Big Rideau Road Rally (B3R)

This could be the ‘gold standard’ for big road routes in Eastern Ontario. If you’re looking for a route to truly test your endurance, power, aerodynamics, and group riding skills, this is the one. The terrain is ‘rolling,’ with no climbs approaching the steepness of Pink Lake in Gatineau Park, for example, which makes it ideal for carrying momentum and tapping the beauty and joy of collaborating in a paceline.

Events are great; so are established routes we can tackle whenever we want. And when doing so, it’s nice to go for time and also enjoy the delights of the communities we ride through. The B3R deserves to be a route folks tackle to either accomplish or set a PR. And for the more ambitious, there’s the option of riding for the Fastest Rally Time (FRT) and/or elapsed Fastest Known Time (FKT)!

Rather than count total elapsed time as ‘the time,’ we’re using the ‘rally’ approach to calculate cumulative times - Fastest Rally Time. The route is broken into four ‘stages,’ which affords riders the opportunity to wring themselves out between stops, and chill out when stopped. Riding is supposed to be fun, right?!

Route

The B3R begins in Almonte and hits Perth after 63km. Perth is a beautiful little town comprised of a great number of stunning heritage buildings, and a slew of cafes and bakeries. It’s perfect for coffee #2 (3?) of the morning, and for loading up the pockets with food for the next stage, the longest of the four: Perth – Athens, 85km.

Athens, a bastion of education, arrives 150km into the day, and provides easy access to a few spots for food and drinks, including a couple highlights: the Village Store and Luke’s European Style Market (café).

From Athens, the next stage is relatively short, a 50km stage to Rideau Ferry. There’s a Greek Snack Shack alongside the gas station general store to access more liquids and snacks.

The final leg back to Almonte closes out the final 50km, and rolls fast. If you rock up around dinner-time, you’ll probably want to head over to Main St. for food, as Equator Coffee closes early.

Fastest Rally Time (FRT)

On this page we’ll maintain a FRT leaderboard. If you ride solo, send your cumulative time (Big Rideau Road Rally Stages 1+2+3+4) to teknecycling@gmail.com with a link to your ride file. We’ll validate it and place you on the leaderboard. If you ride in a group, add up the ‘slowest’ time recorded for each stage. If you want to provide a team name along with your names, we’ll be happy to roll with that; send us your stuff. If any of your squad members are not on Strava or whatever, don’t worry about factoring their times. This is a RAUDAX-style thing, it’s all about the art of the group ride, and staying together.

If you’d like to send a few of your favourite photos from your B3R rides, attach them to your email and we’ll selections into our gallery here.

If you want to tag your photos on IG, use #B3RFRT

Current FRT

July 31, 2021 - 6:15:18.

Riders: Iain Radford, Mike McManus, Marc Hunt, and Matt Surch. Mike McManus exited the route to return to his cottage at Rideau Ferry. The FRT thus stands for the remaining three riders. We don’t care how you do it, just do it!

Our total FKT / elapsed time was somewhere less than 9:11:17

These are our stage times:

Stage 1 – 1:29:49 @ 42.0 kph

Stage 2 – 2::07:16 @ 40.1 kph

Stage 3 – 1:05:36 @ 38.3 kph

Stage 4 – 1:32:37 @ 37.8 kph

Surface: Road

Distance: 255 km

Recommended Minimum Tire Size: 25 - 32mm

Difficulty: Rolling terrain, no steep climbs.