Welcome to 2010: Odyssey Two ... er ... Three

The cenutry's greatest story continues staring Heywood Floyd ... wait, skip that.

Hello all. First off, apologies for my tardiness in getting anything out there. My crack team and I have been beavering away for literally minutes now getting the details together for the 2010 version of the Wednesday Night Race Series. First off I would like to counter the rumour put forth by the UCI that fair, fun and open racing was to be banned in 2010 across the globe in favour of contrived, pedestrian, and boring racing. This is not the case. We'll be back, bigger and better than ever with new events, new courses, a tweak or two to the format and something for everybody.

Changes for 2010:

1. Entire series will run 15 weeks of racing this year.
2. The racing will de divided into 3 five week miniseries with points and champs each time.
3. New courses and formats if we can make them up and find the locations.
4. New category for the super green with some instruction, a shorter course, and lots of feedback.

Mark April 28th on your calender as our kickoff meeting. We'll comandeer an area at Shouldice and lay out the info and whatnot for the year. As an organizational element we still need people to be at least secondary members of C4 which gives you access to Crankmasters, the WNS, and all the other races that we put on for a nominal fee. See the Crankmasters website for details (http://www.calgarycycling.com/). Please feel free to email me with any ideas, suggestions, comments and criticisms any time, I can take it.

Open the pod bay doors HAL.

That's a wrap for 2009

Thanks for coming out whether a racer, volunteer, or as one of the legion of fans that we've attracted over the last few months. I hope I've thanked all the volunteers in the write ups and if I missed you, thanks so much, you are the ones that make it all happen. Thanks to the racers for giving us a reason to come out and thanks for providing the entertainment, inspiring us, and making the series what it is.
I miss it already and I'm already thinking of 2010 so if you have any comments, cricisms, advice, or great new ideas please let me know. I'm always looking for new courses, formats, and ways to improve. Given the strength of the response in the last couple of weeks there has been some discussion about adding two or three weeks to the schedule next year and going through the summer. I think that might just work.
Let me know, either through email or just comment and I certainly appreciate anything you have to offer. See you all at the Crankmasters Awards Night or if you don't make that, see you in 2010.

Final Series Standings

Time to crown the deserving......

The As
All Speed Theory, all the time. Well, just about all the time as Speed Theory riders swept the top five places and were regular atendees each and every week. Counting on solid performances and missing just one race, Rick Courtney is our A champ for 2009. Chasing Rick hard was Darryl Parry who made all ten of the weeks and counted on strong consistent rides to make it just about to the top. Hard charging Trev Williams rounded out the top three including a great final week to vault a couple of guys to get there. Lots of guys just behind them and some really encouraging attendance numbers with 31 total As making it out should set up for a great 2010.



The Bs
Mister consistency Mike Healy (Speed Theory) virtually ran away with this one by making all 10 races as well as finishing near the front each and every week. Super job there to stay out in front in the big finale with Brian Beaulieu and Ron Fiell both of Crankmasters chasing hard and ending up second and third overall respectively. All in all there were 24 Bs out this year and some new faces that I hope to see more of next year. Keep the races close, it makes it interesting just to calculate the points nevermind the drama on the road.



The Cs
How close could we make this. Willy Vansevenant (Highwood) grabbed 16 points in the finale but just failed to overtake Crankmaster's Brad Barron who took 12 points to hold on to the title. Congrats Brad and Willy for making is good and entertaining. Crankmaster Mark Perry finished a solid third and I suspect will make it just as intersting next year. Hugely encouraged to see 24 riders out in the C category this year to bring the total to 79 riders throughout the categories.



***There will of course be a chance to stand up, revel in the glory, and recieve an awesome award at the annual Crankmaster's Awards Night so please plan on coming out. I'll post details in the fall so occasionally watch this space.***

Finally .... Results from the Big Show

It took a while for the auditors and of course the drug testing but we finally have the results in hand for our end of series spectacle. Actually, I was off and without my electronic lifelines so other than a case of the shakes and no clue as to what is happening in the world, it's all good.
First of all, congratulations to everybody that took part in the series this year and I hope you all had a great time. It was another successful season and I can't wait to do it again next year.
In our gruelling and fiercly contested finale we had a full compliment of riders in each of our three categories which made for quite a race. Add to that a beasutiful night and prode on the line brought out the best in everyone. It was also very closely contested almost as if orchestrated or planned out in some way. I'll never say but the times are authentic and audited so great job. The A's went to the final TT to determine it all with Alex Shaw handing Trev Williams a little bit of a beat down in the TTs and gained the win while Darryl Parry and Joel Garalski managed to tie for third after three events and over an hour of racing. Better yet, Darren Nielson and Masa Higouchi tied 9 seconds behind them for fifth. The Bs went the distance as well with Mike Harrington stealing it from the always reliable Mike Healy with Ron Fiell and Brian Beaulieu close behind. Huge props to Willy Vansevenant for laying a beating onthe other guys in C finisheing almost three minutes ahead of the very close race for second which went to Brad Barron over Patrick Brick. Way to represent.

Of course, huge thanks again to Don Huber, Mike Hoang, and Sandy Torburn for volunteering and making the whole thing possible. Three races in one evening is amazing so hats off and thanks for the help.
Final standings to follow.....

The Ultimate Showdown...

....well, it all comes down to this. The Amazing spectacle of amazingness that is the WNS mini-micro stage race. That's right, THREE times the racing in ONE evening. This Wednesday the 29th sharp at roughly 6:30ish we'll go forth and ride. Using our numbers, we'll lay siege to the Priddis Meeting spot at the corner of 22 and 22X.

View Larger Map

Once the fleet is assembled, we'll launch the riders on solo sorties commonly known in the cycling world as a prologue. We'll start right near the meeting spot and cover about 2km up the hill towards Calgary along 22X.

View Millarville Prologue in a larger map

Following an easy retreat back to the meeting spot we'll launch in our group squadrons onto the Millarville course for a lap of puttin' the hurt on. Time is the essence of this race and of course beating and shaming your nearest rivals.

View Millarville RR Course in a larger map

Then the deciding race of truth, a 9km individual TT for all the marbles. The TT will start a little south of the RR finish on 22 and run straight north back to the meeting spot and home base.

View Millarville TT in a larger map

After some dutifully applied mathemagics(tm) we'll crown our very own Tour de Millarville Contarmstrongoden. I couldn't fit any Schlecks or Wiggins in there without sounding rude and vaguely pronographic. Results are total time and there are bonus point on the line for finishes in each of the three events. Everything is Merckx again, we don't have time to change bikes around. The weather looks good (furiously knocking on wood here) and we'll need just two or three addtional volunteers although the more the merrier and the better run the event will be. Spectators are highly encourage and keep in mind that we'll only allow a few thousand out for each stage as we like to line the road no more than three deep on each side. Big bonus if you've got a relative or friend that can don a devil costume, chase the riders, and talk backwards.

Identified Speeding Objects seen at Woodland Road

Wheeeee, that was a quick one. No complaints about sonic booms and it was tough to see the riders for their speed induced blurriness but it was an impressive displace of 'making bike go fast now'. Line honours went to Trev Williams but as he was in full aero gear getting ready for the Calgary 70.3 so I had to consult the Slowtwitch brain trust to properly handicap his time. Consensus was that his aeroness saved him 10minutes and 30sec but the beard lost hime 30sec so I added 10minutes to his time giving the win to Alex Shaw. Everyone was quick though and the results speak to how close you riders are, it was really competitive. Anyway, the results....



Huge props to our glorious volunteers for the evening including Phil and Cindy Grant, Scott Gibson-Craig, Mike Harrington, Sandra Braden, Brad Barron, and Brian Beaulieu. It wouldn't have worked without you.

I've updated the standings going into out last week, next Wednesday, which I have preliminarily titled 'The Amazing Race of Awesomeness' for all the marbles. We'll run our micro stage race with a prologue TT, a Road Race, and finally an ITT. All of it at the Priddis Meeting Spot and hopefully we can start real close to 6:30 so that we can fit it all in. Details to come and remember, there are bonus points on the line for this one. I'll need a few volunteers to run it efficiently so bring a friend or come out yourself and be a part of it. I'm really looking forward to it.

Length of last night?

Anyone have an accurate distance for last night? I am just trying to figure out what kind of shape I am in.

Thanks,

Trev