Penticton Bike Camp - Group Meeting on March 1

We’re hosting an informal information session about the Penticton Bike Camp on Tuesday, March 1, at 8:30 p.m. in the Speed Theory Store. Trev has been kind enough to open his regularly scheduled spin class at Speed Theory the same night at 6:30 p.m. to those people attending the meeting afterwards. He’ll be showing videos from last years’ camp including the sweet ride across the border into the US. If you can’t make it for the spin, show up at the store around 8:30 p.m. for the meeting. It will be a good opportunity to meet other people going to the camp and get your questions answered. I'll recap the meeting on the blog if you can't make it.

To get you thinking about the week of riding and what to expect, here are the Day 1 and Day 2 rides (the kms on the blog are more accurate than in the link if there is a difference):

Day 1 long: Anarchist Hill climb (180km)
Day 1 short: Osoyoos and back (130km)
Day 2: Naramata bench to Chute Lake (70km)

Everyone will ride from Penticton to Osoyoos on Day 1 and then you have some options: continue up the Anarchist climb, turn back for Penticton, or hit the Timmies in Osoyoos for as long as you want and then head back. The Day 2 ride will be a short out-and-back from Penticton to Chute Lake (check out the elevation grades leading up to Chute Lake). It’s considered a rest day with everyone riding the same distance. Day 3 is a long one and includes the Ironman loop- you have the choice of 225km, 180km, or 160km.

Follow up to Tom's Post - How about a Cat 4 meeting

Team,

I have been thinking about trying to organize a session with the CAT 4 team and seeing Tom's posting, and the interest level, it seems like we could make it work.

I am wondering if it would be worth having it at the same time and have a larger group, then maybe break off into the CAT 4 CAT 5 groups. There are many guys that are probably close to moving to CAT 4 and would like to see who is there.

We can bounce around the same sort of topics. I am totally open to suggestions of locations, topics and time. It will not work for me to have a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday night till April with conflicts with kid activities.

Thanks

Slayer Dan

Tactics Session

Fellow Speed Theororites

If there is enough interest, I would like to organize a "Tactics" session for us cat 5ers (of course other cool cats can attend). I'll get some guest speakers to talk about team strategies, tactics, pre-ride nutrition and whatever else comes to mind. This will be more formal than a 'get together' in that the speakers will 'have the floor' giving us practical information that we can use race day. Hopefully we can have a play book of options we can deploy depending on circumstances. We'll organize some early season group rides to put into practice the advice we garner from the speakers.

We can also talk about the upcoming season. What races you plan on attending, which ones you hope to perform best at or whatever.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED RESPOND TO THIS NOTE. Otherwise I will not make this happen.

You must be a STC or Crankmasters member to attend.

Tom

Sprint WIN !!

The STC lead out train worked seamlessly today and we took the sprint win. That makes it two wins in six tries.

Here are our bikes out for morning coffee.

Canadian Birkiebeiner Race Report

Since last year's Birkie wasn't enough pain and suffering, I decided to give it another go this year, except this time around I was smart and did the 55 km race without the 12 lb pack. Warm temperatures in Edmonton meant that tracks were extremely fast, so waxing was a challenge: for the first time in something like 15 years I used klister on my skis.

Overall, the "race" went extremely well (I put race in quotes, because the race winner was done in less than half the time it took me), in the sense that I could actually speak complete, coherent sentences at the finish line, instead of the half-dazed mumblings I churned out last year. I chopped 40 minutes off my time, but that was still less time than my friend took off of his time, so I was the one stuck drinking Bud Light Lime that evening. Curses...

Time to Party!!

Hi there Speed Theory teammates!

I think most of you have met my daughter Kailee via the team and the road, and you know what an awesome cyclist she is! What you probably don't know about her is that she is also a wicked sax player. In our spare (!!) time Kailee and I are very fortunate to be members of the Adhoc Band, a group of likeminded musicians who play to support local and national charities. We wanted to make you all aware of our upcoming gig, a St. Patrick's Day Dinner and Dance on March 19. The event is in support of the Children's Wish Foundation and is taking place at the Kensington Legion (totally old school I know, but a great place hold a party). The tickets are $20.00 and not only include a GREAT BAND but also a buffet dinner. Doors open at 6, dinner at 7, party starts at 8:30. If you would like tickets I'll have some with me at spin or drop me a line at jaboyle58@gmail.com . Hope to see you there!

Julie Boyle

PS We had Tom Kenny and his crew out to one of these events last year and I seem to recall him up on stage singing.....

UCC Heavy Weight Division Recap

Everyone,

I just wanted to add some spice to the 3rd round of the UCC. Not sure if Lockie brought out all the excitement when the heavy hitters took to the dance floor.

We all got on our bikes pretty early to get warming up. Everyone was pretty keen to get the legs warmed up and start hitting some gel shots. I think Rob and Simon were hoping for a major sugar high to start the race off pretty fast. I was getting concerned when we started the complicated weigh in process. I was the only rider in the entire house that was standing on the north side of 190 pounds and looking at the course profile, I knew that I was going to be lunch, supper and after supper snack food for the little wee boys. I'm not sure where Ary hides the weight, shoulders and chest like that should put him up around Thor or some other viking hero!

Anyways, like a gift from heaven, Big Bad Brad came down the stairs and topped the scale over 210! I knew that I might have a fighting chance holding off the Lantern Rouge battle!

As we started off the race, the boys settled in pretty hard and it was basically a race for second place. Wayde was gapping us in small increments, that turned into large increments.

It was really cool to hear everyone cheering and yelling about how high our watts were. My son decided it was time to hang some dung on the "Old Man" and call me out about how my fast moving Grandma in a wheel chair could pass me. I have now removed the little turd from my will with all proceeds of my estate going to any charity chosen by Jens Voigt.

I was in a huge battle with Brad so I figured I better start playing some mental games with him and trash talked him a bit. I was so focused on Brad, I didn't pay too much attention to Simon who was gaining on us on the climbs. I would like to have the weigh in ruling explained as the calves of Brad and myself alone weigh more then Simon. He was killing it on the final climb and I needed to start sprinting to take him. I don't remember what his time was but I was putting some pretty high level watts through the cranks to outlast him.

All in all, a very fun night that I will hope translates into a really solid race season. My son had a ton of fun cheering everyone on and showing off for the girls. He did get kind of flustered when Jaya started to flirt with him and try to sneak a kiss though. Next time, I hope to see some more kids out so they can see their parents dial into the "Old Basement of Pain!"

later

Slayer Dan

Nose Hill XCountry Race, Feb. 12th.

Hey guys, as you know I am a big advocate of the Calgary Road Runners Winter Cross Country running series. I am going into my 9th year competing in these (I can't believe it has been that long!) and they are still just as fun my first one in Jan. 2003!

Just like our Prairie-Roubaix race, these races essentially capture the spirit of pure competition with no froo-froo. Entry fees cover the hall rental, some of the regular food, photocopying, and so on... but that's it. This way, with an entry fee of $10 ($7 for members), it is essentially open to all and provides an excellent opportunity to compete outside in the middle of winter instead of in your basement or at the gym.

I figure I had been enjoying these races for a full 8 years and it was time to give back, so I accepted the Race Directorship of my favourite venue when the long time director was looking to step down. These races are pretty bare-bones, but I do need a few volunteers. I am currently 3 short. I was wondering if anyone wanted to marshal/cheer on the race course (you will need to dress warm) from about 11:30am to about 1:10pm. After this, you are guaranteed to a great lunch of super soup/stew and all the dessert you can handle at the TriWood Community center!

Here is the Calgary Road Runner website for more info.

Email me if you can help out. If you would prefer to run, then for sure take part!! These are excellent events !!

Trev

Underground Cycling Championships #3

UCC 3 - This Time It's Personal was held last night at Trev's, and again was a great time and wicked suffering. We were storing bikes in the garage post-race, and I think there were 20 bikes in there at one point, rad. The cheering always gets nuts, which is amazing for finding new levels of effort - I think I nearly lost my voice by the final event.

In round one, Frank casually threw down monster watts to easily destroy Trev, Jared, Thomas and me. I'm trying to borrow the x-ray machine used on Cancellara's bike to look for hidden engines. The description I heard later was that "Frank was dabbing the sweat from his face while Trev and Lockie put at least 50 watts into their pain faces".

Next up, Michael was forced to dig deep to keep newcomers Jenn and Kelly at bay, while Marcy and Shelley had a great battle, duking it out for the podium.

In the heavyweight men's division, big watts were the order of the day. I escaped to relative safety upstairs when I saw one of the computrainers catch on fire. Wayde comfortably won this one, if by comfortably you mean nearly passing out and falling off the trainer at the finish. Brad, Slayer Dan, Handsome Rob, Aryeh and Simon were neck and neck for nearly the whole race, I think Simon clinched 2nd (editor: Dan got 2nd) by winding up his sprint with 8km to go?

The main event of the evening was the A Women. Big names like Marilyn of TransAlps fame, and Tanya "Poker Face" Destruction lined up and put on a great show of suffering. Tanya took an early lead, while Jill stayed hot on her heels by standing for the last 19km. There was a battle and some mid-race trash-talking between Anna, Marie and Marilyn - Marilyn looked solid in 3rd for the first half. Tomo's tire blew when she unleashed fury at mid-way, and in the ensuing confusion, Marie attacked and never looked back.

Quite a few people stayed around for UFC. The chef was serving pizza and squash spaghetti, followed up by cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies, which I'm pretty sure made it a calorie neutral evening for most people.

Lockie and His H&R Block Teammate Discussing Tour of the Battenkill

Apparently Lockie's really looking forward to this one...

Going aways and brevets

I'm having some drinks at my place this Friday (4th Feb) as a low-key going-away bash. If you're cool enough to read this blog, you're invited. Show up any time after 7:30pm and before I pass out from trying to finish a full beer. Email me for the address - LachlanHolmes at gmail.

Last weekend, I got down to Tucson to do a 300km brevet (I think once the distances get silly-long, they can be called brevets) with Stephen K. Read the thrilling, blow-by-blow account at luckylockie.blogspot.com.