No volunteers for WNS?

A 1.6 km wicked hillclimb has been added as a prologue for the WNS road race. Also I need a good few volunteers, please think about being a volunteer or bring one along. See you Wednesday.

Great ride today!

We had a great turn out for the 'First Day of the Tour' ride and Prologue.

It was great to watch the newer riders learning from the experienced riders and by the end, everyone was performing great hand signals and riding predictably. Thanks to everyone who came out, we'll try to schedule more of these types of rides. Now we just have to convince the weather to always cooperate.

Just over the Old Banff Coach Road Hill. Note the single file!

Everyone's times for the Prologue.

Trev writing everyone's name down for the Start List

Up the hill of Airport Road!

STC celebrates the TdF with a big group ride, a prologue, and a coffee. The perfect day?

Club, the Tour is very close! In fact it starts THIS Saturday !!

Obligatory picture of Jens.

You've already booked three weeks of mornings off so you can watch the Tour live. You've already joined the TdF pool. Now, ... let's go on a massive group ride on June 29th after the coverage is over!

Most Tours start with a Prologue, which is a very short Time Trial essentially to 'introduce' the players to the audience and establish an order to the racers so that someone gets to wear the Yellow Jersey. The Prologue is usually between 5 - 8 km long.

Let's have a fun NO DROP ride out to a 'Downhill, tailwind, straight 7km TT', gather again, and then a NO DROP ride back to a coffee shop. I would love to meet all the club mates I haven't met yet.

Here's the plan:

Everyone meets where the Wheelers ride starts, but an hour later, so at 10am. Everyone meet at the Tim Hortons on the corner of 85th Street and 9th Ave. SW at 10am.

We all ride down Old Banff Coach Road, across the highway, to Airport Road. We'll all ride to the end and have a 7km Prologue.

After, we'll all gather up and casually ride the same route back and have coffee at the Starbucks beside the Tim Hortons.

You should come. This is a NO DROP ride with a fun event inside it. It doesn't matter if you have never doen something like this before. It is meant to be a time we can all meet each other and celebrate the Tour, the weather, the end of the flooding, and riding bikes. Bring your road bike not your TT rig.

I would love to see all of you at 10am THIS Saturday. If you have missed Harley's excellent 'Skills Nights' and have training, tactics, cycling related questions, I will be happy to chat with you about them!  I hope we get quite a few Cat 4,3,2's out for this ride to spend some time with the new members and answer questions and teach skills.

We will time the 7km TT for those that want it. I am going to go all out. Marilyn wants Tomo to come out and get a crushing. It would be cool if two people came out to volunteer. If you want to just ride and not do the TT, let me know at the beginning and I will get you to time.

This group ride / Prologue is open to all friends of STC, so it would be fun to see some other clubs there as well!

Trev

Tour de France Pool !! It's local and it's fun.

Kyle Marcotte has hosted his TdF Pool every year for like the last 8 years. It is fun and is quite simple to participate. It looks like there is a lot to do, but it is actually really easy.

For me, it is extremely easy because I choose Jens Voigt to win every stage. I also choose him to come second and third in the same stages. He is THAT good.

I usually put two teams in, one for me and one for Marilyn. I spend a lot of time carefully analyzing my picks for my team and then choose the high odds team for Marilyn. Both of them usually finish very close to the back of the pack!?

Below are the details copied from Kyle's site. I encourage you to put your hat in the ring and put in a team or two. It makes the Tour and July even more fun.

This pool is for ANYBODY, not just Kyle's friends, or STC members, or cyclists. Several people put in teams on behalf of their dogs. No one has ever put in a team for a cat though. The proceeds go to Blaine's MitoCanada charity which is a great reason to enter multiple teams.

_____________________________________________________________

2013 Tour de France Pool

This contest used to be run to raise money for the endowment fund for the Jason Lapierre Scholarship. Since we have reached our endowment fund goal we are looking for a new organization to raise funds for. 100% of the entry fees will still be going towards MitoCanada. Previous TdF pool winner James Davison is picking up the rains and running the pool this year.  I'll be helping out where I can.


Rules: 
Simple rules (from the spreadsheet entry form)...
-Submit your excel spreadsheet with picks to James Davison (jsdaviso at gmail.com) before 8:59am Saturday June 29th.
-You can enter multiple teams (Cost is $20 for your first team, $15 for your second, $10 for your third, $10 for 4th, 5th 6th... per household) 
-Results are final after each stage (so no drug overturn of results). Points schedule is listed below. Ties are divided by the number of stage wins, then stage points, then a coin toss.
-Trash talking is encouraged. 

Please use the spreadsheet to fill out your entries (link below) as it makes organizing the contest a lot easier. 
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9ImPtwHE9VmZnMwRFNqbmFuX1U/edit
(click on the down arrow to download to excel)

Scoring:
-Individual stage points: 1st - 25 points 2nd - 20 points 3rd - 15 points
-Yellow Jersey points: 1st - 150 points 2nd - 100 points 3rd - 75 points
-Green Jersey points: 1st - 100 points 2nd - 75 points 3rd - 50 points
-Polka dot Jersey points: 1st - 50 points 2nd - 40 points 3rd - 30 points
-Team placing: 1st - 50 points 2nd - 40 points 3rd - 30 points
-Yelow, Green, Polka dot and Team points are only awarded once at the end of stage 21 (but they will be updated so that you can see the swing as the race progresses).
(see last year's table above as an example)

The points will be updated as much as possible (hopefully after each stage) and posted on: http://www.calgarytriandbike.blogspot.com// 

Again, all proceeds will be donated to MitoCanada.  The pool winner will be receiving a tax receipt for the entire amount donated.  More prizes will be given out as prizes become available (donated).

WNS Reminder

We are racing Wednesday evening! I need volunteers to make the race safe, please let me know if you can volunteer or bring a volunteer. Leave a message here or on the WNS blog. Thanks.

STC Devonstating in the north

Alan in the last 50 meters of the killer HC. 

What a great weekend for STC in Devon. Lawrence Zalasky blew out of Cat 5 with a bang winning the... well actually it would be easier to mention the events he didnt win. Needless to say he bagged the GC! But only after.... and get this... STC went 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the Road Race!!! When has that happened before? And before you ask - yes, there were other competitors in the race.. fully stacked teams no less!

The Cat 2's went into the crit in an attacking position needing to make up ground after the prologue. Trev worked like a plough horse and our resident tactician - Dave Holmes - shut down anything with a pulse. We managed to walk away with 2nd but got more time bonus' than the rest and went into the road race 2nd in the GC. For the RR the cat 2's were combined with the Cat 3's which was the cha-ching moment for us Cat 2 boys - our team just got 25% larger. (Trev was busy qualifying for World Masters Tri in Edmonton) Harley shut down some early breaks - ERTC's morning brief must have gone something like this... "Attack. Often." Dave Holmes bore the brunt of the work load throughout the race selectively shutting down anything of importance and more importantly leaving breaks doomed to fail, out there to cook themselves to a crisp. His efforts cost him on the final climb and left the bunch with his parting words to Reinier - "if I get separated here... cover all the breaks". Reinier later expressed his frustration at how so few words could impart such an onerous workload. Didnt matter. On the final 10k Reinier was imperative in securing what was to be a stage win and the overall GC for myself. Booyah!

Tom spinning up the last meters of the HC.

In some less nice news Michael Waldhuber was clean taken out in the Crit which cost him some bark and his collarbone. Fortunately he's in good spirits - maybe thats just the T3's doing their thing. All the best in your recovery Mike.

Cheers
Marc

[Editor:] It must be said that Lawrence, Alan, and Mark all will be racing Cat 4 next event! Great work guys!

[Editor:] Michael, from the points in the HC, moved up from Cat 3 to Cat 2!

Thursday Night Skills CANCELLED!!!

This weeks ride is in the training forum.  Please read as there is a new start time.

Wednesday Night Alternative

Racing is off, Heading to COP 7:00PM for Hill Repeats.  Rule 5 - HFU

Stephen K

WNS June 19 is Cancelled

due to the weather forecast.

Bike Bag

Sarah and I are off to Italy for the month of July but I am short a bike bag.  I need a larger one such as a EVOC as I have an integrated seat post.  If anyone has one they would be willing to loan out it would be greatly appreciated.  They may also be a nice bottle of wine from Italy in it for you! :)

Harley
403-880-7695

Great skills session last night, the WNS, and the club is in full swing!

We had a good turn out for the skills session last night in North Glenmore park. The mosquitos had also heard  of the meeting and were out in force. This may not have been a bad thing though, as it limited me from talking to much and got us riding right away! It was great to meet some new members and touch base with others I hadn't seen in awhile.

I had a good question this morning from a new club mate that was at the skills session and excited to keep progressing. He wants to get his feet wet in an event, but do it gradually. My answer to this question is almost always, 'Try out the Wednesday Night Series'. It is full of supportive cyclists that want nothing other than to have an evening filled with a safe fun training session. The only thing the WNS doesn't have is a mandatory beer stop for the group at a pub on the way home. I am still lobbying for that. (Wildrose Brewery, time to make a comment here !!)

If you are a veteran of the WNS, please ensure you approach any new faces and make them feel welcome and answer any questions they have. Cycling can be a somewhat intimidating sport to crack into (especially if you roll to a stop in the shade of one of Tom Kenny's quads) so do your sport and your club a service and ensure anyone that has enough guts to show up feels welcome.

There is a ton going on with the club now:  Thomas' Fat Tire Tues tonight, Mike Healy's deviously crafted mini-Giro for the WNS on Wed, and Harley's super popular Thursday Night Skills. This is all before the Devon Grand Prix this weekend.

As always, if you don't see something that appeals to you, or that is convenient for you to attend, POST YOUR OWN RIDE!!

Trev

Devon GP Accommodation

Hey:

Photo courtesy of Bob McKerrell Photography

  Encouraged by my success at the ITTs in Banff*, I've decided to spend next weekend on my bike in and around Devon. Tom and Alan are staying at the Executive Royal Inn in Nisku, and so am I. I've booked a room for Friday and Saturday nights and am looking for a roomie. The usual restrictions apply: no spooning, no snoring, no banjo playing after 10:30. Let me know if you want to share and what restrictions you might want to put in place.

Darryl

[Editor:] Here are some more shots of the team courtesy of Bob McKerrell Photography. I culled his big gallery here, down to just STC members here.

* only the first one was supposed to be an ITT. They called the second one a crit - what do they know?

Monday Night Skills night.

Guys, I will host a Monday Night Skills night in Lakeview (north Glenmore park) at 7pm on June 17th.

Clarification: This is for beginner level through intermediate level club mates. We will work on cornering, some climbing skills, pacelining for training, and gearing for long rides. I can also tailor the session to what the group wants when we all get there. So bring questions and things you want to work on!

We will meet here on North Glenmore Park Road at 7pm and do big loops practicing skills and maybe incorporate some intervals at the end of the night for those that want to try an interval session.

If it is raining hard, check here before you head out to Lakeview just in case we have to make it another night.

Trev

What the what? STC crushing the crits in Banff !!

It's a super weekend so far of racing. Lots of STC club mates going hard! Photos will be up soon!

Tonight in the criterium Lawrence Zalasky WON the Cat5 crit with Mark Michalski getting 4th!!  Super results.

Another phenomenal result is Marc Enter getting 2nd in the Cat1/2 criterium. This is such an amazing feat! Marc is now high on GC in the Cat1/2 stage race. It is up to the rest of his team (us) to support him through the road race tomorrow. We will do everything we can to help him out and maintain his position.

I will post my Garmin files as soon as I stop shaking from the crit!

Trev