Day 7: Super Powers

---

What a difference a day (of rest) makes! After our day off in Montreal, we woke up refreshed, and our muscles were the least sore they have been since day 2. We started at about 7:15 am, and for the whole morning our speed was good, and our breaks were infrequent, short and efficient.

During our planning on Saturday, we decided that we wanted to make sure to spend more time enjoying our ride, and be careful not to spend the entire trip rushing to get from place to place. For this reason, we have decided to take the ferry from Sydney to Argentia instead of to Port Aux Basques, thus allowing us more days to enjoy places of interest. As we don't have the necessary camping gear to properly enjoy Gros Morne (a place we both plan to visit in the future), we are very happy with the decision.

This decision gave us the freedom to plan to spend time in both Trois Rivieres and Quebec City, even though along with Montreal that makes three "tourist days" close together. This was important to both of us, as we are very interested in both of them. Being tired from Friday's marathon ride, we thought we might have an easy 70 km ride from Montreal to Berthierville today, camp for the night, and then have another easy day to Trois Rivieres tomorrow, and spend the afternoon enjoying ourselves before we left on Tuesday morning.

When we reached Berthierville at 11:20 am, we knew there was no way we were going to stop there. We had travelled 74.2 km in 3h 3m, averaging a whopping 24.3 km/h. At that speed we knew we had to push to make it all the way. We stopped for a relaxing lunch at a little restaurant that seemed very popular among other cyclists, and then got back on the road. Our average speed topped out at 24.9 km/h right at the 100 km mark, meaning that we had done the first 100 km in just (JUST) over 4 hours.

In the afternoon, our super powers did begin to fade a little, and we had slightly longer and more frequent breaks, including a half hour nap in some chairs outside a gas station, but we still pushed hard, and made it to the Trois Rivieres University residences by 5:00 pm. Luckily they had room for us, and the room is beautiful, and amazingly priced (though unfortunately their internet is broken at the moment). Though we considered that it would be fun to say that we got from Montreal to Quebec City in 2 days, we finally decided to stay here again tomorrow for the day, and enjoy the town, as per our original plan. There is lots to do, and the area and the room are both quite attractive.

Our super stats (though not quite as impressive as the half-day stats mentioned above):

Departure time: 7:15 am
Arrival time: 5:00 pm
Total distance travelled: 141.9 km
Total time on bike: 5h 49m
Average speed: 24.4 km/h

This is the longest distance we've biked in one day so far, but not the longest total time on bike. It's also the best average speed we've had at the end of a day. Still, we don't feel as tired or sore as we have at other points in the trip, so we're expecting to put up some more great numbers soon (hopefully Tuesday for starters), so stay tuned!

- E and T

---

Photos

Berthierville
The determination gives our eyes a shiny finish, almost like sunglasses

Our room
Not pictured: washroom en-suite, plus kitchen facilities. Not bad for $60 a night (tax included)!

Comments

[Alex Leonard]

Day 7
Now THAT'S blazing speed! And for such a long distance, too!

[Shum]

WHAT?!?!
Not gonna lie, first read Sydney to Argentina..... long way to go on a ferry :P I gotta say, I'm more used to doing exercise in my basement, having some guy yell at you on a video..... that sounds really wrong...