno Beach and Spanish Banks before tackling the climb up to UBC. Soak in the view along the beaches before putting your head down for the hill. The steepest part is at the bottom and although the slope tapers off, you’ll be climbing most of the way to 16th Avenue.
• SW Marine to Granville Street. One of personal favourites with a wide shoulder and virtually no lights, this is a combination of mild downhill grades, wide-open flats and a great series of short, winding uphills as you leave the endowment lands. Despite a vigorous headwind, I let loose on this stretch, clocking a steady 40kph until the hills. This stretch is even better in the opposite direction as you get to race down the twisty parts and then grind up a long series of false flats — but maybe that’s just me.
• Arthur Lang bridge to No. 2 Road bridge. Major bridge links are never much fun. These two are relatively minor they’re pretty good as far as bridges go. We turned right off of SW Marine one block ahead of Granville (follow the cycling route signs) to join up with Granville just before the bridge. Get into the left-hand lanes to take the Arthur Lang bridge (which has a nice shoulder) and take the first off-ramp on the other side. Obey the signs and watch out for low-flying aircraft. There’s a bike path on the other side — take it (very tight turn) and immediately head right on the path. Don’t go left towards the airport (like we did) and scratch your head five minutes later when the route no longer makes sense! Following the signs to Richmond/No. 2 Road, you soon turn left onto Russ Baker way and are cruising in the bike lane over the No.2 Road bridge into Richmond. Piece of cake.
• West along River Road to No. 1 Road. If you’re like us, you’ll miss the ramp/exit (does it exist?) to River Road and will continue on to Westminster Highway. Hang a right onto Westminster and then take the next right and will eventually lead you to River Road. Head west (left in our bad directions scenario) and you’re whizzing along the river. The road is narrow, but traffic was light during our ride; alternatively you could take the multi-use path up on the north embankment, but who wants to cycle at a maximum of 20kph with joggers and roller-bladers?
• South along No. 1 Road to Steveston. Turn left onto No. 1 Road: a bit of traffic here, but it’s a nice straight shot that’s plenty wide. Our legs really appreciated Richmond, so very flat compared to Vancouver. Eventually we ran out of road in the heart of Steveston and turned left at the four-way stop. Mental note: this would have been a good place to refuel had we thought of it!
• Moncton Road to No. Road North. Moncton is a great big open street with little traffic and few stops. It was a shame that it ended so soon and forcing us to turn left back onto No. 2 Road (the 100km Populaire route turns right here). The latter wasn’t as great, a narrower, busier cousin of No. 1 Road. We stopped at a McDonald’s to fill up on hot apple pie (well, some of us ate actual apples, but I can’t turn down pie) and then pressed on.
• Bridges in reverse: No. 2 Road to Arthur Lang.This one was simpler: just go straight! True, there were some on/off-ramps to be crossed, but it wasn’t too bad. You could probably retrace the cycling path above, as long as you don’t miss the “Vancouver” turn-off, but we stuck with the road. Be careful exiting the Arthur Lang bridge since you need to scoot over one lane to the right and the incoming traffic can be pretty fast. They were resurfacing this area when we passed through, making for a rough ride on skinny tires.
• 71st to Hudson. We escaped the rough surface and heavy traffic of Granville by turning left onto 71st, a nice quiet side-street. Turning left (so many lefts…) onto Hudson we started to climb up the big hill that is the center of Vancouver. Hudson is a good way to go, quiet with lights at major cross-streets.
• 59th to Ontario. Turning right onto 59th we rested our legs on this mostly flat section with a few gentle descents. At Ontario, it was back to climbing: a steady rise until around 39th or 37th, I think. It was getting late at this point and we were pretty tired, but with the end near we plugged ahead with nary a thought of resting. The rest of Ontario was a breeze, all downhill until we parted ways back at 10th Ave, not far from our start point. 61km and change, all told.

It was a fun route and a great way to preview next week’s 100km ride. I’ve ridden most of the course’s other hills (well, in it’s current form, that is) so I have a pretty good idea what to expect. Should be lots of fun!

Aside: Wow, that was a longer write-up than I planned! If at least one person finds this useful, it’ll have been worth it.