afterwork seaway bike path ride

Wide open seaway bike path - Montreal's best?



We rode Pont Jacques Cartier through Longueuil to St-Lambert locks/Victoria bridge bike access, where we waited for a ship, then crossed the seaway (not the river itself) on to the amazing St-Laurence Seaway bike path/quiet car free road (voie maritime) all the way to St-Catherine locks at the south end, then U-turned and came back with greater intensity (objective: to ride easy at 30 km/h, spend some time trying to ride at 40+ km/h) back to the Estacade (ice bridge upstream of Pont Champlain, which we crossed in beautiful late sun, (passing two cop cars!) and then through Nun's island, verdun to Atwater access to Lachine Canal.

Then it was along the busy, bumpy, crazy Lachine canal, Montreal's first bike path, now complete chaos, then up beaver hall hill (couldn't sprint the whole hill, dagnabit), and up Parc avenue and home.

We introduced a new road-bike cyclist to the assorted locations along this tour. It was his first day on the bike, and we have to say, he got his money's worth!!! He actually just stopped us for a second at a light and asked about his STI brake lever/ shifters, but we decided to drag him along for this impressive "tour de cardio"!

Estacade (left) at sunset - the late sun season is here

We hit 45.6 on the sprint on the voie maritime, but sure can't hold that speed for long, so we watched the speedo slowly drop to 30, but we stayed above 30, for almost the whole way from St-Catherine to the Estacade. It'll be easier later in the season, but it sure wasn't easy now!