Runners in the bike path

How about a joke.

How can you tell the difference between the sidewalk and the bike path?

Answer: all the runners are on the bike path.

This would be funny if it wasn't true.

Another May hill ride extravaganza

The Bertrand is running strong, as usual.








Today's goal was to extend our usual ride into the lower left part of the map

We went back to our favorite hill ride area in Northern Lanaudiere, St-Jean-de-Matha.

The ride was the standard first half to Ste-Beatrix, then we explored a bit south of the town, doing a counter clockwise loop down to Lack Rocher and then up to the entrance Parc des Chutes at the Ste-Beatrix river-canyon entrance). From here we rode back to St-Jean de Matha, with a descent to the St-Jean-Matha entrance to the Parc des Chutes. And... back up the village. This is a great way to absorb any excess energy you have at the end of the ride. (You can also do a ride extension on Rang St-Guillaume like we did last week).

The ride was 88 km with 1175 metres of climbing (3850 ft). Conditions were good with some big wind gusts. When the gusts were favorable we would cruise at 40 km/h, which is a good speed to cruise when on a bicycle. The drive is 97 km from Montreal.

Conclusion: Another great ride in hill ride paradise.

We check out the new fountains at places des festivales beside Place des Arts

Summer...


Sun, water, relaxed crowd, it's an urban beach


Small jets spurt and jump around


Centre fountain goes big


A big improvement to downtown


The new Place des Festivales replacement for Jeanne Mance street beside Place des Arts has a great new water fountain. Make that fountains, because there's probably a couple of hundred spouts. There is a good location to find some happiness and fun.

Montreal is a great compact size that lets us get downtown by bike in ten minutes. There's lots to explore, and these fountains are a great new attraction.

CFM encourages you to get outside and explore our great city.

typical little urban bike ride

Here, there, everywhere!

Here's a typical little after work or afternoon Montreal bike ride, part uphill, part downhill, part exploration, and part gettin' late and better get back in time for supper!

Typical Mt Royal and old montreal bike ride

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Time to repaint the bike lane lines on the streets

Where's the St-Urban bike lane? Wake up Ville de Montreal, and do your job.


The pair of solid lines clearly mark the bike path, except the outer painted-line is 90% gone, greatly reducing the safety zone for cyclists.


Disappearing bike path lane on St-Urbain


Clearly visible solid lines, the cyclist's safety zone is established



The city found the time to paint these curbs yellow, saving zero lives

How to lock your bike at a bad bike rack

Bad bike rack? Human ingenuity to the rescue.


This picture demonstrates the method to use to lock your bike to the vertical slot-style bike rack. This style of bike rack is not designed to function with the U-lock style bike lock.

The picture demostrates the two ways you can secure your bike to this style of rack. The obvious one is the over-the-top method. It works quite well. The second method is to lock your bike to the end of the rack. Watch for loose or missing bolts on the rack, someone could walk way with your bike with the lock still attached. Notice the stealth paint job on the bike in the photo. You want an inconspicuous .




Another location, same solution.

Mystery of the missing Bixi stations

Where have the Bixi stations gone?

Last week they were on the online Bixi map, and this week they are gone.

The stations are still on our favorites list, along with the real-time bike/parking availability information.

So where have the stations gone?

We investigated.

The station in question, at Hutchinson and Fairmount, seems to have changed locations to a different corner of the intersection. We don't think this requires the online Bixi map to disappear the station, but the Bixi system disappeared it anyway.

So this continues our amazement at the way computer systems work, and specifically don't work. Which in this case, is how it seems to work.

Update: They're back.

Next question is why the Bixi online map doesn't show our favorite stations when we select the full-screen map.

a morning ride reality tale

This occurred this morning.

We were coming up St-Joseph (that worst-pavement-in-Montreal section) to cross Cote-Ste-Catherine to the bike path, we had the green light and as we entered Cote-Ste-Catherine road a cyclist ran the red (he was in the car lane and not in the bike path) and passed a few feet in front of us. Not really nice behaviour, we observed, so we spoke up.

"Jesus Christ didn't you see the red light?"

"My name's not Jesus Christ."

Points for style were awarded.

2010 first MRC maskinongé ride

Ride map (bikely map here) of the ride. A nice 100km ride.


The road/route verte #5 east of St-Barthelemy follows this terrassed escarpment


Looking back at scenic valley north of St-Severe, we always take a break on this hill.


Vegetable crossing near St-Paulin/Hunterstown


Swimming hole near St-Leon-Le-Grand at bridge across the Riviere Du Loup.

We have had a lot of vey nice rides in the Maskinongé region just west of Trois Rivieres (and just east of Montreal and the Lanaudiere region). Today was our forst visit here in 2010. As always, we wanted scenery, quiet country roads, not too many hills, and nice quality road surface.

This particular ride does a lot of zig-zagging as it goes east through the middle of the region. There are direct highways east-west and north-south, but the quiet roads are a bit less direct. That's of, we have cycling the map of the MRC Maskinongé, and all secrets are revealed within. (It would be best if we got a new copy of the map, ours is falling apart).

Some highlights of today's ride include the awesome tailwind for the first 2/3 of the ride. We were averaging 25 km/h for a couple of hours, and after yesterday's hill-fest, we weren't pushing the power very hard. To our advantage, the return leg has many downhill sections which countered the headwind.

We've done many variants to the basic Maskinongé giant loop ride, and we pretty much like them all. You can do a shorter (less east-west distance) by starting in Louiseville or Yamachiche, and going up to Ste-Elie-de-Caxton. In Ste-Elie, be certain to ride/walk up to the lookout at the Calvaire behind the church (the less-steep road to the top turns right immediately after the cemetery).

Velo Quebec vs CAA auto club interview in La Presse

There is a very interesting interview (Q&A format) between the La Presse newspaper and Susanne Lareau, president of Velo Quebec and Brigitte Roussey, spokesperson for the CAA automobile club (no, not the bicycle kind of spokes). The CAA is big on police repression for scofflaw bike riders.

Read it in original french here or in not-yet-perfected google translate in english here.

Very interesting!

Northern Lanaudiere hill-paradise ride

Chemin Belle Montagne lives up to its name.


Smooth roads welcome you to this ride




This ride covers the heart of northern Lanaudiere, This is region is one of our favorite Quebec destinations for road biking. (Map link here)


The ride's elevation profile - only two long hills but lots of nice up and down riding


Some horses not amused at the bike machine thing


Louis Cyr welcoming us back to St-Jean-de-Matha


View looking down on L'Assomption river from road bridge outside Parc Regional des Chutes (waterfalls) at the Ste-Beatrix entrance


Riviere Blanche (at the bridge to Belle Montagne)


A few steep hills today


The top-of-hill lookout between St-Jean-de-Matha and Ste-Emilie (about one hour from the start of the ride)

We went to one of our all-time favorite hilly riding destinations today, starting at St-Jean-de-Matha and passing Lac Berthier, Ste-Emilie-de-L'Energie, chemin de Belle Montagne to Ste-Beatrix and back to St Jean with a end-of-ride side trip to Rang St-Guillaume and back to the start.

The ride is a modest 90km distance, but lots of hills make up for any idea you have that you won't get your legs all used up.

There are lots of possibilities and shortcuts to make this a shorter ride if you want (or need).

Our usual plan is to do a few spring rides here, this'll tune the legs sufficiently so we are ready for any paved-road hill in the east.

Today's conditions were completely perfect (temperature, sun, clothing, wind, bugs, traffic, and most of the roads). Average speed was 23.5 km/h, distance was about 90 km, and there were 1000 metres of hilltastic ups and downs.

Bikely map link here.

Looking for a great intermediate/middle distance ride?

Are you looking for a great intermediate middle-distance road ride?

We especially like:

Chateauguay valley (Ste-Martine, Ormstown, clockwise/counter-clockwise rides heading south or along the Chateauguay river to Powerscourt)
MRC Maskinongé (Louiseville/Yamachiche - loop rides to the north to Ste-Elie-Caxton)
Northern lanaudiere hill ride from Ste-Jean-de-Matha to Ste-Emilie-de-l'Energie and Ste-Beatrix)

Search this blog (with google not the useless blogsearch box above) and Bikely for more information. And then get out and enjoy a taste of Quebec cycling paradise.

8:28 am... time to go!

Safety on a bicycle is YOUR responsibility

Safety? On a bicycle? Commentators this week have been making lots of noise about bicycles and safety and the needless waste of human life when a cyclist dies. This week there were 5 deaths.

We think a lot about safety, because we have had just about every sort of bike accident there is. And these days, we prefer to prevent another bike accident, and definitely we think hard about not being the cause of a bike accident.

As a cyclist we want safe roads, cautious car drivers, and evidence of brain activity in other cyclists. None of these things exist 24/7. Sometimes these things don't exist at all. We were at the SAAQ to replace a drivers license this week, and beside us was a young man who was complaining about failing the test because he has a big blind spot in his vision that he didn't think should stop him from getting his drivers license. We are not making this up! Be afraid people, be very afraid.

So here are some of our suggestions for safer cycling, and these are all things that you the cyclist can do to increase the chance you will safely complete a bicycle ride in one piece.

• learn and practice safe cycling technique.
• Learn to ride defensively.
• Learn the basic "rules of the road."
• Obey the road rules.
• Learn what stop signs and red lights at intersections are for.
  
• Don't ride stupidly (see previous item).
• Be predictable in your riding on streets.(see previous item)
  
• Signal turns when on your bike.
• Use a bell to warn others when you pass them.
• Remember: the road rules do apply to you.
• Don't cause traffic chaos.
• Ride on the right side of the road.
• On urban street bike-path, follow the side that has the arrows in your direction of travel
• Get a mirror.
• Get a bell. (really, get a damn bell and use it!)
• Get a bell - this goes to racer wannabees who whiz past everyone at high speed.
  
• Don't go the wrong way down the road or street.
• Don't ever ride at night without a front (white) and rear (red) light.
• The more ugly reflective gear you wear at night the safer you will be.
• Night riding is hugely more dangerous than day riding, be aware and ride twice as safe.
• Don't ever ride on the sidewalk. (never, never, never!)
• Wear high visibility cycling jersey and jacket.
• Use a flashing strobe tail light, even in daylight.
• Make sure your bikes brakes are functioning properly.
• Stop at lights and stop signs. (at least look around and be ready to stop!)
• Be paranoid.
• Don't cause road rage.
• Don't wear headphones, hearing other vehicles is an elementary safety technique.
• Send your kids to a bike-safety event
  
• Signal to others when you pass them, say "Hello," say "On your left," or ring a bell. (or all three)
• Avoid busy intersections and streets - there are usually safer routes, or take an "L" corner.
• Ride maximum two-person wide in group cycling
• When riding in a group, signal obstacles to those behind you
  
• Ride single file when encountering cars - in both directions.
• Don't cross the line in the middle of the road or bike path.
• Report road safety problems to 311. Report dangerous drivers to 911.
• Use a bell.
• Signal your turns.
  
• Learn to ride the white line on the edge of the road like your life depends on it (it does)
• When a car approaches from the front, move over because you may not hear the car coming from your back at the same time
• learn to listen for cars coming from the back
  

A short note about riding in a group. We have seen the absolute worst riding in cycling groups. Cycling clubs are not effectively managing group-riding safety. Sure, some do, some make riders take a pace-line course, but when ever we see a group riding out in the country, it's a chaotic assortment of people riding on every part of the road and basically being a danger to themselves and other users of the road. As the group number goes up, the amount of safety goes down. Each rider is responsible for his or her safety, but the larger the group, the less this seems to factor in to the individual rider behavior.

Did we mention we love how well our LOUD bike bell lets people know to watch out, that a bicycle is coming or about to pass them? It's like a magic power. We love our bell. We don't love our flourogreen jacket quite as much, but we know it forces car drivers to see us. And after some episodes where the car driver didn't see us, we appreciate greater safety.

We know that there will always be a certain proportion of people who are complete idiots, be they cyclists, car drivers, pedestrians, politicians, and especially letters-to-the-editor writers, but you can take responsibility to make your own bike riding safer. We hope this is important enough to you to consider modifying any unsafe riding behavior, because you don't want to become one of this years Quebec cycling deaths.

Last year we tried stopping at more stop signs and red lights. Now we find it hard not to stop! And if you want exercise and training, accelerating from a stop is much more exercise than just riding through - and it builds power! The point we would like to make is that to prevent accidents, you must make your default action (the one that is the automatic response) the safest one. This takes some mental training. This is as important as physical training. For example, "always prepare to stop at an intersection, and then you can go if there are no cars" is a lot safer than "riding though on the power and head down ignoring everyone else and only stopping at the last second if there is a car with the right of way." (and even then... some cyclists just go through anyway) This goes double if you have headphones on, are habitually mellowed-out, or always wearing all-black clothes at nighttime (or all three).

Please go here for more information on bicycle safety. And get a bell.

Mount Royal snowshoe vs ski race - and bike!

In the quite amazing Gazette archive (1880-1985) on google news, the Gazette in the late 1800s reported on a race between the traditional form of personal winter travel/recreation in Quebec, the snowshoe, against that newfangled scandinavian invention, the ski (Ok, the ski has actually been around for 1000s of years, but it was newly introduced to north america).

Snowshoers had been traveling over and around Mt Royal for centuries, and snowshoe clubs of all sorts were very popular at the time (what else was there to do in the winter before electricity, tv, birth control, indoor plumbing and the habs?).

So someone asked, probably over some beers, which is faster, skiing or snowshoeing. A race was organized. A starting point at McGill university gates, and a destination at a tavern over where St-Joseph's Oratory now stands. A crowd gathered and the race was off. The snowshoes took the early lead, on the uphill section. Cheers went up, tradition would win! But when the incline turned to downhill, the skis moved faster, passed the snowshoers, and won the race.

And thus the popularity of snowshoeing as a winter activity began it's decline. And skiing rose to became the popular sport it is today.

Which brings us to last night.

We were on the bike, over near St-Joseph Oratory, and wondered... where should we ride next?

We thought of this race, and wondered what would a bike do? So we rode from the Oratory over to the gates of McGill. 11 minutes 50 seconds, but this was the downhill version, not representative at all of the race. However, now we were at the starting point, so we reset the timer, and started on what was a non-optimised modern version of the course, although naturally today there are buildings, streets, and red lights today, no wide-open fields! The ride up steep peel street (fresh asphalt!) was a slow low-gear leg burner, but once on Pine Avenue and traversing around the edge of Mt Royal westward the speed picked up, we passed the wet cold rock wall (Brrr!) near the Montreal General hospital, got onto Cote des Neiges and crested the high point and began the descent to the finish line. To avoid lights and cars we hopped on to the 90% finished new bike path along cote des neiges (the first-built part of the new northern "boucle Mont Royal"). After we traversed some road construction we arrived at the entrance of Oratoire St-Joseph (we did NOT race through the grounds) and finished the race course in 16:05.

I didn't check the time in the gazette news archive (i read a while ago) but I got a fun after-supper workout with a bit of historical flavour.

An interesting 1977 Gazette local history column looking at a related event and other snowshoe racing activities in Montreal is here.

Three cyclists dead: when will Quebec get paved shoulders an ALL numbered highways?

Quebec's Ministry of Transport (Transport Quebec) builds a lot of roads. Generally they build good roads. But there are a lot of numbered highways that don't have paved shoulders and the MTQ is in no hurry to build paved shoulders on highways that don't have them. These artifacts from an earlier era are death traps for cyclists.

So, lots of highways have sections with no paved shoulders. Why should we care? Because the result is three dead cyclists today. (read news here)

The responsibility for these deaths lies with Transports Quebec and no one else.

We say that Transports Quebec has to build paved shoulders on the provinces numbered highways and they need to do it urgently before more cyclists die.

Contact Julie Boulet, the Minister of Transport Quebec about these deaths, your voice counts:

email: ministre@mtq.gouv.qc.ca

Cabinet of the Minister of Transport:

700, boul. René-Lévesque Est, 29e étage Québec (Québec) G1R 5H1 Telephone: 418 643-6980 Fax: 418 643-2033

500, boul. René-Lévesque Ouest 16e étage Montréal (Québec) H4Z 1W7 Telephone: 514 873-3444 Fax: 514 873-7886

These deaths did not need to happen. They resulted as a consequence of negligence on the part of Transports Quebec.

Descents: high speed and/or scenic

Bicycles enjoy going downhill, as do their riders.

We like long downhills. We like steep downhills. We like long and steep downhills.

Our favorites for exploring the top end of the bike's speed range are:

• Jay Peak ski area descent west towards Montgomery
• Rue principale est (east towards the river) from St-Clement village (Bas St-Laurent)
  
• Hotel Lac Sacacomie from St-Alexis-des-Monts, the return direction descent to river
  
• Rt 347 crossing the L'Assomption river (direction west) between St-Jean-de-Matha and Ste-Beatrix
  

Some of these are the mythical steep... then steeper. Others are short and sweet. Most have the length to accellerate, then super steepness to get you into the top speed department. Not all of these have perfect pavement, i.e. Lac Sacacomie does, and St-Clement doesn't. If you want to experience the real deal, we think that the ride to Hotel Lac Sacacomie from Louiseville offers one of the very best cycling experiences in quebec.


In the long and fun and not so steep department, we offer these choices

• Ste-Emilie-de-l'Energie: Rang de la feuille d'erable direction south
• St-Jean-de-Matha (rang St-Catherine) to St-Emilie-de-l'Energie
• Chemin Nordet, St-Donat in Laurentiens (and a bit of Lanaudiere)
  
• St-Malo (highest village in quebec?) to East Hereford, eastern townships
• St-Hermenegilde to East Hereford
• St-Malo to Coaticook
• Anywhere in the Malbaie
• Ste-Roch-de-Mekinac to Ste-Tite on Rt 159

Some of these are also our favorite climbs, and some have our favorite lookouts and viewpoints, but these are really separate categories for another day.

Stanley Cup Fever

Stanley Cup fever kept people at home glued to the TV set.

This meant that the Lachine Canal bike path was empty. Empty empty empty! We love this amazing bike path but find it too busy and crowded for exuberant training rides. Tonight, there were no crowds and so we had a lot of exuberance.

We got home at the end of the first period, and enjoyed tonight's 7th game victory against the Penguins. We're looking forward to 14 more empty-bike-path rides like tonight as the Canadiens play towards their eventual winning of the 2010 Stanley Cup.

Go Habs Go!

Sun sets at 8:14 pm - go outside and have fun

The time of sunset gets later every day.

Today it is at 8:14 pm.

Go outside and enjoy it. Walk, ride your bicycle or unicycle, blade, board, or whatever. Have some fun.

Step 1: Close the computer. Do it now.

Step 2: Get outside and live life to the fullest.

bike commuting, some observations

While bike commuting through Montreal we have observed the following dangerous behaviours (all of these were witnessed today):

massive cell phone use
massive texting use
massive ipod use (get those things outa yer ears!)
minor people reading the newspaper while driving
occasional women adding facial makeup while driving

And our least favorite driving behaviour: lane jumping solid lines at intersections, we especially don't like this because we think that this is how we will die. We'll just be biking along safely in an empty lane, and someone in the left/turn lane doesn't want to wait and presses the gaz and zoom crosses the solid line suddenly, directly into us. Crunch. His/her car will be OK. We will die. He/she will say "I didn't see them." Which is why the left lane has a solid line, so you don't cross the line into an invisible cyclist.


Some well-deserved thanks to the safe car drivers
We want to thank the great majority of car drivers who drive carefully with full attention, and super bonus thanks to the nice people who pass us with plenty of space. Thanks everybody.

More anti-cyclist craziness from Parc Drapeau/Circuit Gilles Villeneuve management

You really have to wonder if the management of Parc Drapeau has ever ridden a bicycle? The latest improvements to the (highly excellent) Circuit Gilles Villeneuve F1 race track are not pleasing the cyclist community.

The Parc Drapeau management is trying to "manage" the flow of runners, cyclists, and inline skaters. Good Luck! New changes to the lanes/signs at popular race track are not making the situation better. One big issue is that there is a car lane on the otherwise active-recreation-focused race track. Ban the cars, and let the summer bus to the island's beach use the side of the resulting full-width track.

More info/opinion here at Veloptimum.net, and 24H news article here, and the press release here.

We're sure there will be more news and opinion to come over the next few days, and none of it will complement the management of Parc Drapeau for their "improvements."

Update: excellent analysis concerning the recent anti-cyclist changes to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve at this link. (en francais)

Olmstead road uphill training

Getting closer to 10 mpg avg speed up Mt Royal's 6 km dirt road 500 ft elevation gain climb on mtn bike. 9.67 mph was last nights avg speed, and wasn't trying to go fast, that's 23.5 minutes and the goal is 18 minutes = 20 km/h for the climb a.k.a. the impossible dream/posted speed limit.

Notice how we switch between mph and km/h to keep you confused.

What we don't do is race back down Olmstead road. We take the CamHoude pavement route to return, Olmstead road is a quiet dirt road with tons of pedestrians who get very annoyed at idiots on bikes racing down this road.

If you try it, remember that the road no longer starts at the monuments, but lower down at the Pine-Parc intersection.

2010 Montreal bike path map

UPDATE: please click here. <-This the latest information on montreal bike paths. Thanks!

***********************************************************************************

The Gazette's Metropolitan News section now has the 2010 Montreal bike path map. This is the first online sighting anywhere of a 2010 bike path map for Montreal. (libraries and access montreal offices are supposed to have paper copies of these maps)

The map also shows new bike paths planned for construction in 2010. (80% of these are mere lines painted on the street, but we like this kind of bike path)

Go here for the bike path map: Montreal adding to it's cycling path network.

First Bixi ride

Yes, we're always late to the party. But we get there eventually...

Yesterday was our first outdoor Bixi ride. As a lover of bikes, we can only suggest that our first impression that this is one big hunk of junk was again confirmed. But being a big hunk of junk (this is unkind, we mean a heavy duty non-sporty style of bike) is what keeps the Bixi fleet continuously rolling under the heavy use and poor-quality Montreal roads that is the Bixi ecosystem.

Impressions:

Being a one size fits all device, the Bixi fits no one well. And the seat does not go up high enough for tall people. For short people, the handle bars are too far away.

The seat is adequate

The handlebar has tapered grips, which force your hands into the sharp-edged plastic moldings of the handlebar apparatus.

The front rack doesn't work at all for smallish packages. (note that last year these racks were breaking at alarming rates) Is there some reason they build a bike basket without a bottom? Can you explain this to us please?

The bell installed on the handlebar is both amazingly hidden, and completely to different to use than any bicycle bell ever in human history.

The online map and available-bikes and available-bike-parking system is good.

The "system" of bixi + Bixi stand worked well, although there were bikes in the stand that just didn't work when we entered the bixi key.

Why no "nearby bixi parking" map on the bixi parking stand? What happens when the stand is full and you need this information?

Brakes? The Bixi we rode had crappy brakes with a very stiff pull on the brake levers to activate braking action. We did not think these were safe brakes. If this was our bike we'd take it to the shop and say "Fix-em."

Finally, did we like our Bixi experience? Absolutely. For the short urban trip it is ideal.

For some newly released Bixi statistics on its first year of operation, go here: Everything you've always wanted to know about the Bixi. From the Gazette's Andy Riga at his Metropolitan News blog.

Exploration plan 2010

We love new bike exploration adventures.

Here's some far-away Quebec places we hope to visit this summer for the first time:

• La Celtique Way
• Bras de Nord/St-Raymond
• Bas St-Laurent/Gaspé tailwind ride
  
• Rides around the Mont Laurier area
• A ride through Quebec and Northern New Hampshire.
• Lac Megantic with Mont Megantic summit finish
• Western Charlevoix

Take care of your bike and take care of yourself.

Did you do a spring tuneup on your bike yet? Doh.

Do you do cycling stretches? You should. Here's more info about bike stretches.

Sunset at 8:05 pm - lots of time to get out and ride!

Spring is amazing. Today the sun set at 8:05 pm. Yes, after 8 pm. 14 hours of daylight every day. Goodbye winter darkness, gone forever! (Well, not quite forever, but for a long time.)

As your cycling, fun, and Montreal guru/life coach thing, we have the following advice:

• Get up from the computer and go and ride your bicycle.
• Go for your favorite ride.
• Or ride somewhere new.
• Call up a friend and go for a ride together.

We advise you to reset your brain, body and outlook on life by going outside for a bike ride. Do it now.

Mont Royal new bike/pedestrian loop path update

The Gazette's Michelle Lalonde writes about the new Mount Royal "car-free ring road" that is presently being built bit by bit. This is amazing good news. Read it here.

The idea is to create a 10-kilometre-long gravel road, four to five metres in width, encircling all three peaks of Mount Royal as well as the cemetery grounds. The road will wind all the way around the mountain, parts of it tracing the outer limits of cemetery lands, parts winding into the forest and up the slopes to offer gorgeous views of the city.

When the project is completed, sometime over the next two or three summers, cyclists and joggers will have a safe, gorgeous, challenging 10-kilometre-long route on which to train or just meander.