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Saturday, May 23, 2009

Cat 5 Pigeon Lake Practice: Sunday - Important Update

Thanks to all who came out for today's ride. A big shout-out to Mike G., whose wealth of knowledge and experience made for a great teaching session.

Mike G. has informed me the Second Cup has closed. Darn recession. Since some people may not check the blog before tomorrow, we'll keep the same meeting place, and the ride will start at 9:30 am. Pre-ride java will need to be replaced with pre-ride Gatorade sipped from water bottles in the parking lot. I was trying to keep Fausto happy...


I'll be "leading" a race simulation practice session for the Cat 5s (and anyone else who is interested) this Sunday. Meet at 9:00 am at the Second Cup at the corner of Country Hills Blvd. and Harvest Hills Blvd. NE for pre-ride coffee and discussion. Riding will commence around 9:30 am. We will do two laps of this route.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

What skills can anybody learn from Gullacher? How to ride alone after you get dropped 200 metres from the start?
Laffing my fucking ass off!

Clarke E said...

Yeah, we really need to disable anonymous posting...

AlanO said...

Very friggin brave, anonymous. Good going!

Darcy G said...

OK, I am for the most part a mild-mannered, easy-to-get-along with kind of guy. However, I will answer directly and firmly to the comments made by Anonymous, and I won't debase by character by resorting to vile language.

First of all, I have never "been dropped" 200 metres of the start of a road race (crits are a different story, but I'm working on it). The toughest road race I had was 2007 Pigeon Lake, where I dropped off on the first roller. In my defence, it was my first ABA race ever.

Secondly, I invite Anonymous to take a look at the Cat 5 results from the 2008 Provincial Road Race. A 9th place finish is nothing to scoff at, especially since I was front of the chase pack over hill. See this photo for proof: http://www.pbase.com/rodtiedemann/image/102490349. I'm the second bicisport rider, on the far left.

Lastly, take a look at the results from the 2008 Provincial Hill Climb. You'll notice I won Cat 5 by a fairly handy margin, and my time would have been good enough for bronze in Cat 4. That was my focus race for the year, and I'm certainly quite proud of that accomplishment.

So, I think I do have a few pointers for the new guys on our team. I don't claim to be an expert in everything, especially not crit racing. My 2009 results are so-so so far, but better than they were at this time last year.

So, Anonymous, I hope that answers your question of "what skills can anybody learn from Gullacher". I trust the next time you mock a Speed Theory racer on the Speed Theory blog you'll be man enough to attach your real name to the post.

Don Huber said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Scott G-C said...

Well Anonymous, you could take a tip on how to be a decent human, and all around class act. Which I think it a big part about being a cyclist.

And it take a true champion to be willing to ride alone.

Clarke E said...

LOL, anyways, enough of this comedian. Let's get pack to the matter at hand.

How will this thing be run? Will we be splitting up into separate 'teams' for this simulation? If so, should we be bringing something to mark ourselves with so that we can tell each other apart?

Thanks for putting this on Darcy, I'm looking forward to it.

David said...

Just a point, these sort of topics should be posted in the training forums rather than the public blog. There is no anonymous posting in the forums.

That said, whoever posted that, posted it just to get the response that he got. Pretty standard internet troll.

Don Huber said...

Don't let him get to you Darcy. You likely hurt his "Anonymous" feelings when you kicked his but at the provincial hill climb. See you soon in Cat 4. Keep it up. By the way, I still reserve the right to mock Speed Theory once in a while.

Stephen Kenny said...

Darcy: You don't need to justify yourself to this jerk. The clubs lucky to have you and thankful to have you initiate these outings.

As for Anonymous why don't you man up and tell us who you are? If your a team member your going to be off the team.
Stephen Kenny

Darcy G said...

Thanks to all the guys for your comments. I felt the comment was of a personal enough nature to justify a pointed response. BTW, for those that are new to the ABA, Don Huber is a Highwood club member, and we might see him out to WNS once and awhile. He's a good guy.

David, I forgot about the training forum. My bad.

Clarke, good point. We'll split up into different teams and practice things like tempo riding, attacks, covering breaks, etc. So, for this ride, it would be cool if people showed up in different jerseys. If you have a pro team replica jersey, solid colour jersey, or full Star Wars kit complete with Darth Vadar replica helmet, feel free to wear it. We may do a little stopping and starting to explain what went right or what went wrong.

Scott G-C said...

What there is a Darth Vader kit and it has a matching helmet!!!

Tom K said...

Awefully quiet from anonymous. What are ya chicken?

I double dog dare you to post your race number on the blog.

Clarke E said...

I think with this post:

Trevor Linden said...
This post has been removed by the author.
May 22, 2009 10:24 AM

He was trying to be funny and say that he is Trevor Linden....right.

Mark said...

Darcy, in for the ride on Sunday.

Anonymous is a moron and a cretin. Nuff said!

Andrew said...

im in for sunday..check post tomorrow night for final meeting point.

Andrew said...

by the way.. this anonymous class act is obviously intimidated by you and our team..

we;ll use it as motivation for results...

i'm in for Sunday.. if i'm couple of minutes late please forgive me in advance..

im still "learning" the north of the city

Rui said...

See you there Darcy

Andrew said...

sry guys. i cant make it..
last minute work obligation..

Andrew

Keith Bayly said...

I'm really impressed with how hard you guys are working to improve your racing skills. It's great to see such a high level of leadership and participation from so many guys new to the scene.

Now start working on blog trash talk.

A good response to anonymous' post might have been...

"I'll admit I can't ride a bike as well as your mom rides pole!"

Just have fun with it and know that almost always, the anonymous posts are most likely your friends just trying to ruffle your feathers.

Have a good ride tomorrow. Try not to crash each other out in practice. Wait till race day so you can take out some rivals with you.

See. That's funny 'cause you guys crash a lot.

AlanO said...

Can't make it Darcy. Thanks for putting it together.

Anonymous said...

Now that is funny, Keith. Well played.

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