'Cross how-to's

A couple of neat videos about cyclocross-specific skills. The first one about gear is just a glorifed ad, but the rest are pretty cool.
http://beta.velonews.com/article/83882/velonewstv-cyclocross-how-to-videos

'Cross.... it's wicked.

My airtime alone should entice people to come and try it out!

This Sat. is 'Dark Knight' Cross at the UofC. Should be a fun spectator event. If you're not racing, then come and watch!

Overtime: road to kona

Although the buildup Kona training has gone well so far it definitely feels like the post season. With my training partners moving on to other interests and our tri group shutting down for the season I have officially become a robot. The long sessions now are all business. There are lots of great rides I can do right from my house. In every direction there is a different style of terrain, we live on a mountain pass so there is no shortage of climbers routes, the Can/US boarder is only 10k away and there is lots of good flat fast riding down there, and a good mix of both heading towards Nelson. I realized on my ride yesterday that I have ridden the same route 9 times in a row, not on purpose, just simply unaware. I am excited to race in Hawaii and I will do everything I can to have a good day there, I am also excited to start the off season. A good break from Gatorade, the Ipod, and aero bars is sounds good.

This season was a great season of racing; I had fun at every race I entered. I like to set the “happy with” goal and “BigShow” goal before most races. I don’t write them down or really tell anyone what I am thinking but I always have them in the back of my mind as I am sure everyone does. Things went well early with running races, I hit the times I wanted and results I was hoping for (other that when Trev crushed everyone in our home town 10k with a 33, showoff).
The races I picked were; Barebones, Wasa, Ososyos, Nelson Cyswog, IMC as the giver races. There were some fast dudes at Barebones, I ran the first 5km with T1 in 18minutes and was heading out on the bike in about 20th, wtf. There was a headwind on the bike and I made it in to about 3rd off the bike and finished in second (BigShow). Wasa, I would give race report from Wasa but there must have been fifty SpeedTheory people there and lots of them ahead of me. I wanted to break two hours, at the run turn I was chasing a ST guy and I though if I could catch up two hrs was a possibility, I never caught him, I missed by 6 seconds, Ryan Murray who I couldn’t catch up to was comfortably under. Osoyos was a week before my wedding. I raced well and went home. It was a great race and so well organized but we had other thing on the mind. Cyswognfun is our local Olympic race in Nelson. This will be a huge problem for the Calgary IM 70.3 as they fall on the same weekend and the draw from Nelson could really hurt the 70.3 ;). This race is never easy as the run course is hilly and at least one fast guy always shows up to make it hard. Last year Seth took a big lead out of the water, held it on the bike and it took everything I had to catch him on the run. This year same scenario with Scott McMillan. Very fun race.

IMC. The most fun I have ever had in sports. The swim is the swim, get in – get it over with – get out. The ride was rad (I know “rad” but it was), old school rad too, not the new kind of lame rad. I needed a bit of breathing room in the run to hold of the runners. I rode in control and steady and it felt smooth. My older brother is one of the runners. He is about a two-thirty-fiveish marathon guy and I have never come close to beating him in a run (not from lack of trying). Every time we train together we race, every time we do pretty much anything we race. I knew he would be running well. I came off the bike 5th in the am race with 8minutes up to the lead and 27minutes back to my brother. At the run turn I was in third, I saw all the fast runners n there way as I headed back. I never did the math or looked at my watch just kept moving. I saw Paul heading out looking good, he yelled “you are tearing this race up”, that got me fired up. I caught the second place guy around Skaha, he had red compression socks on as if I needed more of a reason. I passed the last guy right where Steve King was set-up, perfect. I ran the rest into town shoulder checking every 100meters, Peter Reid would not be impressed. The finish was unbelievable, thousands of people, my family, amazing. Two hours in the med tent later and it has been a crazy ride since.

Wow, that got long. I am sure no one has made it down this far. Sorry for the long blog I will take a break now eh.

Last quick note. CEEPO Venom size L for sale. Complete or frame only. If you buy it before next Tuesday it is a killer deal. At 6’5” it is a little small or aggressive (hence the positive rise and spacers)...

Dallas.

Ride Saturday

Meet at the CO-OP north of the 1A on 12 Mile Coulee Road at 10:00AM. 2-3 hour ride out toward madden, brisk pace although we need to socialize and talk about the woes of the single guys in the club. I'll be riding close to the 3 hour limit.
Stephen

Race Calendar updated

I just updated the race calendar on the right. Check out all the racing ahead! Especially the 'Dark Knight Cross' on Oct. 4th.. how fun is that?!

Trans Rockies Day 5 "Thunder In Elkford"

Hey everyone,

Does everyone know how to cross over logs when you are mountain biking? The common way to cross larger logs is wheelie your front tire over and then dig your chain rings into the log, use momentum and pedal over. It works pretty good if you have good balance. Remember this.

Anyways, on Day 5 of TR we had the dreaded gravel section of Dante's 9th ring of hell known as "The Rock Garden". Of all of my TR 2007 memories, the Rock Garden was a stand out low point for me. I walked most of the way down and the photos from Spectrum Image show me as a defeated piece of dog meat walking down.

Dennis and I swore revenge this year on this fabled section of the course. With all of our solid miles of training behind us, it was make or break on the Rock Garden.

We rode another very solid day that day with completing some long climbs fast and working with other groups to keep pacing along. We were making great time and we both felt good. The heat wasn't too bad and we were well stocked with gels and hydration. Getting to the Garden, teams were starting to slow and we had passed lots of them. We even had time to stop and help the first aid motorcycle who couldn't climb the hills to get to the Garden. I wanted him in front of me in case I took a header and would need his help later. Always planning ahead!

Getting to the top of the Garden, Dennis and I decided that we would let air out of our tires to see if that helps and we tested that morning, 2 seconds would let out about 5 psi and we could easily descend at 25 psi in the tires. It was like magic, like butter, like nothing. What took last year about an hour with blood sweat and tears, took about 8 minutes riding. We were like downhilling rockets.

We were so excited getting done with no wipe outs, no issues, no scratches, no flats. It was a sprint to the finish. We had just 6km to go and we were pumped. Heading to the last corner I yell to Dennis, "Big gear it in!" We were just stomping our way up the hill to the last corner. The final volunteer is waving to us and yelling "Good job boys!" and holding her hand up to High 5 me. Sometimes I am kind of a celabratory guy so I raised my hand to match her gesture. I didn't even have time react. She tightly holds my hand and pulls me to the ground on the pavement. Helmet and bike bashing into the cement, flesh burning, pain searing, I am laying on the ground, 25 feet from the finish line. 

Just when I start to wonder where Dennis is, it hits me, lime an Evander Holyfield kidney punch. Actually, it was the Dennis Marineau riding over his partner at the finish line punch. he pulled the perfect log crossing right over my rib cage. He perfectly placed his pedal (which dug into my hip) and used all his momentum to bridge over me at the line. I am extremely thankful that he was in his big chain ring in the front, that was the only thing preventing his teeth of his chain ring from not sawing me in half!

I really can't say enough how lucky I was the Dennis practiced that move, the chain ring pattern on my back was cool, it would have been about 300 stitches if he wasn't in his big ring though.

The stunned silence at the finish line was great. Bike mechanics came running to help us and we made it to the line. The pile up delayed us by about a minute, we didn't get caught by any teams and the day was over. My pride took a serious beating that day. I felt so embarrassed. I lost concentration for one second and I could have ended the race for both us. Not the smartest move on my part. The race announcer called me and told me to go the first aid tent for a look over as Dennis and I had a fair bit of road rash. 

With my head hung low all I could say. "Unless the first aider has a band aid for pride, I think I'll be okay."

It was another fun day at Trans Rockies and it adds more information to the mental race book, don't even look at the volunteers, like watching a guy weld steel , look away and smile!

One note about the volunteer. Apparently her ring got caught in my riding glove and I nearly tore her arm off. I hope she's doing okay.

Slayer Dan

Interesting Results and video coverage from our embeded spy

Here is a link to video coverage from Hal. I think he was drinking due to the quality.
Here are some pictures from the event too.

Here is a gallery of shots from our spy, some great shots here.

Not news from our team but still interesting. I am sure most people would be pretty excited to finish 1 spot behind Lance.

Also an awesome job by Tuft today to get the silver even with a reported bike change.

DC - The Road to Kona

In the world of internet and triathlon I feel bad crushing the release of the P4 by debuting the "dallas cain - road to kona blog" on the same day. After seeing the bike I think this could be a tough day for Cervelo and me.

I am excited that Trev asked me to do this but my writing is right up there with my swimming so you will have to bare with me a bit. I will try and keep these as short and interesting as I can. I enjoy reading other peoples blog entries on their racing and training, so I hope this isn’t as lame as it sounds to me.

Quick introduction, I grew up in Cranbrook, BC. My athletic background is in hockey, skateboarding, and mountain biking. I work as a metal fabricator in Trail, BC and live close by in Rossland, BC. My family runs, a lot. I started running when I was twelve, usually at night so none of my friends would know; always for fun and have kept it going ever since. I started triathlon a few years ago after running in some team events at Charlie’s races around Cranbrook. I met Paul , Trev, and Charlie the first year I started the sport and even though I was riding a 62cm, bright yellow, 650c wheel Cannondale, they where willing to give me some tips and let me ride bikes with them.

I wanted to keep these short so I will break them up a bit. I want to write about this summer; with racing and a wedding and IMC it was a long but fun couple months.

Almost bike porn and sponsor stuff; I picked the mail yesterday and the CEEPO Venom has arrived. I will post some pics once it is built up. I would like to give a Slow Twitch worthy build report with the Red, Zipp Vuka, SRM, and ZG brakes, but in real life I took my road bike + wife’s tri bike in and will piece together a new whip.

And the Kona training build up. Everything so far has gone well. I will get into the numbers and goals if anyone is interested, maybe more for the feedback than anything else.

If this is already way to lame then let me know and I will bail early. I look forward to being a part of the ST Cat 5 team next year and riding bikes with you guys.

until next time (I hope).

Dallas.

Hal from Interbike delivers !

Here is Lance riding CrossVegas....live !!

The new Cervelo P4, directly from our spy at Interbike!

Hal Kuntze is 'on the scene' as our exclusive embeded spy in Las Vegas keeping us up to date on big news items like this. As of the time I posted this, Cyclingnews.com doesn't even have this info yet !





Also, we have pictures coming in from Hal while I sit at work today. I will try to post them in regular intervals.


2009 Ceepo Venom



2009 Max Lelli

The Road to Kona series.

Future 2009 Speed Theorist and good friend Dallas Cain is going to chronicle his journey from winning 2008 IMC AG Overall to the IM Kona World Championships.

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Wait with baited breathe for what will undoubtedly be sporadic updates on his training, his new ride, the big island, and the race itself.

Dallas and his brother took IMC by storm this year with times of 9:18 and 9:28 respectively.

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Dallas got the coveted spot of 2nd OA female, only 11seconds out from Belinda Granger. This should be fun following someone still ramping for a big event while the rest of us get fat for Oct!

TEAM BBQ THIS THURSDAY Night

Thursday September 25th at my place, 32 Rosery PL NW. BYOB, salads and desserts, embellished war stories and any special food for your kids. Burgers and dogs will be supplied. RSVP here in the comments so I can get a head count. 6:30pm.

It was a great season let's celebrate together.

Stephen

'Cross Action

Some SpeedTheorists were out representing on Tues.

Here's the link to where and when to race!

Sandra and I raced, while Andy did a reconnaissance viewing, promising to race next week. Also, a workmate of mine, Jeff Sill flew the ST colours for us.

How is this for a game face?

Muskoka 70.3 recap

Seemed simple. Head to Muskoka with some friends for the first ever Muskoka 70.3 tri. The rumour was that the bike course was hilly. Having never been to this part of the world I wondered how hilly it could really be?

We drove from the Center of the Universe (the mighty TO) to the race site near Huntsville, ON Friday afternoon. The scenery got better and the hills got hillier the further north we drove. Once we arrived at the host hotel to get our race packages we all remarked at how this race felt very Ironmany - everyone looked super prepared and focused on the race.


Race day morning didn't start too well. We woke up to the sound of rain falling; the good news was that the temp was already 20c at 5:30a.m. The first wave to start was the pro men. Pretty impressive line-up with Craig Alexander & Simon Lessing among others. My wave started 15 minutes after the pros with approximately 250 of my closest friends. The swim was pretty typical for me - get the crap pounded out of me for the first 200-400 meters, thank God when the pummelling stops, swim aimlessly between buoys and limp out of the water in an incredibly average time. The swim exit for Muskoka was pretty cool - a purpose built set of stairs brought you to the tee box on the 9th hole of the golf course that lines the resort. Strippers (wet suit strippers, not the other kind) lined up to help with wetsuit removal. I should have guessed that the rest of the race would be tough when we had a 400m uphill run to T1 - on Saturday I joked that there should be an aid station between swim exit & bike racks. On Sunday I was convinced they should put an aid station on that segment.

Rain continued as I got started on the bike. From driving the course the previous day I thought the first 10km would be twisty, turny, hilly and slow. Unfortunately I was right. Good news is that I discovered where all the really crappy bike handlers in triathlon come from! Wow have these people never taken a tight corner before?? We would do this section at the end of the bike getting back to T2 but some people decided it would be easier to walk up some of the steeper sections! The 74km in between was a series of relentless rolling hills. Nothing epic, just rolling enough so you couldn't get into a rhythm. Basically the bike course was sort of like doing hill repeats on the wall in Springbank for 94 km. Here is a profile of the bike course:

The run was sort of like the bike- nothing shattering or epic as far as long climbs, just nonstop terrain changes. Like being bitten to death by a gaggle of geese. The last 5km were through the golf course, passing right by the finish line at 18km mark. Sort of disheartening to have to run 3km away from the finish. Really disheartening when it is pouring rain...

In the end it was the hardest half I have done. Feeling pretty good about my result though - 3rd place in my old guy AG!

Awesome volunteers & crowds the whole way around which was surprising given the weather. Hopefully Calgary 70.3 next August will be this well supported.

If you are looking at a late season Half Ironman for next season you should give this one some serious thought. Just train for a ton of hills!!

Many Thanks

I think a huge round of applause should go out to Trevor and all the others involved in the running of the team this year, we went from 15th to 2nd in one year.
It was awesome to see the team earn the respect of other teams this year and not be thought of as just a bunch of Tri guys.
Of course the riders who rode the races get credit for doing the work but without ( in my opinion) the motivation and leadership provided by Trevor the results would have been far different.

Race Report: HC Provincials at Mt. Norquay

Hello again racing fans, I am pleased to report on SpeedTheory's race efforts at the final race in the ARC standings, the Hill Climb Provincials hosted by Cyclemeisters (Bow Cycle) at the lovely Mt. Norquay in Banff National Park.

Before we get to the meat of the matter a huge props to the Speed Theory crew, attending in force were: Sandra, SteveG, MarkS, MikeG, RyanM, RobW, AlexS, TrevW, AndyH, CarlM, and MikeH (our own casey gibson). Compared to years past this turnout is epic. Thanks for coming out, it's possible this thrust of attendance may have put us in a position to catch HnR Block in the team ARC standings . . .

MASTERS:
Sandra and Steve raced in the Master categories and put on some serious hurt. SteveG returning from some serious back injuries burned up the hill in 17:30 and placed 5th while Sandra stomped to a 19:30 and placed second. Fantastic work!

CAT5:
MarkS showed some serious grit racing a hill climb after hiking hardcore in the mountains the day before. Despite having enough lactic acid in his legs to kill a bear he stopped the clock at 21:15 and clinched 15th. Andy Hill, racing pain free for the first time this season thanks to an errant pot hole, powered up in 18:54 to take 12th. Carl, taking what could be his final ride on his Giant (aka le Tank), stomped up the hill in a furious 17 minutes to take 4th. Rob, riding a borrowed Cervelo R3 SL, scampered up the hill in 16:43 and took 2nd to the wily Darcy of Bicisport. Congrats to our cat5s who represented strongly all season long.

Cat4:
MikeG was in Cat4 and spun furiously under the radar to 9th place in 16:33. A great show by our stalwart veteran.

Cat3:
With FrankieFastLegs out splashing around in some triathlon-type activity the door was open in Cat 3 for someone to take HC honors out of his foamy clutches. The A-Train stoked the fires and powered up the hill in a blistering 15:25 to seal 5th place. Ryan Murray came out of an IMC imposed retirement and put the hurt on to take second place. Ryan is now training hard for his next big race, parenthood!

Cat 1/2:
Trev was our lone operative in cat 1/2 and put in a burrito powered 14:02 to take 4th. Gideon of HnR took the top honors and a huge congrats to him, especially for making Trev ride like he stole something in the last section of the race.

Hill Climb Photos Part 2

Mark:


Mike G.


Alex


Ryan


Trev

Photos from Hill Climb Part 1

I have lots of high res of everyone. Let me know if you want me to email them to you. Here is a selection.

Sandra:




















Steve smiling for the family:


Andy:


Carl:
















Rob:

All Hill Climbers.

If you want to convoy, or carpool out to the race, we are meeting at 8am at the McDonalds at the base of COP. See you there.

Does that pothole have certification?

Met up with Andy on Cochrane Hill last night. He hammered out 3 repeats, to Rob, me and Alex's two... so good job Andy. Anyway, he was saying how he has been having trouble with his back for quite some time. Seeing the Chiro and Physio multiple times just didn't seem to help. At the Masters RR last Sunday, he hit that pothole that took him out at km 55, knocking him around quite a bit. Well, for this entire week, his back has been perfect, loose, and pain free! He says he's feeling the best on the bike as he has all year! Funny.

Late-winter tri, anybody?

I was thinking a late-winter triathlon would make for some good motivation for winter training. I mentioned this to some other lads and seems like other people were thinking the same thing (turns out I'm not that original). Anyone else want the motivation of getting dunked and spun out to dry to get them working over winter?

The other question is which tri. I figured it's so damn nice in southern Cali year-round, they'd have a tri every other weekend. No, they just have higher standards for nice weather. I did however, find the California 70.3, happening on April 4th. It's a bit closer to the cycling season than I would have liked, but hey, I'm not looking to win the thing. I figure we do a bit of swimming, the odd run, and the cycling takes care of itself with pre-season training. How hard can it be??

Post a comment if you're interested.

This year's hardest Parcours is on Sat.

I will be glued to the TV on Sat. morning watching the most grueling course of this year's bike races. I plan on doing a spin session while watching the action, starting at 8am. Anybody is welcome to come join me. Bring your bike and a trainer and we'll watch history in the making!


Notice the THREE Cat1 climbs before the final climb of the day... BRUTAL !!

Hill Repeats - Thursday Evening

Okay, I know it is nearly the end of the season and we haven't really had our act together for training rides, but in preparation for this weekend's hill climb I was thinking of some hill repeats on Cochrane Hill. Lets meet at Trev's house at around 6:30pm and head out. Please leave a comment so we know who to wait for.

Some photos from Stampede and Masters Provincials

Thanks to Robert Haslam for taking some pretty cool shots.

Have a look at the Stampede and Masters photogalleries.

Here is a link to the Stampede 2007 photos... check out that guy Paul Anderson in there.... back when he used to be cool and race bikes.

Harvest Half Marathon

Paul Connelly wanted me to post this, good luck at Muskoka this weekend Paul and Tanya !! :
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My wife & her parents took over organization of the Harvest Half Marathon about 3 years ago. Funds raised from the race are donated to the Alberta Cancer Society in a fund my wife set up in her sister's name - the Tracey Flagg Memorial Fund for Brain Cancer Research; Tracey died of brain cancer at age 38. The fund has raised over $180,000 during the last two years with proceeds coming from the race and private donations. Participation in the race is at an all time high.

This years’ race is on Sept 27th and runs through Fish Creek Park and is one of the most scenic races around. Volunteers are always needed on race day. A volunteer sign up sheet is available at http://www.harvesthalfmarathon.com/docs/volunteer.pdf and for those who would rather participate race entries are available at http://www.harvesthalfmarathon.com/raceinfo.html .

Season's last race. Let's do it. (also, NO Crit this weekend)

Guys, sign up for this weekend's Hillclimb soon. It has a 'max' number of participants.

We would really like to get as many ST'ers there as possible, as it is a Schedule A race and carries a lot of points. It is the last race of the season on the ABA road calendar.

The word on the street is that the Wild Roses Crit is cancelled..therefore, everyone should be signing up for the Hillclimb. Technical Guide here. Registration here.

People 'in': Ryan, Trev, Alex, Rob W., Sandra, Andy, Mike G., Carl, Mark, Steve G., ...

Breaking the Silence - TransRockies Stage 2

Team,

I didn't get a chance to post this message earlier as I was concerned about my mental health, my therapist said I can talk about it freely now.

Anyways, something really funny happened on Stage 2 of the TransRockies that I want to share with you all. Some of you might now that I have a past history of swearing in front of children, getting mad at silly things, or even throwing hard tail mountain bikes down into logged out ravines in anger. The Fernie bike toss will forever be my greatest moment as I not only threw the bike once, I trudged down into the ravine, brought that bike out and then threw it again for extra measure. Right Trev!

Anyways, after Trev and Charlie made us all hump our bikes off course for 1.5 hours up a mountain side, then turn around and climb down the hill still carrying our bikes because it was so freakin steep that you couldn't hold onto the bike pointing down, my patience was wearing a little thin. You may have all heard about this little detour, we were off course for 2 hours and were behind schedule, for me it was the calorie schedule. I was really hungry and needed to get some of the nice fruit they had at the checkpoints. 

My partner Dennis and I were stuck behind some extremely slow people as we were heading to Bear Creek. When god decided to create evil on earth, he created Satan, my parents, and Bear Creek. Some of the really slow people were lead jersey wearing types in their categories. Quick note to any of the ladies on the Speed Theory team, you could probably lay waste to the girls that won, they weren't technical at all. I'm talking "falling over a toothpick on the ground brutal!"  As we were progressing to the nightmare called Bear Creek I heard some awful commotion behind me, "North Shore Rider coming through!" In total disbelief we were passed by a rider who shall remain nameless (it rhymes with Pohn Cramsden) was yelling at everyone that we should all pull over to let his royalness get by. Not impressed. Nor was I impressed with the German couple that I was stuck behind, she will now be referred to as the Fat Frauline who would be my nemesis to the final day! She was even worse then the ladies overall leaders. If she saw a rock on the ground, it was too much for her. 

We are now in the middle of Bear Creek and Fat Frauline steps off her bike for the 10000th time sending me into the bush on a tight turn, where I then sliced a nice 4 inch long gash across my forearm that was really bleeding. I am now losing my mind in frustration with no calories, no aid station, no way to get past her and blood pouring down my arm. After screaming a hundred farfegnuggins (The F Word) I heard more commotion behind me. "Slower riders mover over, North Shore coming through!" The alarm bells start ringing, Incredible Hulk blood pressure - eye bulging starts happening and now I am really f-ing mad. Dennis was too far behind me to notice that I was about to transform into "Slayer Dan" and it's game time. 

With blood running down my arm, and pure vengeance in my eyes, I slowly turn my head and yell at the second North Shore rider, "Fine mother f-ker, go ahead of me, follow her down the hill." He then returns to me "Get out of the way, your on the f-ing trail!" I volley back, "There's lots of f-ing room here, go around me!" (I'm hardly on the trail, covered in dirt and twigs from crashing behind the chubby struedel girl) "Your still in the way f-ker!" he yells at me and then gets around.

Now I am really pissed and it is my sole mission to ride aggressive to force that rider into making mistakes and yelling at him the entire way to the control station. I'm taking chances, jumping through streams with anger surging through my veins. It was like skating in oatmeal, I couldn't keep up to him and I was still blocked by Hansel and "Eating donuts on the trail" Gretel. Dennis finally caught up to me and realized that something was seriously wrong with my mental state, we were riding super aggressive and he was trying to stay with me. Just when I had him back in my sights to wreak havoc, pist! Flat tire! All of my positive and negative energy decided to fight it out through a 1/4" gash in my back tire and my day was basically over. 

I had to ride the last 20 km nursing a tire that could barely hold air, an arm that was still bleeding, and a temper that was still flaring. If Mike Godfrey was on the trail he would have been proud, in 25 seconds I had one of the most thrilling verbal exchanges with a former NHL hockey player ever. If anyone can't guess who I had it out with that day, it rhymes with Mevor Plinden. It was quite funny and scary, I am sure it would not have been good for me to be airlifted out of the bush with a broken face because of a fist fight. They were our unwritten competition for the rest of the week and we beat them several times. They cooked us in the time trial though. 

All that being said, if you are ever on a trail and you hear someone from behind yelling "North Shore rider coming through, you have my permission and backing to start swinging!

Also, if you want to know something about the race community at TR, Dennis and I stopped our race at one of the most critical stages to help a first aid motor biker get his motorbike up to the rock garden, it set us back about 10 minutes by helping him, and who knows about the physical toll about lifting a motorbike up the freakin cliff. It sure might have had something to do with me crashing into the ground 25 feet from the finish line, but that is another story.

thanks

Dan

Sandra’s Bike Racing Experiences – Season 2008

At the beginning of 2008 it became apparent that, due to Osteitis pubis, I would be unable to run consistently. As such, I needed to focus my energy on something else; I was bent on bike racing all three disciplines of Time Trialing, Criterium and Road Racing. I had done a bit of bike racing previously, but only to the extent of committing to a couple of races each year. This year I raced my bikes a lot (maybe not as much as Frank or Trevor) and Trevor thought it would be a wise thing for me to share some of my learnings, as I pretty much said that I sucked at the whole bike racing “thing”. I really don’t mean that to be negative as I had a great deal of fun, learned a lot and want to get better at racing.

The most fun I had, and the discipline I enjoyed the most, was the criterium. Every Tuesday night I did the Midweek races at the U of C research park. The first two criteriums I did left me with the taste of blood in my throat. Anyone who has raced indoor track is well aware of this taste and the nagging cough that goes along with it. However, I was determined to get stronger and better at the event. I learned to corner really well and learned to hang on to the front as much as possible. I even managed to win a couple of sprints. This Tuesday night racing resulted in me being extremely comfortable on my bike, learning to hang on, and to respond to tactics. I love the criterium!

The Time Trial is not all that new to me as I do have a bit of a multi-sport background. However, I learned from the Criterium to push myself harder in the Time Trial. This year, I was not as comfortable with my time trial bike as when I was when I trained for Ironman. In the end, I feel that I would have benefited from riding my time trial bike once a week doing some time trial type efforts. When it came to climbing in the time trial bike, I just seemed weak.

Now for the Road Racing: three races taught me a lot. They were the Bearspaw Open, Provincial Open and Masters Provincials. In each of these races, I actually was able to work with a pack of women. In each of these races, I tried something different.

In the Bearspaw Open, I performed most of the climbing duties with the pack I was in. I just happened to be the strongest climber in the group of four that I was in. I was fine with that, but when it came to the very last climb, the legs of the other women were fresher, and I had no sprinting capability whatsoever (not that I ever had any in the first place). Reflecting, I feel I could have attempted a break on the back side of this course, in an attempt to bridge myself and use my climbing strength. However, I am not certain if I would have survived. I do know that I often waited on two climbs of this course for the other riders to come back to me. I am not certain that the result would have been any different if I had not done this. In the end, I had a great time and was happy with the outcome.

In the Provincials Open, the race started with 9 women, and two women broke out on their own very early in the race. I worked with a group of 7 women which eventually ended up being 4. Three of these women essentially pulled away and eventually split up to race individually (I guess they wanted to time trial). This left 4 of us who shared the work. Again, I was faced with doing most of the work on the hills with one of the other riders. We agreed to work together and wait if a rider fell off the back. This is a really foreign concept to me. But I agreed and was even scolded once for going too hard on a climb, which resulted in two of the riders falling off the back. I am not certain what the etiquette in cycling is, but I thought I was in a race. After thinking about being scolded for the next 20 km or so, and the race nearing the finish, I decided with about 8 km to go to attempt to pull away. I hammered up a hill and down the other side. I was feeling good and darn proud of myself…. But then with about 3 km to go I was caught by two of the women. They went by me like I was standing still. They got a minute on me over the next 3 km. Hmmm--- not sure if my strategy was an effective one or not. Certainly, I am open to anyone who has some advice.

In the Master’s Provincials, I was not sure what to expect. I did know that two of the riders were strong, and amongst the best in the World for their age, and in Alberta period. They both happen to be very strong climbers as well, particularly on short steeper climbs. I was happy to ride along and see how things would go. The first loop was very comfortable. There were 8 women but one fell off on the hills and eventually dropped out. That left 7 of us. We worked in groups of two and the pace seemed to vary a great deal. There seemed to be a lot of testing by the most experienced rider in the group (at least from my vantage point). There was an attempt by this rider to break on one of the downhills. I reacted quickly to her and by the time we finished the decent, the group was back together. Near the end of the first lap, the pace became really slow and I decided to pull out from behind and attack on a hill. The two strong hill climbers were on my wheel immediately. We got to the top of the first rise and bang, another attack by one of the riders. We finished that rise and bang, another attack. I tried so hard to stay on the attacker’s wheel along with another woman. I started to feel myself cracking and wham, I cracked. The remaining women caught back up and I found myself unable to get back in with the other four riders. They left me behind. I felt I needed a bit of recovery and needed some help from someone, but no one was there. I found myself riding the last 20 km by myself. I cursed myself for attacking. I wondered how things would have played out had I not initiated an attack. I do know that if the pack stayed together until the end, that I would not have been able to sprint with these women. So it is unlikely that my placing would have been any different but my time would have.

In the end, I have had lots of fun and really am eager to figure out the strategy a bit more. It is unfortunate that there are not more women out there racing. I don’t think that there is a huge gap between the A and B riders in terms of fitness. However, there is a huge gap between riders when it comes to experience levels. I really like this sport and it is my hope that more females will get involved and not be intimidated by the sport. There is a place for everyone and a pack to work with. If anyone out there has some tips and tricks for me…. Lay it on me.

Lance Returns?

Lance Armstrong may be plotting a return to road racing with team Astana. Clearly Johan and the gang were starting to feel the heat. I think Trev's new facial hair spooked Armstrong out of retirement.

Link

Master's RR Race Report

Four SpeedTheorists showed up to contest the race just north of Airdrie in Crossfield. Sandra, Andy, Stephen K, and Trev. We were placed in Masters Womens B, Mens B, Mens C, and Mens A respectively. With race distances of 55km, 107km, 80km, and 107km respectively.

The course had changed from the last two years to a much easier rolling terrain. The wind was very minimal as well. The combination of these two factors made for a race that was extremely hard to form a breakaway.

Andy's race was really long for a Cat5 rider, but he stuck it out for half of it until a pothole signalled the end of his race. Sandra was an instigator in her pack and eventually finished 3rd in her Category. Stephen Kenny pulled the pack a lot and couldn't form a breakaway on the new course and eventually got swarmed at the finish line and ended 5th.

Trev's Race Report.

I entered this race with my form slowly coming around, but not with the same confidence as last year. I knew Gideon from H&R wanted this title really badly and he would have teammates. He is also in much better shape than me at the moment so I knew I had to try some serious tactics if I was going to have a shot at the podium. Right now I lack any explosive power (breakaway) power that I would use to get away from a pack and then settle into a hard pace. Instead, I would slowly ramp up my pace to 'hard' and look around and I would be leading everyone along nicely. So that was very frustrating (for me, great for everyone else).

Also, the race was dictated by the fact that whatever I did, it was covered immediately. The pack was content to do nothing until I did something all day. Throughout the four laps, I tried everything to whittle down the pack to no avail, however my fitness and the terrain dictated I couldn't get away. Jesse James helped me out quite a few times, trying to tire some dudes out, but I just couldn't capitalize on it, which was frustrating. Gideon and Brendan tried a few times to attack me after I had pulled hard, but again, the terrain didn't act in their favour either, and I was able to reel them in.

The only successful attempt at whittling the pack came from a Pedalhead rider on the last lap. He dodged a pothole by suddenly moving about 3 meters to the left. The move took down two riders unfortunately. One of the riders was Heather Kay, who was one of the stronger riders in the pack. I was really disappointed for her and it made me mad there was a crash in a Master's Race. Hopefully she can recover and be back 'in the mix' soon. She deserved to be racing Master Men's A yesterday, and she wasn't hanging at the back either. Which is another reason she was unlucky for the crash. Usually, if you 'hang at the back', you are accepting you may get caught up in a crash, however, in this case, she was in the correct place, but was super unlucky.

The pack rolled along at a silly pace with the inevitable sprint coming up. All of a sudden I noticed a Synergy guy in the mix helping to mark my futile moves at getting away. I had not seen him all day. In such a small pack, this guy must be very good at not doing anything what-so-ever. He had not been in the top 12 riders for 90km.

While this type of riding is a 'tactic', and wins sprinters races, it is not a tactic I really like (probably because I can't do it), so I was really hoping he wouldn't win. However, with not doing anything all day, if he hadn't won, it would have been embarrassing for him.

So the sprint came and went with nothing exceptional. I was really happy that Jesse James got 2nd, and I was really hoping he would get 1st, he deserved the win.

So congratulations Jesse, it was great racing with you.

Full Results here.

'Last Chance' ITT an overwhelming success!

Due to zero team registrations as of Thursday midnight, and zero members of any teams racing in the ITT this morning, it was deemed it would be irresponsible to the volunteers to hold a race with the SpeedTheory Cycling team as the only registrant. Therefore the race was cancelled. Hopefully racers will embrace this event better next year.

This unfortunate turn for the Prov. TTT should not overshadow the overwhelming success of the 'Last Chance' ITT held in the morning. The course was awesome, the start times right on time, and the results tabulated and announced very quickly.

Thanks to all our volunteers, and Carol Mayne especially.

Gideon Krishtalka was the overall winner of the event and locked in his ABA ITT Series Championship. Congratulations Gideon.

Full Results here.

ITT Start List for the 16km morning.

Here is the start list.

We now have 16 SpeedTheorists starting the 16km ITT !!

Trev, A-Train, Stephen K, Sandra, Andy H., Rob L., Carl M., Mark S., Jared, Kyle, Lachlan, Mike G., Slayer Dan, Paul C., Tanya, Rob W.

Awesome.

I am proud of our club. Check out the list of riders we have for Sat. morning AND we are hosting the fricken thing!!

Look to the right to the link of '2008 Current Roster'. Do you think there is another club as well-rounded as that? I don't think so.

Everyone deserves to be super pumped with themselves and their club. Next year will be even better!

List of racers for Sat morning, that's 16 total !!:
Trev, A-Train, Stephen K, Sandra, Andy H., Rob L., Carl M., Mark S., Jared, Kyle, Lachlan, Mike G., Slayer Dan, Paul C., Tanya, Rob W..

Here is a picture of the A-Train stringing out the pack on the KOM from Road Provincials.

The picture was taken from Rod Tiedemann's Website where there are quite a few good shots.


Provincials Results / More race -reportish stuff: (by RobW)

Cat 1/2:
With a crashtastic start, the Cat1-2 group fell victim to surging attacks and sketchy pavement. After emptying the wheel car the gents were steadily whittled down over the ensuing 100k. Trev, fresh off his TR race, wasn't feeling the good sensations he wanted so he attacked his spandex covered ass off then retired after whipping the peleton into a frenzy. Jaret hung in as long as his wheels would let him but then had to bow out after stress testing a wheelset beyond the specified limit. This left Cyrus of HnR Block to awesomely break away and finish with time to spare. I think he should have stopped and moon walked across the line, but that's just me. Congrats to Cyrus and our guys for a job well done.

Cat 3:
Fast Legs Foaming at the Mouth Frank Woolstencroft took cat 3 this year chased closely by rising star Ben Adam. Frank is now officially out of excuses and will be punted up to cat1/2 where he had best don the colours of Speed Theory and he can proudly mess up a new kit. Despite having setup the winning break with a punishing burst of speed up the Killer Kilometer, A-train suffered a disastrous mechanical and had to abandon. Well done guys and may your deity of choice protect you when Alex gets his ride fixed. [Editor's Note: Ben Adam better be in ST Cycling Kit next year too !]

Cat 4:
Lockie, Mike and RobL represented in Cat4. RobL in his cat 4 debut was suffering a nasty cold but rode valiantly until his lungs gave out. MikeG and Lockie worked the peleton in a subtle fashion springing a healed up Lockie for second at the line. No finish line photos are available but you can bet Lockie was in his heads up sprinting form and worried about missing his tee time. MikeG finished ninth with the lead group at the finish. Kick ass show guys.

Ladies:
Sandra had her hands full in the ladies race as Pepper and Nik decided to form a tight team and time trial away from the main pack. Despite the punishing attacks Sandra road into 8th and into Speed Theory history as the most awesome female Speed Theory Athlete. Way to go Sandra.

Cat 5:
RobW, MarkS, Andy, Rui, rolled to the line for Cat5 and regulated the pack for the first 35k. RobW, trying his new conservative strategy of riding at the front, worked hard with Rui and Mark to keep things together until springing a trap (like everyone else) on the only trip over the killer K. Their job for the day being done, Mark and Rui pushed through the pain to the finish leaving Andy and Rob to challenge for Cat5 glory. Unfortunately Rob fell short missing the lead break bringing it in at 11th (many thanks to the large pulls of Lorne Dimitruk) and Andy crossed the line in 18th. A Stellar team effort and next season is full of promise for the Cat 5 crew.

Full results here

Trailer Park Race Prep

This morning, armed with a water bottle and some of Alex's Marker Paint... I prepped the course. It's go time guys.

Preliminary Race Report: Provincials

In a world gone crazy with potholes, hills, omnidirectional headwinds and people clad in spandex one team stands against the tyranny of voids in carbon composite equipment: Speed Theory.

On a course designed to separate the wheat from the chaff the imposing figures decked in red and black met their foes. The aftermath is not fully clear but Lockie took second in the Cat4 ranks after dishing out the maximum suffering he could ahead of his 3:30pm tee time. This will provide A-Train, Stephen, Jason, and Kristian with another potent teammate as Lockie will move up to Cat3 in a hurry. In Cat5 RobW rolled in 11th after dragging the cat5 peleton around cochrane for 40k (yes at the front as usual, but with some excellent help from MarkS, Rui, and Andy).

More as it develops . . .

Hopefully see most of you on Sat. morning ! Make sure to comment below if you are racing or volunteering.