Granite Anvil 1200

Jeff Green | Aug 21, 2013

No, it’s not the name of a tool or the revival of a heavy metal band.

It’s the name of a gruelling 1200 km bicycle ride that follows the same basic rules as the Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) Randonee, one of the oldest bicycle races in the world, which dates back to 1891. The PBP is still run today, although not as a race, but more as a rally. Riders have 90 hours to complete the race, and can only receive support at specified control points along the route.

Randonneurs Ontario is a bicycle club that is affiliated with the Audax Club Parisien, the organizing body of the PBP. Just like the Audax club, Randonneurs Ontario organises a series of qualifying races, Brevets, in distances of 200, 300, 400, and 600 km. In order to qualify for a 1200 km event riders must either complete a full Brevet series in the year of the 1200 km event, or a 1200 km in the preceding year.

Once every four years Randoneurs Ontario organize the Granite Anvil, which is named for the shape of the course, and the fact that the course features a long stretch of road within the southern portion of the Canadian Shield, a.k.a. the Frontenac Spur.

The course starts in Oshawa, then heads northwest through Newmarket, Vaughan, Caledon and Orangeville, before turning north-east to Georgian Bay and Collingwood, Wasaga beach, and Midland then heading towards Bancroft. The route then runs through Haliburton and the Madawaska Highlands before heading towards Denbigh. It hits Frontenac County at Vennachar, then follows Buckshot Lake Road to Road 506, and down Ardoch Road to 509, then onto Road 38 and into Sharbot Lake. It follows 38 to Harowsmith before turning off on the Wilton Road towards Napanee. It takes Highway 2 at that point on its return leg back to Oshawa.

One of the control points in the route is at the Sharbot Lake beach, where riders were expected on August 24. As the control point monitors explained, the riders take their own pace. Although they were scheduled to stay over in Bancroft on Friday night and reach Sharbot Lake on Saturday afternoon, the first couple of riders came through at 9:00 am on Saturday, having ridden through Bancroft to Plevna on Friday.

Just after 1 p.m., Ken Bonner, a cyclist from BC, came through the control point at Sharbot Lake. He said he had started his ride from Bancroft at midnight, after a four-hour sleep. Bonner, who is a veteran rider and is in his 70s, found the 220 km stretch from Bancroft to Sharbot Lake particularly difficult.

“You never seem to get away from the hills in the entire distance,” he said. When he was told that the next section, down 38 to Harrowsmith and across Wilton Road towards Napanee, was relatively flat and was downhill over all, he did not seem convinced.

“They said the elevation in Bancroft is 400 feet and Sharbot Lake is 200 feet, but I seem to have been climbing all night and day,” he said, as he sipped a half a can of coke that organizers gave him.

Although he needed help climbing up the short embankment by the bandstand at the beach back to his bike, Ken Bonner managed to get on his bike and whiz off onto the highway. He said he was going to ride straight through to Oshawa without stopping.

Sure enough, he arrived in Oshawa at about 8:45 am on Sunday morning, 76 hours and 45 minutes after starting the Granite Anvil. He averaged 15.76 kilometres per hour, including sleep and rest time.

There were 47 riders who attempted the course, and 44 of them completed it within the allotted time.

For those who are interested in taking on the next Granite Anvil, there is ample time to train. The event runs every four years. For further information, go to randonneursontario.ca