I've seen things you people wouldn't believe....

....fancy bikes with flats on the shoulder of the highway.  I watched speedsters stop to eat near the Kananskis gate.  All those riders will be racing, like riders in pain.  Time to go.

Back again is the most scenic road race on earth.  Well, in Alberta at least.  It's time for the Kananaskis Road Race.  This little classic, a favourite from the days of yore, starts where White Avenue in Bragg Creek meets Highway 66 just west of 22. This is on the back way out of Bragg Creek near the Provincial Park and 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. Time is the usual 6:30, this Wednesday the 25th.

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While I endeavour to clean up the course where I can and to avoid significant obstacles, there are a couple of sections of this course that require some warning. The first thing to note is that there are three sets of 'Texas Gates' on the roadway in each direction. What are 'Texas Gates' you ask? Somebody somewhere though it would be a grand idea to let cows do what cows do wherever they want in large open areas. We like roads through these large open areas so fences just don't work to keep marauding bovines out of out gardens and china shops. The clever solution (clever being a relative term when you're dealing with Texas) is to lay a bunch of pipes across the roadway with the idea that cattle can't cross. Well they can't, but bikes can. They places a couple of small strips along the direction of travel for things like bikes or snakes or something like that to travel along. We've all ridden over these cursed things and for the most part they provide little obstacle. What I need from the riders is a commitment that you'll ride nice and neutral over them, at a comfortable speed, and you'll wait until everyone is across to open the throttle. Just at the gates, mind you. Open the throttle up the hills all you want, I'll be there to chuckle.
The second thing to note are the hills. While the fun and exciting part is going uphill, all things at some point have to come down. So when the roadway tilts down and you descend, take it easy, spread out, give room and ride safe. While it might look cool to open up a couple of hundred feet on the pack going downhill by the time you the uphill starts again that translates into about four feet.
The final thing to note is the proximity to the special area of the province known as McLean Creek. It's not that kind of 'special', it's the other kind of 'special', the kind with 'special' people. They people have bikes which like yours, have wheels. Many of them might also be armed in a way that Alberto 'El Pistolero' Contador is not. They might however, test cleaner. The course goes through the turnoff area and while we have right of way and all that, just be alert and keep your heads up. We all know what happens when the canoes wreck and the banjos start.
The course is pretty simple. The Cs will ride something like a 38km round trip, turning around at a pullout just up the hill after Elbow Falls. The Bs make the summit and turn around at the pullout there, and the As go to the end of the earth, I mean road and turn around at the entrance to the provincial park. The finish is pretty much back where we started.

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This is a great one to bring a volunteer to as I can certainly think of worse things to do than hang around in the spectacular mountains watching the race. In all, I need at least three to make it go, the plywood guys (I call them 'Texas volunteers') won't cut it this time. See ya then.

Series 3 Week 1: Results

Well, it was a beautiful evening for a TT.  Sunny, hot, and only a slight wind.  Attendance was light, I expected a few more!  Thanks to all the volunteers for their help!


Here are the results of the Full Aero TT on Woodland Course.

WNS Series 2

A big thank you to Mike and Speed Theory for organizing the entire second series for the 2012 WNS.

Series 3 Week 1: Full Aero TT on Woodland Course

Peter will be running the race this week. We are back in the NW on the Woodland Course for a 16km full aero TT. First rider will start at 6:30. He will require at least a couple of volunteers.

Bonus points for anyone we beats the record time for their Category (I will try to post the records before the race).

Standard TT, Woodland Road Course.
Details:  There is some parking near the start of  the race located on the gravel sideroad parallel to highway 1A.  However, we encourage those who can to park in town, or near bearspaw Road and ride to the start.  Spreading out the cars helps with community relations.

Distance is 16km so ride hard and ride consistent, there are a few hills in the closing kilometres.  After you finish, it's and easy neutral ride back to the starting area down Lochend and along the 1A.  Be careful with the 1A, it's a busy piece of road at times.  The coarse starts along the 1A heading West.  You turn off the 1A near the top of the Cochrane Hill at retreat road, following the road as it twists back and turns north.  The next and last turn is right onto 262 which takes you to the finish along 262 a kilometre before you reach Lochend Road.

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Series 2 Results

The auditors, the UCI, the colour commentators, editors, spell checkers, historians and drug testers will all be around later to contribute to this masterpiece. In the meantime I thought you would like to see the series results. Some people raced in different divisions during the series and some should probably not have raced in the divisions they raced in so I had to make some adjustments. I will ask our webmaster to help me link the full spreadsheet here later so you can see how you did in each of the 4 races. Thanks to the racing volunteers who got their points for racing and the non-racer volunteers - Lesley Matthews, Peter Heinemayer, Rob Stagg, Connie Choi and Randy Szasz. We missed one race at the start because of the weather so that was not bad. I see one potential problem already, I have an Ernie and a Frank Cosman listed, are they one and the same or do we have a Schleck situation on our hands?

Category A			Category B			Category C
Cody Godlonton	45		Walter Loeppky	52		John Banister	35
Stephen Kenny	40		Mike Urquhart	35		Justin Siemens	35
Barrie Furlong	35		Tom Kenny	33		Rod Schuhart	35
Karel Bergman	35		Stephen Pickett	30		Willie Van Sevenant	35
Thomas Yip	28		Mike Chopchitz*	26		Brad Barron	33
Mike Waldhuber	24		Lampros Antoniou	21		Dan Alboiu	30
Evan Bayer	23		Corey Davis	20		Shawna Donaldson	30
Marc Enter	22		Simon Forman	20		Andy Hill	30
Callum Galbraith	20		Marc Enter	20		Andres Perdomo	25
Dallas Morris	15		Lawrence Zalasky	17		Rick Richard	20
Isaac Beall	14		Glenn Miles	17		Dave Robertson	18
Reinier Paauwe	14		Brent Thumlert	12		Meghan Brown	10
Rick Courtney	13		Peter Doig	10		Louis Gitelman	9
Jack VanDyk	12		Carl Lapointe	10		Dawn Heinemeyer	9
Harley Borlee	12		Paul Connelly	9		Kailee Boyle	9
Rob Walsh	9		Ron Fiell	9		David Baker	8
Clark Ellis	9		Daryl Beatty	9		Frank Cosman	8
Jason Koleba	9		Jeremie Green	9		Shelly Bender	8
Joel Goralski	8		Jay Rankin	9		Ernie Cosman	7
Alan Oickle	8		Lewis Gitelman	8		Stan Alboiu	7
Michael Scheck	6		Mike Healy	7		Patrick Brick	7
Andrew Paul	5		Keith Ingstrup	3		Sarah Foster	4
						Brenda Guebert	4
						Mark Perry	3

COP Hill Climb Times

Thanks for your comments everyone, must have had a glitch in the timing. Here are the final results.

Willy and Stephen also get points for volunteering and racing. Thanks guys. Working on series results now.

Stephen Kenny 4:15
Cody Godlonton 4:20
Karel Bergman 4:20
Barrie Furlng 4:25
Clark Ellis 4:27
Joel Goralski 4:28
Stephen Pickett 4:46
Tom Kenny 5:00
Mike Urquhart 5:13
Callum Balbraith 5:20
Walter Loeppky 5:27
Lewis Gitelman 5:30
Lawrence Zalasky 5:32
Jeremie Green 5:33
Glenn Miles 5:35
Jay Rankin 5:40
Shawna Donaldson 5:45
Keith Ingstrup 5:52
Dan Alboiu 5:59
Rod Schuhart 5:59
Andy Hill 5:59
Brad Barron 6:18
Willie Van Sevenant 6:21
Patrick Brick 8:16

WNS Alley Cat Style July 11

The plan for next Wednesday is COP HC Alley Cat style. 3 up TT starting at 7 PM sharp. Pre-registration by email, I will try to pair up groups of 3 riders of similar ability. Send me an email at mikehealy at shaw dot ca with your predicted time, it will be same start and finish as Bow. If you don't know what your time might be, I'll just group by category A, B or C. So tell me either time or category. There won't be volunteers to hold you at the start line.

I STILL NEED ONE VOLUNTEER FOR TIMING.
I CHANGED IT TO 2 UP TT. ALSO THE START AND END POINTS ARE FAIRLY CLEAR, START AT THE BOTTOM OF THE HILL, I THINK THERE IS A STOP SIGN, I WILL BE THERE ANYWAY. THE END IS JUST A FEW METRES BEYOND THE TOP OF THE HILL, YOU WILL WISH IT CAME SOONER THOUGH.

Show up an hour early if you like and get in some hill repeats as warm up, this will be a "timed training ride" if anyone asks. Ride to COP please, you will be DQ if you drive there and are warming up on a trainer. Look for me on my bike anytime from 6:30 to 6:50 around the start line and I will give you your start time. Unless of course I get really organized and can post the groupings and start times here.

Dont forget to pre-register, if for some reason you think this is a bad idea let me know ASAP, as far as I know it should work well as long as we don't look super organized. You can also register by leaving a comment here.


Pairings as of Tuesday evening. Keep them coming!

7:00 PM - Jeremie Green & Patrick Brick
7:01 - Shawna Donaldson & Dan Alboiu
7:02 - Lewis Gitelman & Mike Urquhart
7:03 - Keith Ingstrup & Brad Barron
7:04 - Jay Rankin & Glenn Miles
7:05 - Stephen Pickett & Walter Loeppky

7:06 - The main event: Callum Galbraith & Tom Kenny [Trashtalk underway in the comments section, let's not have any Bradley Wiggins quotes though]

7:07 - Alan Oickle &
7:08 - Karel Bergman & Stephen Kenny
7:09 - Cody Godlonton & Clark Ellis

40 K TT Report/Results

Here are the provisional results, adjusted for the red light stops. Some really fast times tonight, great going everyone. If something does not look right, let me know. Several people scored bonus points when their times were adjusted for the slightly longer course (41.5 k).

A Group
1. Evan Baker 57:27
2. Dallas Morris 58:44
3. Jack VanDyk 59:20
4. Cody Godlonton 1:00:05
5. Rick Courtney 1:00:12
6. Mike Waldhuber 1:01:55
7. Isaac Beall 1:02:31
8. Reinier Paauwe 1:02:43
9. Barrie Furlong DNF/Flat

B Group
1. Walter Loeppky 1:03:37
2. Lampros Antoniou 1:04:36
3. Glenn Miles 1:05:18
4. Simon Forman 1:10:25

C Group
1. Rick Richard 1:06:24
2. John Banister 1:08:13
3. Brad Barron 1:09:30
4. Andy Hill 1:11:19
5. Kailee Boyle 1:11:35
6. Andres Perdomo 1:12:24
7. Stan Alboiu 1:12:35
8. Willie VanSevenant 1:16:37
9. David Baker 1:17:31
10. Shelly Bender 1:17:48
11. Dave Robertson 1:21:16
Mark Perry, Jeremie Green and Rod Schuhart all Flat/DNF

Excellent Volunteers:
Marc Enter
Randy Szasz
Stephen Kenny
Thomas Yip
Frank Cosman