Gran Fondo - Vancouver to Whistler

Why let that wicked shape you are in, from all this great August racing, go to waste??? There is a great race coming up, Saturday Sept 11 (weekend after Sept long) - closed roads, super duper scenery, solid climbing (looks to be mostly 5%, so nothing too bad)...check it out:

Gran Fondo Whistler

Join the Speed Theory crew for one last road bash for the year. Charles and I have signed up.

Lockie

Stretchin' the legs in Victoria

Trev, Dallas, Thomas and I (Lockie) joined Frank at his sister's house this past weekend in Victoria for a cycle-fest. Holy, that place is amazingly beautiful. And hilly. Perfect terrain for Frank to give a climbing school on hundreds of 6%, 10%, 15% hills, Dallas to lay the hurt on whenever it was less steep, and Trev to challenge them both, resulting in Thomas and I hanging on for dear life for 500+ km of killer cycling in super-duper weather.

A quick summary...4 days of hill intervals.

A less quick summary: we started Thurs with the Mallahat: 15km of 4%? 6%? and then Shawnigan Lake, then the Mallahat in reverse for a 145km day. Logged it. Then another long day through...I don't know, East Sooke? Millstream? and ending on Humpback and Kangaroo Rd, another 135km. Saturday we hit the Wheelers ride to defend our sprint title (from last year)...wicked lead out by the boys, but I jumped 50m too early (or 250km too late, depending on how you want to look at it) and a dude on my wheel came around to take it. I WAS the first-placed non-Olympian, but I'll admit that the winner was racing before I was born...yeah, ouch. Dallas and I retired for the day, while the others did a 40km warm-down ride on some 10% hills. Today we were headed for Jordan River, but ended up doing 60km (each way) on the Galloping Goose bike trail, part mirror-smooth ashphalt, part-packed gravel. Rad.

Cycling in Australia

After a cruisy 120km charity ride beside surf beaches (that should probably say: trading max effort pulls with insanely fit 50 year olds...hey, sounds like Calgary!) I recovered with my cycling buddies by the water, watching the pros hammer in the second day of races in a multi-stage crit race, the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic. Awesome!

Training camp report

220km. Logged it.

Scouting for future ST stars in Paris

I was in Paris this past weekend visiting my parents, and my sister and her two-month-old twin nieces...so far I'm impressed by the size of their quads, but I told them I think they need to do more cycling-specific training.

But don't think that I was slacking off...I rented a bike every day, and clocked a hundred and something k's on some sweet French roads. I competed in the inaugural Holmes Paris-Fontainbleau, winning by 45 minutes after my breakaway at kilometre 20 devestated the (two-person) peleton. Mr Holmes Sr was picked up by the broom wagon, and so did not contest the sprints on the Champs Elysees the following day.

I'm thinking I'll skip the rear disc wheel for the TT bike, in favour of the super-fast Velib Aero Fairing, which a French guy told me would save me 23 minutes off my 40km ITT - check it:

ST train arrives in Victoria

Trev, Frank and Alex and I hit the hills in Victoria with the local boys for the regular Saturday Wheelers Ride. From a first-timer's perspective, it was a bit like a disciplined Cabin Ride, with a half hour solid double pace line up until a few k to the airport sprint followed by tempo.

Now to give you a bit of background on this sprint, Frank and Trev have been out in February 5 years running with some solid dudes, and so far the sprint win has been elusive. We scoped out the sprint yesterday on our way out of town.

Today, Frank hit the round-about/traffic circle behind one dude, but shortly after ramped up and it was the Speed Theory train leading with 4km to go. Frank punched out a furious 3 km at about 45kmh, with an attack coming up on the left but unable to match Frank's sustained effort. After he pulled off, Trev then ramped it up to about 50kmh and hammered that out for a kilo. As he pulled off attacks came from both sides, but even the local track dude couldn't pass Alex punching out the last few hundred meters, and that left me to hit it for the last 75 meters and take it for Speed Theory.

Following the sprint, the ride does a 10 minute recovery to bunch up, and then Trev had had enough and started off the tempo in the hills. The locals hit it hard in the rollers to teach these out of town upstarts how to ride, but Trev was laying down some punishing pulls. After we hit the highway on the way back, it was Frank who laid down some solid pulls and had everyone hurting (I think me the most).

Alex came back to form in the afternoon ride and crushed it on the hills as we toured the coast around Victoria as we racked up 160km, with the ritual sushi to end a good day's riding.

Burned by United Airlines

Ever flown with your bike to a holiday/training camp? Would you pay $430 to do so? Read on.

I had a terrible experience flying to and from Phoenix this month. I had a booking with Air Canada, but it was a "code-share" flight, operated by United Airlines. When I arrived at the airport, they said that:
1) my first bag to check in was going to cost $15. -> It's hard to compare flight prices when you get extra charges at the airport.
2) the second check-in item was going to cost $25. -> Lame. See point #1.
3) because my second item was a bike, it was going to cost an additional $150. -> What the...?! Okay, that's ridiculous. Now my bags have cost MORE THAN MY TICKET! My bike would like an in-flight beverage, please.

Low blow, United Airlines.

I don't have another road bike, so when it was time to return from Phoenix, I couldn't wait several days for my bike to be shipped back. So when I arrived at the airport in Phoenix to return to Calgary, yes, another $190 charge for the priviledge of taking my bike with me. Oh, and that was US dollars! $240 Canadian this time!

And what do I get for my money? Well, no insurance, that's for sure...I had to sign something saying that if what came out at the other end was a mangled wreck, too bad. If they lost it, they weren't paying for it, either.

I plan to vote with my feet, and take my business elsewhere. But I figured I'd at least let them know that $430 for taking a bike on a plane is outrageous...so I called customer service. I don't plan on ripping into some poor soul working at the United customer service centre in India, I just want to let them know I'm unhappy with the outcome and wont be flying with them anymore. But apparently they have an array of time-wasting measures to avoid actually dealing with anybody...tranferring from department to department, putting me on hold to "verify information", even saying they'd refund one of my charges and never actually doing so...wow, if I had to actually negotiate through that maze to find lost luggage or anything else, I'd be worried. Luckily I wont be risking that, I'll be flying with another airline, of which there are many.

So be warned, and if you think that gouging cyclists with exobitant fees and charges is wrong, or if you just think that airlines should act in a responsible manner with half-way decent customer service, don't fly United.