Day 25

Sunday, July 19th
Regina to Neudorf
131km

Today is the first of six long days of riding.  By the time we get another rest day, we will have left Saskatchewan, passed right through Manitoba, and entered Ontario.

Paul was on cooking duty tonight, so he and Rick left early and rode hard all day.  I don't enjoy my rides as much when I hammer the whole way, so I rode most of the day with Rosalyn.  We started out with Eric and Jose, who I probably have not mentioned before.  Eric is a veteran of last year's tour, who is joining us for a few weeks this summer.  He is probably the stongest rider in the group.  He is in his late 20's, in the army, about a foot shorter than me, and can pull at 45km/h for 10 minutes.  Jose is a 45 yearold mother from Quebec who speaks very broken english and can ride pretty quickly too.  Eric, Paul, Rick, me, Rosalyn and Jose are probably the fastest riders in the group...although Eric, Paul and Rick are really in a league of their own.

As soon as we picked up a bit of a tailwind, Eric and Jose were off at 40km/h.  Who needs that first thing in the morning.  Rosalyn and I rode the rest of the day alone.

We stopped in the “town” of Lemberg for water at the end of the day.  I use quotes because there is almost nothing in Lemberg.  We could't find a corner store, but we did find a bar with a horse tied up out front.  Inside were two men, having beers.  One of them finished his beer, went outside, untied the horse, and rode off.  That's the kind of town this was.  I wondered if it wad safe to drive a horse after an afternoon at a bar.  I suppose its ok...as long as the horse wasn't drinking.

We stayed on the lawn outside Neudorf arena.  I entertained people with a peppy version of “Neudorf, Neuforf”. (Start spreading the news...). We had local sausages for dinner.  They were bought from the little store in town.  The store owner had made them herself, and came to the areana to be sure we liked them.  The meat came from a local pig farm.  The farmer also came to the areana to be sure that we liked the sausages.
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Daniel Longo
CIBC Corporate Development
(416) 956-3831