Orientation

On the day of orientation I awoke to a grey rainy sky. Despite the dreary weather, it was best to experience it on a day in which we would be sitting inside as opposed to cycling. 

We had our first Tour du Canada meal, consisting of peanut butter and jam sandwiches, bananas, apples, oranges and gorp, which gave us a taste of what we would be eating for the next 70 days.

At 9am I laid eyes on all 25 riders who would be participating in the tour as we met in a meeting room to begin the orientation. My initial impression was it appeared that as a whole the group would be a good bunch of people to spend 70 days with which made me happy :)

During orientation I learned the longest day would be 172km and the majority of days would be between 130-160km. My heart slightly dropped. Those numbers were incredibly intimidating and I heard myself question whether or not I could accomplish the tour. I hoped my saddle discomfort would disappear because it was a lot of kilometres that I was expected to do in a day and I may not enjoy them with saddle discomfort. However, to retaliate such thoughts I told myself that the best I could do was try. Simply take it one step at a time and enjoy every moment. And so I took a deep breath and began to mentally prepare myself to take on the first official day of Tour du Canada 2013. I also learned I would be cycling through the area I grew up in which took me by surprise...I would be cycling home, funny thought ;)

That evening I selected a shelf in the truck. The truck was a Bristol rental in which shelves were inserted for the riders. Every rider was given a shelf which could hold two laundry baskets and some space in between the baskets to store small bags. In addition, we could all fit our bags containing our camping gear on the floor at the back of the truck. In retrospect, we had a lot of space and thus we did not necessarily have to worry about having brought too many things. Once my shelf was selected I called it a night as tomorrow we would all load our gear into the truck and begin our journey.....Begin our journey.....what a daunting yet exciting thought.