Nationals Junior/Masters ITT - COURSE CHANGE

For those of you attending Road Nationals in Edmonton, please read the latest version of the Technical Guide:

Link to Technical Guide

The Devon ITT course is now being run more-or-less in the REVERSE direction, starting a few miles NW of Calmar with the turnaround point now being east of the gully as you approach Devon. There are a few miles of new road that was not part of the ITT course before, so it might be worth checking out.

So remember... don't park at the usual place in Devon for the ITT. Read the technical guide and understand where the start is. It will take longer to drive there so allow extra time.

Also, race package pickup on July 1 will be at the Argyll Velodrome in South Edmonton, or the morning of the ITT at the start area. The RR course appears to be unchanged.

Tour de Bozeman - any takers?

The weekend after next has no road races in Alberta! Gasp! Wondering whether anyone is interested in hitting up the Tour de Bozeman with me.

Craig from Bow Cycle had this to say about it:

"I loved the race and had a really great time in Bozeman - the race was really hard, with a lot of great riders coming up from Idaho and Colorado. The road race was just great - best roads I think I've ever raced on.

I think my favourite part was before and after the races as the guys were extremely friendly and seemed truly happy to have guys coming down to race with them."

Sounds like a great time. The only problem is the 8-10 hour drive down - might require taking a half-day off before and/or after. Plus it'd be more fun to go down with a good crew of Speed Theorists!
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Fun poll to the right.

Lachlan and I got a huge amount of compliments on our race kit this weekend and I thought it would be fun to see what the club (and other people reading this) thought of the kit. Don't freak out, as of now, there is no plans for any colour scheme changes, its just fun to see what the overall consensus is.

This picture was provided courtesy of Mark Kay from Kayphoto. He was there taking some great photos of Elite Road Nationals and will be there all next weekend taking photos of Master Road Nationals. Make sure to check out his photos here. I'll post a link to his Masters' stuff when it is up after next weekend too.

Trev

Trev's debute modeling career

Does it say pro, or not?

(that's a quote from the xtranormal video)
And no, my license doesn't, and it wont unless I get the 8 grand I'm holding out for to go full-time pro. ;)

Which is why I was giddy just to be lining up with dudes from Garmin, Jelly-Belly, Cervelo Test Team, and Spider-Tech. Oh wow. Anyway, Trev did an amazing job of summing up how the race went down for me, so all I'll add is that without Darcy and Godfrey I absolutely would not have finished the race. I took a bottle from them on at least 6 laps! I had already taken a couple of bottles from them by lap 8 or 9 when I started having crazy cramps in my legs...I yelled out to them on the next feed, by the next lap, they had mixed up some gatorade jet-fuel for my bottles. It was so border-line...every muscle in my legs was taking turn...even my IT bands siezed momentarily! So thanks, dudes!

It was totally awesome to have the other nationals rock-stars out there, first putting on an inspirational show, like Tanya showing that there's no need to be intimidated - by the third lap she was on the front, pulling! and Marilyn showing huge determination by hammering to catch back on in the middle of the race, then I heard them cheering from different places on the circuit.

And of course I'm reminded how awesome it is to be part of the Speed Theory team when I see all the posts & comments on the blog. Thanks everyone! And yes, maybe it's time to shave my legs...

I'm kind of a big deal: Lachlan Holmes

This just in from the road.... Lockie finished with the main pack at Nationals and tore it up!

He beat two Garmin Transition Guys as well as some other pros. More details to follow, just wanted to send out the news and props to Lockie.

Nice Work!

[Editor Trev:] The picture shows Lachlan in the start of the days most successful break. Eventually a few more guys would bridge across and the small group would work extremely hard to establish a massive gap. The pace was a little too extreme for a few of the break's racers and several got dislodged on the steepest of the course's 3 hills and this included Lachlan. However, by the time the pack caught him, he had had a chance to somewhat recover and integrated himself into the fast moving peloton. I got to witness Lachlan move directly towards the front third of the pack and stay there as an active racer just before I got ejected on the same steep climb 2 laps later. It was really exciting watching Lachlan race for the duration of the event. Mike G., Darcy, Marilyn, The Hopper, Natalie and I were screaming our heads off every time he would come through for another incredibly difficult lap. Congrats to Lachlan for a super race.

(Picture from CanadianCyclist.com website)

2010 Tour de France Contest

This contest used to be run to raise money for the endowment fund for the Jason Lapierre Scholarship. Since we have reached our endowment fund goal we are looking for a new organization to raise funds for. 100% of the entry fees will still be going towards a worthy endowment, the choice of the pool winner. In the past, we have been able to raise approximately $700 to $800 from this pool.

Rules:
Simple rules (from the spreadsheet entry form)...
-Submit your excel spreadsheet with picks to Kyle Marcotte (dukyle at yahoo dot ca) before 11:59pm Friday July 2nd.
-You can enter multiple teams (Cost is $20 per team)
-Results are final after each stage (so no drug overturn of results). Points schedule is listed below. Ties are divided by the number of stage wins, then stage points, then a coin toss.
-Trash talking is encouraged.

PLEASE EMAIL KYLE TO GET THE ENTRY FORM SPREADSHEET

Prizes (more to come…look for these to be updated soon... If there are some additional folks who would like to donate prizes, please let me know and we can add it to the list).

1st place: Tax receipt for the entire amount raised, a pair of Oakley sunglasses donated by Speed Theory, timex Hat
2nd: Marcy has donated a 1 Hour massage at her clinic Motion Chiropractic for the TDF Pool, Timex hat
3rd: Timex Hat and Nathan Fuel Belt
4th: Timex Hat
5th: Timex Hat

Points:
Individual stage points: 1st - 25 points 2nd - 20 points 3rd - 15 points
Yellow Jersey points: 1st - 150 points 2nd - 100 points 3rd - 75 points
Green Jersey points: 1st - 100 points 2nd - 75 points 3rd - 50 points
Polka dot Jersey points: 1st - 50 points 2nd - 40 points 3rd - 30 points
Team placing: 1st - 50 points 2nd - 40 points 3rd - 30 points
Yelow, Green, Polka dot and Team points are only awarded once at the end of stage 21 (but they will be updated so that you can see the swing as the race progresses).

The points will be updated as much as possible and posted on: http://www.calgarytriandbike.blogspot.com/

Please feel free to pass this on to others who might be interested. Again, all proceeds will be donated by the overall pool winner to the organization of their choice.

Kyle

Women's Race at Nationals. The Hopper completes

The women's race was great to watch as the players were strong and the strategy completely different from the Men's. The women basically kept the pace high enough to dislodge riders through attrition but no attacks stuck and it ended in an exciting 38 cyclist field sprint. The Hopper got dislodged from the field only 1.5 laps from the finish and 'got er dun' by completing the course. The picture shows how Tanya was an active player in the pack before loosing contact. Congrats to Natalie, Marilyn, and Tanya for making Sunday morning exciting to watch for us.

(Picture from CanadianCyclist.com website)

Road Nationals Results

Unofficial

1 Will Routley (Jelly Belly cycling team p/b Kenda)

2 Andrew Randell (SpiderTech powered by Planet Energy)

3 Bruno Langlois (SpiderTech powered by Planet Energy)

4 David Veilleux (Kelly Benefit Strategies)

5 Rob Britton (BISSELL Pro Cycling)

....

38 Lachlan Holmes (Speed Theory)

....

58 Svein Tuft (Garmin-Transitions)

59 Christian Meier (Garmin-Transitions)

64 Zachary Bell (Kelly Benefit Strategies)

72 Dominique Rollin (Cervelo Test Team)

Cycle ball on Trans World Sport

Cycle ball anyone?

Rosters for Elite/Master's Nationals

Ok, this event also deserves top billing on the blog. Who is all heading to Nationals this weekend and next?

Elite Nationals:

Men: Trev W. Lockie H.
Women: Marilyn T, Natalie, The Hopper

Master's Nationals:

Master Men A: Darcy G. (TT, RR, Crit. I'm going for a good time, not a long time.), Thomas Y. (TT, RR, Crit), Slayer Dan (TT, RR, Crit)

Master Men B: Dennis B. (TT, RR) (Dennis is racing as part of the Alberta Provincial Team !!), Charles B. (TT, RR, Crit), Keith B. (TT, RR, Crit)

Master Men C: Michael G. (TT, ?), Rick C. (TT, RR, Crit), Carlos S. (TT, RR)

Master Women: Sandra Y. (Jr. Team Coach)

P.S. At the TT, the CCA will be enforcing the 3:1 aspect ratio rule for handlebars, even for Master's. I just finished taping cardboard strips onto the bottom of my basebars to get them thick enough. According to the foks at the ABA, that should suffice, but don't quote me to the officials!

How to make your TT bike UCI Legal

Banff Bike Fest Gallery Page

Team,

Hope everyone is doing well. I wanted to thank all the team that took part in the race on the weekend for their support for the TT and road race. We had a good group going in our section of the road race and it was lots of fun working with you guys. I was really surprised to see the results at the end and find out we had lost that much time to the lead group. It felt like we were really hammering.

I was able to take some photos of some of the team and got some cool video. Here is the link to my gallery page.

Let me know if any of the files don't load properly. The videos are kind of cool.

Thanks again and I look forward to seeing you all at the next race.

Slayer Dan

Ironman 70.3 Calgary - Bike Captain Needed

Ironman 70.3 Calgary is looking for a captain for the bike course on August 1st, 2010. The bike captain has a number of tasks, the biggest of which is making sure all of the course marshals and aid station volunteers know where they need to be and what they need to do when they get there. They also need to organize draft marshals and be up for doing some volunteer recruiting. If anyone is interested, please let me know at: ironmancalgary@gmail.com


Paul

Banff Bike Fest Photos

Photos available in the gallery section on the right and some more from Satnam Sidhu here

Here are the one's from Dennis. Here is Mark Kay's photography.

Clothing order, second round.

Guys, we are going to make this one short and sweet. I have been fielding a lot of inquiries as to when we are doing our second round of orders. The cut off to have the spreadsheet and interac to me is July 2nd.

Download this spreadsheet and follow the instructions. If you don't know how to interac me money (almost all banks do it with their online banking) then email me and I will send you my address so you can send me a cheque.

The clothes will be exactly the same as our first round. Lots of people needing new shorts after Banff !!

Suffer Springs Summer Soltice XC MTB Race

Summer Soltice after a week of rain, combined with a weekend full of race events had many smiling faces at start lines around the Calgary area. While several Speed Theory racers were participating in Banff Bikefest, I decided to represent at the Deadgoat Suffer Springs Summer Soltice Mountain Bike race. This race is held on Sulpher Springs trail at Station Flats in Kananaskis, and this is the 23rd year.

The race began at 10am sharp andmy category had to do one lap, at full speed, with 425m of elevation gain, mostly in the first half, for 12.5km. I had very low expectations of the race, and woke up thinking I was going to DNS due to IT band pain from running the Kananaskis 100 relay on Saturday. I had the toughest leg in our group, running Leg 5 along Highway 40 up Highwood Pass for 17.6km and gaining 450m of elevation.
>Thanks to wearing compression tights immediately after the run on Saturday, right through to the race on Sunday, I somehow found a way to “dig deep into the suitcase of courage”, and start and finish therace. This was my favorite XC race so far, because they started the men and the women together, which gave plenty of people to push you, and chase. The first part of the climbing I thought I was toast, as I watched people slowly get out of my sight. People started to catch up to me, and pass me…finally I had enough, and wasn’t letting that happen anymore. My legs opened up, and I was able to pass those that passed me and play a game of chase to the finish line placing me in 3rd. I can think of several quotes from Phil Liggett, had he been on the course that day.

Deadgoats did yet another fantastic job of putting on a great race, and had some awesome prizes for everyone that stuck around after the race. I got more than my entry fee back on Sunday not only with some sweet prizes, but some delicious dogs on the BBQ, sunshine, happy faces, and a really cool wooden goat head trophy for my podium finish. I highly recommend this race next year!

Airdrie TT This Weekend

Crankmasters AIRDRIE ADRENALIN ITT - June 27 ** NEW DATE:
Start time is 11am sharp so plan on being at the meeting location no later than 10:30am to allow for registration and a warm up. This race is another 20km ITT on the service road between Airdrie and Crossfield on the east side of Highway 2. The course begins at the first corner of the service road. The turnaround is at 10km which is just before Highway 72. Start times will be one minute apart. Park on the road west of the Costco Distribution Centre. After the race meet at the Airdrie Tim Hortons fro coffee and to review results.

This course is very fast and is almost perfectly flat. The race is good practice for those racing at Nationals the following weekend.

For more information: http://calgarycycling.com/racing/racing.html

Banff Bike Fest awesomeness

Banff Bike Fest was another seamlessly-run, amazing event of bike-racing awesomeness.

The Invited Men's race was another super-tough and amazing experience. After an all-round solid performance, including using new-found pack-ninja skills to finish high in the 1A Sprint, Trev went into Sunday's RR as the Speed Theory GC leader, and did us proud, finishing with the lead pack and placing an amazing 12th in overall GC, in a strong field of 90 racers and numerous Canadian and US trade teams.

The overall GC winner in the Invited Men was Ian McKissick (Lenovo), who laid down a sick sub-26 minute time trial!

Looking forward to hearing reports from all the categories!

Clarke laying on the hurt in the 2/3 crit

Keith at the front of the lead pack in the 2/3 crit

Banff Bike Fest Prologue

Good summary of the hill climb here.

Congrats to all Speedtheorists who throttled themselves up that hill...

Open Women
1 Tara Whitten (Specialized Mazda Samson G Conseil) 02:59.1
16 Tanya Salomon (Speed Theory) 03:30.6 00:31.5
19 Marylin Taylor (Speed Theory) 03:36.7 00:37.6
25 Kailee Boyle (Speed Theory) 03:38.6 00:39.5
34 Tanya Hopping (Speed Theory) 3:51.7 0:52.6
37 Kim Christie (Speed Theory) 03:58.4 00:59.3
39 Laura Bennion (Speed Theory) 04:04.0 01:04.9
41 Sandra Yaworski (Speed Theory) 4:05.5 1:06.4

Invited Men
1 Justin Kerr (Team H&R Block/Norco) 02:36.1
26 Jared Green (Speed Theroy) 02:52.8 00:16.7
30 Trevor Williams (Speed Theroy) 02:53.7 00:17.6
48 Carson Bannon (Speed Theroy) 03:01.1 00:25.0
52 Lachlan Holmes (Speed Theroy) 03:02.2 00:26.1
62 Frank Woolstencroft (Speed Theroy) 03:06.2 00:30.1
81 Harley Borle (Speed Theroy) 03:20.3 00:44.2

Cat 5
1 Justin Warsylewicz (bicisport) 03:01.2
2 Robert Welch (Speed Theory) 03:11.5 00:10.3
5 Darcy Gullacher (Speed Theory) 03:22.9 00:21.7
7 Dave Holmes (Speed Theory) 03:25.2 00:24.0
10 Robert Woolley (Speed Theory) 03:29.5 00:28.3
12 Reinier Paauwe (Speed Theory) 03:39.3 00:38.1

Cat 4
1 Mark Mcconnell (Synergy Racing) 02:52.9
11 Michael Godfrey (Speed Theory) 03:24.6 00:31.7
15 Carl Miiller (Speed Theory) 03:41.0 00:48.1

Cat 2/3
1 Mike Sidic (Team H&R Block/Norco) 02:48.8
8 Dennis Bland (Speed Theory) 03:19.0 00:30.2

Rad Awesome Epic BBF team gathering Friday

We are confirmed for our Speed Theory team gathering at Wild Bill's Saloon, in Banff.



It is the pub in Banff. As usual the club will be picking up the tab for the appetizers & drinks, each of us will cover our own entrees. Our reservation is at 5:30 under "Speed Theory." We opted for an early meal time as the racing on Saturday starts very early.

Wild Bill's is right on Banff Ave at 210 Banff Ave. The website is WBSaloon.com, they are big on burgers, steaks, lots of salads even a Bison Lasagna.



Racers, significant others, soigneurs (no reporters or groupies) are welcome. Stories of attacks, getting dropped, bonking true or otherwise will be shared. Looking forward to seeing everyone

BBF Hill Climb Start List

Link is here.

Can someone who has internet access please post the TT start list when it is posted. I will be internetless for 4 days. Whew!

Also, someone let Rick and Sandra know their club isn't showing up on the start list and to correct that.

Trev

Banff Bike Fest Roster

This is a big enough event the roster deserves top billing on the blog.

Invited Men Stage Race: Frank, Jared, Lachlan, Harley, Trev, Carson

Open Women Stage Race: The Hopper, The Soloman, Marilyn, Kailee, Sandra, Kim Christie, Laura Bennion

Cat 2: Dennis B. (HC, RR), Charles (Crit, RR), Keith (TT, Crit, RR)

Cat3: Clarke (TT, Crit, RR), Thomas (TT, Crit, RR), Handsome Rob (TT, Crit), Ryan (TT, Crit)

Cat 4: Mark J. (Crit, RR), Mike G. (HC, TT, Crit, RR), Rick C. (HC), Slayer (HC), Carlos (TT, RR)

Cat 5: Darcy G. (HC, TT, Crit), Andy H. (TT), Reiner (HC, TT, Crit), Rob W. (HC, TT), Mike H. (HC, TT, Crit), Hooper (TT, Crit), Steven W. (TT), Dave Holmes (HC), Old Rob (HC)

I'm around for the RR, so I can run feed zone.

Darcy

TdF Pool. Do it.

Link is here. This is a tradition with our club. It is cool and fun. I usually do spectacularly badly.

This used to be to continue to raise funds for the JayLap Scholarship but due to everyone's help over the years, we can now focus on another notable cause.

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Ladies - a little pump me up for the weekend!

Banff downtown Crit spectator awesomeness

Guys... even if you aren't racing this weekend try to make it out to watch the Criteriums on Saturday night. Even your significant other will be entertained when you take them for a nice dinner in Banff and then hit the streets and yell at the racers! It is a very spectator friendly event and most of the club's racers will be in the multiple event line up. Wear your ST Cycling jacket and cheer like crazy. We will have an ST Cycling tent erected on the 180 degree corner like last year, so feel free to come with a lawn chair and a cooler and enjoy the action with the rest of the club from there.

See you there. Getting super pumped for the weekend!

Trev

Speed Theory Calgary Powerbar product promotion

Guys, Speed Theory Calgary is currently wanting to get rid of 21 tubs of their Powerbar Protein Plus drink mix. If you come in and buy 6 Power Bar products (like 6 gels or 6 bars), you will get a tub for free. This is pretty awesome since you spend like $15 for the gels or bars and get a $35 tub of powder for free. The tubs expire next week, but don't let that put you off, they are still good for a long time. I use this product like crazy during the winter since it is convenient to bring to spin class, but it is good after any workout obviously.

The filming worked!

Just a quick follow-up post to let people know 'Project Complete 1st Person' was a huge success. I have a one person's complete 1st person view of an Olympic distance tri. Pretty neat. I hope to incorporate stuff like this into this year's spins to further 'up the bar' for my classes. The swim is crazy with people's legs and arms everywhere. The bike is fun since I am not a good swimmer, but a decent cyclist so I pass a lot, and then the run is fun since there are people out on the course everywhere. At one point a group of kids, seeing they would be on film, ran in front of me out of an aid station for a bit like I was Forrest Gump, pretty fun.

I was telling people on Sunday when they saw me with my camera poking out of my swim cap that sometimes you have to look absolutely ridiculous to be an innovator :) Hopefully I can put together a world's first (the filming) for my spin classes! I think even for my 'bike race' only spins, it will be interesting and we can vary the intensity based on the stage of the race.

There were a ton of Speed Theory Cycling's team at this event on the weekend. A lot of us compete in this event simply because it is so much fun, it is huge, the competition is good, and it is a bit of a tradition. I am not a triathlete anymore (cycling courses through my veins) but it is fun to switch it up a bit the odd time every season to keep things motivating and fresh. The Speed Theorists I know were there were: Tanya and Jared, Fast-Legs Frank, Kyle and Kelly, me, Dallas Cain, Darryl Parry, Alan Oickle, Jay Rankin and Chris Hooper. I think Mike Healy was supposed to be there, but we haven't heard from him.

The Organ Grinder 5 Hour MTB Enduro Race

What do you get when you have a typical week of Jun-uary weather in Calgary consisting of rain and cool temperatures, followed by a weekend of temperatures that should be expected in mid-June? You get mountain bike racers from all over, flocking to the Canmore Nordic Center for 2 back to back mountain bike races, XC and Marathon. What you also get, are people who are notacclimatized to the temperatures we were embraced with, and many racers sitting in bushes off the side of a trail, and falling off bikes midclimb, as they entered the town of Crampville.

Yesterday’s event was the Cyclemeisters Organ Grinder 5 hour MTB enduro race. After doing the 6 hour and 8 hour races in previous weeks, one might think, 5 hours isn’t so bad, but factor in 11.5km with 350m of elevation gain, a lot of tight single track accompanied by loads of relentless climbing at the start, and at the end of a lap, it makes for a really tough race. I think we can all agree that this was the toughest race out of all the races in the last month.
Speed Theory racers who entered as solo riders were as follows.

Mark Jesse rocked this event with 6 laps. I met up with Mark on the course, and he was going so fast, I thought, wow, I guess I better start pedaling…much to my surprise I actually was moving, and he made me feel like I was standing still. Nice work Mark.

Thomas Y decided that an event called the Organ Grinder sounded like so much fun, he only wanted to bring one gear again, and managed to pull out 4 laps. Being the toughest endurance race we have done this year, it is officially confirmed that Thomas loves to suffer. I think people should start being very afraid of him…mtn and road.

Marcy K has been racing her new mountain bike this year, which is a 29er hardtail, and a completely different setup than what she is used to. After a few endurance races under her belt, she has finally figured it out, and was all smiles when she rolled in to complete 3 laps. Kudos for figuring it out during our most difficult race yet!

Tanya H and her husband Ryan entered as a mixed team, with a catchy team name “Hopping Along”. Ryan encountered some bike mechanicals about a ½ hour before the XC Iron Lung race on Saturday, so he ended up borrowing a bike. On Sunday he didn’t have a bike at hand, so Tanya left the start line with possible expectations of completing the event solo. Ryan managed to score a bike, and Tanya only had to do 3 laps, leaving Ryan with finishing off 2. Nice work guys…I’ll have to remember the broken bike thing next time I’m doing a team relay.

I managed to pull 4 laps out of the bag, which was a huge accomplishment for me, seeing how on my 2nd lap I thought I was going to have to pull the pin. Tanya H was a huge help on the course with her words of encouragement, when I talked about having 4 more dreadful hours left. Her response was, “You don’t have 4 more hours left, you have 3 hours and 45 minutes” Thanks Tanya! Laps 3 and 4 were a piece of cake after that.

Even though there were 4 significantly difficult sections of the course (volunteers sat at these sections so they could clean up the possible carnage), Cyclemeisters did an amazing job at putting together a pretty advanced, yet super fun course. Of all the endurance races we have done, yesterday was a good example of true mountain biking, and right in our very own backyard. We had some Speed Theory fans come out and watch us suffer, and after hearing about the course, I’m thinking we just might have a few of you roadies convinced to come out and try a race…after Nationals of course! The last of the MTB endurance series is Provincials at the end of August in Hinton, AB.

Calgary Stampede is around the corner .....

.... and that means it is time for the much anticipated summer beer mile. Stay tuned!

[Editor: Trev] To get some huge participation, we will run a few posts on what you can expect when you prepare and partake in a beer mile so everyone feels comfortable coming and doing it. Please note, this is NOT a sanctioned ST Cycling event nor is it condoned by the club. That being said, everyone will be there having fun. I think we will have a club challenge. Something like, if you can beat Ryan Murray and Mark Shand, the club pays for all your appetizers that evening at the pub or something. Also, if you match Handsome Rob's feat of 'The Double' you get all the food you want that evening because you are awesome.

Instead of actually training....

I had an idea today. Wouldn't it be cool to video an entire triathlon race from the 1st person? So I tested out the head strap mounted under my swim cap with the camera poking out. I think this is going to look super cool with the start of Sunday's race being 400 people all jumping in the water at the same time.

I may only get a few seconds of Kyle, but usually Jared, Tanya, Frank, and I are swimming near each other for most of the race, so it will be cool if they could smile for the camera. (I only included Frank in that list to be nice).

Don't watch the flip turns on a full stomach !!

Swimming_at_UofC_test_for_Wasa from Nerd Williams on Vimeo.

Great Pigeon Lake Photos Here (UPDATE)

Heather Kay's husband, Mark, was out taking some great shots of the race last Sunday. Have a look through them, there are a ton of Speed Theory Cycling.

Mark has created a coupon for Speed Theory Racers to use at his site that will give you 25% off any picture order using the coupon code: speedtheory25. He donated the great shot to the left!

Here is the exciting finish with Speed Theory going 1 and 2 in the Cat4 mens race. Congrats to Mark Jesse and Clarke Ellis for their wicked performances!

The full gallery can be found here.

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Feed for Masters Nationals

Guys, I am registered as an Elite this year since I wanted the opportunity to race beside some names I read about on Cyclingnews. However, looking at the course, I will be riding beside them for about 12km. Oh well, I am going to give it a shot.

Anyway, I plan on going up and watching the Master's Road Race, so I will be there for a feed for any Speed Theory racers. So make sure to get a hold of me before the race and we can all figure out a time and place to meet me before the race to pass me your bottles, gels, etc. I will also scream encouragement to you and profanities at your competition :)

Let's have a big Speed Theory dinner up there the night before the race. The whole dinner will be on the club, since it is nationals and I want as many people racing as possible. I will post the time and place the week before the race.

Trev

Cat 5 Report

What beautiful day for racing. For me, the race was a one portion trepidation, three portions fear, one portion suffering and two heaping teaspoons full of fun.

Mostly I was fearful during much of the race. For some reason the pack could not keep a smooth pace and the yo-yo effect was quite difficult to handle. Many times I felt like I was riding poorly having to maneuver around and by others, who were also having to move in and around other riders. Being anywhere near the back was very uncomfortable. SO, move to the front you say? Not as easily done as one would think. 50 riders were packed from line to shoulder and it was slow trying to find a line to move up, sometime being boxed in for minutes at a time. Eventually I would make it to the front and after a short pull, I would miraculously be transported back to the rear where I would have to start all over again.
The pace was moderate for much of the race with the odd surge and attack. I felt pretty good to respond but on occasion would question the purpose of ripping avioli from my lungs and potentially having a full coronary right there on my bike. I'm old.. these thing can happen:)

Sadly, there was an awful crash near the end of the race. I saw it all unfold in front of me. One fellow bumped another, who wobbled and bumped back whilst the first fellow lost it completely taking out the second fellow and before I knew it all hell was breaking loose. My back tire ran over fellow #2's helmet and for a moment I thought I was in for a tumble. In the periphery all I saw were bikes and bodies hurdling through the air with that horrible sound of bodies and carbon hitting the ground.

The final 6 km were fun but the crash was still fresh in my mind I was tentative. I led a short attack in hopes of adding some fatigue to the stronger fellows legs. At the end it was a large group of us sprinting to the end. I had a small bump and grind with a couple of guys scaring the bijijis out of me and then the final sprint.

I hope all of the injured are well.

Wednesday Night Series (WNS) Race

FORECAST LOOKS GOOD FOR 6 PM SO THE RACE IS ON!


This Wednesday is Speed Theory's turn to host the best racing series in Alberta. Like doing hill repeats? Yes we are going to do a couple on Wednesday night on Township Road 214 just south of Highway 22 X in the Road to Nepal area. We will do the hill two times and points will be awarded for the fastest time and also for consistency in your two times up the hill. I'll measure the course out properly before the race so you will know exactly how long the pain will last. The below map is just approximate. The start will be near the T junction.

If there is a big turnout we will start the first run around 6:30 PM. If there is a smaller turnout you will likely get a chance to do one warm up repeat before we race. You can park at the school on Highway 22 X just north of the start or you can drive to the start area. Hopefully not everyone will drive to the start! Bring your weight weenie bike if you like, we won't weigh anything! We might check for bike doping though.

I will need a couple of volunteers from Speed Theory. One to help me with the timing and one for crowd control. Leave a comment if you can volunteer.


View WNS June 9 in a larger map

Traditions.

All I can say is that I HOPE to dear God we have a pee break tomorrow around 80km into the race. 160km without peeing is NOT going to happen.

A lot of racers last weekend kept telling Marilyn she had her number on upside down. This was a little disappointing since it showed they haven't spent a significant portion of their lives watching European bike racing like I have ;) Here is a little condensed summary of some other cycling tradition from Wiki:

The riders temper their competitiveness with an elaborate but unwritten code of conduct and superstition. When possible, a rider is allowed to lead through his village or on his birthday. It is considered unsporting to attack a leading rider delayed by misfortune. Attacking a rider who is taking un besoin naturel ("a natural need", urinating) or attacking at all in the feed zone is not seen as sporting. Not sticking to these customs can lead to animosity. Unless the final stage is a time trial, or the gap between the top two is close, riders generally do not attack on the final stage, leaving the leader to bask in glory. Other numerous superstitions exist such as the rider who has to wear the race number 13 is allowed to wear one number 13 upside down to cancel the bad luck of having number 13 on his back. Riders will not shave on a day they expect to make a great effort though they will still shave their legs. Riding a green bike is considered unlucky.

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