The Tour is ON ! Let's celebrate with a race! Sunday, July 3rd! (UPDATE)

THIS IS ON !!

Most years for the Tour, there is a prologue, and a group of us get together to race the same distance but on an easier course to see how our times compare to the pros. (It is humbling.) This year there isn't a prologue, but a 23km TTT.

Sunday morning at 9am: I will find an easy 23km ITT course close to town that we can hammer on. I find this super fun since you can then compare your average speed to a well-oiled Tour team's time.

You can incorporate it into your ride for the day or take it super seriously just to see how amazing Tour teams are when they TTT.

Here is the course. It is almost dead flat and dead straight. Just a few turnarounds. I think at this time of the day on Sunday it will be fairly dead. It will be 3.5laps.

Four Updates.

Well the weather has finally come around and it is great to see so many team mates out on the roads. Make sure to be taking advantage of all the great opportunities the club is offering.

1.) Ever since I moved from Victoria, I have harboured a dream to start up a ride that provides excellent training for experienced cyclists and excellent learning opportunities for novices. Having the two groups start rides together provides the breeding ground for the advancement of cycling in Alberta in general. I have modelled this ride after 'The Wheelers Ride' in Victoria as it's success was extremely obvious with the quality of rider in that city. I haven't called it by any club name or business name on purpose as I want ANY club's riders, of any level to show up, as long as everyone knows the ground rules. I have set up a website for the ride and would love it if the ride started THIS Sat. at 9am. PLEASE FORWARD THIS POST to non-club members who ride. Here is the link to the ride: The Calgary Wheeler's Ride.

See you this Sat. !!

2.) Kyle Marcotte hosts the TdF Pool every year and it makes the Tour even more fun. The proceeds go to a good cause of the winner's choosing. Join up, and help him raise some money and provide an added level of 'Tour Enjoyment'. Here is the link to the rules and the spreadsheet. Download it, fill it in (it only takes a few minutes) and send it to Kyle at dukyle@yahoo.ca. FORWARD THIS POST to your friends since they probably want to get in on this. Link is here.

3.) The club has started working on it's sponsorship package for the JayLap Memorial Cycling Weekend. If your company would like to help out in ANY capacity, please get ready to give this sponsorship package to your boss. The easiest way for a company to help is to provide fun Primes in the crit and road race. A good example is Marcy's Chiropractic office donating free 1hour massages for Primes in the crit... perfect !!

4.) SAVE THE DATE. Right now, make sure that Aug. 6th and 7th are blotted off on your calendar to volunteer at our flagship event. You only need to volunteer for one of the events and you can race the other two. The crit and road race are the most volunteer heavy.

Don't forget TnT every week, and I am hoping to post a club event for this Sun morning to coincide with the TTT in the Tour !!

See you on the road,

Trev and the Club.

Devon GP - A great start, but not so great finish!

As Darcy mentioned in his earlier blog I was unfortunately involved in a very unexpected, unnecessary and rather nasty high speed crash on Sunday at the Devon RR. It involved three riders, including myself. While I know who the other riders were from talking to others after the race, looking at the finishing results and remembering faces and team kit colors, I will refrain from using their names in my description of what happened. Let’s just call them rider A and B, and me. In the heat of the moment – everything happened so fast - no one really thought to look for numbers or ask for each others names.

Leading up to the RR, the Devon GP weekend was going great for me. I had finished 6^th in the ITT and 4^th in the crit on Saturday and achieved my primary goal for the weekend which was getting the necessary upgrade points to move into cat 4. Then came the road race on Sunday. It was a relatively straightforward out-and-back course with no crazy descents, hairpins or other technical aspects. It should have been an uneventful road race. The race got off to a brisk start with a few guys off the front early. Within about 10km we had brought them back into the fold and the race was then well under control. There were a few erratic riders as always in the bunch but we were pretty much all together to the turnaround; maybe a half dozen or so guys fell off on the climb up to the turnaround and a few more fell back on the return climb. I was front- to mid-pack most of the way, trying to protect my fifth place on GC but also prepared to work for Darcy if he was in the lead group as we neared the end of the race. On the climb back out of the Genessee River Valley two guys from Pedalhead got away. Before the right hand turn back onto Township Road 512 we’d caught one of them. The other guy was still away by about 100 meters. Leading up to and after we’d turned right onto Twp Rd 512 a few of us were working hard at the front to try and bring the breakaway rider back into the fold (including rider ‘A’ who was to the one to cause the crash). We were being blocked reasonably effectively by the breakaway guy’s teammates. About 8km down Twp Rd 512 on the way back, and still in a 15+ man group (I cannot recall exact numbers as I was fifth or sixth wheel at the time), and with one guy still off the front (we could see him very clearly up the road) we came to a marshaled cross road at which rider ‘A’, in front of me made an inexplicable sudden and sharp turn to the right as if he thought that was where we were supposed to turn (why he thought this I still cannot understand). It was much more than simply not holding a line; it was a clear right turn at 45+ km/h followed by a sharp braking when he must have realized he’d made an incorrect turn. I, as well as several others who witnessed it all from a little further back in the peloton, and who I spoke to at the medic van, could not understand why he’d have thought to turn there: (i) he was not even front wheel and those that were leading our group to his left were clearly going straight, (ii) there was a breakaway guy clearly visible up the road and (iii) if he’d paid any attention to the race route, which each and every one of us are required to do before a race, he’d have known that we only turned right at the T-intersection at the end of the Twp Rd 512 (it's an out and back - that means we get to the finish line the same way we came!). I was just off his wheel and a little to the right, and rider ‘B’ must have been in a similar position just behind me. In the nanoseconds I had to react I tried my best to avoid him but given how sharply he turned to the right, our speed at the time and his decision to brake upon realizing his error, it was to prove impossible. We were down before we even knew it. I cannot recall whether rider ‘B’ hit me from behind as I was trying to avoid rider ‘A’ or whether rider ‘B’ collided into me after I’d already collided with the back end of rider ‘A’s bike - it all happened so fast. As the rest of the peloton rode away, the marshal came over to see if we were all okay. Rider ‘A’ got up pretty quick and just stood there in obvious disbelief at what he had just done. Funny, he didn’t even come over to see if we were okay. I was very slow to get up, in a lot of pain mainly in my left shoulder and still completely in shock at what had just happened...so unexpectedly on what should have been a routine part of the race course. Rider ‘B’ was sitting on the ground a little longer and I recall him saying he was okay but in too much pain to ride on. After making sure everyone was okay and straightening out a few components on my bike and making sure the vital parts were working and still intact, I hopped on my bike and slowly rode to the finish. I recall Rider ‘A’ also indicating to the marshal that he’d be okay to ride on and from the results it looks like he came in about five minutes after me.

After crossing the line in extreme pain I was driven to the medic van in the parking lot, looked at and then Darcy drove me to the Devon hospital for x-rays and further medical treatment. The hospital staff were great and very expedient. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to see either rider ‘A’ or ‘B’ again that afternoon to get their perspectives on what happened. I sincerely hope that both of them are doing okay. I am still trying to figure out what rider ‘A’ was thinking and why he did what he did. I may not know the answer without speaking to him. So what can we all learn from this? Firstly, always ensure good and effective communication among riders whether racing or out for a recreational ride, and secondly, make sure to know the course/route before you race/ride on it (drive it beforehand or study the technical guide). This should not have happened and could easily have been avoided if everyone knew the course.

As for me, thankfully and very luckily it does not appear that I have any broken bones. I have what appears to be a very badly sprained SC joint and pretty nasty road rash and bruising on my left shoulder, back, both elbows, hip and left hand as well as lots of other minor scrapes, bruises and burns over my body. I trashed my helmet but other than some bruising behind my left ear, my head seems to be okay.

I hope to back on the bike very soon. In the meantime, and always, ride safely!

Matt

Devon Cat 4 Road Race Report

To make a long story short, the Cat 4 road race went pretty well for the team. With me sitting in 3rd on GC Dave and Ferenc selflessly offered to put in work to hopefully move me up a place or two. Dave did a massive amount of work riding super aggressively, launching a number of attacks to wear out my fellow GC competitors (Dave was 4th on GC so they had to go with him).

By the second half of the race we were down to a group of five riders including Ferenc, myself and the #1 and #2 GC riders. Ferenc put in a ton of work protecting me from the attacks and allowing me to save my legs as much as possible for the finish. In the end Ferenc unleashed an awesome sprint to finish 3rd (and move up to 4th on GC) and I managed to finish strong enough (4th) to move up to 2nd on the final GC thanks to the hard work by my team-mates. A very solid, very fun day of racing for the Cat 4 STers. Thanks Ferenc and Dave!

ps - the pic is from the crit where we worked together and managed to finish with 3 in the top 7 as well - not bad!

Devon Grand Prix: A View From Back of the Cat 5 Pack

Six ST riders, Darcy G and Matt J (Cat 5), Ferenc J, Dave H, and Chris H (Cat 4), and Thomas Y (Cat 1/2/3) headed to Devon for the Morgan Construction Devon Grand Prix of Cycling. Below is a brief recap.

First of all, I discovered it's possible to stuff three bikes, five sets of wheels, and gear into the back of a Ford Focus hatchback, so Ferenc was able to ride up to Devon without having to hold a disc wheel the whole way. Proceedings got started Friday night with a short, twisty 2 km prologue in the rain. No one was really interested in crashing in a 2 km prologue, so we all turned the gas down a notch and finished safely.

Saturday morning was the 16 km TT, which was a flat, fast T-shaped course. Nothing really dramatic to report: we all simply put our head down and pedaled as hard as we could for 16 km. Saturday night was the crit on a what I thought was a fairly narrow four-corner course. Standout performances include Matt's 4th in Cat 5, and Dave, Ferenc and Chris going 4,5 and 7th in Cat 4. Thomas hung on to finish with the group in the 1/2/3 crit, and had a good suffer face going the whole time. My crit? Let's just say I had a bad weekend.

Sunday's road race meant disaster for the cat 5s. With 20 kms to go Matt was in great position sitting 5th wheel when a rider made a sudden move to the right, taking down at least three riders. Matt rode to the finish in obvious pain. The medics cleaned him up pretty good, but a trip to Devon was required for x-rays. I'll let Matt tell the rest of the story. It's so good to know that Jenn and Matt like to share everything, including road rash and broken helmets.

The Cat 4 and Cat 1/2/3 road races resulted in good results for ST racers, but I'll let them tell their stories.

[Update: Results are here. Thomas was second on GC in cat 3, and both Chris and Ferenc were in the top five in cat 4 (Dave did yeoman's work in the early break in the RR).]

Tour de France Pool

Hi all,

Our Tour de France pool is up and running again.  Info can be found here:  http://www.calgarytriandbike.blogspot.com/

Entry forms can be found here:
http://thedoctrine.squarespace.com/storage/2011%20TdF%20Entry%20Sheet.xls



All of the entry fees collected will be going to a local chairty, winner's choice.  In the past we used the entry fees to support the Jason Lapierre Scholarship at the UofC, but since we have reached our endowment quota, we've changed where the money goes.  Last year the winner donated the money ($860) to the Neonatal Unit at the RockyView hospital.

Group Coached Ride this Sat. afternoon (for those who aren't Devon'ing it up)

I would like to host a fun, coached interval ride in the afternoon this Sat for the team. We will be covering how to incorporate short-fast 'sprint' intervals into your training and the technique of how to do it. This training session lends itself very well to a big group ride since during the time in between intervals, we are rolling along chatting and improving our group riding/racing skills.

Meet here at 2:30pm on Sat. and expect a 3 hour ride.

Please comment if you can make it so we don't leave without you!

Wear your kit!! (if you have it!)

Trev

C4 Crash Photos and Update on Harley

Team,

Last night we had a crash in the C4 race for the A group. It could have been avoided and I feel responsible for it happening. We were passing a small group of triathletes and then had to accelerate to make a corner. It seemed like at the time. We yelled to the riders that we were coming, we squeezed to the left and went around them. As Matt and I entered the turn, we didn't think to look back and make sure everyone got around safely.

The problem was the gravel on the corner. Harley didn't see the gravel until way too late and because of the confusion of the slower riders, that were at the corner as well, Harley slipped on the gravel at speed, and suffered some pretty bad road rash and a serious cut to his forearm.

When I caught up to him, he had some bandaging done already but needed to get to medical right away. We went to the new urgent care facility in Cochrane. The service was amazing, the facility is pretty much brand new and fast.

Here is the link to the photos I took of Harley. Here are the photos of Harley in the hospital.

If your stomach can handle it, check them out. His smile got bigger the more drugs they gave him. I spent some of the time in the bathroom spilling guts, especially after they froze the cut and cleaned off the excess ratty edges of flesh that could not be saved. Not sure what the dremmel tool was for, I passed out at that point. We got home after 1:00am with everything ready. Prescriptions filled, ice packs, guaze and a stack of cycling magazines to read.

So, this again could have been avoided. A better way of riding may have been to neutralize the group until the corner and everyone go around the corner safely that way. It was just one of those incidents that you don't think about and it goes to show, as cyclists, racers and friends, we always need to be thinking when we are riding and make decisions that trend to safety.

Thanks,

Dan

TnT Ride

Team,

I'm still planning to be out tonight for the TnT. Nothing planned as of yet. There might be some guys looking to get out for a spin before the head up to dominate in Devon. We can just have a recovery pace ride and do some of the hills that we practiced drifting on a few weeks ago.

We can plan something as the group collects.

See you all tonight.

Dan

Smack talk at the Kids Crit Saturday night in Banff.

The crazy thing is that his race was longer than mine !! :)

Trev

Devon needs riders

I just checked the list for this weekend and it is looking pretty bleak. Only 7 cat 4s so far and very few 3s and women. It is a 4 event gc with a short prologue Friday night. If you are unable to make the prologue you can still compete in the SR but you are given the same time as the slowest prologue rider in your category. I'm in for the weekend (not likely going to make the prologue), who else??

The More Feminine Side of Banff

The men weren’t alone in conquering the hill climb, road race, TT and crit this weekend in Banff. Representing the ST women in full force were Marilyn ‘The Combine’, Laura, Erin, Tomo, and myself. Unlike the men’s categories, the women’s field was open – pros against amateurs, brave neophytes willing to take on not only wet roads but Olympic hopefuls as well. We did awesome.

Happily, after the killer 1.5km prologue, with a whopping 3 seconds lead, I won bragging rights over Marilyn. Erin also had a great go up the hill and revealed that she was going to be a great contender over the weekend.

With another stroke of luck, the 1A road race was cut short because of a den of wolves threatening to eat any rider that would get dropped from the main pack. It was great luck for me since I decided to pull a Jens Voigt and crash hard at about the 25 km mark on the wet roads. The exact cause of the crash remains a mystery, but after a quick skid and a long repair of the bike, I was back on track, albeit a good 5 minutes down from the lead pack. After time trialing for the last 40 kilometers or so, I slinked over the finish line … not last and not eaten!

Only the 21 km ITT and crit were left and ST had one woman high up in the GC – Erin who was 11^th – which is super impressive given the competitive field. Marilyn, after fearlessly responding to attack after attack in the road race lost a couple of minutes to the lead pack and was slightly lower in the GC at 18th, while Tomo and Laura were practically tied, coming across the line in the chase group. Of course I rounded up the back of the GC.

Marilyn and Erin again killed it – and me – on the time trial. While Marilyn’s time was impressive, it was still 4 whole minutes behind the fastest time – I guess there’s a reason why we’re not all national team track cyclists who are 2012 Olympic hopefuls.

With only the crit left and Marilyn and Erin bowing out, Laura, Tomo and I were given the reins to giver or, more accurately, to last-as-long-as-we-can. We braved the wet hairpin and the three left turns (who knows how to turn left?) to last almost half of the 26 laps. Not too bad for 3 gals who are brand new to sprinting, slamming on our brakes and faster-than-we-would-like speed turns.

It was a great weekend – full of stories, laughs and good friends. Who needs to be first when you have such a great time?

Can’t wait to do it all again, well, except for hitting the deck. -Jennifer

Banff Bike Fest, A Cat 4 View

Ferenc is right. It’s kind of a pain in the ass to haul yourself out to Banff for a 1.5 km prologue. That’s not the whole story though. While the race is short, it does give you the opportunity to taste blood in the back of your throat and to develop a rattling cough for a couple of days, so there are compensations.

The prologue and post-prologue were good fun, but the ITT, Crit and RR were over the top. Following a string of me finishing just ahead of Slayer in TTs I managed to smoke him by a whole 1.6 seconds over the Minnewanka loop, diskless (me 4th, him 5th, so ... money!). Having proved my mettle in TTs I went into the crit expecting to play a sizable factor. I got gapped two or three laps in and then rode another time trial, this time trying to salvage some dignity by not getting lapped. I started my 24^th lap 10 metres ahead of the winner’s finish. Gapped, not lapped though, hah!

The road race started at 7:00, so we were up at o-dark-thirty eating bagels and trying to decide whether to ride with a jersey or a parka. An umbrella would have been nice. Rain was spitting at the start and would vary between that and bucketing down on the back side of the course. The descent off Tunnel Mountain was very interesting on wet roads. I rode it like a scared kitten the first three times, like a brave kitten the fourth and fifth time and like a ferocious, fearless newt the last time. (I have no idea what that means.) Somewhere between the 2^nd and 3^rd lap the group got whittled down from 80 to about 50, with 7 Speed Theorists attending. The routine established was to a) ride tempo out of town, b) wheeze up the hill, c) ride tempo up to the village, d) try to kill each other on the short walls at the top and then e) alternately try to recover/try not to die on the descent. On the last lap I hit the final uphill grunt ahead of a small swarm that came around me at the ⅓ point of the uphill. Then they all came back in the last ⅓. Sweetness. I got in touch with my inner newt and hammered (No, really. I hammered. Really) down the hill around the corner and over the finish. Larry, with his mad finishing skills and a fine leadout from Thomas made it there ahead of me for 6^th place. I got 9^th, Chris was 10^th and Dave finished 12^th in Cat 4. Harley was 3^rd in Cat 3 (17 seconds up the road). With the road grime we looked like we had just had a pleasant April ride in Belgium.

There was no GC for Cats 3, 4 and 5, but if there were it would have been Chris, me and Dave as 2, 3 and 4 for the weekend, so good racing all ‘round.

Banff Bike Fest, it's a wrap!

Well, the 4th annual Banff Bike Fest concluded yesterday with the road race. It was the 5th race in 4 days for the Invited Men (Cat1/2), and was 138km. An abbreviated road race (78km) earlier in the day was also for the Cat3/4 with quite a few STC members racing.

The weekend was excellent! I got to meet several new team members I hadn't met yet and to partake in and watch A LOT of racing.

The Banff Bike Fest is a highlight of the year for me. The town of Banff puts on a first class event. The Criterium downtown being their most spectator friendly. You really feel like you are part of a massive show when the streets are completely gated off to non-racers and spectators line the ENTIRE course!

For me, the weekend is about great company with team members and friends, but also about excellent competition.

I offered my lungs to the gods of blood in the 1.5km hill climb on Thursday evening and got 23rd., being beaten by over 19seconds in such a short event. Wow. The 64km road race on Friday morning went extremely well even though the weather did not cooperate. Finishing an unexpected 12th in the main pack got me excited for the next day. Saturday morning was the 21km ITT and was something I was really looking forward to. I had a great race to finish 13th. The winner was Will Routley (SpiderTech) crushing it in 26:30 and beating me by 1min46sec. Holy Cow !! Saturday evening, I got to watch all my team mates in the 22 - 26 lap criteriums before I started at 8pm. Watching all the STC racers out there fired me up and I was pumped to hammer. The starter said go and I was at 100%. I gingerly took the first few corners and ended up creating a gap off the back and it only got bigger. I lasted 13laps in a scheduled 50!! Holy cow some of those dudes can ride fast !! I love getting in there and experiencing the thrill of excellent riders and Sat evening didn't disappoint. By the time my heart rate had come down to about 200 and I had been lapped and pulled for several minutes, Paul Tichlaar and Aaron Schooler made a gap in the opposite direction and crushed the field! Those guys are totally amazing! It was mind boggling watching them almost lap a select field I could only hang onto for 4 laps !! Awesome. I must admit, I went to bed that evening a little disappointed with myself though. The picture of me in the Crit.... look where the spectators are looking.... I am JUST about to get lapped !!

That takes us to yesterday's road race. The Cat3/4 group started at a very early 7am and I made it to watch the last lap and the finish. Watching Harley, Thomas, Hooper, Larry and several more sprint pumped me up! During the first 10 of the 11 12km laps, I sort of made up for Sat evening and was active all day and finished in the main field behind the winning break. A highlight of yesterday was trading pulls with Will Routley (our current national champion) after he bridged up to an attempt I was making at bridging up to the breakaway. Him and I traded pulls a couple times before we were shut down. Later, he would pull a vanishing act and bridge up to the break himself, dragging 2 others. Amazing. While I was wondering if every nerve ending in both of my legs were on fire simultaneously, he was attacking off the front! Cool.

I hope everyone gets to see the photos I know are out there. Please email me links to your photos and I will post them here. Also, please put in the comments or a new post your highlights of the weekend and some cool stories. We had over 25 STC racers at the event, and it would be great to hear some great motivational racing stories!

Results here.

Bill Quinney's Photos here.

Shot of Frank, Rob, and Charles early in the Crit here.

Trev

Banff Bike Fest Cat 5 Report

Banff Bikefest 2011 Cat 5 Race Report

We had a good turnout this year at Banff. The Cat 5 team consisted of 12 riders, Ian Watts, Matt Joss, Darcy, Brad Wolff, Peter Regier, Rob Woolley, Reinier, Stephen Pickett, Mike Healy, Mark Shand, Andres and myself. The prologue was a pain, you had to take at least half day off work and drive 250+ km for a 1.5 km race Thursday afternoon. I guess only those hoping to finish in the top-8 bothered to register since we had no GC either. Neither had we a road race. On the rainy, 11 C prologue Ian finished 4^th and took home 10 upgrade points but the rest of us went home empty handed. Honourable mention goes to Matt for finishing 9^th just missing out on the points. An interesting tidbit that the best Cat 5 rode the same time as Trev, i.e. could have earned a position in the first half of the invited field.

On Saturday we were in for an early rise as the 21-km time trial started at 8:00 for Cat 5's. The course is anything but easy except the first and last 3 km’s that are fairly flat. For the rest of the course you either use a single speed bike or you keep shifting like crazy every 300 m while the grade keeps changing almost arbitrarily ranging from 15% hillclimb to 9% downhill on the Minnewanka loop. It was a bit chilly 8 C at the start but at least it wasn’t raining. I started just 30 seconds after a guy who turned out to be the winner of the TT, so the last time I saw him was the start line. Too bad. Fortunately, Ian saved the day again finishing 2^nd (worth 15 upgrade points), while I and Matt still managed to pick up some points (8 and 6, respectively, for the 5^th and 6^th place). With this performance, TT remains a strength of the club.

After the impressive TT from Ian we laid out a basic plan for the crit. I’m going to try to lead up the sprint for him, if we all remain upfront that long. It started to rain lightly by the start time of 5 p.m. The course included a U-turn and four 90 degree turns in 1 km, and it was all wet. Unfortunately, Ian was just too fast this day and slipped out in his fifth turn. As he later told, he slammed into the fence head first and other riders and bikes showered at him within a fraction of a second. The race was over for him, and even worse, he was limping after the race, and also his bike frame got damaged. We wish him (and his bike) a speedy recovery.

I was actually riding behind the crash and a gap opened between the lead group and us. It took its toll on the field but I managed to bridge the gap in a few jumps over the next few laps. We had a varying number of riders (about 3 to 9) up front, including 6 Rundle Mtn CC riders and only 3 others. I had no support at this point and we had to deal with 6 yellow guys. By the time the last lap bell sounded all that remained was 4 RMCC riders and myself. I managed to hang on and even to pull off an acceptable sprint to finish second by about 20 cm. I was happy with it. Many thanks for Speed Theory team mates at our tent and Trev on the next corner for cheering for me, it did help! The other top finishers from the club were Matt and Reinier who placed 11^th and 13^th , respectively.

Ferenc

TnT #9 - Banff Hill Climb Conflict

Team,

As we discussed last week after the training ride, the Banff Hill Climb race will prevent many of us from taking part in the weekly TnT ride.

I would encourage the riders that have been coming out to still come out and practice the essential safe riding skills that we have been working on.

Keith mentioned that he could act as "El Presidente" and guide everyone around our route.

Later,

Dan

Several Skinsuits, race wheels and our roster... It's time!!

Guys, the club has several skinsuits available and I own an extra disk wheel and a wicked front race wheel.

I will bring all the skinsuits to Banff with me as well as all the race wheels I own. This being the biggest event of the season (aside from our JayLap weekend :) it would be great to have most people using every advantage they can. The open men usually start much later than the Cat4's and 5's so my race wheels are available to that Cat too.

Please comment here if you want a skinsuit for the weekend. I have 3 mediums and a small. Also comment if you want to use the race wheels.

Also, let's start up a roster for the weekend. It's time to get excited !! Comment here if you are going!

Open men:

Trev, Handsome Rob, Dennis, Charles, Frank

Open women:

'Dr. Quads' Kimpton, 'The Combine' Taylor, Jenn Joss, 'Robo' Tomo(nator), Erin Taylor, Laura Bennion ...

Cat 5:

Darcy, Tom, Old Rob, Matt, Ferenc, Reinier, Andres, Mike H., Steve P., Brice, Ian Watts ...

Cat 4:

Darryl, Dan, 3 kid Rob, Breakaway Mike Hoang, Larry, Dave, Hooper, 'DJ' Mike, ...

Cat3:

Harley, Thomas, Clarke...

.

Get Pumped

Finally finished the Velocity Stage Race Video. Watch, enjoy, remember, and get pumped for Banff this weekend!!

WATCH VIDEO

Alberta Cancer Foundation - Joe's Team Triathlon 2011

I registered for the Joe’s Team triathlon to be held on Sunday June 19th here in Calgary. This is Alberta’s first annual Joe’s Team Triathlon in support of the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. If you would like to sponsor me and donate please go to the pledge page which is linked here. Thanks very much!

Mike Healy

It's back, Kyle's TdF pool. Join it, and probably beat me.

Guys, as most of you know, but for the new members, Kyle hosts a great TdF pool every year with the winner getting to donate the entire prize pool to a charity of their choice and get the receipt for it. Podium finishers get a variety of great prizes donated from local places. This year, our team is donating an STC Jacket as one of the prizes.

I'll keep you posted, but here is the link to his first 'It's Almost Time' post.

He has refined the process so it doesn't take much time to create your team and send it to him. You don't have to do anything throughout the Tour except watch how your team does, there is no fiddling around everyday. For me, it is usually watching how every pick of mine either crashes or gets busted ?!?!

Plan to join up when Kyle says the word, it makes the Tour even more fun. I'll keep you posted.

Trev

TnT #8 - Wasa Taper Ride

Everyone,

I am racing Wasa this weekend and want to have some fresh legs for the new Wasa bike course. This week, I would like to take the train out to the top of Cochrane Hill and return on 567. This is the same route we did a few weeks ago when Debby (my wife) had to come out in the unofficial Speed Theory van to clean up the carnage.

I like the return on 567, less traffic to deal with.

Same rules apply as last time. Everyone takes a pull on the front. Watch the wind direction and draft appropriately with enough space. The pace will be recovery and up a notch if everyone feels good. There is construction debris on the road so we have to be careful. This is an excellent opportunity for the lead rider to communicate to all riders behind.

I am totally open to suggestions, if the group wants to change the plan. Leaving at 6:45.

Thanks,

slayer dan

Swift Current Cycling Classic -- Day Two

The good racing continued on day two. Sunday morning was the crit race, held in the parking lot of the Swift Current Mall. The course was probably around 600-700 metres long, with one really tough chicane corner. Halfway through the race two of us were out front, so we divided up the primes and I took the win and the points to clinch GC (I'll give more details in person). Unfortunately, the downer of the day was a crash in cat 4 which resulted in a broken femur for the racer. Hopefully he's back up riding soon!

Sunday afternoon was the 3.5 km hill climb north of town. Now, the hill was nothing like Apex, but it was steep enough to put some sting in the legs. Not one to mail in a hill climb, I took the win with a 39 second gap.

So, it was a good weekend. Four races, four wins. I'd highly recommend this race for next year. Good courses, good organization, and good prize money. And, it's closer than Saskatoon!

Swift Current Cycling Classic -- Day One

After making the drive to Swift Current on Friday afternoon, racing at the Swift Current Cycling Classic started Saturday morning with a 20 km TT with cold temperatures under cloudy skies, but thankfully not a lot of wind (at least for Saskatchewan). I had a good TT overall (my starts still need work), but I managed keep the power on, and at the end of the day took first place.

Saturday afternoon was the road race on an out-and-back course, with headwind going out and tailwind coming back. The terrain and road conditions were a lot like Velocity, but more rolling. At km 14 (ish) I rode away from the group (ok, three other guys) on the only significant climb, channeled my inner Jens Voight and turned the power up, and managed to get to the turn with about a minute lead. I kept the power on the whole way back, and crossed the line in 1st with a significant gap. So, a it's a great start to the weekend.

Tomorrow morning is the crit, followed by a hill climb in the afternoon.

Ryder Hesjedal Tour de Victoria

On Saturday, Jennifer and I (and Keith Ingstrup, for his 50th birthday...hope you weren't trying to keep that quiet Keith) took part in the inaugural Ryder Hesjedal Tour de Victoria. Over 1,200 cyclists of all levels and abilities took part in this event, riding the 50km route, the 90km route lead by Olympian Simon Whitfield or the 140km route, lead by Tour de France 7th place finisher Ryder Hesjedal and "Captain Canuck" Trevor Linden. We, of course, did the 140km route.

It was a “supported" mass participation cycling event, catering to all ages and fitness levels. However after the 10km neutralized start, the pace quickly ramped up and before we knew what had happened the group had thinned out, heart rates had climbed and the legs were starting to burn. A few teams seemed determined to show their stuff, or as it turned out lack thereof, as many of them were quickly put in their place when the Highland hills came at us fast and furious.

The day started out partly cloudy and cool and it remained that way until about 50km into the ride, just after the forested Highland area, when the skies opened up and it started to pour. I was in the front group with about 40 others, including a few folks who I recognized from Calgary (Dave Jetz, Cal Zaryski and Clay Paradis to name a few) and one women, Erinne Willock, who I discovered afterward was a pro (no wonder she was so fast). Jennifer and Keith were not far behind, chasing from one of the next packs. The front group was rolling along at a good clip. Despite the hard tempo, I was now very wet and starting to get cold so I made the dumb decision, in hindsight, to pull to the side to put on my rain jacket (I was shaking and too cold to try doing it on the fly), thinking I could stop, put on my jacket and hammer back to the group. Big, BIG mistake! It took me the next 25 minutes or so of solo racing - all out - to eventually close what had become a 30 second gap to the front group. I eventually caught up to them as the peloton converged onto the narrow gravel Lochside trail. I was spent but relieved that I had finally made the juncture. The front group had now dwindled in size to about 30 riders. I settled into a nice draft along the gravel pathway for the next couple of minutes. However, when we got back on the road, we quickly realized that the guys on the front had used the pathway as a tactical point in the race to further thin out the group...they had launched. I now know why teams are so keen to get toe front before the narrow pave sections in Paris-Roubaix. We were now split into three smaller packs - 15, 10 and 5 or thereabouts. We worked together for a short while but slowly guys fell off the pace. Before I knew it there were three of us trying to chase down Ryder Hesjedal and his lead group. Then it was down to two and then one (me). Dave Jetz, who had stopped for a pee, then came around me, encouraging me to hang with him as he dropped it into turbo. He was gone; out of sight in a matter of a few minutes. I found myself alone again for the last 15 km but I kept pushing all the way to the finish line, passing several guys who had imploded out the back of the Ryder led peloton. It was a great day of organized riding, and on an amazing route.

It wasn't long before Jennifer came across the line, followed a short while later by Keith who was met by his family with birthday balloons and all. We got to talk to Ryder for a brief while after the race. He seems like a super nice guy. And holy crap can he climb hills. To put it in perspective, he climbed a 3.6km timed tough climb a full one minute and fourteen seconds faster than the next best guy (28.7km/h versus 24.6km/h) and over two minutes quicker than me. I think I need to lose some weight!

Ryder, thanks again for organizing a fantastic ride, and good luck at your upcoming races. We'll be cheering you on.

Matt

Alberta 55+ Games Qualifier

Here are the results of the qualifier. I'll send formal results over to the games coordinator. The WNS blog has the rest of the results.

Alberta 55+ Games Qualifier

Name Category Time
Mike Zelensky 55+ 13:19
Phil Greenaway 55+ 14:48
Jack Whitlie 55+ 18:47
Paul Burns 55+ 16:09
Willie Van Sevenant 55+ 14:06
Ron Schuhart 55+ 13:39
Rick Courtney 55+ 11:38

Higlhy Recommended: Gary Frank - Injury Lawyer

I'm echoing Dave Holmes recommendation last year for an injury lawyer. I just finished up the legal proceedings from the hit and run accident I had last year and Gary did a great job.

If you do have an accident with a vehicle (even with an unknown driver), remember to take pictures of your body and bike as soon as you can, keep all broken equipment like your helmet, write everything down... and don't delete your powertap file that shows your speed dropping from 49 km/h to 0 km/h in 0.85 seconds.

Race Preparation - Warming Up

Team,

Some of you might not have been team members in 2009, we had an excellent race for the Stampede Road race. It was pretty much carnage and pain, but a great time.

I commuted to the race with Dallas Morris who had recently won the endurance race from California to some really hot desert place. Listening to him talk about the race was an awesome experience and it gave me a true sense of Dallas' quality. High quality.

On the warm up for the race, Mike Healy suggested that we do one lap as a warm up for the race. The stampede is very similar to a crit course. Lots of pot holes, a few rises. Except the fact that it is about 25 times longer then a crit course. We did 1 lap warmup which was 25 km or so, got to the start line, and all proceeded to blow up on the course one by one. This blowing up process was bad on all of us as it was stinking hot, dry and windy. The "falling apart" was especially bad for me as I had commuted to the race with Dallas, who had just won a 160000km or something race by single handedly time trialing the course, with dirty pictures he got when he stopped in Vegas, taped to his bike. There was no way that I could DNF because I was tired or didn't feel like riding anymore with Dallas in my car. It was Stars ambulance or bust for me.

All that being said, I was sent a video link to a study that has been done at U of C about warm ups. This video puts into light that the suggested warm up of Mike Healy might have been excessive and not necessary.

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Health/1244503490/ID=1952129621

I welcome the comments regarding this video and the argument that it presents. It was on CBC and there is a small ad on the beginning, sorry about the ad.

Maybe some of the senior riders like Trev and Jared can give their thoughts about the argument and provide some input. I know for me, having a good warmup has been followed by very good results in time trials. Having a rushed warm up or no warm up, has been an awful experience with heart burn, cramping, barfing, fainting, crying, crying and more barfing.

How long of a warm up is the ideal for "Masters" level racers?

Thanks
Slayer Dan