Crazy Anvil riders at it again

Aug 30, 2017

Four years ago, in 2013, on a cool August day a couple showed up at the Sharbot Lake beach and put up a folding table and covered it with drinks and food. They were the support team for the Granite Anvil riders that year, a group of avid cyclists recreating a famous ride in France that goes from Paris to Brest and back to Paris.

In the Ontario version, the riders go from Oshawa to Parry Sound, then to Bancroft, Barry’s Bay, and Denbigh, before they reach Sharbot Lake for one of their pit stops, where they stopped to eat and drink and rest for 15  minutes or so. They then travel to Napanee before heading back to Oshawa. The total distance covered is 1200 kilometres. The riders have the opportunity to sleep in Parry Sound, Bancroft and Napanee, and they have 90 hours (3 and half days) to complete the race. The vast majority of the riders only stop to sleep twice, in Parry Sound and Napanee. The support team arrives in time for the first rider, and waits around for the last, a shift of  up to ten hours.
Last Saturday afternoon, during the K&P Trail celebration events, the support team showed up again. Four years had passed and the Anvil was back. There had been one rider through at noon who may have beat the support team, but the next four riders all arrived at the same time, at 4.11pm. They looked pretty chipper for a group that had been on the road for 60 hours, with only a 4 to 6 hour rest stop in Parry Sound. The rider on the right in the photo is Maegan Hackinen from Saskatchewan. She would go on to finish the race it 78.24, the second fastest of the 57 riders who set out in Oshawa (45 of them finished the race) and one of only two who beat the 80 hour mark.

The earlier rider, Marcel Marion, finished in 76.17. The race list does not indicate gender, but judging from the first names or the riders, (with the exception of a Kelly and a Toshihisa all of the names on the list are standard male names)  so Maeghan may have been the only woman in the race this time around.
We’ll be looking for them again in August, 2021.