Cangratulations Tara !! Alberta's own !

Check this out... this is the World Championships we're talking about!

Interim Official World Prairie-Roubaix Champion Declared.

The club hit up 2 loops of the PR course hard today, right from the proposed Start/Finish.

Lachlan attacked about 5min into the first loop with only a few people able to hold his wheel. He then attacked that pace line a few minutes later on an up hill... never to look back. A few of us tried to put up a fight, but I think I saw Lachlan from about 500m behind with both arms raised for about the entire last Kilometer.

He will be wearing number 101 for the race.

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Spin is over ... time for some Cat 5 rides

Hey all,

Just wanted to put up a quick post on a couple topics:

1) Outdoor rides ... Rui and I will be heading out from the Rocky Ridge Co-op around 4:30 on Friday (right Rui). The plan is to do a ride out towards Cochrane, which will likely include the hill and a return trip on Retreat Road. Should take under two hours. We have also talked about riding on Saturday and Sunday, looking at heading out to Bragg Creek on one day and riding the Prairie Roubiax course on the other. I want to leave around 10 am, as I like to have my afternoons to chill out and get other stuff done. More details on these rides will be posted closer to the weekend on the training ride forum.

2) Penticton Bike and Wine Camp ... yes, I am including wine in my week. As per the numerous posts, everyone should be aware by now that our team will be out at Penticton from May 16 to 22 to do some epic riding. I have been out riding around Penticton a couple times and there are some amazing rides planned. This will be my first year doing the full week (I did one whole day last year) and I am looking forward to getting a lot of miles on my legs. As per Marilyn's email to get the ladies to come out, I would like to challenge Cat 5s and 4s to come out and do some riding. While I want to push myself as hard as I can, I know there will be a few days where I will cut off from the hardcore pack and take the scenic route. Thanks to Ryan for putting this together, I look forward to crushing you. Who knows, maybe I will be brave and join in for the climb up to Apex.

See you all on the road!

Wednesday Night Series (WNS) Races

Many of you have raced in the Crankmasters Wednesday Night Race Series (WNS) in the past. Last year, Speed Theory showed up in large numbers and many preferred this type of racing to the ABA series. Speed Theory hosted two of the races last year, both were a big success. Jamie Marshall organizes WNS on behalf of Crankmasters.

Racing in the series will give you the confidence to race in packs and practice strategy.

This year, Speed Theory will host three Wednesday night races: June 9; July 21 and August 4. I have volunteered to organize on behalf of Speed Theory. I have some ideas for race format and I am looking for other ideas. WNS has not really featured a hill climb so one of our races will probably have a hill climb format, maybe three hill repeats with points for absolute time, closest to predicted time and consistency in times??

That never-ending hill connecting Road 773 (Road to Nepal) westbound to Highway 22 might work. We could also repeat the TT format north of Crowchild that we used last year. Please post a reply or send me a note if you have other ideas.

As the plans mature I will post updates. If you think you can volunteer on one of those evenings please also let me know.

Also, keep an eye on the WNS blog for updates - http://www.c4racingwns.blogspot.com/

It is a good idea to become a secondary member of Crankmasters for about $35 for the season and race free, otherwise it is about $5 for each race.

Tucson Training - April 1st (Recovery)

We woke up this morning to a cloudy cool day. Based on this and the fatigue in our legs from Mount Lemmon yesterday, the consensus was for us to make today a recovery day.

Six of us went southeast of Tucson on Old Spanish Trail back to the Saguaro National Park for two loops of the 8.3 mile National Park loop. Beautiful area! Total distance about 65kms. Then to Claim Jumpers for a huge lunch!

Did You Know? The saguaro blossom is the state flower of Arizona. In early summer, the Tohono O’odham people come to Saguaro National Park to harvest the saguaro fruit.

Tucson Training - March 31st Mount Lemmon

Today the group (9 in total now) climbed Mount Lemmon. I wondered why they'd call such a sweet climb a lemon, so I checked it out on Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia: Mount Lemmon is in the Santa Catalina Mountains located in the Coronado National Forest north of Tucson, Arizona, United States. It is 9,157 feet above sea-level, and receives approximately 180 inches of snow annually. Mount Lemmon was named in honor of botanist Sarah Lemmon, who trekked to the top of the mountain with Native American guides by mule and foot in 1881 .

From Chesterpedia: Mount Lemmon is a miserable SOB.

From Claytonpedia: You call that a mountain?

The climb is 24 miles to the town of Summer Haven - there are very few climbs anywhere of this length - so it was a real "treat". Who climbed the mountain fastest is not important (because it wasn't me :) , but we all got to the top. Times ranged from just over two hours (nice work Clayton) to about 3 hours. It is a grinder of a climb. Today it was enhanced by a brutal wind from the west that made the climbing more difficult in some areas and made the decent very interesting.

About the climb: http://www.roadbikerides.com/ride/view/mt_lemmon_/117

You start off at 2,557 ft surrounded by saguaro cactus and mesquite trees and climb as high as 8,198 ft to pine tree vegetation and cool air and SNOW!

Tucson Camp - Day 4 (March 30th)

Today a smaller group did a 120km ride south and west of Tucson. We started by climbing sentinel peak (A-Mountain) to get a view of our surroundings. Then we headed west and climbed up to Gates Pass. We decended and headed south past Old Tucson to the San Xavier Mission.

The Mission is an amazing place. It was established in 1692 by Jesuit Missionaries and you are half expecting you are in a scene from the Good, the Bad and the Ugly and someone is going to start shooting at you from the bell tower.

After we left the Mission we headed southwest along a local race route called "the shoot-out" which heads up on a low gradient into the headwind for approximately one-million miles. :)

We were happy to reach Helmet Peak Rd where we headed east to the Old Nogales Highway. But unhappy to find the wind had rotated around and we had to battle a cross-head wind all the way home.

Overall a great day in blazing hot desert sun!

Tucson Training Day 4

It's day 4 for me and I needed a little break. Not totally cooked but I thought a recovery day would be in order. I said that only to do hill repeats on the A Hill this morning... so much for the recovery day.

Alan and I split off from the rest of the group to have some quality pain and suffering. We did three repeats of the 'A Hill' which is a 2km hill with some nice, consistant grade to make your lungs burst. On our second lap, Alan was about 15 meters behind me 3/4 from the top. In an unbelievable burst he sneaked up and caught me at the unofficial finish line. An impressive effort! We then rode up to the top of Gates Pass and looped our way back home for a short 65km day. It's hot: Africa hot as we sit by the pool sipping a cool bevy.

Alan at the top of Gates Pass

Flowers in the desert

The rest of the gang is out there, no doubt in a resteraunt also drinking a cold bevy.

Tomorrow we go up Mt .Lemon 6,222 ft of climbing, 28 miles, avg 10% grade... ugh!


Tom

Tucson Riding - Day 3 (March 29th)

Saguaro National Park and Collosal Caves

Today was a great day of riding. It was a shorter day (only 100km), but wth a fierce headwind on the way out and some fun little climbs, and great company it was a great day. We headed out east of Tucson on a great road called Old Spanish Trail. We did a short 8 mile loop in Saguaro National Park. This loop is amazing, the roads are smooth, with very little traffic that winds and climbs through mature desert and there are portions that are FAST!

Everyone was in good form and in great spirits. After a long upward climb in a stiff headwind we stopped for a leisurely lunch in Vale and then make the climb up to Colossal Cave Mountain Park - again a great section of road.

We finished with a high speed, low effort, tail wind ride home - making us all (but especially Chester) feel like a superstar.

Tucson Day 2

The group got much larger today. Chester and Paul arrived yesterday afternoon and Alan, after many planes trains and automobiles arrived sans bike. He spent the evening on the phone and determined that his bike may or may not arrive in the morning. Fortunately, it did and we were off for a 135km ride in the desert. Gates pass, Painted Rock , and in and out of tha Sanguaro park. An absolutely fabulous ride. The temp was 79 degrees f... do the math. Stephen kicked my butt up the A Mountain but he split off for a shorter ride.

Lots of good suffering as with wind and the heat took its toll on the group.

TK

Tucson Day 1 March 27

Stephen and I did a short 72km ride through the Saurghro Park. Awesome ride through very cool cactus. If you could do a 13km loop over and over on this, it would be a very fun race. Stephen has been sandbaggin me on his fitness level. He's not far off from where he usually kicks my ass.

Foothills Academy Event

Hey guys,
Just an update on the Foothills Academy Run, Walk 'n' Roll (10 km run, 5 km walk or ? km rollerblade) that I mentioned at Monday's spin. I'm trying to put together a Speed Theory team to enter the team challenge. We need 3 or more members. It's on Saturday, May 29th and only costs $30 to enter now! Let me know if you're interested and I'll add you to 'our' team.
Foothills Academy is a specialty school for children with learning disabilities. My son just started there this year and it's made a tremendous POSITIVE difference for him!! Foothills Academy really depends on fundraisers like this to provide bursaries for children who would otherwise be unable to afford the tuition.
Cheers,
Diana

Email me at: dabernethy [at] shaw [dot] ca

Farewell-to-Winter Huge Club Spin!

Guys, tomorrow night, Monday the 22nd, I would like to invite everyone down for a huge 'see yah' to winter with a big group spin session! The Mon/Wed night spinners have graciously opened their class to have a big meet-n-greet spin. We'll be spinning at 6:30pm, so get there at 6:10pm in the big new Speed Theory location with your bike/trainer/water bottles/a few towels and lots of motivation for a solid workout. It would be good to see a few new members without their helmets and sunglasses on! It would also be a great opportunity for the women to reconnect and plan some rides.

The new store can handle a ton of people, so it would be cool to see how many it can handle and get a great workout at the same time.

Club Rave 20 km TT Results

First of all, thanks to everyone that came out to our rave TT today. Maybe the DJ will show up next time. We had 24 riders which was not bad considering it was -1 C at 9:00 am. The temperature was 5 C for our 11:10 am start time with light winds from the west. Mostly Eddy Merckx setups but a few with TT bars braving the lightly-gravelled (and not so lightly-gravelled) corners. Kudos to Lachlan for cracking 30 minutes on this curvy course. Great job everyone!

Here are the results:

Start #       Name         Result   
-----------------------------------
   1          Emilie       38:02   
   2          Brad         36:16
   3          Andy         38:21
   4          Tony         36:07
   5          Marylin      36:08
   6          Dave         36:03
   7          Darcy        35:12
   8          Carl         48:11
   9          Tom          34:31
  10          Rob W        31:56
  11          Alan         38:55
  12          Rob L        40:07
  12.5        Rob W        36:54
  13          Mike H       35:34
  14          Chris H      34:15
  15          Clarke       32:26
  16          Stephen      35:31
  17          Bryan        34:39
  18          Chad J       30:45
  19          Thomas       33:14
  20          Simon        30:51
  21          Lachlan      29:47
  22          Kyle         31:30
  23          Trev         30:09

Club Rave 20km TT, March 20th, 10am. (UPDATED WITH ROUTE)

Great turnout today for the seasons first training race!
There was a lot of old faces and new faces some cranky faces and definitely many pain faces, all around good times today (hopefully;). Lachlan took the win with his win(d) cheating machine and some massive sustained watts. Thanks to the volunteers for recording times. Where's those results Dennis? ;)



(Edited by Thomas)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guys, it's time to get used to going hard either on your road bike or your TT machine.

Meet at here at 10am on Sat. morning and we'll go out and ride two loops of the 6.8km circuit as warm up, then race 3 loops for 20km. We'll start out at 30second intervals and try to seed us slowest to fastest to get the most out of the race prep for everyone. Everyone welcome, this is a contained workout so there is no chance of getting dropped or having people have to wait for you.

Take this opportunity to add some speed to your season prep. If you have time, then the group can head out for a nice ride after the 20km hard, but I'll let someone else post that.

Any club welcome, but must be an ABA member.

Here is the course, is is really safe because of the tiny amount of traffic and no roads inside the loop !

NOTE: If you want to come early for a coffee, I'll have lots on.

Congratulations Frank's sister !!

To think I taught this Olympic champion back in Victoria! (Sure it was engineering, but I am sure it helped with downhill skiing :)

Canada's Woolstencroft wins [another] Paralymic gold.

Article here.

Tips for First-Time Road Racers

http://www.realcyclist.com/roadbike/newsletter/a851/The-Real-Race-Bible-Tips-for-First-Time-Road-Racers.html?cmp_id=EM_SAL11045a6&mv_pc=r105

Good Read.

Bike event at U of C

Found this on the FFWD website:

"2nd Annual Bicycle Shorts Day 2010
4pm for bbq, bicycle racing, polo & everything else... bike. Music by Pine Tarts, Miesha and the Spanks, Kate Maki & Brent Randall & his Pinecones. $5/free for members
Den March 20, 2010 "

Sounds like fun. Anyone know any more details/background? Sounds very Veloplzen...

Let's get the party started.

Let's get a big training ride happening on Sat.

Nothing like a big early season double pace-line cutting a swath through the foothills.

Meeting Place: Rocky Ridge Co-op, corner of Crowchild Trail and 12 Mile Coulee Road. Click Here.
Meeting Time: 11:00 am
Level of Ride: Any club member or ABA member (but must be a member of at least one).
Ride Route: The plan is to head north to 262 at WARM UP pace (no one wins the warm up), head to Cochrane and drop in via Gleneagles, 2 or 3 hill repeats of Cochrane in Australian pursuit style, then spin home on 1A (AT COOL DOWN PACE).

The purpose of this ride for me is to meet a bunch of the new club members and catch up with ones I haven't ridden with in a long time. Chatting pace out and back, and ballistic on the hill.

Alex and I will be there to help with group riding skills and get people comfortable AND SAFE with riding close. Any other vets coming would be great.

Wear your SpeedTheory clothing if you have it.

No helmet.... no riding with our group.

How to make cars drive carefully around you

Ok, so I've been riding my old-school mtb bike for errands around town for the last 3 weeks. I generally get 1-2 'comments' from 'helpful' motorists during these rides, even though I always stop at red lights and obey traffic signals in general.

A few days ago it was really cold during the day so I wore a full-face mtb helmet with goggles because I wanted the extra eye/ear coverage. Yea it looks strange but I didn't care. Immediately into my ride when I approached a busy street to cross - traffic stopped. When I was riding in the street, I was getting a wide berth. Motorists were generally very cautious around me and didn't do crazy left turns in front of me or anything like that.

As I sat at a red traffic light pondering this strange behaviour, a police car pulled up to me and lowered the passenger window. The officer asked: "Shouldn't you be in school?"

I guess being the size of a 14-year-old kid has it's advantages. Or maybe I ride like a 14-year-old kid...

The Perfect Draft

Today, down at the intersection of Glenmore Trail and Sarcee Trail heading westbound a rare opportunity arose while riding home from work. 2 eighteen wheelers were stopped at the lights and I pulled in behind the second one. They started heading west on Highway 8/Glenmore Trail at a reasonable speed and I could draft a little. I do this all the time and it only lasts for a few seconds as they get up to highway speeds fairly quickly. Today however was perfect. I stayed in their draft, pedaling like a bastard in my 52/12 on the cross bike with bad brakes. I have no hero cam or computer or GPS so this is all here say but I must have been going 70 kmh ??? at max. Our caravan slowed down for the light at Highway 8 and 69th Street and I left their draft and passed them for an instant on the shoulder until they blew by me for the last time heading west. So I drafted for about 2 k. The cars behind me got a real show.

A few years ago at the same place I got into a draft while riding the fixed gear. By the time I realized what I was doing it was almost too late because you can’t just stop pedaling. Cyrus Kangerloo was riding along on his own in the shoulder and I passed him in the draft of the 18 wheeler, he had a good laugh at the old guy drafting an 18 wheeler on a fixed gear bike on the highway. He might remember if he ever reads this.

I should get a hero cam or perhaps grow up.

Cool news from Google

This is cool and about cycling! Read here.

It uses an algorithm that partially relies on a city having bike-lanes on roads. I think Calgary is hopelessly behind in this regard, but hopefully Google's new application will still be useful in this city. Another neat aspect of the algorithm is it takes into account gradients, so it tries to avoid steep hills. We racers may think that is wimpy, but for the average Joe on an average old clunker, this is a great addition to the program. I think it is awesome that Google put a few guys on this project even though in North America it may not get a huge amount of use. However, the people that DO use it will probably really appreciate it.

.

Turn your Android/Blackberry/Nokia phone into a cycling computer

Has anybody tried this? It measures speed, elevation, geographical route and yes even cadence.

http://velocomputer.com/products/

Women Cyclists Wanted For Penticton Cycling Trip

Ladies! Don't miss this awesome trip. It is totally fun and you will get so strong for the cycling season. At the very least you will burn an obscene amount of calories. I am looking for some fellow women riders to join me on the May 16-22 Penticton cycling trip. Contact me if you are interested in coming for some or all of the trip. We can talk about what to expect and accomodation. marilynjtaylor@hotmail.com.

Race Season is Coming!

Speed Theory Cycling Presents:

Prairie-Roubaix 'The Spring Classic Europe wished it had'

An April 18th Spring Road Event.
Speed Theory Cycling is hosting the April 18th Spring Road Event which promises to test your winter training program, road handling skills and your off-season Twinkie consumption problem.

The course is typically 'Spring Classic' and should be fun, fast and exciting.
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/canada/ab/rocky-view-no.-44/513126747146450374

The race will be held in three heats. CatA, CatB, CatC, with people able to choose which Cat they compete in, but sandbagging is highly discouraged. For example: Alex 'A-Train' would not race CatB.

CatA will be 5 laps (72km), CatB will be 4laps (58km), CatC will be 3 laps (43km). There will be a time cut-off of 2.5hours, to help encourage our volunteers to come out and help.

The race is $5 !! Yes, that is right, $5 !! You must be a 2010 member of the ABA though, this is slightly higher than a club race as it is sanctioned by the ABA.

Bring a tube or patchkit, no follow cars.

Start pushing the cardio because your first race is only a month and a half away!

We need 8 volunteers to help out during the race. No technical skills are required so convince your spouse, ex-spouse, friend or neighbor to help out so you can race. Let me (Tom) know as without volunteers we can't make this race happen. This is a short race, so it will only be 2.5 hours of volunteering.