Thursday Night Skills TONIGHT Aug. 1st at 7pm !

Team:  Tom Kenny and I will be hosting TNS this week. It will be a 7pm start in North Glenmore Park starting from the corner of 37th St. and 66th Ave.. The Western most parking lot that is gravel.

I have some cool coaching ideas I have been thinking of to try out to teach climbing skills more effectively and Tom will be working on pre-corner positioning, entry and exit speeds, cornering 2 and more abreast, and etiquette. I hope both will be really worth coming out for!

For my groups tomorrow night, people will need a pair of runners as I am bringing a bike with platform pedals for people to use and get some of the ideas I will be showing. So pack a pair of runners with you for tomorrow night.

See most of you at 7pm in Lakeview!

Trev

Ciao a tutti da Italia!

Hello from Italy!

There were lots of requests for updates from Italy so here is the first one!  The first week was quite low key as we were adapting to the change in time and weather.  We arrived in Torino late July 8th.  It was hot and far more humid than I had expected.  First ride was mid after noon July 9th, felt like 3 am, to find a local bike store.  This ride was just over an hour.  Quick lesson on riding down town in a European metropolis city any one!  Which way was that going?  Why is that there?  Why is this lane yellow?  Where did he come from?  Where are the traffic lights?... oh there they are, why are there 4 sets at this intersection?  What!?  8 lanes going in 10.5 different directions in one intersection!?!?  Uhhh what?  Never found the bike store but lucky to have found my way back to the hotel.

We spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday riding around trying to find routes out of the city.  Basically we followed any cyclist we saw and took all the notes we could.  By the end of the week our map looked like a 4 year olds drawing of down town Singapoure done with an eatable 6 pack of crayons .  (yeah crayons!!)  In total, got in 10 hours in the first 4 days of riding and orienteering.

Saturday was a day off to shop around and check out some of the local attractions.

Ciao for Now!

Harley and Sarah.

Kicking Horse Cup THIS weekend.

If this coming weekend is looking a little empty, there is a great event based out of Golden this weekend called the Kicking Horse Cup. Follow this link for more information. 3 races in 2 days!

Missing Jason

It was 7 years ago today I heard the terrible news that my good friend Jason had been hit by a car on the 1A East of Cochrane. That horrible day had a huge impact on many lives. It is the truth that rarely a day goes by that I don't think of a funny story about a crazy training session or a fun trip to an event.

Soon we will be holding our annual Jason Lapierre Memorial Cycling Weekend. For the new members, it is good to have an opportunity to know who Jason was and why quite a few of us believe we should remember him with an annual event. Jason was a nationally recognized downhill ski coach. There is an annual alpine ski event called the J Cup in his name as well. Below is a video compiled last year by one of the members of his old ski club to help people attending the annual events know what is in the name.

By the end of this year, there will be a physical memorial in Jason's name on the Calgary Greenway Project. It will exist as part of a public interval running track and family area. The facility has been designed to encourage families and youths to lead an active lifestyle and use exercise to learn goal-setting, discipline, focus, and pride of accomplishment.

Volunteering for our big weekend! Aug. 10th and 11th.

Club, I have added a link to the Volunteer sign up application we use. I want to give everyone a lot of notice.

I love being part of such a great group of people. The race committee never has to stress too much about getting volunteers out. Please sign up for a position or three soon, so the race committee can cross this 'to do' off our list.

Please sign up for one or some volunteer positions. Lots of the positions can be done before doing another. For example, Chuck just signed up for Course Prep on Sat night downtown, before switching roles and turning into a Course Marshal.

Sunday's event is slightly NW of Bearspaw and Church Ranches. You drive up the 1A toward Cochrane, but head north on Lochend Road for several minutes before reaching the 262.

One of the funnest spots is volunteering for the Kid's Crit.   Putting race numbers on little run-bikes and 16 inch BMX's and watching the kid's smiles as they ride down the middle of a downtown street is totally awesome.

If you want to race both events (which is encouraged), please consider volunteering your partner or a friend for a spot for marshaling.

So it would take some pressure off my shoulders if these positions were filled soon.

Thanks everyone,
Trev

STC clothing, round 2.

I just heard from Champion Systems that the latest round of clothing isn't going to get here until Aug. 15th. So the jerseys for the newest members won't be here before the Tour de Bow or the Jason Lapierre weekends. The club has a few jerseys we've acquired from having to hit the minimums on some orders over the last year, so we have several extra jerseys.

If you plan on racing in the TdB or the JayLap Memorial, either email me directly or comment here what size you think you are and we will either get you a jersey to loan for the events, or, if we don't have that size, we will coordinate you borrowing one from a member. Don't leave it to the last moment though, from about 2 week out of the event I am crazy busy coordinating, so it is best to handle it now.

Trev

Trying it for the first time. Awesome!

Emily starts the 4.2km Time Trial. 5...4...3...2...1...GO!!

Jaya is ready to hammer!

We had several club mates giving bike racing a go for the first time this weekend. It was great to see. However, what was even better was watching other club mates lending advice, encouragement, and even gear. I am sure every new racer will be back for more.

Lisa has an instant groupie!

With the three different disciplines offered over the weekend, a club mate could ease themselves into the scene. I always recommend trying out a Time Trial first. This way you aren't around a bunch of other riders during your first event. It is just you against the clock and the course. You get to experience the atmosphere of an event and above all meet more of your club mates which can be potential training buddies. The next on Saturday's agenda was the Criterium, which I always recommend to volunteer for one first, or go into Calgary's excellent Midweek Series to learn how to do these before doing a weekend event. On Sunday, there was the Road Race, which teaches cyclists to work together, get to an intensity previously thought achievable, and find out how cool the team sport of cycling really is. Of course you can never forget what makes this sport so family friendly! The Little Critters Crit! Watching the children experience the crowds and the pure joy of cycling down the middle of the street is always the climax of the weekend for me. My Mom would always tell me to go ride on the yellow line when I was growing up, but it was never when the roads were fenced off?!!?

I had a great time this weekend and got to hang out with quite a few people from the club. I was totally pumped to see the size of the Women's peleton in the road race was bigger than the Men's Cat1/2 pack!  This is awesome and I hope this trend continues. If you are a women in the club and need a gentle nudge to try out an event, we have some very encouraging women you need to talk to! Email me and I will put you in contact.

Spectators line the finishing stretch as Rebecca hammers it home.

I am hoping that a couple other club mates post here about their weekends. Congratulations to several riders who had some great personal achievements this weekend. Chuck is leaving the Cat5 ranks with an awesome 2nd place in the Criterium. Lawrence showed that if you are fast, it doesn't matter what Cat you are in and got 2nd in his first Cat 4 Crit. Megan rocked the free world and got second in the Crit, Road Race, and Omnium, all while providing awesome encouragement to Rebecca, Allison, and Emily who were trying out their first mass start events. Thank you Megan! Waleed (winner of our STC Prologue) got 3rd in the road race. And finally Marc, who seems to be unstoppable this year with a 1st in the Cat1/2 Time Trial, 4th in the Crit, and 3rd in the Road Race. This was all good for FIRST in the Cat 1/2 Omnium. It was awesome being part of his team and Dave and I are still walking on clouds. I tell you, we feel like that Omega-Pharma dude in the background!! Except Dave and I would be much much further in the background :)

From Huffington Post Online.

Wedding Invitation

Fellow Speed Theorists, we would love to have you join us at our wedding!

The beautiful bride-to-be and a very lucky guy.

Together with their families

Joelle Kimberlee Dubber

&

Darcy Rae Gullacher

Invite you to celebrate their love story and marriage

Saturday, the twentieth of July

two thousand and thirteen

at two o’clock in the afternoon

Centre Street Church Chapel

3900 2nd Street NE

Calgary AB

Rundle Mountain Stage Race and Provincial Road Championships

Congratulations to all who raced at the weekend, there was some great racing and Speed Theorists placed really well. Check out the results at http://zone4.ca/results.asp?id=5935

dB Performance Jason Lapierre Memorial Cycling Weekend Aug. 9th - 11th. Some Updates.

Club, for this year, our flagship event has some tweaks.  Our sister club, the Calgary Crankmasters agreed to my request of helping us out with one of the 3 events we hold over the weekend. This really takes a strain off our volunteer base and allows more of you to race when you want to! Thank you very much to the Crankmasters for continuing to be a huge asset to Alberta Cycling, and congrats on another successful Stampede Road Race.

So the format this year for the dB Performance Jason Lapierre Memorial is this:

Friday August 9th, for a 6pm start time: Crankmaster 20km Airdrie ITT

Saturday August 10th, for a 4pm start time:  Kids Fun event (every parent that rides and has a kid should be present!)
Saturday August 10th, for a 5pm start time: Downtown Criterium.  (This is our shining jewel event, highlighting cycling to downtown Calgary)
Sunday August 11th, for a 10am start time: Prairie-Roubaix 4 Returns!

So get your kids pumped, and put all these events on your calendar!

Thank you once again to Dennis Bland, owner of dB Performance, for sponsoring this event.

This week's WNS is a 40km ITT

Club, this Wednesday night, the WNS series is hosting a 40km Individual Time Trial. Get in on it if possible.

There used to be a 6 or 7 race 40km ITT series in the province that was usually hotly contested. Unfortunately these events were super well attended and with the rising amount of work associated with hosting an event, they fell out of favour with race directors. I miss that series as learning how to time trial is a skill that is transferable over to road races and stage races.

Anyway, if you want to try a 40km ITT out, this is your shot.

Link to the time, route, and place here.

Trev

Tour of Alberta VIP Pro Cycling Experience

I was talking to Alex Stieda in Edmonton a few weeks ago, and they are still looking for a few more people to complete the VIP squad:

VIP Pro Cycling Experience

You ride about 1-2 hours *ahead* of the pros on each day, except for the prologue where you ride 10 minutes ahead of the first pro rider. So if you have $9500 burning a hole in your pocket... contact Alex (contact info is in the link).

Stampede Road Race THIS WEEKEND, Registration.

Women's contingent, Stampede Road Race, July 2011

Club, the Stampede Road Race this weekend is put on by our sister club The Calgary Crankmasters. I really encourage you to attend. It is a long established, well organized event. This is a fairly unique race on the Albertan racing calendar as it is raced in 'Age-Groups'. There is an 'Elite' category for racers that want to race in the highest ability category, and then 'Age-Group' waves starting shortly after. This is a PERFECT event if it is your first ABA race. I have raced this event about 8 times I think and each time it was been a typical Crankmaster event: well-executed and athlete friendly.

Women, this is a perfect opportunity to try out an event for the first time if you are hesitant. This is a low-key affair where you will be introduced to racing on a course that is beautiful and challenging.

Read more about the event here:  Tech Guide.

Registration is here.

Newer cyclists and and potential racers often look at experienced racers and assume they somehow just know how to race, or that it's all about fitness. The truth is, everyone has to learn, often by failing. Here is one of my many examples:

About 6 or 7 years ago, I got into a break at this race with Zach Bell, Jeff Bolstad, and another rider. I was a fairly new racer at the time (about 4 years experience) and excited to be in a break. In the paceline I kept surging forward with enthusiasm slightly gapping the riders behind. Jeff scolded me out and told me to ride smarter in general and also let Zach do the most work. Me, not knowing who Zach was, resolved myself to do just as much work. With 2 laps to go, as Zach effortlessly pulled the other two riders slowly away from my rapidly failing legs, the lessons Jeff tried to teach me were sinking in. The moral of the story?:  training and reading about cycling is one thing, but you learn valuable lessons far faster when in an environment where you will feel the effects of your mistakes. For me, I learned my mistakes that day the hard way, meaning I will never forget them.

I encourage you to attend this event and support a great cycling club.

Andres pictures from Banff Bike Fest.

Some of the STC Stage Racers at BBF 2013

Andres took some great shots of BBF this year. Have a look through! These are fairly compressed shots so you can load them quickly, but if you want a higher res version, he can email it to you directly. Just leave a comment with your email and he'll get it to you!

Here is the gallery.

Thanks Andres !!

.

No volunteers for WNS?

A 1.6 km wicked hillclimb has been added as a prologue for the WNS road race. Also I need a good few volunteers, please think about being a volunteer or bring one along. See you Wednesday.