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.

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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