10/10 in the Weather Department

Beeeeyooootiful evening. Warm, sunny, and almost windless, is this really Alberta? In June? Anyway, the hardest of our TTs went off without a hitch and despite the smaller turnout the times were suprisingly and impressively quick. The course is hard and at times more of a hillclimb than a traditional TT but that's what racing is all about...variety. The racers left from the meeting spot and rode to the turnaround at Priddis Creek at the bottom of a very nice little hill. From there onwards and upwards back to the finish at the meeting spot. Big thanks to the Big Baguette (Stephen Kenney) for marshaling the turnaround and sweeping up there so everyone got to keep their skin. The results...

1 Cody Godlonton Highwood A 36:32
2 Rick Courtney C4 B 38:00
3 Masa Higuchi Bicisport A 38:09
4 Tamara Salomon Ind C 39:15
5 Darcy Gullacher Bicisport A 40:14
6 Willy Vansevenant Highwood C 40:34
7 Michael Chui Speed Theory B 40:39
8 Norm Smith C4 C 42:38
9 Sandra Yaworski Speed Theory C 45:09
Mark Perry C4 B DNF
V Stephen Kenney Speed Theory A V

Great rides by all and especially Cody, Tamara and Willy who really laid it on the line. Good job guys.
Next week is a pursuit road race where I'll handicap certain (Baguette et al) groups and they'll have to chase down the first starters. I'll try some fancy math to try and get it right but it will be a good chase and a good race anyway. See ya then.

Bring a Third Lung

Hard and hilly but like life, it isn't meant to be easy. We will be TTing from the Priddis Meeting Spot (22 and 22x) and like all young men, going west. There will be a turnaround near Priddis Creek so you will have to pay close atention to the turn marshal who may require you to stop. Your time will be adjusted. Other than that there has been a little road patching so there are some small loose rocks but nothing that really presents a problem. Distance will be something like 22k. See ya then.

Action, action, action

Another evening of great racing and finally the weather gods smiled on us and it was fine, just fine. With a preponderance of hammerheads showing up it was guaranteed to exhibit some raciness and it certainly didn't disappoint. Three teams of six were chosen under captains Trev Williams, Alex Shaw, and the Baguette (Stephen Kenney). Format was that the captains results were not recorded but the first three members of their teams would count so it was all about the teamwork. A quick pace set the tone and broke up the pack a bit but a misdierection at one of the corners and a small crash put us under a neutral flag and that brought most fo the group back together and reset the race. After that team tactics ruled and lessons were learned. To my concern there was a good ole mob finish and I could only write down the colours. It was evident from the pattern though that although Cody from Highwood (pink) crossed the line first, it was Baguette's soldiers that carried the day taking the next three spots. Orange (Trev) pipped Alex and the pinkies by a point for second. A good time had by all. I am thinking of replacing the longer road race on July 16th with another one of these races. I like the format. Anyway, here are the results and if I have made a mistake, let me know as I forgot to record the teams before we started and I had to do it on the fly during the race. I'm not stellar with names so please forgive me. And the results...

1st Yellow Bellies
Stephen Kenney Speed Theory A
Lachlan Holmes Speed Theory A
Andrew Wolaniuk Bow A
Chris Lee C4 B
Patrick Brick C4 B
Norm Smith C4 C

2nd OrangeAde
Trev Williams Speed Theory A
Jeff Bell Highwood A
Paul Anderson Speed Theory A
David Morgantini C4 C
Rick Courtney C4 B
Colin Yardy Highwood B

3rd The Pinkies
Alex Shaw Speed Theory A
Cody Godlonton Highwood A
Lev Krivitsky Terrascape A
Mark Perry C4 B
Richard Vervoort Highwood B
Randy Szasz C4 C

Big thanks to volunteers Rob Armstrong and Tamara Salomon for all their help and you guys really help make this run. Next week is a hilly time trial from the Priddis meeting spot (22 and 22x) heading west out 22 to Priddis Creek and back along 22. Bring your legs and a third lung if you can find one.

Tonight's Action!

Well, I mostly know how I want to do this tonight and the only real variable is how many people show up. I do expect a decent crowd given the weather and that we are well into the season. The format will be: I'll break you guys up into teams and you will all start together. The goal for each team will be to get their team mates to the line first. The kicker will be that the team captains won't count in the results and you will have to get everyone across the line well to win. I will try to balance the teams as best as I can and they will have a variety of riders so that you can use different tactics to get your guys there. If the Baguette wants to pull some of his guys along then you will have to bridge up and sit on him and let him pull your team to the finish. You can split your team and have somebody solo in but that will cost the rest of your team. The points will be weighted towards getting everyone in and not just half the team. I'll have to determine the final details tonight but the goal is simple and that's to race as part of a team.
Meet at 22 and 22X tonight near Priddis around 7 or slightly before and we can have a good race.

Series Standings

Now that we are a few weeks into this, I have finally finished the categorization, scoring, and sorting of the results over the last five weeks. The result are the standings tables that follow....

Dodged a Bullet

Weather bullet that is. Another successful race off and tonight we found out who the real hard men (and women) are. Windy and cold but nothing in the way of rain although we did notice a weird yellowish glowing orb in the sky at times. A particularly cruel format of 2 11.3km TTs, one running up to 37th avenue and the other returning with 30 minutes between starts for the riders which gave them about 14 minutes to build up the lactic acid. However, it went quite well despite the weather and big thanks to Richard Vervoort of Highwood and Rob Woolley of Speed Theory for helping out. Kudos as well to the Speed Theory guys and Carolyn for riding to the race, that was hard core. A special mention to Trev from Speed Theory for trying to find the race although we know it was just the the Big Baguette trying to confuse him and keep the glory for himself. And now to the results....

Pos Name Club Time 1 Time 2 Total Time Cat
1 Stephen Kenney Speed Theory 15:06 19:43 34:49 A
2 Alex Shaw Speed Theory 15:14 20:21 35:35 A
3 Brian Beaulieu C4 15:35 20:57 36:32 B
4 Carolyn Soules C4 15:51 21:05 36:56 B
5 Lev Krivitsky Terrascape 16:43 22:12 38:55 B
6 Lachlan Holmes Speed Theory 15:59 25:14 41:13 A
V Richard Vervoort Highwood V V V B
V Rob Woolley Speed Theory V V V

Three guesses who gets the tailgunner award for tonight. Good job and we'll see you all next week for the road race at the Priddis meeting spot (same as tonight).

This Week's Soggy Outing

Back to TTing this Wednesday but with a different format and at the Priddis Meeting Spot (where we meet for the RRs). 2x10km TTs, once leaving from the meeting spot up to 37th street and the other a return from 37th street back to the meeting spot. I think we'll start the second TT 40 minutes after the first one starts. I'll need just one volunteer to record the times at 37th street and then to start the second TT. They should be short and hard. Hopefully we'll get a window in the weather but we'll try to go even in the rain unless it's looking dangerous. I will also get the series standing up sometime after the TT and I'll finalize the categories.

Belated Results From Last Wednesday

Due to a glitch with the blog, Mark wasn't able to post the results but here they are...

Pos Name Club cat?
1 Darcy Jones Highwood A
2 Ryan Barr C4 A
3 Jeff Bell Highwood A
4 Rick Courtney C4 C
5 Willy Vansevenant Highwood C
6 Keith Anderson Highwood C
7 Anderew Wolaniuk Bow A
8 Carolyn Soules C4 B
9 Lev Krivitsky Terrascape A
DSQ (s) Stephen Kenney Speed Theory A
DNF David Morgantini C4 C
DNF Cody Godlonton Highwood C
DNF Patrick Brick C4 C
DNF Collin Yardy Highwood C
V Mark Perry C4 B
V Randy Szasz C4 C
V Brian Beaulieu C4 C

Can't speak to how the race went, but I had fun in the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys riding around like a madman. See you this Wednesday.