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| Ah yes, nice mild Saturday afternoon in January |
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| 10 of us made it out today for about 3 hours riding |
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| We stayed together for the most part |
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| Lots of riders out today |
Saturday, January 25, 2014
January 25, 2014 - Ride Report in Pictures
Sunday, January 19, 2014
2014 Club Registration is LIVE !
Team, the link for the 2014 Club Registration is now live!
We will be announcing when the AGM / Party will be soon, as well as our first round of clothing orders.
For now, register for the team so you are up to date when with AGM and clothing orders come.
Trev
Melbourne Road Bike Tour
It’s 5:58 am and I’m pedalling towards a twinkling cluster of red lights stopped in the distance, like an almond-shaped Christmas tree on its side. I arrive at the back of the group, and in the brightening twilight I see about 60 riders, some in green/yellow Australian national team kit – possibly here for a cool-down ride from road nationals the day before in nearby Ballarat. The forecast high for today is 41 C, so any long rides would need to start now.
A few of the riders look curiously at me in my team skinsuit and my rented road bike festooned with more wheel and frame reflectors than a kid’s bike from Canadian Tire. I ask the guy beside me how long the ride is today. He’s distracted and vaguely irritated, like someone trying to concentrate before the start of a big race. Then I realize nobody else is talking - no idle chit-chat. These guys are here to ride.
I look at my watch: 5:59 am. A few moments later, somebody’s watch alarm goes off - and like a race start whistle - everybody clips in. No waiting for stragglers in this group. The pace ramps smoothly until I feel like I am hitting the red zone. I look down: 49 km/h on level ground with no wind. It was my worst nightmare come true – I was riding with 60 other Trev Williams’s.
The initial section of the route takes us South from Melbourne on the Nepean Highway, a major artery complete with traffic lights and intersections, similar to Macleod Trail in Calgary. At this time of day there is little traffic in our direction, as the bulk of the traffic is heading North towards Melbourne. We approach a traffic light and it turns yellow. Several riders yell “rolling!” and we continue through, at nearly the posted speed limit.
At the next intersection, one of the front riders barks “Light!” as it turns yellow within 20 metres of our approach. I tense up and grab my brakes to avoid colliding with the rider stopping in front of me, instinctively squeezing harder with my left hand for maximum stopping power. My rear wheel locks up and squirms, because of course the front and rear hand brakes are reversed in Australia. After that event, riders leave a bit more space around me.
After only 10 minutes (and already 8 km) in the red zone, I start fading to the back of the group, and then I was alone. But that’s ok, because I soon find out that there are literally *thousands* of riders out every morning, so you will always find a group riding at your speed.
I reach the turnaround point at Mordialloc, and continue back North to Melbourne on Beach Road. Beach road, as the name suggests, follows the beachline with breathtaking ocean views. It has fewer traffic lights and has good pavement, but it does have a number of parked cars, pedestrians crossing over to the beach, and curb bulbs. As I travel north, I see countless groups of riders heading south in the other direction. Some are tightly-formed teams of 20-50 riders in full matching team kit, while others are a mix of teams like the group I’m riding back with. Got tri bars? No problem. I saw groups of 10-15 riders with tri bars riding together like they were pros. Actually... they probably *were* pros.
The entire scene is hard to comprehend. Imagine all of Canada’s road bike riders, on one road from 6 to 8 am, every day of the week. The entire left lane (curb lane) of the road in both directions is completely occupied with groups of riders like it was a tightly-bunched road race, except it’s not a road race – just a normal weekday morning with rush hour traffic.
It's ok to ride 2-up in Australia, but you can't turn on a red light. Riders actually follow the rules of the road here.
Having so many riders clog the roads has certain side effects. You don’t wave at passing riders like you do in Canada. That would be like being in a car and waving at other motorists. Also, don’t expect people to ask you if you need help. After I double-flatted on some broken glass, replaced my front tube and rode nearly 10 km to the nearest bike shop on my flatted rear aluminum rim (it’s a rental bike) in the rising 36 C heat, nobody – not one person – asked if I needed help. If you need help, you gotta ask for it.
After spending a week in Melbourne, it’s no surprise why Australia cranks out so many good road riders. If you get a chance, you should really check it out.
A few of the riders look curiously at me in my team skinsuit and my rented road bike festooned with more wheel and frame reflectors than a kid’s bike from Canadian Tire. I ask the guy beside me how long the ride is today. He’s distracted and vaguely irritated, like someone trying to concentrate before the start of a big race. Then I realize nobody else is talking - no idle chit-chat. These guys are here to ride.
I look at my watch: 5:59 am. A few moments later, somebody’s watch alarm goes off - and like a race start whistle - everybody clips in. No waiting for stragglers in this group. The pace ramps smoothly until I feel like I am hitting the red zone. I look down: 49 km/h on level ground with no wind. It was my worst nightmare come true – I was riding with 60 other Trev Williams’s.
The initial section of the route takes us South from Melbourne on the Nepean Highway, a major artery complete with traffic lights and intersections, similar to Macleod Trail in Calgary. At this time of day there is little traffic in our direction, as the bulk of the traffic is heading North towards Melbourne. We approach a traffic light and it turns yellow. Several riders yell “rolling!” and we continue through, at nearly the posted speed limit.
At the next intersection, one of the front riders barks “Light!” as it turns yellow within 20 metres of our approach. I tense up and grab my brakes to avoid colliding with the rider stopping in front of me, instinctively squeezing harder with my left hand for maximum stopping power. My rear wheel locks up and squirms, because of course the front and rear hand brakes are reversed in Australia. After that event, riders leave a bit more space around me.
After only 10 minutes (and already 8 km) in the red zone, I start fading to the back of the group, and then I was alone. But that’s ok, because I soon find out that there are literally *thousands* of riders out every morning, so you will always find a group riding at your speed.
I reach the turnaround point at Mordialloc, and continue back North to Melbourne on Beach Road. Beach road, as the name suggests, follows the beachline with breathtaking ocean views. It has fewer traffic lights and has good pavement, but it does have a number of parked cars, pedestrians crossing over to the beach, and curb bulbs. As I travel north, I see countless groups of riders heading south in the other direction. Some are tightly-formed teams of 20-50 riders in full matching team kit, while others are a mix of teams like the group I’m riding back with. Got tri bars? No problem. I saw groups of 10-15 riders with tri bars riding together like they were pros. Actually... they probably *were* pros.
The entire scene is hard to comprehend. Imagine all of Canada’s road bike riders, on one road from 6 to 8 am, every day of the week. The entire left lane (curb lane) of the road in both directions is completely occupied with groups of riders like it was a tightly-bunched road race, except it’s not a road race – just a normal weekday morning with rush hour traffic.
It's ok to ride 2-up in Australia, but you can't turn on a red light. Riders actually follow the rules of the road here.
Having so many riders clog the roads has certain side effects. You don’t wave at passing riders like you do in Canada. That would be like being in a car and waving at other motorists. Also, don’t expect people to ask you if you need help. After I double-flatted on some broken glass, replaced my front tube and rode nearly 10 km to the nearest bike shop on my flatted rear aluminum rim (it’s a rental bike) in the rising 36 C heat, nobody – not one person – asked if I needed help. If you need help, you gotta ask for it.
After spending a week in Melbourne, it’s no surprise why Australia cranks out so many good road riders. If you get a chance, you should really check it out.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Good to be out on the road
I think Harley had a ride going in the NW as well.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Ride Saturday Jan 18, 2014 - Details posted in training ride forum
Maybe we can get out for a couple of hours on Saturday for a ride. I'll update this post later in the week.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Saguaro Lake 200km Brevet
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| You should have seen them on Maderia the next day! |
It’s that time of year when a few Speed Theory members,
friends and family head to Arizona and put their very early fitness to a test
with the hard men and women of the Arizona Randonneurs. I arrived in Tucson Boxing-Day 2013 with Paul
and Trev showing up on December 31st just in time to party for New
Years. It just so happened that my three
daughters and wife Elaine were in town which lead to a much more aggressive New
Year’s Eve celebration than originally planned.
Let’s just say that we could confidently out ride the three
twenty-year-old girls but we were no match on the party front. This made for a very tough 120km ride to
Maderia Canyon the next day. We felt
better on the 100km Kitts peak ride the following day and had fully recovered
for out Gates/Star pass ride on the Friday before we headed up to
Scottsdale.
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| Packed for the trip to Scottsdale |
After a big breakfast we headed over to the start and were
welcomed by Carlton and Mike at sign-in. I had the great pleasure of riding
with Mike on my Ontario 1200km brevet last year and have ridden with Carlton,
one tough bastard, on a number of the AZ events in the past. Unfortunately they had pre-road the course
and were the key organizers on the event and therefore would not be riding with
us. It was warmer than expected; no long
gloves required and we headed off with the other sixty riders at 7:30AM sharp.
There were a number of familiar faces from previous AZ Rando
rides; Steve Atkins, Roger Peskett, Dick Wiss and Tom Baker but to name a
few. Another Canadian rider from
Vancouver, Steve Barbauk introduced himself at the start-line and looked like
another welcome addition to the Canadian train although a mix-up at the first
control had him chasing all day. There was
another Canadian connection at the start; we noticed a rider on a bike made by
local Calgary company Cycles Toussaint
the rider was from the Sedona Arizona area.
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| Stephen and Trev cruising down Dynamite Rd. |
The pace was fairly reasonable off the start with fifteen or
so riders separating from the main group.
With the first hills on Dynamite road the intensity went up or I should
say Trev brought the intensity up and things came apart. As we came to the first control we were waved
into the Shell station to have our card signed while unbeknownst to us others
had their card signed by the volunteer on the road. We were in and out of the control in a
heartbeat with young Daniele joining us but no Steve B. Apparently Steve got mixed up in a group of
riders that weren’t in the event and we were long gone by the time he realized
his mistake. To our surprise we could see three riders down
the road. We thought that we had gotten sloppy at the control and missed
rolling out with these guys. We worked
hard and it took quite some time to bridge.
Not surprising, as Steve A. and Roger were in the group with Kurt (the
bulldog) Smith a new rider to us who would garner our respect through out the
ride. Trev rolled right by the riders
with a few pleasantries then we were off with Kurt leaving his group and
jumping in with us.
As we hit the longer hills in the Saguaro Lake area young Daniel dropped off and even though we would drop Kurt on the hills he always turned up a short time later. Kurt had local knowledge as he trained in this area and was able to give us local colour commentary. We thoroughly enjoyed the scenery in and around this part of the ride. Although we had coupons for lunch at the Subway Control we elected to skip the wait and keep rolling. Trev had one of his hardest pulls after this control and I looked forward to my turn up front so I could rest. I believe I also muttered a few unkind words. We then hit my kind of hills, long and steady, so up front I went where I stayed for the duration of the major remaining climbs. Trev then did another massive pull on the downhill and through a number of rollers, which saw Paul flagging a little from poor nutrition. We weren’t far from the last control and once Paul was fueled up (V8 juice, who would have thought) he was back and bad. We would see Kurt the last time at this control as he rolled in just as we were leaving. We pounded back to the finish having to keep a keen eye on the navigation and unfortunately stop at a lot of stoplights. We couldn’t buy a green light.
As we hit the longer hills in the Saguaro Lake area young Daniel dropped off and even though we would drop Kurt on the hills he always turned up a short time later. Kurt had local knowledge as he trained in this area and was able to give us local colour commentary. We thoroughly enjoyed the scenery in and around this part of the ride. Although we had coupons for lunch at the Subway Control we elected to skip the wait and keep rolling. Trev had one of his hardest pulls after this control and I looked forward to my turn up front so I could rest. I believe I also muttered a few unkind words. We then hit my kind of hills, long and steady, so up front I went where I stayed for the duration of the major remaining climbs. Trev then did another massive pull on the downhill and through a number of rollers, which saw Paul flagging a little from poor nutrition. We weren’t far from the last control and once Paul was fueled up (V8 juice, who would have thought) he was back and bad. We would see Kurt the last time at this control as he rolled in just as we were leaving. We pounded back to the finish having to keep a keen eye on the navigation and unfortunately stop at a lot of stoplights. We couldn’t buy a green light.
We rolled into the finish in 6:57 having travel 206 km’s,
climbed 1,863 meters at an average moving speed of 31.6km/h with 26 minutes off
the bike or stopped. All of this under
beautiful Arizona blue skies on a well-organized brevet.
Just because we could we put in another 90km day out to
Bartlett Lake and back the following day.
Very beautiful ride with lots of climbing, legs are officially baked.
This was the first event organized by Carlton van Leuven as
the RUSA Regional Brevet Administrator and it came off flawlessly. It appears that the mantle has been passed
from Susan Plonsky into very capable hands.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
2014 Registered Members
2014 STC Members!
| Susan | Emerson |
| Darlene | Forestell |
| Sarah Andrea |
Foster Hansen |
| Emily | Jobson |
| Jennifer | Joss |
| Marie | Michalski |
| Lisa Tiffany |
Oldridge Painton |
| Wendy | Powell |
| Erin | Ruttan |
| Tanya | Salomon |
| Marilyn | Taylor |
| Jenn Ashley Janet |
Turcott Vrielink Watson |
| Dan | Alboiu |
| Paul | Anderson |
| Jay | Bachman |
| David | Baker |
| Brian | Banderk |
| Dave | Banderk |
| Blake | Bartlett |
| Daryl Suchaet |
Beatty Bhardwaj |
| Dennis | Bland |
| Harley | Borlee |
| Charles | Bougie |
| Scott | Bratt |
| Patrick | Brick |
| Chris Paul |
Brignall Connolly |
| Ernie | Cosman |
| Ken | Crockett |
| Rob | Crooks |
| Chris | Devries |
| Ken Andrew |
Erdman Field |
| Justin | Fortner |
| Jean Steve |
Garez Glavac |
| Jared Darcy |
Green Gullacher |
| Mike | Healy |
| Keith | Ingstrup |
| Derek Chuck |
Jobson Johnstone |
| Matthew Stephen Tom |
Joss Kenny Kenny |
| Jeremy | Kitson |
| Mike Randy Hal |
Kohl Koroluk Kuntze |
| Carl | Lapointe |
| Erik | Loewen |
| Jeremy | Luntley |
| Kevin | Mcclelland |
| Peter | Mccrory |
| Mark | Michalski |
| Carl | Miiller |
| Kevin | Noble |
| Alan | Oickle |
| John Rob |
Olsen Ordman |
| Darryl | Parry |
| Andres Clarence Spencer |
Perdomo Poon Pootz |
| Adam Michael Dan Greg |
Pugh Rannelli Sigouin Soltys |
| Simon | Spanswick |
| Kevin Francis |
Stenner Sutherland |
| James Brent |
Szarko Thumlert |
| Klaus Charl Steve |
Vencovsky Volsteedt Waters |
| Nelson | Whitmore |
| Trev | Williams |
| Todd | Wilson |
| Bob Frank |
Woodward Woolstencroft |
| Adam CX Erik Tim |
Zinatelli Members Cramer Ryan |
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