Chance of a '15 year' time. 'Do not miss your chance to blow'

Club, I have some pretty cool news. News that I have been talking about for about 15 years now that I wasn't sure would ever happen. It's happening!

When someone like you or I watch the Tour de France we know those cyclists rock the free world. We know they are fantastic athletes and we probably couldn't even keep up in a flat stage in the peloton during the neutral portion at the beginning of the race. But when I watch I always wonder HOW much better they are. Now with the internet and power meters it is easier to get a better idea, but there is no direct comparison. I have always said that during the Olympic track events (running track) it would be really cool to have an excellent Provincial level or even National level runner competing in the 5km, 10km, and marathon with the Professionals. Someone who's bio you know and you think is awesome. Locally, if someone like Brad Bickley pulls off a 31 - 32min 10km in a local road race you think 'Daaaammmnnn, that is is crazy fast, he had changed his clothes before I even finished?!?!'. Then when the gold medal for the 10km in the Olympics is in the 27:30 range, you think, 'I don't even get it, I don't comprehend that speed'. And that's the truth, it is hard to comprehend the speed difference. You can see the time difference, but it is hard to visualize what that actually looks like. I always thought if someone like Brad started the race with the likes of the Pros and we told Brad, if you can set a PB for yourself we'll give you a ton of cash. Then he is motivated to hammer. Then we could all watch the astounding pace difference as the Pros lap the runner over and over. That would be great TV!! The commentators would be able to say 'Do you understand what is happening here? This runner would win most road races in Alberta overall, and he is getting lapped...repeatedly!!' Then we would get a direct sense of how truly awesome the Pros are.

Well, you guys are about to get that opportunity at this year's Tour of Alberta! Dennis and I have the opportunity to race the Prologue 15 min before the first WorldTour cyclist! It will be a DIRECT comparison. Two decent Alberta Cat2 cyclists you've seen riding around racing the exact same course, with exact same weather, terrain, marshals, fans, EVERYTHING! These Pros will be starting the race fresh, so it isn't like we are racing a TT in the middle of a Grand Tour and the poor guys are tired. They will be extremely motivated as the terrain over the next 5 stages isn't incredibly selective, so the time differences in the Prologue are extremely important.

Over the last 6 or 7 years, the club has always held the 'Downhill tailwind Prologue' before the Tour de France as a fun way of trying to compare. Even with our course being dead straight, predominately downhill, and mostly tailwind sometimes, I am not sure many of us have ever beaten the LAST placed rider's time on a technical, rolly course of the Tour.

I found out about this opportunity about 2 weeks ago and I have been trying desperately to prepare. But that is part of the beauty. We get to directly compare a guy you know against the top of the sport!!  What an opportunity!

Personally, my goal will be to not come last place. I know there will be a few racers in the ToA whose Directors have told them to not go 'a bloc' (full on %100) since they are expected to help their leaders in the following stages, however this is the same as the Tour de France and we have still never beat them! There will be a few sub World Tour teams there like Kelly Benefit and SmartStop, so the results will probably be a little more spread out than at a race like the TdF where it is almost all the top of the top. But we will be able to directly compare my time with Sagan and Evans!!  AWESOME!!

I am crazy pumped. If you are up in Edmonton to watch, please start watching 6min earlier than you think you should and when you see two STC skinsuit coming at you...cheer like crazy !!! Make a mental note of Dennis' and mine's speed....then be blown away as Sagan and Evans come at you!

I will post my time here as soon as I finish so that while your are watching the actual event live or on TV, you can get a sense for the speed of these Pros!!

Dennis' start time is 5:59:30pm and my start time is 6:00pm.

See you soon,
Excited like crazy Trev.

21 STC club mates signed up for midweek mayhem!

oh hell yah !!  21 of your club mates hammering on the grass and dirt. The rest can bring your cow bells and your families and cheer like crazy!   See you every Wednesday night 6:45pm.  Learn new parks! Learn new language ! Set yourself up by a barrier or a a set of stairs and spectate some suffering! It's cross season!

Here is the schedule so you know which park to be in every Wednesday. The first one is at Laycock Park on Sept. 4th.

Here is a link to an album of shots Stephen Waters just took of tonight's CX Skills Night! Lot's of fun and learning to be a better cyclist overall. Remember you don't need to have a CX bike to come out to these, just a MTN bike!

Trev

JCC Ride for Relief (Updated with dates and times)

This is a message from Mike Urquhart, club president of the Draughters Cycling Club.

UPDATE with times and more info:   I found this link online on the JCC site. It has all the details. Sept 2nd at 9:00am at Red Deer Lake School.

 Gents,

The JCC and Kidsport are still looking for riders for the Tyler Hamilton ride.  The target is only 20–30 riders, so it should be quite good.  The route is attached.  Anyone registering through the Draughters also gets invited to the dinner with Tyler at the taproom.  So for $250 you get dinner, the ride, a tax receipt, and a warm fuzzy feeling from helping out kids impacted by the flooding so that they can participate in sports again.  If you would forward this on to your members it would be greatly appreciated.  Anyone wanting to register can Lynne directly at the JCC saying that they were referred by the Draughters, or e-mail me and I will forward on their details.

Thanks and best regards,

Mike

CX Skills/Practice

Skills/Practice is on this Wednesday! Same place, same time...

Location: Ramsay School - (map)
Time: 6:30pm
Date: Wednesday August 28

Also don't forget to register for Midweek Mayhem CX series. Link is in the post below.
 

Midweek Mayhem CX Registration is Open!

Register now! They will be limiting reg for the first race to 125.

https://zone4.ca/register.asp?id=5203

STC Clothing order is now ready for pick up!

The second round of clothing is now at the store ready to get picked up. The clothes are available during store hours. Go in, tell them you are on STC and have clothes waiting for you, then they'll go into the new studio area (currently looking like a storage room!) and find your kit.

Trev

The loooonnnngggg before the short.

Just before the crazyness of Cross season, there are still a few club mates doing some long racing.

Stephen Kenny rides in the longest 'one-stage' event of the weekend. He begins the Ontario Granite Anvil 1200km tomorrow Aug. 22nd. You will be able to follow his progress on that site. He is going to crush it.

Laura Quelch wins the absolute nutty distance award with her ride which beginson Sept 5th. Her ride is across Canada, yes, the whole Country. You can follow her progress here.

Jared Green competes in 'The New' Ironman Canada which is in Whistler this year. This has live race coverage at Ironmanlive.com.

I just heard the Meghan is doing the bike leg in an Ironman distance race in Penticton.

I know of several of our club mates that are doing the Banff Gran Fondo on Sat. Aug. 24th. Look them up in the results here on Sunday.

I think a lot of us will be up in Edmonton for the start of the Tour of Alberta on Sept 3rd.   This is upper tier pro riding. It is like having a mini-Tour on our doorsteps. We are booked at the Coast Hotel right near the race start! Come watch the absolute speed of a Prologue first hand!

Emily, Clarence, et al are doing the ToA Challenge which I somehow had not even heard about. Cool. In the comments, get a hold of Emily or Clarence to meet up before or after or during!

After these events, it is CycloCross time!! Here is the ABA calendar (scroll to September). And here is the Midweek Mayhem calendar. You don't even need a CX bike for Midweek Mayhem, you just need a MTN bike, so come out and give it a try! Remember, CX is a super spectator sport and really family friendly. Bring out your fam to watch and enjoy the action.

Trev

Indoor Cycling Classes for the Off-Season

Club, I started my off-season indoor cycling classes 6 years ago as a way for the club to spend time together and train as a group while the ground was covered in snow. Over time, more and more cyclists of different abilities and motivations wanted 'in' to the classes. By the end of last year's off-season it had evolved into me holding 8 big classes a week. This year I have secured a dedicated space inside Speed Theory to create my own Computrainer Cycling Studio. I am pretty excited. Many of your club mates have used these classes over the years to advance their aptitude and ability on the bike. The group atmosphere and progression of the training sessions makes the indoor season motivating and productive. If you are interested in checking out what I am up to from October - April visit this link. I begin the renovations on Sept 4th and will be constructing the new studio over the subsequent 2 weeks to be ready for the temperatures to drop. If you want to pop by and witness the creation of the studio firsthand and talk to me about the training don't hesitate!

Hope to see a ton of you out for Marcy's Cyclocross Skills Night this Wednesday. Also, the best race series in town is the Midweek Mayhem CX Series on Wednesday Nights starting Sept 4th. If you want a super fun intro to CX racing, this is the series. I will be attending the first 5 of these for sure, it is one of the best times of the year.

Trev

Cyclocross Practice

Unfortunately this week I won't be able to make it to practice. Marcy has said that she will be at the Ramsay school to practice at 6:30 on Wednesday but will have to leave by 7:15.

If you want to join Marcy to practice bike riding here is the details:

Location: Ramsay School - (map)
Time: 6:30pm
Date: Wednesday August 21

Practice so you don't end up like Joey...

STC Clothing, Megan's upgrade, and ITT Provincials.

The STC clothing came in yesterday! I will sort it on Monday and bring it down to the store for everyone to pick up by Wednesday. I will update this post to let you know when they are ready for pick up.

Congratulations to Meghan on her upgrade to Women's Cat3 ! It was a lot of fun watching you race this year.

Good luck to all the STC members doing the final 'road' race of the season. Individual Time Trial Championships. It is a 30km course. Hopefully someone will update us on the results after the race!

.

Aug 15 Thurs Night Skills

Hello everyone,

Next Skills night is posted in the training form.

Hope to see everyone out.

Harley.

Cyclocross Skills Practice

In cyclocross racing at least half of the battle is technique and bike handling skills. Tonight (Wed Aug, 14th) is the first of an informal series of clinics/practice for some basic cyclocross skills. We will be covering starts, dismounts/remounts, barriers, carrying the bike, off-camber cornering and more.

Cyclocross bikes are best, if you don't have one then mountain bikes are fine too. You will want to remove any extraneous attachments such as water bottle cages, racks, lights etc. You will need full access and mobility to your entire bike and these items will just get in the way.

I encourage all STC club members to come out if you have any inclining to try CX racing or just want to have a venue and people to practice with. 

Location: Ramsay School - (map)
Time: 6:45pm

Please comment if you are coming.

Now some video to get you primed

Quintessential CX compilation:



2013 CX World Championships:

Another awesome JayLap in the books!

Start of the first heat of the Kids Crit!  Possibly one of the coolest photos you've ever seen?

Well, our club pulled off a super event again this year! The Criterium is definitely a highlight on most Albertan Cyclists calendars.

We will make this post a collection of photos and stories and results from the weekend.

Isaac and Reiner going through corner 3 in Cat 3.

The women going through corner 1.

Masa Higuchi has some super shots of the Crit here. Thank you Masa and his wife.

Ken Anderson spent the entire evening taking awesome shots as well! They are here.

Luke Tymoski was out for a walk and took some great shots when he happened upon a bike race! They are here.

Results from the ITT here.
Results from the Crit here.
Results from the Road Race here.

Prairie-Roubaix Top 5 results for each category.

Congratulations for the 2013 Prairie Roubaix winners in each category. It was a perfect day for racing and the volunteers enjoyed some great racing. The Ambulance attendants were thoroughly bored and unused, which is the hope of every race director!

Cat C:
1.  Adam Zinatelli
2.  Alan Oickle
3.  David Stringer
4.  Suchaet Bhardwaj
5.  Andres Perdomo

Cat B:
1.  Brian Kozak
2.  Erik Cramer
3.  Alison Jackson
4.  Clarke Ellis
5.  Glenn Miles

Cat A:
1.  Dustin Andrews
2.  Colin Croston
3.  Geoff MacDonald
4.  Fraser Mills-Connery
5.  Chris Taylor

Race Day # 2 from The World Master Games in Italy

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone enjoys the read!

Here is the next update from Italy.  As the previous blog was about the MTN bike race held on August 4th, this will be about the Criterium on August 5th.  The race started at 9:00 am so the weather was decent, 31 celsius at the start line.  The course was a 3 Km circuit race with a 400 Meter hill at 3.5% gradient (up and down), a hair pin turn and a traffic circle.   We were to race 8 laps which made the race very short.  The pavement was good but had lots of man hole covers which were slippery due to the humidity.

The race started fast and hard with about 5 attacks in the first 2 laps.  On the 3rd lap a break with 2 guys managed to get away.  I stayed with the group as the race was aggressive and would bring them back.  The attacks kept coming with many trying to bridge the gap to the 2 up front.  These were serious all out attacks, 3-4 per lap.  That short 3.5% hill is very hard when your nearing 50 km/h every time you go up.  I stuck my nose out front a couple of times to either bridge the gap myself or bring someone back to the group.  I tell you, I had no friends!!  Each time I played at the front I payed dearly with counter attacks AND no one letting me in, or having to completely stop pedalling to encourage some other animal to attack, which was even worse as I was slowing as he was accelerating.  It is mean over here.  I really started to fatigue on the 6th lap.  Legs were tired from racing the previous day, it was hot and the racing was hard.  One the final lap I was sitting 5th place at the 700 meter mark thinking I had this in the bag.  I think I brought the wrong bag!  The pace really picked up and at the 400 meter mark the guy who had been at the front started to sprint and won the pack sprint!!!  WHAT?  The guy behind him got second and the guy behind him got 3rd in the group and so on.  

Who rides at the front of a peloton, for the first half of the final kilometer, then sprints to win?!  The Pro's do!!  Remember those 2 guys who got away on lap 2, yeah, they stayed away on they're own and placed 1st and 2nd.  The group sprinted for third.  With how aggressive the race was, I was perplexed as to how they stayed out front on their own for two thirds of the race.  As it turns out there were 2 professionals (team mates) and several guys who are.....no longer professionals that still race, that came out to play.  The Italian pro's are fast and tactical, i'll give them that.  As for me, my legs did not have enough punch to move me up in the final sprint (that I had in the bag).  Fortunately neither did anyone else as I held my position and crossed the line in 7th.

Harley.

Results to the Time Trial.

Results to the Time Trial are here.

.

Rocking the tunes.

Kiss Productions are coming down to the Crit tomorrow night to up the cool and ensure people are enjoying the music while Michael Godfrey announces. Thanks guys!

Friday night START LIST is here.

Here is the Start List for the PedalHead ITT.

It's time to hammer!

.

2013 dB Performance Jason Lapierre Memorial Cycling Weekend

Alberta cyclists:

The dB Performance Jason Lapierre Memorial Cycling Weekend is just two weeks away!

The Tech Guide.

The Registration on Zone4.
Volunteer sign up.

Here is the format for the race weekend:

Aug. 9th:  The Pedalhead 20km Time Trial in Airdrie. (starting at 6pm)
Aug. 10th:  The dB Performance Downtown Criterium and Kids Event.  (starting at 4pm)
Aug. 11th:  The Prairie-Roubaix Road Race. (starting at 9am)

The Time Trial and the Criterium will be full ABA points races. The Prairie-Roubaix will be a road race operated like it was going to be in April. This means it will be a road race without ABA upgrade points, it will be a pure race for racing sake. It will be run in three categories:  Cat A, B, and C, each with a corresponding distance of 58km, 72km, 86km respectively. These distances, given the challenging terrain will be long enough. Racers can choose which Cat they compete in.

Tour de Bowness! and now it's our club's chance to shine next weekend!!

Lisa Oldridge closing in on the top!  (Blake's photo)

Lots of exciting stories about Tour de Bowness to be had!

If you want to post your story about Tour de Bow here but don't have permission to post on this website, email me (at the email on the right) and I'll set you up.

Here are some great shots Blake took of the Hill Climb on Sunday night.

Calgary's resident awesome photographer and bike racer Masa Higuchi's also always captures great shots of Alberta racing.

Now it's OUR TURN !!  Next weekend is our chance to shine!

Marc and Dave mid-crit hitting a corner. (SpeedTheory's photo)

Race # 1, the Mountain Bike Race.

Oh where to start.  The MTN bike race was Sunday afternoon at 3 pm.  Issues started about 4:30 am Sunday morning as I found my-self hugging the great porcelain bowl.  Suspect bad sea food.  Was not able to go back to sleep after.  I did manage to get things quite stable by race start time though, thank god.

The temperature this particular after-noon was 36 - 38 celsius, this sets a new record for me.  It was hot! The start of the race was delayed by a half hour which sent me to the nearest water fountain I could find.   I filled a water bottle dumped it on my head until I was soaked head to toe.  I tell ya even the water in the out door urinals were starting to look like a good cooling source!  :s  The race was almost halved due to the heat as no feed zone was included.

The course was 3 km of paved road to a small park where we raced around a 2 km circuit 8 times, then proceeded 3 km back to the start line.  The circuit consisted of 40% pavement, 30% gravel and 30% of actual dirt.  This was a Cyclocross race course.  I soon realized I was going against the odds as everyone had carbon fibre hard tails that were at least 5 - 7 lbs lighter than my aluminum full suspension.  The Italian MTB National Champion from a few years back's bike was particularly nice, got a good look at it as we lined up beside each other on the start line.  (ask me about him upon my return as I have another story about he and I).  The 2 km circuit in the park was on the side of a steep mountain, we were going either up or down.  Luckily there was quite a bit of shade.

Recap...little sleep, unsettled stomach, very hot (no feed zone), technical bike on a smooth race course.  Oh yeah baby, shaky knee syndrome found me once again.  I had a good start on the pavement and got on the course in a good position.  I had my only mechanical on the first lap, chain fell off and got jammed between the little ring and the frame.  I passed a hand full of people in the first 2 laps but shortly after that the climbing in the heat really got to me.  I started getting passed as I slowed down to nearly a crawl.  I managed to finish all 8 laps (later found out quite a few dropped out or crashed) and hit the roads back to the finish.  Four Italian's we're working together and managed to catch me with about 600 meters to go.  I sat in and sucked wheels till the 100 meter mark and sprinted passed all but one.  Here is the really crazy part, after all that I still managed to place 6th.  Not sure how it happened but I was pleasantly surprised.

Moral of my story is NEVER quit.  The greater the odds of you losing a challenge, is all the more reason to accept the challenge.  That's how you learn and progress.

Matt is bringing the ST tent to warm up under for the team!

Matt is setting up the team tent in the EAST parking lot by the ski day lodge.  Meet there to warm up and pump each other up!!

Trev

TDB RR Report Cat 5

Best described as “Ugh!”.

No doubt this was a harder RR than in years past.  The distance was greater, the hills were bigger (ok, geologically that takes longer than a year.. just sayin’) and the wind was stronger.

We had a big crew, 13 of us plus the ‘Swede’ who, if he was able, was willing to help out the best he could. The plan was to protect Lampros to the best of our ability. If he started to fail then we were to switch to Cody or Waleed depending on who was around.

The race started off in a gentlemen like fashion.  The pace picked up as we headed north but not so hard that anyone was really being taxed.  A few jams on the minor hills got my heart rate towards the redline but easily recoverable.  I kept my eye on Lampros in case he was left out in the wind but our trip out to the turnaround wasn't as hellish as I was expecting.  I did expect to see a lot more riders being shed on the hill returning but either the pace was easier or I am in better shape.  My bet would be on the former as it seemed the entire pack was with us at the bottom.

The return trip into the wind was moderately taxing.  As Lampros would move toward the front for his rotation I would move up to take his pull.  Not that this happened often but I made every attempt to keep track of him. I would lose track of his whereabouts from time to time in the mob.  The pace had increased into the wind so a turn up front caused some damage.  As we approached the turnaround I had taken a couple of turns up front or was adrift to help protect Lampros unaware of the hell that would be unleashed after the turn. 

The turn went well (Thursday Night Skill Session!) but I was 2 or 3 bike lengths off.  Lampros was right behind me and I was doddling a little not realizing an attack was in progress.  By the time it sank in, (I blame ‘ODBS’ - Oxygen Deprived Brain Syndrome), we were probably 10-20 meters back.  Lampros was in tow and I put the throttle wide open but was soon failing.  I made some ground but soon realized I could not pull him all the way up and waved him through.  He put in a monster effort and was on the lead pack.  I was pretty cooked and was more or less on my own.  I reeled up Glenn Miles, or he reeled me in (ODBS). We worked our butts off but were gaining little ground.  We picked had a small group and we worked together.  We got close to the lead group, then we got far, then we got close again, then we got far. Ugh!  My Kingdom for a few more watts! Finally, I let it all go and caught them after one of the chicane turns.  Sadly we hit a little rise and the pace picked up. With no recovery time I was too cooked to stay on.

After that 4 of us rode together.  We didn’t slack off and we made good efforts to catch the lead pack. I knew that it was all over if we didn’t catch them before the turn.  We didn’t.

We worked together bucking the wind. We picked up a young fellow and another Bici guy pulled us in for a group of about 6 guys. My tongue was at risk of being caught in my spokes, and my aging heart was at 911 levels on a regular basis. My legs had a long conversation with my head about the abuse they going through however, my ODBS head was unable to process the information so the legs and all the other parts had to keep going. 

We made the final turn to the finish line and we all started slacking off getting ready for the sprint.  I did the math in my head…” knot, knot, double-knot = maybe 16^th place”.  No sense in sprinting.  The boys headed off in a flourish of lactic acid, sweat and spittle, I enjoyed the last 200 meters without ODBS.

All in all it was a good race but I was little disappointed I couldn't hang on to the lead group.  I have excuses, but I simply didn't have the jam when it counted.

Congratulations Waleed - 1st place!, Lampros 10th and Cody 14th.  It was good seeing such a large contingent of STC guys and gals.  I was really pleased to see new riders out for their first race!  

Time to cheer on your Club Mates tomorrow (Aug. 4th 2013) at Canada Olympic Park! 6:00pm

Club:  I just looked at the start list for tomorrow's Hill Climb up the hill at Canada Olympic Park. We have a ton of teammates tackling the hill. This is an exciting event since it isn't an 'Individual' Time Trial up the hill. The cyclists start in groups of three and battle it out up the 1.2km ascent.

The Cat5 racers start at 6:00pm and spectators can walk up the road and cheer. It is fun for kids since riders go by every 2min.

We have 14 club mates in Cat5! There is an STC racer in almost every heat! AWESOME. Bring the family, walk up the hill, and cheer like crazy. After the Cat5's we have 8 more racers sprinkled throughout the remaining heats.

Trev