Saturday Morning Road Ride Report

We rode to Pigeon Lake and back. It was awesome. Very awesome.

Saturday Morning Road Ride

Leaving from my place at 10am.

The more, the merrier.

The Streak is Still Alive

13 consecutive goose eggs and counting for Vic.

There were no big changes to the overall standings with the final three stages of the Driedaagse De Panne, except for maybe Olli trying to muscle his way into the top 5. But big changes can be expected on Sunday. We are into the heart of the cobbled classics now, with the Tour of Flanders this weekend and Paris-Roubaix the following. They are both monuments, so the points will be on steroids. We will return to Parlour Coffee to watch Paris-Roubaix together on the big screen wall. Stay tuned for more details on that one.

Full results and overall standings here.

Garage Sale!

Howdy folks.

All SOLD items have been removed from the Garage Sale site for better navigation (good idea!). The BF is now an author, so you can send stuff his way too if you'd like it posted.

Overall - while I haven't used it as much as I thought I might - I'm really pleased with the Garage Sale. It seems to move stuff well. JP might feel differently - I swear those pedals will get to you one day soon.

Suggestions always welcome.

TNR Report

Happy Birthday Luke. That was fun.





We still showed up at the klubhaus for a bit. That was fun too. Especially when Jonny G fell off his bike as we were about to leave.

TNR

There is a birthday boy among us. He invited us over to help him celebrate. We will oblige.

9:30 pm at my place.

We Heart Vic

Troy conceded more ground today. He laid a goose egg and now his lead is down to just 145 points. Poor Troy. But it could be worse. He could be Vic. Vic is currently working on a truly impressive feat. In ten races, he has not scored a single point. Perhaps this explains why neither he nor anyone else caught the fact that he was mistakenly omitted from the overall standings for the first nine races. Maybe we were unwittingly doing him a favour by failing to publicize this rather dubious distinction. But that oversight has now been corrected and he now sits in last place for all the world to see. How much longer will his streak of goose eggs grow? Check back tomorrow to see if he makes it 11 in a row.

The Halfrican and I did not lay goose eggs. That is because we had the wisdom to select the young Slovak phenom, Peter Sagan, for our pool teams. He won today and gave us 350 points each. So I am now within striking distance of Troy. And Pete is within striking distance of the podium. He now sits just 30 points behind the third spot that is currently being occupied by King Andy. The J-Train finished third today with 90 points. He is in fifth overall, 140 points back of Pete.

Full results and overall standings here.

Philippe Who?

Remember last year when Gilbert won any race he entered? So far this year, he has exactly 0 points. My boyfriend's totals are less than stellar too. Which is to say, those who went with Options 1 and 2 are not exactly flourishing in the 2012 FGBC Spring Classics Pool. Things could change yet, but so far it looks like Option 3 was the right one.

Troy didn't exactly get sacked in Gent-Wevelgem. But at least we sent a message. With top-seven finishes from Sagan, Boasson Hagen, Bennati, and Marcato, I got 900 points to win the race. The Halfrican finished second with 745 points. And Mike H rounded out the podium with 670 points.

Troy got just 460 points. He still has a healthy lead. But at 495 points, all of a sudden he looks beatable. Especially after he conceded almost that many points in Gent-Wevelgem alone.

Watch the highlights:



Full results and overall standings here.

The Three Days of Depanne are up next, starting tomorrow. This is a chance for some of the lower-ranked riders to shine.

The Sacking of Troy

A long time ago in a faraway land, a city called Troy seemed to have everything going for it. But it got a little bit too cocky and eventually it was time for Troy to receive its comeuppance. Things did not end well for Troy. But Justice, she was left smiling like Germaine, the 66 year old podium girl at E3 Harelbeke, after she got to kiss Tom Beans.


There are some among us who think it's time for Troy to receive some comeuppance in the 2012 FGBC Spring Classics Pool. Troy won his first race of the season yesterday at Harelbeke. He had 800 points, thanks to Boonen, Duque, and Degenkolb, and finished easily ahead of Kim and Mike G. But the bigger story is in the overall standings, where Troy now leads King Andy by 840 points. Needless to say, the King is not impressed. So watch out Troy. If you see a large wooden horse galloping across the horizon, it might be a good idea to run for cover.

Gent - Wevelgem goes down on Sunday. King Andy needs to make a statement. It should be interesting to watch.

Full results and overall standings here.

Cobbles for Breakfast

The cobbled classics season starts today with the E3 Harelbeke. The race gets its name from a highway and doesn't exactly scream AWESOME. But the organizers have tried to compensate for that with an interesting series of billboards placed along that highway and others in Belgium. Last year they went with the tried and true advertising formula in which the podium girl lost her clothes.


It seems that resulted in too many crashes. So this year they tried something a bit different: less podium girl and more podium Oma.


Read the story here.

The E3 Harelbeke serves to get everyone primed for the Tour of Flanders next weekend and Paris-Roubaix the following. My boyfriend was the first to arrive at the finish line in Harelbeke in each of the past two editions of the race. Can he make it three in a row? Watch the race to find out.

Live streaming options here.

Dwars Door Vlaanderen

Ben wins it with 265 points. Adam and Joe tied for second. They had 200 points each.

Troy continues to lead the overall race. But King Andy has moved into second place. And the Impaler now sits in third overall.

Full results and overall standings here.

TNR Report

It was another brisk ride. So brisk, in fact, that we didn't have any time for photos. KK must have had a bad day at work, because he whipped up a storm at the front of the group. And it never really slowed down. Until we got stuck in some mud. Apparently, it isn't quite as dry as we thought it was. So we cut the ride short and headed back to the klubhaus on an equally brisk pace. It is a good thing we did, because our early arrival allowed us to catch Unger and Phillie before they were able to sneak away after reporting for the early shift.

Given the lengthy slate of agenda at last week's meeting, we really had little official business to discuss. And given the Secretary's absence, we actually left before they kicked us out the door.

The Impaler failed to show up to provide us with an account of his recent whirlwind trip to Georgia. That was sad. Story time with the Impaler is one of our favourite things in the world.

The tunes were nondescript. I can't remember a single one.

And finally, it is spring. So we are officially in the season of the Spring Ride. How sweet is that?

TNR

We may as well ride. Maybe embrace our inner ninjas too.

9:30 pm at my place.

Vicarious MSR

Well, that was exciting. If you weren't able to watch it live, make sure to watch the exciting final 7 kms. It really captures what makes this race so special. Is it a sprinters race? A climbers race? Or somewhere in between? The answer is yes.

My boyfriend cam up a few inches short in the real race. But I won the vicarious one. So in the end, it was a pretty good day for the two of us. With contributions from Sagan, Degenkolb, Bennati, Leukemans, Boasson Hagen, and Marcato, I wound up with 1225 points and moved up from 23rd place to a share of 2nd place with Chris O. Troy had a very good day as well, finishing second with 1115 points. And Joe rounded out the podium with 800 points. Since Troy was already sitting close to the top of the standings, he now has a very big lead in the overall race. 550 points, to be exact. Fortunately for the rest of us, it's the Spring Classics Pool and ground can be gained or lost in a hurry.

Full results and overall standings here.

White Horse Road Ride

Leaving from my place at 4pm.

Right On

Thanks to the Halfrican for pointing this out.

And thanks to Lawrence for doing such a fine job on the jerseys. See also his blog post about the jerseys here.

Thursday Anticipation: Special Friday Edition

On April 20, in the middle of the night, the Dark Side will travel out to Falcon Lake to blanket the town with these posters. They are good folk down there and they deserve a heads up about what a big deal the Spring Ride is.

Who's up for a road ride this weekend? Something will happen. We're just not sure exactly what or when. But post something on the blog if you have a plan and are looking for someone to ride with.

TNR Report

There was fire. It was awesome.

There was also an appearance from the President. This resulted in a rather long list of agenda items being brought up for discussion. It would be foolish to try and summarize it all. But rest assured that everything is under control.

It was also our first ride on the pavement in a long time. Clearly there was some pent up energy that did not get expended during the short winter. The pace was brisk.

Nokere Koerse Report

There were a lot of goose eggs laid at this mid-week cobbled race. 35 of them, to be exact. Only Anna and Eryn scored points. Anna got 150 points from Maxime Vantomme. And Eryn had 350 points today thanks to Francesco Chicchi taking the win. Congratulations Eryn!

No big changes to the overall standings. We won't be able to say that on Saturday. It's the first of the four monuments. With 500 points for the win, there are plenty of points up for grabs and the standings are sure to receive a significant shakeup.

Heading into Milan - San Remo, the overall standings look like this.

IceTT Poster

Had we known the IceTT would go down last week, we'd have had the following poster. We will share it anyway, just because it is so awesome.

TNR

It is messy out there. Where should we ride?

Bring your ideas to my place at 9:30 pm.

Thursday Anticipation

11 more weeks? That is nothing.

In case you missed it . . .

We stopped following the Training Co-op with any sort of regularity when the ultimate fighting coverage surpassed cycling-related confabulation by a margin larger than any self-respecting bike club could be expected to tolerate. We do, however, check in from time to time. And it's a good thing we do. Because otherwise we would have missed this video of Cousin Thomas doing what Cousin Thomas does. If anyone needed any confirmation that he is worthy winner of the 24 Hours of Bill Murray this past weekend, this should put the question to rest.

Video Report from the 24hr Race

TNR Report

It did not start out well. The Hipster broke a chain on the ride over to the Forks.



Fortunately, the four of us who were riding with him managed to cobble together everything we needed to get it fixed. Bill supplied the light. Jonny G supplied the chain tool. I contributed some spare chain links. And Brandon, in what was perhaps the biggest contribution of them all, found a can of FGD in his pack.

It took a little while, but we got it fixed and continued on our way.





The river trail was in perfect shape. Perfect for riding, at least. Not so perfect for skating. So after a brief consultation in the warming hut, we decided we better take advantage of the conditions and hold the annual IceTT.




It was shorter than usual. But it hurt just the same. Possibly even more. Or at least differently. Last year the pain arrived courtesy of a series of crashes on the freshly flooded ice. This year the snow cover allowed us actually to ride fast, so the pain migrated from knees and elbows into the legs and lungs.

The results are as follows:

Chris - 6:30
Craig - 6:40
Bill - 6:50
Mark - 6:59
Jonny G - 7:00
Vic - 7:22
Brandon - 7:39
Scott - 7:56
KK - 8:00 (apparently fat bikes are not ideal ITT rigs; no fat bike penalty necessary)

Back at the klubhaus, we feasted on left over chips from the weekend. The BF told us about his plans to start a brewery. The Impaler told us some things that were Rated RRR. Graham told us that his real reason for joining the Dark Side was so that he might have a chance of winning the Butter Belt. The Summer of Graham? It could happen. Lisa told us things we'd rather not have been told. And the management told us how much they love the fact that we love each other so much. At least that's how we interpreted the soundtrack for the evening, which consisted of Culture Club, George Michael and an assortment of other conspicuously homoerotic tunes.

Breaking News

We just received the following memo from the Accommodations Director:

Spring Ride is booked at Falcon. Details:
May 25 – 27.
Falcon group use (far bay).
Paid up for the first 20 people, then $14.7 per night for additional.

How sweet is that?

TNR

It has been a while since we rode on the river trail. Looking at the forecast for the weekend, it looks very much like tonight might be our last chance to do that. Which makes our decision about where to ride fairly easy.

9:30 pm at my place.

Strade Bianche Report

My boyfriend and I had a difficult conversation a few years back. We decided it was best if I didn't pick him for my pool teams. Fabs said he didn't need any added pressure. That's too bad. Because yesterday was one of those days when those who built their team around him were rewarded. In fact, it was one of those days where those who didn't build their teams around him should be worried. Very worried. It is too early to tell of course. But the way he rode away from everybody suggests he might be on form to repeat the show of force that was 2010.

Chris O won the vicarious Strade Bianche. He had 600 points thanks to Fabs and Ballan. How much more would he have had if Ballan didn't take a wrong turn with a few kms to go? I suppose we will never know. Lyle picked up 535 points to finish second. That is good. We were starting to wonder whether he might lay a goose egg for the whole Spring Classics Pool. He won't. He now has 535 points overall. In third place was Mike G with 410 points. A few years ago, Mike set the vicarious racing world on fire the way Fabs did in 2010 for the real racing scene and Gilbert did last year. Do we have the old Mike back in 2012? That would be fun. We miss him.

In the overall race, we've had a change at the very top of the standings. Brad the Impaler is the new leader. He has 1185 points. Troy has dropped down to second overall. He is exactly 100 points behind Brad. Jason is only 60 points back of Troy. Behind the top three, people are lining up to take their shots. Andy, Jonny G, and Chris O are all within striking distance. Each of them is just one good race away from the overall lead.

We'll have to wait awhile before we see if they can make a move. The next race is the Nokere Koerse on March 14. Right now it's early season stage racing time. Paris-Nice is currently underway. And the so-called Race of the Two Seas, Tirreno Adriatico, starts on Wednesday. This would be a good time to do a little advance scouting for the 2012 Giro and TdF Pools.

Full results and overall standings here.

24 Hours of Question Marks

We had a new spot on the calendar to contend with. And a new host venue. So we thought it fitting to provide some familiarity by going with a tried and true course out in the Ass. Forest. But Mother Nature countered by giving us the biggest snowfall we've had all year. Needless to say, there was a fair amount of uncertainty about how this here story was about to unfold.

The first lap was hard. We kind of expected that. But decided to test out the route and take it from there. The snow was deep. Hard to go downhill deep. And the loop through the forest was a back crusher of a slog. There was a fair amount of walking.





But we consoled ourselves with the fact that this could be considered an extended training session for riding sandy cyclocross courses. And we convinced ourselves that the second lap would be better after the fat tyred set packed down the trail for the rest of us. So while we made some slight modifications to the course, we decided to keep the forest loop pretty much as it was.

The second lap was in fact easier. But only because it was the first movie lap--Stripes. It was as good as my twelve year old self remembered it to be. Some things never get old. The second lap out on the course was not easier at all. It was harder.

Fortunately we had chips.



And plenty of movies to watch.



Some rode more than others. But then again, those others enjoyed more beer and chips. Everyone seemed happy. Especially the Secretary.



As for the results, there are plenty of question marks here as well. Between the various penalties and bonus laps, there was too much math to figure out anything for certain. For a while, we thought that the BF might have taken the win. A bad back prevented him from getting on his bike. But he amassed a good number of bonus laps by selecting a fine rotation of films, making chili, and generally ensuring that everybody remained in good spirits. Good thing we didn't hand him the bottle of champagne, though. Because it seems he may have missed the mandatory breakfast lap at Sals. Which would mean he didn't so much win as DNF the race. I am not in a position to confirm or disconfirm this suspicion, since I also missed the Sals lap. But in my case, that did not result in a DNF. Because I'd already been booted from the race for succumbing to a short nap during the mandatory Big Lebowski lap. There were a few others who may have nodded off as well. But it was hard to keep track while sleeping.

So whom shall we call the winner? In his first race since the appearance of the leaked memo about his coming over to the Dark Side, Graham put in a fine showing. His older brother thought he had him beat. But between Scott's fat tire penalties and Graham's bonus laps, the Awesome One came out on top.

Cousin Thomas put in a fine showing as well. He only rode one lap. But he put it to good use, spray-painting arrows on the snow so that people like Brad wouldn't get lost. And he suffered a first lap bonk worthy of an entire 24 Hour Race. Which resulted in him getting lost long enough that we considered sending out a search party. But eventually he made it back. And then settled into a film viewing regimen that would made Roger Ebert look like an amateur. All the while sending out tweets so that the shut-ins could follow along from home.

And then there was the head band. He amassed enough bonus points from that thing alone to make it his race to lose.



So let's say Thomas wins the 24 Hours of Bill Murray. Unless Graham or anyone else wants to try and convince us otherwise.

Good times. Special thanks to Tom K for the use of his place. I haven't slept so well in a long time. But it should be noted that the Secretary says anyone who plans to submit a bid to host next year's race will need to have a hot tub on hand. We eagerly await your proposals.

A Few Things

First, and most importantly, everyone must bring two bags of chips. There will be no exceptions.

Second, the location is 206 Athlone Dr.

The first lap begins at 10am sharp.

Fat bike penalties will be applied. There will also be penalties for being very un-Dude. There may be some bonus points awarded. Expect some element of randomness.

Anything else, drop a comment below.

Thursday Anticipation

I can't remember. Is there something going on this weekend?

I have my bike ready just in case.