What the hell?

Here is a link to the Herald's article on an incident involving cyclists on the weekend near Calgary. What in the world would make someone think this was funny, and then drive away when one of the dudes crashed ?!?!

Now THAT was a group ride.

.

Tom Kenny and Rob Welch will fill in the few of you who didn't make it out today but that was huge and pretty great. Thanks to everyone for coming out, we need MORE OF THOSE !!

Trev

.

The Grand Fondue - UPDATE

Recipe:

Place meat on two wheeled device (Use 23 mm tires for best results)

Set temperature to 23 degrees C

Base liberally with sun tan oil

Cook Legs for 170 km's or approx. 7 hours

Occasionally replace fluids

Add sugar and salt as needed

UPDATE: The ingredients continue to increase for this delectable entree. It would seem this is the 'go to' fun ride of the season!

Yes, it's Rob W's Grand Fondue. Cook your legs at whatever pace you want to ride. This is a non sanctioned STC ride. The goal is to have as many riders out for a fun and social ride. Hammer if you want to. Get to know your team mates, your competitors or the dude/dudette next door.

See Robs post in the training rides forum.

Weekend Criterium Photos

I posted these in the comments section a few days ago but here they are if you did not see them. I don't claim to be good a photographer most of these are poorly framed, over exposed, badly focused otherwise bad photos... Enjoy!

PS if you like any a lot for some odd reason, perhaps you are in it email me (b.thumlert@gmail.com) and I can get you the print quality one also crop and Photoshop some more speed into it..

Cat 5 Pictures

Cat 4 Pictures

Cat 3 Pictures

Cat 1/2 Pictures

Women Pictures

Kids Pictures

Reasons to Consider a M->F Gender Reassignment: Number 3

I was driving the wheel car for the women’s race this weekend. They were having a good race, a little surging now and then. Popped a few off the back, DQed one on a hill. Looked like a race. One and a half laps in, two women had just reattached to the pack, one other was about 45 seconds behind and fading. It was a good time to put her out of her misery.

Why were they slowing down? In order to stop. They stood on the road milling and chatting until just after the dangler caught up. The commissaire came back to chat with them. Then they were off and racing again. The race continued, more women were popped (no catchups allowed anymore). Finish line sprints happened and the race was over.

Afterward, curiosity got the better of me and I asked what happened. Apparently, one of the riders in the front group was having trouble with her saddle. She was discussing with a team mate how she might fix it on the fly, when the rest of the group said, “Why don’t we stop?” And so they did. Once the saddle was fixed, they mounted up and started racing again. Civilised behaviour in a bike race. I’m gobsmacked.

Chapeau, womens.

The cat 5 report

Now that I’m catching up on my sleep, I can reflect on the Cat 5 race with more objectivity.
Once again, I think the Cat 5 STC should be more than proud of themselves during the road race. We were fortunate enough to have some crazy strong riders, some really good domestics and a lunatic out front from the start of the race. Our tactics had to be re-adjusted early in the race and everyone played an active role.

The plan was to protect our two strongest riders, James and Ian. Ian being very close to being upgraded. However, after the first corner, Derek (I think by accident) was 200 meters up the road when two guys bridged up to him. I originally thought we would roll them up but they began to pull away and no one else was willing to chase. We let them go.

Soon enough it was obvious that they were making a strong attempt to stay away so we passed the word around the STC guys to slow the pack down. The Niklas guys knew what we were doing and gave us the evil eye but did not make any attempt to bridge up. Slowly but surely the lead group pulled further and further ahead. On the third lap, after the wind had picked up, Darcy was pulling the group along at a Sunday afternoon pace. He pulled off to let someone else take a pull and the pack slowed down even further. Wow! We could not have been going any slower.

Meantime, James was itching to go. “Can we catch ‘em now?” No. “Now?” No.
On the last lap Stephen, in the wheel car, gave us the split. We were well over 2 minutes behind and it was time to re-organize. The new plan was to move James and Ian to the front before the corner heading south. Brad (the incredible hulk) said he had some legs left that he could lead the two out at the corner. Me and the rest of the gang would attempt to hold the pack back.

The corner came and off they went. And so did the rest of the pack. The group was being stretch out but it didn’t shatter like I hoped. Brad was cooked when I caught him and was disappointed that the lead out didn’t work. But, James, Ian and the RMCC guy kept the pace.

Finally, ‘poing’ the pack snapped. I heard popping and clouds of smoke formed behind me as guys slowly disintegrated. My engine was starting to smoke too, but a little pep talk with myself and with the incredible hulk we began working our butts off to keep up. Brad, Rainier and I now had visions of catching the three up group and we would have a strong STC finish. Alas, we could not catch on but we tried valiantly.

Our man Derek in the lead group had come apart on the south leg. After, he told me he was so cooked he could barely keep going. It was a big effort on his part to stay away from the very start of the race; well done.

Back to the last km. Brad dropped his chain but managed to get it back on. I thought I flatted and pulled off (later determined that the tire was fine. It must have been my huge powerful quads that pulled the wheel out of the drop outs;). The race was over for me.

In the end the team effort was excellent. We had 4 guys in the top 10. Ian gets moved up and some big points for James and Derek.

Some notes:
The young Juventus guys rode really strong. I was impressed by their staying power. A little sketchy here and there but they improved as the race went on.
RMCC guy (Shane) deserves credit for doing lots-o-work at the front. Sorry dude, we were unwilling to help.
Andrew! Congratulations! Glad to see you moving up.

Wednesday Night Series - Aug 10.

STC will host the Wednesday night special on the Woodland TT course. Below is the blurb from our kick-off race of the season. Try to take a minute off your May time!

This week is a 16km ITT on the NW Woodland course (Highway 1A and Woodland Road). The first rider will start at 6:30 PM. This will be a full aero TT. Feel free to use your TT/Tri bike, aero wheels & helmets, skin suits, shoe covers and any non-UCI compliant bike components. The course is mainly flat with a couple of rollers near the end to keep you interested and a brief downhill in the middle. I can use a few volunteers to help with this race. Let me know if you can help and I will need the stopwatches.


Some parking is available at Woodland Road. Parking is also available at Bearspaw road and at the Lions Club (Farmers Market) on Nagway Road.

Full Results.

Guys, these are UNOFFICIAL. There are probably a few little tweaks in there I will need to clean up when I hear from the ABA, so take these as a 'first go'.

Thanks for a great weekend of racing. The volunteers make this happen and it was great to always have lots of help when I needed it, thank you everyone.

Results.

Trev

The story of the day was Eric Jensen dismantling the Cat3 field and soloing for almost the entire race. See you in Cat2 Eric.


Ferenc had a new baby boy at 1:46am on Sat morning. He still made it to the Crit and Road Race. It was his sixth kid. Congrats Ferenc, enjoy your new addition to the family. Here he is getting 7th in the road race after probably as little sleep as me!


Watching the Cat1/2 sprint was exciting as usual. When I am in the race, I usually watch from about 100m - 1km behind, so it was great to see it develop and climax with Cody taking top honours on the day.

ITT, Crit, and Omnium results (as of Sat. night) POSTED !!

Well.. we got'er'done tonight !!

Look here for all the current results!

Thanks to everyone for making Sat such a great success.

Trev

Start Lists.

.

Startlist for tomorrow ! Here it is !! Andy saved the day !!

We are going to use assigned race numbers for this race now. So when you sign on tomorrow, ensure you give yourself enough time to pick up your weekend number and get it on !!

.

ARC Resources Jason Lapierre Memorial Cycling Weekend.

.

UPDATE. ITT Start List Posted!

UPDATE: Members, ensure to schedule the family to come to the BBQ at 5pm on Sunday !! We deserve an evening to relax and talk about the weekend. Food and beer/wine (with a DD) are included. Matt and Jen's place is here.

.

PRESS RELEASE here.

Tech Guide here.

Volunteer document here. (Please, even if you aren't a club member but want to help out, please go to this link and put your name and phone number anywhere you see a '??'. If you see a '??', that means we are looking for someone to fill that role.)

UPDATE !! WE NEED AT LEAST 1 more volunteers for Sunday for course marshals, 1 more cars, and 1 person to be at the hall in charge of food and keeping people's stuff OK.

.

Wednesday night race

It's time to give a little. I need more volunteers due to my lack of experience and early onset dimentia (I forget peoples names the instant they are told to me). Someone to help at the finish line and more people on the corners. Steve will be there early to sweep corners and could use a hand. I'll get there around 6:30 for a 6:45 start time.

Tom

Bowness Crit gallery in the Calgary Herald

With special shout-out to Dave Holmes :)

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Gallery+Tour+Bowness+thrills+spectators/5189237/story.html