Video Artistry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiBYiF0pRRk

Check it out. Huge props to Bryon Howard for putting this little gem together. You can write the Genie committee c/o the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television at 49 Ontario Street, Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario. M5A 2V1. Seriously, very cool and thanks again for putting it up. You've got me thinking about next year already.

... The Ultimate Countdown ...

What a year. We had 89 unique riders come out for one or more of the evenings, and more volunteers than I can shake a golf club at. A few flat tires, one handlebar doa, but no real incidents or close calls. Most of the damage has been limited to legs and dignity. Of note, Willy Vansevenant made 13 of the four races this year and reigns as the best participant while Tom Kenney, Karel Bergmann, Brad Barron, and Shawna with a w made it out to 12 events. But now for the final results....

After tallying it all up and adjusting for the category moves, we've put it all together. Congrats in Category A to Carlos Bonilla for pulling out a 12 point win over hard charging Rick Courtney who edged 'Mr Cat 3' Harley Borlee by just 2 points.

Category B saw Tom Kenney leg it out in 12 events to best Karel Bergmann who did move up from the Cs after the first series and is surly one of the most improved races of the year. Third is no slouch in Dale Hildebrand who bested quite a few of the usual suspects.

And finally, the Cs were close and well contested with Clarence Poon road racing his way to just a four point win over Brad Barron and 14 points over Willy Vansevenant.

It was such a well contested series and really neat to watch it develop as names moved up and down the standings. Steady seems to really get it done. Anyway, that's a wrap for the series and we'll all bow down before the winners sometime in late September at out wrap up party.

... Well, that was quite cool ...

... what a great evening of racing. Let me start of by saying how much fun it was to help out with and to watch the racing not only last night but all season long. Last night was perfect weather, great scenery and a fitting way to end the series for 2010.
Now on to the eagerly awaited results. The number crunchers have poured over the results, added the seconds, and carried the ones to put it all together.
The As were truly locked in mortal battle. Back and forth and back again. In the end it was Jared Green prevailing with a win in the road race that made the difference ahead of Cody Godlonton who finsehed overall just 6 seconds back. Third was Stuart Black who lurked in the first two events and brought home a win in the final TT. Watch out for that kid. And in fourth just behind was the prologue winner Joel Goralski.
In the B category, consistency paid off for Callum Galbraith as wins in the prologue and TT put him ahead of another steady rider in Karel Bergmann. Third just 10 seconds behind Karel was Tom Kenney ahead of Mike Hoang who triumphed in the road race. Of note, Dale Hildebrand was right in the mix until he managed to actually tear his handlebar in half with his effort. I'm not sure what he eats but I could use some of that raw power.
In the Cs, prologue winner Mike Harrington suffered a terminal flat tire and called it a day so it was up to Willy Vansevenant to steadily plug away (and win the final TT by 19 seconds),ekeing out a 14 second win over Carl Lepointe with road race winner Clarence Poon coming in third.

All in all, it was a great evening and huge props to our fearless volunteers, Bill Harvey, super volunteer Darlene and her daughter Shaughny, Ania Bergmann, and Marshall Netherwood qho all helped at corners and the finished getting the places and times right. Thanks again.
That's a wrap for 2010 as far as the racing goes but not the end of the story. We'll be holding a little wrap-up evening sometime around the third week of September where we'll invite one and all to come out, celebrate, and distribute a little loot to the winners. See ya then.

The end of times ...

... or at least the end of the Wednesday Night Series for 2010. This Wednesday (super Wednesday) it will all come down to one night, three races, one champion. 6:30 at the Priddis meeting spot (22 and 22X) we'll try and get started early as we've got lots to sort out, scores to settle, and legs to hurt.
View Larger Map
It's a micro stage race. We'll start with a ~2km prologue to get warmed up and set the stage for the night. Short, sweet, and just a little taste of what's to come.

View Millarville Prologue in a larger map
The big event is the road race where we'll tear around our Millarville course for just one lap (29km) where time is of the essence.
***sorry, no map. Bill Gates hates me.***
Finally, we'll cap it all off with the race of truth, a 9km time trial back to the meeting spot where the times will be summed, the champions determined, and the glory will be endless.

View Millarville TT in a larger map

We'll use a sum of the times from the three events to crown the champion and for the overall, there will be bonus points awarded (3-2-1) for each of the events. Time to play for all the marbles.
I'll need at least a couple of volunteers for this as we're going to try and get a pile of racing done in a relatively short evening. The weather looks spectacular as usual so it should make for an amazing evening.

Go go Gadget quads ...

... and the records were pounded into submission. Not one of them, all of them and not by a single assailant but by many. A veritable gang of perps. Capitilizing on the great conditions and dodging the mother of all thunderstorms (passing safely to the West) 27 usual suspects showed up to get some racing in at the penultimate race of our 2010 Wednesday Night Series. With points and prizes on the line there was a little incentive to just give 'er and the racers did. I suspect pretty much everyone was looking at a PB and in each category new records were set with 9 total racers besting the old times across the categories.
In the As it was Frank Wolstencroft nipped by 2 seconds by Jared Green, our new record holder on the Woodland course. That's about 2 Wheeties worth in my books. Rick Courtney broke the record early and hung on for third a few seconds behind. Tom Kenney settled his argument with himself and cruised to a new record for the Bs. Karel Bergmann and Rob Armstrong also bested the old record for second and third respectively. Brad Barron did get those last two Wheeties in and edged Carl by 2 seconds for a new course record for the Cs. Mike Harrington was also under the old record for third.

Many thanks to those that came out and especially to uber-Volunteer Darlene for helping to get the race off without a hitch. Next week will be our ever popular micro stage race at the Priddis meeting spot (Hwy22 and 22x). Prologue, road race, time trial in one maniacal evening. I have updated the points and it looks like there is a lot to ride for. Each stage has bonus points for the top three so nothing is impossible. Well, some things are impossible but who really wants to see Tom Cruise in high heels and a lab coat riding a flaming shark in rollerskates down Fifth Avenue while irate Panamanian accountants pelt him with gravy boats.

Pack some heat ...

... we're gunnin' for the record.
Considering the horsepower that we've seen at the Wednesday Night Series races in the last couple of years and the straight forward nature of the course we feel that the course records for the Woodland TT simply will not do. Given that it's August and legs are in shape and the weather conditions look almost ideal, we're offering not only bonus points, but special prizes for whomever can set a new course record in their cateogory.

The Hall of Fame
Category A Jim Janzen, Bicisport 22:29 (2010)
Category B Jay Rankin, Speed Theory 24:38 (2010)
Category C Clarence Poon, Crankamsters 26:30 (2010)
Willy VanSevenant, Highwood 26:30 (2009)

Setup is regular TT so bring the full on gear, I'll leave my measuring tape and calipers at home and all you have to do is lay it all down. This Wednesday the 11th at the Woodland Meeting Spot.
The Woodland meeting spot is located at the junction of Woodland road and highway 1A just west of Bearspaw and before Lochend Road. There is a side road there (Twp Rd 255) off of Woodland where we'll set up. Ample parking is available along 255 and on Nagway road just to the east off Bearspaw Road. And of course, you could always ride out to the site from Calgary. Please try and spread the parking out so that everybody isn't all parked at the same spot in order to keep things low key with respect to the local population.

View Directions to Twp Rd 262 in a larger map
The course starts just west of Woodland Road and heads west along 1A towards Cochrane. After a few kilometres and just before you start to head down the hill into Cochrane we turn right on to Big Hill Road, around the corner and straight north on Range Road 40. A short time thereafter another right turn onto Twp Road 262 heads you back eastwards towards the finish about a kilometre before you get to Lochend road. It's a short ride back to the start from there.

View Directions to Twp Rd 262 in a larger map
As always I'd love to have a few volunteers to keep things safe and orderly so bring a friend, spouse, legal representative, parole officer, or golf buddy. We'll start shortly after 6:30 and I'll run 30s intervals to keep things moving. See ya then.

I'm back and the accounting is done...

Series II wrapped up while I was away so after sifting through the results and making a few adjustments here and there we've tabulated the final standings.

For the As, consistent high finishes allowed Carlos Bonilla to run away with it, followed by Harley Borlee and Trev Williams of Speed Theory who made the most of their appearances. Props to Cody Godlonton of Highwood and Dominic Jutras for rounding out the top five.

In the tight B contest, Karel Bergmann of C4 edged out Tom Kenney by a single point with Paul Rosenberg just behind in third. Andrew Paul and Kailee Boyle finished fourth and fifth respectively.

A lookback at TT results was needed for the Cs to resolve the points tie between Willy VanSevenant and Clarence Poon in the C division with Clarence just literally edging Willy out for the win. Andy Hill just topped Shawna Donaldson and Mark Perry for the rest of the top five spots.

I have also done the mathemagics on the third series as we're at the halfway point (4 races) and I've updated the standing at the right of the page. I have yet to finalize the details for the final stage but as we've done before, bonus points are definitely on line. This week will also include bonus points for record times so bring it on Wednesday.

Wednesday Night Construction

An unexpected road construction job could not spoil the fun tonight. A contingency plan for the race was quickly put together and with help from our excellent volunteers – Darlene, Shawna, Darryl and Fast Legs Frank, we were able to run a safe and “fun” (as long as you were a volunteer) race. The A and B group still managed about 2000 feet and the C about 1000 feet of climbing. Tom registered 11% grade at some point. One of the locals pointed out we should not be too far away from our vehicles because of the cougars but I think he was just trying to discourage the city slickers in carbon and spandex from frequenting his playground. It was a perfect evening for racing. Tanya showed up in her Provincial jersey - very nice.

A
1 Carlos Bonilla
2 Rick Courtney
3 Joel Goralski
4 Jared Green
5 Jeff Bell
6 Cody Godlonton - flat

B
1 Dale Hildebrand
2 Callum Galbraith
3 Tom Kenny
4 Andrew Paul
5 Tanya Hopping

C
1 Karl Bergman
2 Carl Lepointe
3 Mike Hoang*
4 Willy VanSevenant
5 Lev Krivitsky
6 Brad Barron
7 Clarence Poon - flat

*started with the A group.

Aug 4 - Something a Little Different

We are doing a 16 km road course loop just south of Highway 22X. It is on quiet rural roads and each lap has 1000 feet of climbing, some of the hills are really steep. The best part - 1 mile of gravel, uphill! I'm thinking 2 or 3 laps for the A and B and one lap for the C group. The C group will avoid the gravel section.

Make sure your bike is in good condition, the downhills are fast.

The gravel section is just north of Township Road 220 on the map and cuts across to shorten the loop a little. The start/finish is same place as the hillclimb in May and some of the loop is on Road to Nepal, but the best stuff is west of there on the quiet roads. I will run the loop clockwise with all right turns.

As for parking - Highway 22X and 37th Street is ok, also there is a little parking near the start/finish. Or ride from town if you can. The start/finish is shown on the map. Go south on 37th Street till you hit Township Road 221, take a right and go past Highway 773 (Road to Nepal) about 1 km. I'll need 2 or 3 volunteers as well.



View WNS Aug 4 in a larger map

July 28 Road Race Results

We were incredibly lucky with the weather this past Wednesday. Dark clouds, rain and lightning were present in the area of the race but blue sky and sunshine were over the route and the riders stayed dry. It was a challenging course with a few hills and a fairly strong wind.


Thanks again to Darlene for volunteering.

Road Race July 28

The race starts at 6:30 PM at the north end of the Road to Nepal near Red Deer Lakes school. Park at the large lot at the intersection of Highway 22x and Highway 22. It is 11 km from here to the start of the race. There is limited parking at the school.

The finish line is at the observatory on Highway 22 near the parking lot.

We will be starting everyone at the same time. The course is approximately 40km. I could use a couple of volunteers to help out with this event.

Mark

Wed night July 21st results.

We had a good turnout for the team time trial tonight. The teams were picked from the order people arrived to sign in and it looks like it was mostly evenly matched with some close times, five seconds separated the first and second team in the A/B category and also a close race in the C group. Shawna got launched off the front for some reason and came in 30 seconds ahead of her team. We created a special category for Lachlan and he won easily. I think the course was OK. We managed to avoid any unruly golfers and the local wildlife was scared to come out. Thanks to the 4 volunteers - Darlene, Lev, Simon F and ??, sorry I forgot your name. A new feature of the WNS is the intermediate timing (watching too much TdF I guess). I was able to see most teams returning from the golf course road except the C teams were all bunched I think.

A road race is coming next week then back to Speed Theory for something entirely different the following week.

Team	Place	Intermediate Time	Final Time
AB1 Trev Williams Andrew Paul Dale Hildebrand	1	11:16	25:00
AB2 Marilyn Taylor Steve Pickett	3	12:05	27:05
AB3 Rick Courtney Rob Walsh Carlos Bonilla	2	11:18	25:05
C1 Willy VanSevenant Shawna Donaldson Mark Perry	3		30:55
C2 Carl Lepointe Karl Bergman Patrick Brick	2		29:00
C3 Andy Hill Brad Barron	1		28:43
Solo (late) Lachlan Holmes		10:30	24:14

Speed Theory is presenting the fun this week... (UPDATE)

Next Wednesday we will do a 3 or 4 up TTT. Harley, Simon and I tested the course on Saturday and it will make you suffer. Nothing like a few good hills when you are trying to hang on to your team. If enough people show up we will do a four person team with the third person's time counting but otherwise a three person team.

___________________________________

THIS JUST IN FROM ANDY:

I noticed that the race is being run close to my office. If people want to park at my office. This may make people in the area happier because cars won’t be parked along the side of the road.

My company:

Rocky Mountain Aircraft

129 MacLaurin Drive

Springbank Airport

It is the first building on the left just after you turn into the airport. The name is on the front of the building with several orange aircraft parked on the south side. Parking is on the north side of the building.

Andy Hill

___________________________________
To get there, go towards Springbank airport but turn north a mile or two before the airport on Range Road 32, aka Springbank Heights Road. About a km up you will see a new development on the left called Aventerra Estates. There's lots of parking there, that's also the start and finish.

View WNS July 21 in a larger map
I will need a few volunteers to run this safely, please leave a comment if you can volunteer. Bring any bike you like, because of the hills a road bike might work best. Try to be there for a 6:30 PM start.

Who has the Crankmasters stopwatches? I'll need them for the race.

Stampede Special Recap ...

Our 11 contestants lined up under warm, sunny skies. Even the
mosquitoes kept their distance and seemed to forgo their evening snack
to allow the time honoured tradition of Wednesday night racing by
unusually dressed homo sapiens.

The profile meant there was some early climbing portions served within
1Km and again at 4km the biggest chunk of about 3+km, however, the crest
was at 8.5 km and you lost elevation but undulation was served
continuously until a final 50+m of elevation gain on a roller at less
than 2km to the finish.

We were able to watch the odd thunderstorm cell skirting Calgary to the
North as the riders rolled, climbed and hammered with purpose under
cloudless skies and the odd patches of tractor tire mud spat out onto
our pristine asphalt ribbon at around the 12 KM mark. As our TT ribbon
cut through prime farm land we had to expect the odd rural nuance in
typical fashion just minutes before the riders were due to hammer
through at 50KM. However, the flavour of rural road racing was easily
consumed and all racer's kept the goal in sight or as soon as it
appeared at 17.6km, stopwatch & clip board in hand, as we waited for the
unmistakable roar of carbon disk or perhaps an inspired Eddy impersonator.

Split between Eddy style and Aero, actually 6 Aero and 5 EM ....but for
one of our rider's with only aero bars but no disc wheel seemed to
be....well not Eddy enough!

However, nothing blocked the progress of Paul Rosenberg riding Aero
style with the fastest overall time of 26:57 for the 17.6km jaunt. The
Eddy's were trying to make a point that sometimes a more traditional
approach
can produce equally impressive horsepower. Antoine Gendre proved this by
getting the fastest Eddy time of 28:11 and second overall on the night.
Shawna Donaldson, our lone female rider, who proved that you can still
retain
the right to be called "one of the boys" (tongue firmly in cheek) by
turning up and pushing a competitive time and your limits over any
terrain that is thrown down for you.

The finish was on a slight downhill grade off of a small roller and
meant the racer's had the challenge of powering at high cadence so to
not fall into the trap of letting the terrain offer a respite in the
last 150 meters (Yeah right!).

Many thanks to the racer's and the helping hands at the start line and
finish line. I apologize for not remembering the name of the young lady
giving us a useful third set of hands at the start and finish.


Jeff Bell. & Willy VanSevenant

Something new ...

... from our friends at the Highwood Cycling Club. Mr. Vansevenant has graciously lent a hand to hold this weeks time trial at Aldersyde, south of town near Okotoks. We'll go at our typical 6:30pm on Wednesday the 14th. Participants should park on the side roads near the start line just east where highway 2 meets highway 7 just before you get to Aldersyde. The route goes out east towards Gladys along 547 for a good 15 km to the finish. After which, you get a nice easy ride back to the start. In a novel twist, we are running two categories, the first being Merckx, and the second full on (legal) TT gear. Your choice. Give er hard.

I'm guessing a few volunteers would be most approciated and we've put in an order for some decent weather.

What goes up ...

... must come home dragging their tongues, missing lung tissue and with thrashed legs. Pretty much sums up the race last night. Stellar, and I mean stellar night for racing in Kananaskis. A stunner of an evening left riders chuffed (Queen's english).
Starting in Bragg Creek, rider followed their fortunes due west into the evening before turning around and picking up the pieces on the way back. The C group had a lively 38km route that brought them a portion of the way up the big climb (we'll call this a cat 3 climb just to sound cool and Toury). B's went to the summit (we'll call this a cat 1 climb)for 43km and the A's went up and over, decending to the end of the road before turning back up again (HC climb for sure) to make it to 51km.
The C's were the first home with almost the entire goup storming in together. Clarence "Mr. Savvy" timed it right and took the honours with the rest of the goup drafting David Morgantini who hung on for a well deserved second ahead of Mike Harrington. Super job to all.
The B's we're a little more spread out as the climbing took a toll on a few of the guys. In the end, Mike Waldhuber (very zippy finish) brought it home in style over Andrew Paul (stormin' lik Katrina) and Karel Bergmann who has moved up from the C's.
The A's were a show that played out in multiple acts over a variety of terrain. Trev Williams turned on the human gruber assist and rode it in alone and in style. Less clear was who was going to win the spring for second, but in the eyes of the judging panel harley Borlee nipped Lockie Holmes by a few microns.

Great night, great road, and I am greatly thankful to Carley Goetting for coming all the way out to volunteer and help the whole thing work. Next week we have Highwood pitching in and running a TT for us out near Aldersyde (Okotoksish area). Details to follow.
I have also updated the overall standing for the second series which will conclude with next weeks TT. Some people did drift around categories a little as I have tried to make it competitive across the board. This is a bit difficult as there are so many different formats and some people cross categories for certain races (which I encourage). Let me know if there is a real big concern but otherwise I hope you enjoy the competition.

A bit of a climber's special ...

... this Wednesday the 7th at 6:30 just outside of Bragg Creek. We'll meet where Range Road 51 and Highway 66 meet just west of 22. This is on the back way out of Bragg Creek near the Provincial Park. People can park in Bragg Creek, at the school on 22, or at the Provincial Park and enjoy a nice easy warmup out to the meeting spot.


View Untitled in a larger map

From the meeting spot we'll race westward into the majesty of the mountains and up and down a few hills and all that. We'll arrange turnarounds and race lengths when we get an idea of who is coming out but there will be multiple options so everybody will be able to race. The courses will go straight out and back along 66.


View Larger Map

There is one issue with the course that I do need to mention and that is the 'Texas Gates' that are found near the start and the end of the course. I believe there are two heading each way. Now I rode them with no problems on the weekend and I think the soluntion is for everyone to just take their time and neutralize the racing over them. There are also some significant but not insurmountable hills along the way but I want everyone to spread out and take it easy on the descents.

It is a scenic and beautiful course so I am hoping to get a couple of volunteers for the evening to handle the turnarounds. It is a short job, you get to see the race, and a great way to help out.

Maximum Merckxicus ...

... That's what I'm talking about. Merckx TT into a strong and unrelenting wind. pretty excellent night with a challenging headwind out that tested rider's ability to stay in the drops, get narrow, and keep the head down. A little army of Cancellara's out there storming around solo.

Dallas cracked out the cross bike and showed the way convincingly but not too far behind several battles played out with Carlos and Cody givin 'er for thre rest of the podium.

Thanks to Mark Perry and Cesar Martin for volunteering and keeping the riders from dropping into Cochrane for ice cream or missing the turn at 262 and riding to Sundre. Good luck to everyone racing this weekend, keep the rubber side down and make the west proud.

We are heading ...

... back to familiar ground for a Merckx TT this Wednesday at 6:30 at the Woodland Meeting Spot.
The Woodland meeting spot is located at the junction of Woodland road and highway 1A just west of Bearspaw and before Lochend Road. There is a side road there (Twp Rd 255) off of Woodland where we'll set up. Ample parking is available along 255 and on Nagway road just to the east off Bearspaw Road. And of course, you could always ride out to the site from Calgary. Please try and spread the parking out so that everybody isn't all parked at the same spot in order to keep things low key with respect to the local population.

View Directions to Twp Rd 262 in a larger map

Merckx, so leave the fancy schmancy stuff at home and suffer old school style. Course is the same as last time.

The course starts just west of Woodland Road and heads west along 1A towards Cochrane. After a few kilometres and just before you start to head down the hill into Cochrane we turn right on to Big Hill Road, around the corner and straight north on Range Road 40. A short time thereafter another right turn onto Twp Road 262 heads you back eastwards towards the finish about a kilometre before you get to Lochend road. It's a short ride back to the start from there.

View Directions to Twp Rd 262 in a larger map

As usual, I could use a couple of volunteers for this. Should be short and sweet and pretty staight forward so bring out a friend, spouse, your dog-walker, or anybody you can find.

Dodging thunderstorms ...

... with success. Recieved a call from my wife in South Calgary asking me how bad it was out on the course as it was hammering them there and I could say that it was actually pretty nice. A bit of rain, particularily on the north end of the course but it cleared up, the sun came out, and it was really quite a pleasant evening.
And the racing was good. At least from a spectators point of view there was no shortage of things going on. Challenging course too but one that offered a good balance of hard work climbing and straight fairly flat hammering. All in all a neat race.
The format was to split into 3 teams (denoted by flagging tape) and the goal was to bring your team home with the best average finish for the second, third, and fourth riders on your team. Line honours weren't in play so the goal was teamwork, communication, and tactics and that's what we had.
I mixed the As and Bs into three teams and let them at it. In a textbook read of the race and application of tactics, team orange stormed the race by taking 4th through 8th place for just 9 points. Team pink worked well trying to recover from the splits and edged yellow 18 to 23.
The Cs got a race all to their own with three teams again and although there were more splits it was a close race overall with some really nifty racing. Yellow edged Pink 13 to 15 with Orange creeping up in third with 18 points. All in all, nice job.

For interest, the line order was PYPOOOOOYYPPYOYP for the A/Bs and YYPYPPOOOOPPY for the Cs. Can't make too many words from that but it does look a bit like a DNA sequence. Anyway, good job all. Huge props to Allan Oicle for being my volunteer and hanging around at the four way stop on the far side of the course during a variety of weather. Thanks.

Givin' it a go again...

...this week. We'll try a repeat of last week's course and details. Weather looks okay at this point *knocks wood furiously*. Apologies for the late call last week, it was just a bit damp as I left work on 4th avenue downtown, wettish by 17th avenue, saturated by 30th avenue, and i grabbed my lifejacket at 50th avenue.
The first team RR of the year will be this Wednesday the 23rd with meeting at 6:30 and racing after we get things sorted out. I know there has been some concern regarding the traffic in getting to the South and that the timeline has been tight so in recognition of the wonderful day length that this latitude offers we will look to starting a bit after 6:30 in order to accomodate those who might struggle to get there on time.
The race format will be the ever popular team race. In this, we divide the riders into a fairly evenly mixed few teams and assign them the task of getting the bulk of their team over the line before the other teams. In other words, it's not which team can get one rider over first but rather who can get the rest of their riders over before the other teams. Clear as mud. We've run these before and they have proven quite popular and a great excercise in working together, communication, and tactics as the teams work amongst themselves and against the other teams. We'll set the number of riders on a team and the number of teams once we get an idea of the total number of riders that we'll have out for the evening. This is a race for everyone, regardless of ability, and a great experience.
We will meet again at the Priddis meeting spot at the corner of 22 and 22X as we did a couple of weeks ago BUT for a slightly different course. I've always looked to trying to get on Range Road 30 for a race but was hampered by construction the last two years. This year however, Mark Perry is reporting that it's free and clear so we'll run a clockwise square along 22X, south on Range Road 30, west on 274 avenue, and finally north on 22. I'm guessing we'll run it twice for about a 45km experience that isn't quite as flat as one might suspect.

View Larger Map
Of course, we could use another volunteer to make it a go so if you feel like just watching or know somebody that would, we'll put you to work.

Tonight is Cancelled - June 16th

Due to the weather tonight's race is cancelled. See you next week!!!

Teaming it up...

The first team RR of the year will be this Wednesday the 14th with meeting at 6:30 and racing after we get things sorted out. I know there has been some concern regarding the traffic in getting to the South and that the timeline has been tight so in recognition of the wonderful day length that this latitude offers we will look to starting a bit after 6:30 in order to accomodate those who might struggle to get there on time.
The race format will be the ever popular team race. In this, we divide the riders into a fairly evenly mixed few teams and assign them the task of getting the bulk of their team over the line before the other teams. In other words, it's not which team can get one rider over first but rather who can get the rest of their riders over before the other teams. Clear as mud. We've run these before and they have proven quite popular and a great excercise in working together, communication, and tactics as the teams work amongst themselves and against the other teams. We'll set the number of riders on a team and the number of teams once we get an idea of the total number of riders that we'll have out for the evening. This is a race for everyone, regardless of ability, and a great experience.
We will meet again at the Priddis meeting spot at the corner of 22 and 22X as we did a couple of weeks ago BUT for a slightly different course. I've always looked to trying to get on Range Road 30 for a race but was hampered by construction the last two years. This year however, Mark Perry is reporting that it's free and clear so we'll run a clockwise square along 22X, south on Range Road 30, west on 274 avenue, and finally north on 22. I'm guessing we'll run it twice for about a 45km experience that isn't quite as flat as one might suspect.

View Larger Map
Of course, we could use another volunteer to make it a go so if you feel like just watching or know somebody that would, we'll put you to work.
Sorry for the delay in getting this out, I was in Osoyoos for the last 10 days riding, golfing, and avoiding landslides.

Series I is done!!! Congrats....

....to everybody that raced and made it as close as it was.
The top 5 are listed on the right side of the blog and reflect the points at the end of the first 5 week series.
The As were lead faily handily by Harley Borlee with a close race behind with honours falling to Clarke Ellis, Rick Courtney, Dan Sigouin, and Joel Goralski.
The Bs was as close as it gets with Tom Kenney taking the win over Carlos Bonilla based sole on ITT placing as they tied in points. Third was Rob Welch with Ron Feill and Dale Hildebrand rounding out the top five.
The Cs were interesting with Karel Bergmann hammering out the win well clear of the tight race for second where again Clarence Poon edged Brad Barron out based on ITT placing as there was another tie. Not to be missed were Kailee Boyle and Emilie Langevin in fourth and fifth and close behind.
With that, we'll clean the slate and reload for the second five race series beginning with a road race this Wednesday.
In addition, there will be prizes, buckets of prizes, in August where we will celebrate the champions for each of the three series that make up the overall C4 Wednesday Night Series.

June 9th Results

Thirteen hard core racers showed up for the 4.5 km hillclimb. We even had Jared and Frank ride all the way from the city through a thunderstorm to get to the relatively dry but cold south. The format was each racer to take on the hillclimb twice with points being awarded for the fastest time and the most consistent times. Everyone had a faster time on their second run, except of course for Jared and Frank who laid it all out on their first try, they had the advantage of being warmed up from their ride from the city. Thanks to Willy Vansevenant and Tom Kenny for volunteering.

I think everyone liked the format and we could do something similar again, although using a hill closer to town would be much better. Any other feedback welcome.

June 9th. Hills and Pain.

This Wednesday is Speed Theory turn to host the best racing series in Alberta. Like doing hill repeats? Yes we are going to do a couple on Wednesday night on Township Road 214 just south of Highway 22 X in the Road to Nepal area. We will do the hill two times and points will be awarded for the fastest time and also for consistency in your two times up the hill. I'll measure the course out properly before the race so you will know exactly how long the pain will last. The below map is just approximate. The start will be near the T junction.

If there is a big turnout we will start the first run around 6:30 PM. If there is a smaller turnout you will likely get a chance to do one warm up repeat before we race. You can park at the school on Highway 22 X just north of the start or you can drive to the start area. Hopefully not everyone will drive to the start! Bring your weight weenie bike if you like, we won't weigh anything! We might check for bike doping though.

I will need a couple of volunteers from Speed Theory. One to help me with the timing and one for crowd control. Leave a comment if you can volunteer.


View WNS June 9 in a larger map

Millarville Madness

We just about answered the question of how many cars you can fit in that meeting spot. The number is ... lots. What an excellent turnout, good weather, and lots of full on, hard charging, strategic racing.
The A's were brought home by Trev Williams in hos 2010 WNS debut followed by Harley Borlee and Bryon Howard who emerged from the splintered group to claim the rest of the podium. B's were lead by Rob Welch who was chased in by Mike Hoang and Mike Waldhuber in another split up group. C's had quite a tactical race with Clarence poon nipping Karel Bergmann and Carl Lepointe at the end. Good racing all and I'm sure there are lots of stories there. Special mention to Lachlan Holmes who joined the race in progress (early) and put on the hurt.
Thanks to my faithful volunteers Mark Perry and Willy Vansevenant who were instrumental in getting the race off without a hitch. Keep the volunteers coming out we could always use a couple more. In fact we did have a couple of riders who missed a turn we were not able to man and they turned their day from a 29km race to a 70km ride. Nice night for it though.
I did hear that there were some traffic problems in Calgary and that it could be a struggle to get out there for 6:30. While we can't change the time fundamentally we'll endeavour to try and hold back the racing in those cases as the days lengthen. As it was, it was pretty much dark by the time we rescued the last lost rider.
We did see quite a few new faces this time and we hope that everyone keeps coming out. We also ask that people do make sure that they are at least secondary members to participate and keep this as a club race. I do take it on faith that you're all signed up but there is an audit process and I do get warned. Easy to do via Karelo with details on the main Crankmaster's page (www.calgarycycling.com).
I'm off to the sunny southern Okanagan for my annual bike camp for the next while so Mike Healy and Speed Theory have stepped up and will be your hosts next week. I've seen what they want to do and as usual, it sounds interesting.

We're back on the road...

...at the Priddis meeting spot, Wednesday, June 2nd, 6:30pm. As the first series gets closer to wrapping up, we'll go single and go hard this time. Road race (by categories) at 6:30 to see who can hang on, hold out, and bring it home. We'll meet at the Priddis meeting spot and utilize our Millarville course for the first time this year. The Priddis meeting spot is at the corner of highways 22 and 22X.


View Priddis Meeting Spot (PMS) in a larger map

As for the course, we'll form up at the meeting spot and once started everyone heads south along 22 to the Millarville turnoff (549) where we go west until range road 33. North along Range Road 33 to Plummers road where we turn eastwards, drift north, and finally eastward again to 22 where we start another lap. The race will finish along Plummer's Road just before you get back to 22 the second time. Its a nice easy cool down ride back to the meeting spot. A's and B's will make two loops of the square, C's and novices will make one.


View Priddis Meeting Spot (PMS) in a larger map

I need just a few volunteers for this one and it would be great if I had enough to run a novice group during the race. It's fun to watch these ones too as it's evolving craziness out there.

Should be fun.

The results are in....

...fresh from the auditors. Well, really, I forgot to get them up and got caught up in stuff but hey, better late than never.
I was a great old night at Springbank with a suprisingly robust turnout given the threatening nature of the weather. Will a little rain repellant dispersal we managed to pretty much stay dry and get the race off without a hitch. Neat course that I think I'll use again as it's great to race in Calgary's backyard and offers a bit better access to North and South.
We paired up riders using my highly scientific and highly 'making it up as I go' kind of methodology and it was game on. Actually, results were pretty close given the spectrum of riders that we had and most people had the hurt on.




Huge props to my volunteers for the evening as it take a few to make this course run. They were: Clarence Poon, Dan Seguin, Carlos Bonilla, David Morgantini, Glen Miles, and a young lady (with Karel) whom I'm embarrased to say I couldn't remember the name. Thanks all, it was fun.

Reminders

2up TT tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 6:30 at Springbank (at the arena parking lot). Try and be there at 6:00 or so as it will give us a bit of time to make up the teams.

This is a good chance for the hammerheads to see what you can do with the horsepower in a 2up setting. just how much faster than 1up can you go. 50 kilometres an hour?

To ride in the series we need each and everyone to be at least a second claim member if you are a member of another club or ABA independant or a primary claim member otherwise. While we have allowed a few participants with a drop in fee we do need the membership as it must remain a Crankmasters club race. Great deal anyway with the WNS, our other races and rides and a chance at some of the prizes that we'll dole out after the series to the winners.

I should be there on time but I have a dentist appointment at 4 so I might just get there at 6 and possibly be somewhat cranky. I promise not to take it out on you guys.

I do need about 4 or so volunteers to make this one go as the course is a little more twisty than usual but on the positive side, it is in Springbank and runs fairly quickly. Good fun too watching the 2up format.

See ya tomorrow night.

Jamie

2up TT this Wednesday!

And now for something slightly different. 2up TT in Springbank at 6:30 this Wednesday the 26th of May. We'll take two of you, make you into friends, and unleash you on this slightly technical and definitely challenging TT course right in our backyard. We'll meet in a corner of the parking lot at the Springbank arena starting at 6pm and get the racing underway right around 6:30.

View Springbank Meeting Spot in a larger map
It's a bit of a challenge fitting a course into a space like this, especially given the road conditions and the need for a good shoulder so it has lead to this kind of configuartion and it takes a bit of explaining and a few good volunteers. The course starts eastbound on Springbank Road heading back towards Calgary. A right turn not that far along onto Range Road 32 takes you due South all the way past Lower Springbank Road to a big turnaround at the end of the road as you approach the river. It's pretty easy to see as beyond that there ain't no road. Back up Range Road 32 to Springbank Road and a right turn taking you east again towards Calgary. You then turn right on Horizon View Road for a quick jaunt to Lower Springbank Road where you turn right and head out west along Lower Springbank. Finally, a turn north on to Range Road 32 again and the finish along 32 a short time later. Lots of twists and turns but these roads should be familiar to almost everybody.



With all the turns and the more developed nature of a lot of these roads I will by trying to round up 4 or 5 volunteers for this so bring out a friend, relative, or relative you are friends with and we'll put them to work. It will be a nice pleasant evening and we're not far from town so I'd really appreciate it if I can get anough hands to make this unique course work. Other than that, it's a standard TT so anything goes and just remember to be like Astar and play safe.

Woot woot....

...that was fun. Beeeeeeeeeautiful night. Dry roads, check. Closed course, check. Nice weather, check. Game on.

My favourite kind of housing development (with no houses) provided a neat little circuit race course that we took over for the evening and ran a neat little event. A little course modification (debris), a little time modification (tardy A's), and a little HTFU (time). It we ran 3 groups just a few minutes apart and initially interesting and nice and grouped it didn't take too long for the groups to explode and the games to begin. Small groups, pairs, solos, all over the place which did lead to some confusion on the 2 laps to go signals and I apologize for screwing that up for a few people. Clearly not my finest hour but I think I've got it mostly sorted in the results.

All in all, great racing and congrats to the winners. Huge props to the volunteers for this week which were Mark Perry, Lev Krivitsky, and my corner worker (spouse) whi I missed her name. Thanks all. Next week we'll try a 2up TT in Springbank.

A new kind of fun...

A WNS long crit (circuit race). There is a hidden, lovely little glade with butterflies, and bees, chipmunks, rabbits, and backhoes, excavators, and cement trucks. At least, that's what the brochure says. On a run before last week's race I had a revelation. Or I should say I was looking for a way to opt out of the hills and I turned right and discovered Willow Creek at Bearspaw. A housing development without houses. Well, there are two or three under construction but close enough for our purposes. What it does have are paved roads and a fairly complete lack of traffic. Perfect for a circuit race/crit you say, and a circuit race/crit we will have.
We'll park at the Woodland spot where we parked last week at Woodland Road and 1A and just ride down to the race site from there (a few hundred metres). We are trying to squeeze the racing in so we will have some concurrency in the racing and they won't be that long a race. I was thinking of:
6:40pm A's 30min + 2 laps
7:00pm B's 25min + 2 laps
7:20pm C's 20min + 2 laps
7:50 Novice! 15min + 1 lap
I'm hoping that a few of the A's, B's, and C's can hang around and help out with the other categories and with the novice group. Any additional volunteers would be terribly useful as this kind of race needs some management.
Sounds like fun? Well, it should prove to be. In the words of the famous Japanese hero Captain Tenneal ... "Let's get it on" (I think Barry White might have also used that line).

Wowzers!

49 Hardy souls braved the warm sunny conditions, the clean road surface and the light winds to launch the 2010 Crankmasters Wednesday Night Race Series. Old faces, new faces, keen riders all. Add 1 lazy and out of shape race director and you've got a night of fun and excitement.

The usual suspects showed up near the top of the overall results but some new names in there as well so it should certainly make it interesting as the season progresses. I haven't split it into divisions yet but I'll take a stab at it this week using a combination of these results, last year's results (no excuses), my entirely subjective appraisal, and maybe a little voodoo magic.

But now the good stuff....

My apologies for the various mispelled names, let me know next time and I'll be more than happy to fix them. Props to Mark Perry of Crankmasters for being my volunteer. My one and only volunteer. Just a little prod to get a couple more out if I can and they don't have to be riders, just helpful family, friends, neighbours, accountants, lawyers, parole officers, members of parliament, etc. You get the idea.

As I was out running (shuffling) before the race last night I made a discovery, a most wonderful discovery. I found a crit/circuit race course friendly for all. Actually, a housing development a few hundred metres from the Woodland meeting spot that doesn't actually have any finished houses yet. Two under construction but the guys seemed to have headed off spot on 5. What it does have is a few kilometres of fairly newly paved roads and an absence of cars. We'll rock it next week. Parking will be at the Woodland spot and the race real close. I'll publish the details soon (once I make them up). I'll need something like 4 or 5 volunteers to make it work but hey, easy job and endless praise. What's not to like.

... three ... two ... one .... (UPDATED)

... and so it begins (FOR REAL THIS TIME) ...

MAY 12th it all starts !! Get there a little earlier than usual this time since there is always some 'first race' hiccups and such.

Many things are inevitible in life ... taxes, snow in June, the Leafs missing the playoffs, and the Crankmasters Wednesday Night Series. It all starts next week, Wednesday May 5th at 6:30pm. The race...a 10 mile (16km) regular TT on our brand spanking new course. It all starts from the Woodland Meeting Spot (WMS).


The Woodland meeting spot is located at the junction of Woodland road and highway 1A just west of Bearspaw and before Lochend Road. There is a side road there (Twp Rd 255) off of Woodland where we'll set up. Ample parking is available along 255 and on Nagway road just to the east off Bearspaw Road. And of course, you could always ride out to the site from Calgary. Please try and spread the parking out so that everybody isn't all parked at the same spot in order to keep things low key with respect to the local population.

View Directions to Twp Rd 262 in a larger map
The course starts just west of Woodland Road and heads west along 1A towards Cochrane. After a few kilometres and just before you start to head down the hill into Cochrane we turn right on to Big Hill Road, around the corner and straight north on Range Road 40. A short time thereafter another right turn onto Twp Road 262 heads you back eastwards towards the finish about a kilometre before you get to Lochend road. It's a short ride back to the start from there.

View Directions to Twp Rd 262 in a larger map
We'll kick things off with a 'regular' TT which basically means bring the aero gear if you got it. Aero bars, aero helmets, discs, wind resistance reducing full body butter applications, whatever make it happen for you. Not required of course and really it just comes down to legs and lungs.

I'll need at least 3 volunteers for this one so bring a friend and I'll put them to work. It's pretty easy work and nothing beats standing out there in the howling wind watching cyclings grind their way forward. As for the weather, we'll play it by ear and I'll update the blog as we go. Showers don't scare me but driving rain, snow, locusts, and whatever else this province produces does.

We'll see you then.