HC Meets the Press

After yesterday's stage:

Tour of Cali

It hasn't been going so well for the honorary captain. Crashes, ill-timed flat tires, and less than stellar ITTs. Bummer. Just another entry in a long list of not-so-good times. The NYT chimes in as well. Gone into "Mennonite mode" and "the simpler, the better," they say. It sounds like he's been employing the highly refined FGBC training program too. He may not be winning, but it seems like he's right on track.



The stylemongers from Rapha Continental are also riding the route. They're so pretty.



See their series of short films from the Tour of Cali here.

Words

Check out this article on cycling in Winnipeg in winter from today's Globe and Mail. Some of you will know the author. Right on.

Thursday Anticipation

1) Operación MUERTO

We have a schedule. Five races. Each of them rather long. It's going to be a good summer. There will be pain. There will be pleasure. And there will be a belt buckle for the overall series winner. Your best four results count toward the overall competition. Look for some MUERTO exhibition events as well. Coming this spring. Spread the good news.



2) Altona Bike Festivus

The next event on the Nordic Cross calendar is the the celebration of bikes, ACC basketball, and good times formerly known as the Tour of Altona. But "Tour of . . ." race names are so lame. This will be the 4th annual running of this outstanding event. It's always a good time. Definitely worth the drive south.



Race promoter extraordinare, Johnny S sends along the following details and instructions:

Bike games, rink dogs and bragging rights.

Race headquarters: The Exchange – 116 Main St., Altona

Cost: $5 (and a salad, dessert, or munchies to share if your staying for the potluck supper)

B.Y.O.B.

R.S.V.P. A.S.A.P. here.


Events:

- Slow races, Knockdown tournament, Relay race

- Prizes – Home-baked goodness!

- Potluck supper featuring David Sawatzky’s Rink Dogs - “They’re so famous, they’re IN-famous”

- Duke V North Carolina basketball game


Itinerary:

2:00 registration - make teams, explain rules, drink coffee

2:30 slow races

3:00 knockdown tournament

3:30 relay race

5:00 prizes

5:30 supper

6:00 basketball game

3) Brad's Birthday Ride: Last Call


50 kms for 50 years. Don't make him ride alone. That would be cruel. Details here. RSVP here.


4) Spring Ride

In case you haven't noticed, the countdown recently passed under the 100 day mark. We are down to double digits now. I wonder if the Duke is going to show up this year.



5) Gianni's Grass Track Glossary

The Grass Track Czar is busy researching his entry on Keirin. Like Tom Waits, it's big in Japan. But it's taking longer than originally planned due to some miscommunication with the Japanse translation experts. It seems they don't understand the sorts of deadline pressures that Gianni faces in his line of work. He is confident that this will all be cleared up in time for next week. In the meantime, enjoy this commercial for Keirin racing from Berlin as well as two commercials from Japan that it's clearly trying to poke fun at.

Classics Pool Preliminaries

The 2009 FGBC Classics Pool is almost ready to go. It will include the same races as last year. But unlike last year, we will use the same system for choosing teams that was used for the CX Pool--i.e., choosing riders from a series of lists. But there will be a slight variation in that there will be three different options for how those picks must be distributed. This will allow for a little more strategic thinking while still keeping it relatively simple. More about that later. For now, take a look at the list of riders below. The tiered groupings are based on the points that riders accumulated last season, with a few adjustments that attempt to take into consideration injuries and people like Armstrong and Basso who weren't around last year. There is also a separate category called "Ardennes." This groups together those riders who only do the Ardennes Classics--i.e., Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallone, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Should any riders on this list show up at other races, those results will not be counted. In other words, only their results in the Ardennes will count toward the pool.

For those so inclined, here is your opportunity to make some comments on the list. I'm particularly interested in hearing whether anyone who deserves to be there has been overlooked.

The 2009 FGBC Classics Pool will be launched on Friday. So we have a few days to make sure everything is in order.


Tier 1 (1100+ points):

Fabian Cancellara
Tom Boonen


Tier 2 (900-1100 points):

Allesandro Ballan
Davide Rebellin
Nick Nuyens
Philippe Gilbert


Tier 3 (500-800 points):

Filippo Pozzato
Juan Antonio Flecha
Kurt-Asle Arvesen
Lance Armstrong
Leif Hoste
Marcus Burghardt
Martin Maaskant
Oscar Freire
Steven De Jongh
Stijn Devloder
Sylvain Chavanel
Thor Hushovd
Wouter Weylandt


Ardennes:

Alejandro Valverde
Andy Schleck
Benoit Vaugrenard
Cadel Evans
Christian Pfannberger
Damiano Cunego
Danilo Di Luca
Franck Schleck
Ivan Basso
Jerome Pineau
Joachim Rodriguez
Kim Kirchen
Robert Gesink
Samuel Sanchez
Thomas Dekker


Tier 4 (300-500 points):

Allan Johansen
Andreas Klier
Baden Cooke
Berhard Eisel
Borut Bozic
Fabian Wegmann
Geroge Hincapie
Greg Van Avermaet
Karsten Kroon
Mark Cavendish
Martin Elmiger
Matti Breschel
Murilio Fischer
Nico Eeckhout
Rinaldo Nocentini
Robbie McEwen
Stefan Van Dijk
Stuary O'Grady


Tier 5 (150-300 points):

Aitor Galdos
Anthony Geslin
Arnaud Gerard
Bert De Waele
Daniel Lloyd
Enrico Franzoi
Enrico Gasparotto
Frederik Willems
Gregory Rast
Guennandi Mikhailov
Janek Tombak
Johann Van Summeren
John Gadret
Lars Bak
Luca Paolini
Manuel Quinziato
Nico Sijmens
Nikki Terpstra
Pavel Brutt
Roy Sentjens
Ryder Hesjedal
Sergei Ivanov
Staf Scheirlinckx
Steven Cozza
Thomas Voeckler


Tier 6 (<150 points):

Aart Vierhouten
Alexandre Botcharov
Alexandre Usov
Allan Davis
Allesandro Petacchi
Bastiaan Giling
Benoit Salmon
Bert Roesems
Bram Tankink
Christian Murro
Christophe Mengin
Danilo Napolitano
Fabio Baldato
Franco Pellizotti
Gabriele Balducci
Gabriele Bosioso
Geoffroy Laquatre
Gert Steegmans
Jesus Del Nero
Jukka Vastaranta
Kevin Van Impe
Lars Michaelson
Luca Solari
Manuele Mori
Marcel Sieberg
Mario Aerts
Max Van Heeswijk
Michael Schar
Mike Friedman
Olaf Pollack
Pieter Ghyllebert
Robbie Hunter
Salvatore Commesso
Sebastian Chavanel
Steffen Wesemann
Svein Tuft
Thomas Vaitkus
Tyler Farrar
Vincenzo Nibali
Vladimir Gusev
Yaroslav Popovych

Arrowhead 135 Report

A guest post by Lindsay:

It was 4 am and I was struggling to push my 70 pound Surley Puggsley bike up one of the interminable hills and I found myself thinking about where this event fit in among the races I have done. I’ve found that there are two basic levels they fall into. This didn’t reach the “ Please let me keep going for just 5 more minutes level. It was more where I found myself asking why a supposedly sane and well adjusted 60 year old would want to do this to himself. For those of you who’ve read of some other race I’ve been in, you’ll recognize a common theme but it once again seems totally appropriate to this event

I was participating in the Arrowhead 135 winter endurance race near International Falls, Minnesota. The event is the brainchild of Pierre and Cheryl (Madame Frog Dog) Ostir and involves traveling 135 miles on the Arrowhead snowmobile trail by foot, ski or bicycle. I had heard of the event for several years but hadn’t been able to consider it while I was having ongoing issues with a chronically dislocating shoulder. All is well on the shoulder front now so I decided that this would be a worthy event to use as a return to competition. The old go big or go home mentality.

The Arrowhead is the smaller cousin to the Iditasport 350 or 1100 in Alaska. That race uses the same course as the famous Iditarod dogsled race. The Iditabike race resulted in many equipment developments as riders took to welding 2 rims side by side and modifying their frames to accommodate the extra width. This was all in the interest of having a much larger footprint for the tires to avoid sinking into the snow. The bike industry took note and there are now several versions of large tired winter bikes with the most common being the Surly Puggsley.

When I thought of doing this race, I immediately talked to Scot and Morgan at the store ( Olympia Cycle ) and had them order the frame and wheels and piece together the rest of the bike. It was a communal project at the store and I need to thank Liam, Greg, Luc and Morgan as well as Scot who let them spend time working on the bike and it’s setup. I already have a Surly Karate Monkey on which I’ve ridden about 80,000 km in all kinds of weather while couriering. Surly makes great durable bikes, which you obviously want when you’re out in the backcountry on your own.

There was along list of mandatory gear you had to carry on the bike at all times during the race. This included a -30C sleeping bag, a tent or bivie sac, a thermarest, a stove, fire starter, 3 led lights, a headlamp or flashlight. And bike repair tools. There was no requirement for spare clothing but my previous experience with winter adventure racing made me take spare mitts, headgear, a set of underwear, as well as my old down jacket. The gear had to weigh at least 15 lbs. not including water. In order to build in an adequate margin of safety all competitors had to finish the race with at least 3,000 calories of food and 8 ounces of fuel for their stove.

I studied pictures of previous races to figure out how best to distribute the weight on the bike and ended up with a rack on front and back as well as a handlebar bag. I ended up with most of the gear on the rear. In my handlebar bag, I kept food, as I tend to want to continually eat to keep up my energy and stay warm. Water or other fluids are crucial and I saw that a number of bikes had insulated cases on the sides of their forks. I ended up with 3 nalgene 32 ounce bottles in insulated cases, 2 on the forks and the other in the usual place on the downtube. The scale at the store only went up to 50 lbs so I had to weigh the total beast by standing on a bathroom scale and subtracting the difference with and without the bike. Just over 70 lbs.

Our cold winter made for good preparation as I was spending 8 hours a day outside while couriering. The cold made me realize that I could have problems with both my hands and feet if we hit a real cold spell at race time. To solve my foot issues, I went to platform pedals, hiking boots, xc ski overboots and finally Neos overboots. I’m truly ready for the arctic. For my hands, I ordered a pair of Moose Mitts on the Internet. These are overmitts that go on the handlebars of the bike . You still wear mitts or gloves inside of them but they add at least 10 – 15 C in warmth.

As far as clothing for a long spell outside, I am truly a fan of Sporthill and it’s 3SP material which claims to be windproof up to 35 MPH and yet it still breaths extremely well. For underwear, I have some old Swedish underwear called Ullfrotte as well as Craft Prowool. Both are high wool content. The new wicking products are good for a 3-hour event but this promised to be at least 20 hours and I’m a great believer in wool as it keeps you warm even when damp. I also wear wool next to my skin on both my feet and hands for the same reason.

Food for a long event was another issue and it was complicated by the cold and the need to carry items that would still be edible when frozen. Anyone who’s tried to eat a power bar in winter will agree that you probably burn more calories trying to chew it than you consume. Scot Miller gave me a recipe for homemade powerbars that works great. For winter, I simply add less protein powder and at is very soft at room temperature but firm and very easy to eat at cold temperatures. That was the staple of my diet but I also had some bagels, Lays potato chips, Hammer gels, as well as a supply of Perogies from my official sponsor Elsie Szcklarczuk. I ate several on the trail but had a heaping plate of them at the checkpoint just past the halfway mark.

My good friend Blair “Buster” Saunders got me on to Hammer nutrition products and I used a combination of Heed and Perpetuum the whole way. It’s excellent and my energy was pretty good throughout the event. Over the last number of years, I seem to have had cramping issues so I now take Succeed Electrolyte capsules at regular intervals during a long event and they seem to really help me. I’m the first person to complain about our society popping pills to stay “healthy’ but I’m a regular junkie on race day.

The race was on Monday February 2nd starting any time between 7 and 8:30 am. This might seem strange but the race is on snowmobile trails and you wouldn’t want to share the trail on the weekend. It is run with the local club’s blessing and the few sleds that I saw were very courteous.

I’m not good at tapering for most events but I took off from my courier job form Thursday afternoon on. I’m used to riding every day but I knew I needed to be well rested. My friend Ian Hall was coming down to help me and we left for International Falls on Saturday at noon. We arrived in the late afternoon and checked in at the Holiday Inn, which was the race headquarters. My wife Lynne describes it as getting together with my own kind as if we are some kind of unique species. In thinking

support. He has a trailer, which he’ll use there and I was hoping to see it but he opted not to use it for this event I’m pretty slow in getting around to writing about my events which means that I’ve just had the opportunity to read Mike’s piece on the AH 135. Its great writing and his pictures are wonderful. (BIG WHEEL BUILDING A135 THE WHOLE STORY)

Sunday dawned with at least 3 inches of new snow and I immediately added at least 3 hours to my estimated finish time. Charlie had asked if I wanted to start with them about it, I suppose she’s right. There was a large hall where the gear check was being held and I saw some familiar faces in Charie Farrow and Dave Simmons . Both have raced in the Red Ass and it was good to see them again. My gear passed muster and we all got together in the restaurant for dinner and to swap war stories.

On Sunday, Ian and I drove to the start and went for a short ride to check out the trail conditions. We also drove down to the 35 mile checkpoint at the Gateway restaurant as I wanted to know where to go and also to check out what was available there if I needed anything.

There was a race meeting at 3 pm. They explained the course intricacies and reviewed what was available at the checkpoints and answered any racer’s questions. This was followed by a slide show by Mike Curiak. He is the closest thing to royalty in long distance winter ( and also summer ) mountain biking. His list of wins is impressive and is topped by several wins of the 1100 mile Iditabike race in Alaska. He showed us a beautiful range of slides from his numerous iditabike adventures. He was entered in our race but was using as a training run for a trip to Iditabike this March where he will attempt to do the whole 1100 miles with no but I was sure they would be going out far harder than my comfort range. As it was, I started several minutes in front of him and defending champion Dave Pramonn. I think I was barely out of sight of the start when they flew by at a pace that I’d have trouble going for 2 hours, let alone 24. As I’ve gotten older, it has become easier to accept this horsepower deficiency and I happily watched them fly ahead. We went out for about 9 miles and the turned and retraced our route to the start. This allowed us to both participants and spectators. I was the 4th rider back to Hwy 53 .

After crossing the highway, the track became a lot slower as there were only 3 tracks in front of me. Cyclists are always trying to ride the wheel but this offered a different slant on the term as you literally tried to stay in the same track the others had packed. I wasn’t great at it so I spent enough time out of the track to realize how much harder it was to break trail. This was a real learning experience and one of the lessons I came to understand was that it was better to let some air out of my tires. I’m a bit of a slow learner so I didn’t get around to it until several miles before the 35-mile checkpoint at the Gateway store. It definitely tracked better.

At about the 30 mile mark I was passed by a train of guys including Lance Andre, Terry Brannick, Dennis Grelk and Chuck Lindner. By the time I reached Gateway they’d all gone except Chuck. I filled all my bottles, bought a great bowl of soup and ate a fair amount of my food. Based on my pace to this point, I already realized that I was going to be out there at least 24 hours and didn’t want to run short of fuel by rushing through this checkpoint.

As I headed out, 7 or 8 snowmobiles came down the trail towards me. As it turns out they were coming from where I was headed. When snowmobiles have just been over the trail it is much softer so my timing wasn’t great. There were virtually no bike tracks left. Bummer!!

The last 10 miles before Gateway and the next 30 miles after are quite hilly. This led to another learning experience for me and that is that walking up hill after hill pushing my 70 lb. bike is HARD!!! It was very tiring and I found myself bent over with my chest virtually on the bars in an effort to take the pressure off my arms. I had only got the bike several weeks before the race and I’d never gone up a hill on it either riding or pushing. I remember reading an article in the Duluth paper about Charlie doing hill repeats and not really understanding. Next year I’ll know better. The only issue for a Winnipegger is where to find any kind of hill.

Throughout the race, I was stopping every 5 miles to have a drink. With the loose snow it was impossible to drink on the fly. A lot of guys used camelbaks with insulated hoses but I’d never used one in winter and was afraid it would freeze. I’ll have to work on that for next year as I probably stopped 30 – 35 times at an average of 3 minutes each. With a camelbak I might be able to cut it down to 10 or 15 which would save an hour. I learned a lot.

I had hoped to arrive at the Melgeorge checkpoint before dark but that was not to be and as I headed across the lake I was like a moth drawn to the cottage lights. I arrived at 6:45 to find two other riders there ( Josh Peterson and Dennis Grelk ) I hoped to spend about an hour there. The checkpoint had hot soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, cookies, hot chocolate and I had all of those items as well as Elsie’s perogies, which I fried up. They had a dryer and I dried my socks, headwear, and my jacket. I added a warmer layer of underwear I’d been carrying as well as warmer mitts. I thought that the cold of night was coming and this would be coupled with a gradual lowering of my energy stores. It would be much easier to open my jacket a bit if I was too warm than to stop and have to add clothing along the trail if I was too cold.

I guess it was just too comfortable or my sense of survival was too strong but my one hour stop turned into 1 hour and 35 minutes. I’m sure I could cut that down considerably. While I was there several other riders arrived ( Chuck Lindner, Greg Ames ,Dave Gray from Surly who won the bitterly cold race in 2007 and Bill Shand). Dennis Grelk who’d been there when I arrived, headed out about ½ hour before I left. I thought about hurrying to go with him but reminded myself that I had at least 12 hours to go and needed to make sure I had enough fuel in me.

I headed out in full darkness for the long haul to the Tipi at Wakemup hill. It was a hilly stretch and I found myself outrunning my headlights on the downhills. I’m pretty sure my shoulder is solid now but elected to be cautious. There was no potential for a timely rescue if anything happened and a dislocation could literally be fatal. It cost very little time and made good sense.

At one point I was pushing my bike up one of the many hills and saw that my computer was showing zero. In knew I was going slowly but this was ridiculous. Sure enough, the computer had stopped working at 87.68 miles. Those of you that know me will be surprised to know that I didn’t stop on the spot, as I’m more than a little compulsive about recording every km. It did torment me for a while but I decided to drink every 40 minutes rather than every 5 miles and carried on. As I progressed along I saw Mike Curiak’s Moots parked at the edge of the trail and could see where he’d headed into the bush to camp. Very impressive to have the discipline to do the prep for his long haul in Alaska.

I figured the 39miles ( 62 kms ) should take me about 7 – 7.5 hours. I started wondering where the checkpoint was at 3:30 am and by 4:30 I was at the end of my tether. It’s not like I needed a long stop but just a sense of actually making progress. I even wondered if I’d somehow missed it. At this point, I remembered that my friend Vern Nelson had set up his GPS with many waypoints along the way including the Tipi. I took a water break and switched it on and was greatly comforted to see that I was very close.

I arrived at the Tipi and found two bikes parked there which gave me a little lift. I went in to use the fire to loosen the lid of my last nalgene bottle, which was frozen closed. Lance Andre and Dave Pramonn as well as the two volunteers were snug in their sleeping bags. I got the lid loose and ate a bagel with peanut butter and honey and then got on my way before I became too comfortable. It was 5:30 am, which meant that I’d covered the last 62 kms in 9 hours for a startling 7 kms/hour. The amazing thing is that I’d moved up from 8th into Melgeorges up to 4th. This of course is partly due to the fact that Mike Curiak was using it as a gear and systems shakedown for Alaska.

I remembered that Pierre had said that the last 25 miles was basically flat and that was the case. I was actually getting sleepy and had that nodding off feeling that we’ve all experienced while driving. I was trying to stay in the rider’s tracks but there were only three riders in front of me now so the track wasn’t quite as defined. With my fatigue and resulting inattentiveness I spent more time out of their tracks than in them. The time rolled by and it was great to see the light starting to appear in the sky. There were long straight stretches and the corner ahead never seemed to get any closer. I carefully spaced out the remaining fluids I had and at 9 am I took a look at the GPS again to see how much time I had to go. Not too Far.

I finally passed the turnoff to the old finish at Bayview and started to see signs for Fortune Bay Casino. The last 3 or 4 kms were the best snow conditions of the whole race as the groomer had been out and it was firm and fast. I came around the corner and had one short uphill. With an event that can last anywhere from 16 hours to 60 you can’t expect a crowd to cheer you in. The finish line was basically the back door to the casino. I came in at 10:11 for a total time of 26 hours and 40 minutes. Ian was up in race room as were Charlie, Dennis and the many cheerful volunteers. Pierre makes individual trophies for all the finishers. I had to pick out an arrowhead from a large supply of them and he turns it into a really attractive molded glass trophy. I’m looking forward to it..

I had come in 4th. The winner was Terry Brannick who blazed the course in 21 hours flat. In 2nd spot was my friend from Duluth Charlie Farrow who finished with Terry but started earlier and had an elapsed time of 21 hrs and 58 min. In 3rd was Dennis Grelk who finished in 25 hrs and 23 min. I was 1 hr and 17 minutes behind him which is almost like a photo finish in this type of event.

The next two finishers deserve special mention as they were two of the strongest guys in the race. Lance Andre ( who is from Iowa but now lives in Florida, not the ideal exercise ground for this )crossed in 5th but disqualified himself for going off course and getting a ride back. He just flew by me and a lot of others early on. Dave Pramonn came in 5th officially in 28 hrs and 31 minutes. That tells little of the story of his race as he broke trail for all of the rest of us followers for the first 110 miles before he had to take a break at the tipi. He’s the course record holder and with that kind of power, I’m sure he’ll be back on top again in the future.

I also want to mention Bill Shand , my fellow Canadian from Red Lake Ontario . He came in at 31 hrs and 47 minutes. Bill has done this before as well as Alaska and a good deal of other adventures. Finally I want to say how impressed I am with Joel Austin from Iowa who came to the event with Lance Andre. Joel finished the event in 39 hours and 41 minutes on a Gary Fisher mountain bike. With that snow, I can’t imagine doing the race on a regular bike and my hat would go off to him but it was simply too cold for that with my hair challenged head. I think you need to talk to Dave and the boys at Surly and come back better than ever next year.

I really enjoyed my return to racing after some lost years with my shoulder woes. This is a really well run event and all of the competitors are very supportive of each other. Before the race Rick from Fargo lent me an Esbit stove to save carrying weight and Lance Andre lent me some extra fuel tablets. There’s truly a feeling that we’re all in it together .

I’m very satisfied with my result. I think I could save a couple of hours with a better water system and more organization at the checkpoints. For sure I will spend time riding hills before the race next year and I will also spend time pushing that fully loaded pig up hills. At 61 I don’t expect to come back next year a whole lot faster but I can be a little better prepared.

I talked with Charlie about maybe going to the Iditabike in 2011. I think that sounds like a good timetable. Next year I’m thinking that we should finish at the casino and then turn around and ride back. I’m thinking either back to Melgeorges (200 miles) or back to the start, which would be 253 miles. It would be cruel punishment to do the out and back at that point so we could perhaps ride down the highway into International Falls. Any takers?

TNR

Don't make Craig ride all alone this week.

FGBC CX Pool Roundup

Two more CX races went down this weekend. Al won ahead of Berden and De Knegt in Heerlen on Saturday. And then on Sunday in Vorselaar, Nys beat Albert and Vervecken to wrap up another Superprestige title, his ninth overall and fifth in a row. Not bad.

No big changes in the FGBC Pool. Gary's still kicking ass. Rachel's still holding on to second spot. And David looks like he will hold off a late surge by Chris A to hang on to the last podium step. And Ian continues his late season migration up through the standings. Too bad he dug himself such a big whole in the first part of the season. One more race next weekend. And then it's time for the Spring Classics.

GP Heerlen Results:

Chris H 240
Vic 225
Jonny G 225
Bill 215
Rachel 195
Hal 180
Paddy & Naomi 155
Brad 135
Tomek 135
Ian 90
Deanna 90
Andy 80
Matt 80
Adam 75
Dallas 55
David S 0
Chris A 0
Jonny M 0
Gary 0
Charlene 0
Olli 0


Superprestige #7:

Gary 365
Olli 365
Paddy & Naomi 330
Charlene 330
Deanna 310
Jonny M 280
Ian 280
David S 275
Tomek 265
Vic 240
Chris H 235
Chris A 235
Jonny G 230
Rachel 220
Bill 210
Andy 195
Hal 185
Matt 185
Adam 150
Dallas 105
Brad 45


Overall Standings:

Gary 16155
Rachel 15655
David S 15335
Chris A 15085
Olli 14870
Ian 13865
Paddy & Naomi 13865
Jonny M 13790
Vic 13550
Chris H 13210
Tomek 12640
Deanna 12600
Charlene 12575
Matt 12050
Jonny G 11785
Adam 11775
Dallas 11520
Brad 11375
Hal 10770
Andy 10550
Bill 10175

24hrs of Coens wrap-up

a quick video-like memory. You probably had to be there to find the movie ordering bit funny, but that was funny.
Lost and found:

• not one, but two sleeping bags... yes Luc, yours, and I'm kind of guessing Tom on the other because it's orange

• convertible mitt/glove (one only)

• thermos

I'll bring this stuff to the klubhouse tuesday.

The official word would be that Gianni "won"... rode over 100miles of that bumpy, slippery track. Halberto not far behind... nice work.
Sweet times.


24hrs of Coens Race from dnb on Vimeo.

Coen Cross

I was feeling kind of bummed about missing the annual FGBC winter 24 hour race. But Jonah cheered me up by showing me the cyclocross course he's made in our yard. He rides it several times a week. We ammended it a bit by adding the hills down around the back of the house. Now that I think about it, we could run a sweet cx course right out of our house. The yard keeps sloping down toward a creek for about 250 ft, and on the other side is a city park. Too bad it's all covered in kudzu. That stuff is worse than sand. In any case, here's a video of the course. It's a little over-exposed at points. Sorry about that. It was warm and sunny.

intense racing

Miller's Crossing lap.

on the creek

it's pretty (OK very) slippery on the ice on the creek... mandatory part of the ride though...

team shot on the Red

Coen Update

with Dr. H in the lead with 11 laps (Ian and Hal trailing at 9 laps), and Raising Arizona on the TV, it's hard to tell where we're at. Five on the couch... Tom is winning the film race.

Happy Valentines Day

From Couer de Pirate.

Thanks to Gianni for the link.

What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a 24 hour bike race/film-a-thon?

What Would Ed Crane Do?

24hrs of Coens - more news

so, I just rode the loop. After adding a bit in Fraser's Grove park, it comes to 8.9kms... for us slower folk, it'll end up being just over half an hour, and by nightfall, I don't want to guess.

For the faster folk, we may figure out a way of them checking in without having to come inside and be tempted by couches, drink and film.

Don't forget about dogfest sometime later in the evening. With the right ambition and peer pressure, a fire will be made, so bring dogs/buns/sticks. I have condiments.

Dr. H called me this afternoon. He's having trouble coping with not being present at this event (not his words)... so we may leave the computer on and have folk blog at will for his sake. He's thinking about renting a bunch of Coen films for solidarity.

See you tomorrow.

24hrs of Coens

prepare for crosscheck and landing.

Saturday, February 14. 10:00-ish am start of the media lap. Ends Sunday, February 15 at 10:00am... prizes/awards to follow. Bring some of those to contribute if you can/wish.

as mentioned, bring everything you need to live... food , drink, sleeping gear, bike/s, attitude, a scribbler for your Coen essay.

Thursday Anticipation

This is going to take a while. We are a busy group. But before we really get into it, take a moment to ponder with Aiden how sweet the sweetest weekend in the world is going to be.

1) Spring Ride



2) 24 Hours of Coens


It's just around the corner now. You don't want to miss this one. Among other things, we have a new venue and a revamped entertainment program. And we will have a new winner. Bring it on Anton.


3) Spring Classics Pool


The cyclocross season is almost over. I find that a little bit sad. But the good news is that the spring classics are just around the corner. The cobbles and sharp leg-burning burgs are coming. Once again, the low stakes gambling office of the FGBC presents the FGBC Spring Classics Pool. It starts in just over 2 weeks, on Feb. 28, with the race formerly known as Het Volk.

One question: we have used two different approaches so far: (a) the original salary and cap approach and (b) picking riders from a series of lists approach that was used for the CX Pool. I can go either way. Any preferences?


4) Spring Training Camp


Halberto's plans are coming together nicely. He will join Alex and me and perhaps some guys from our NC sister club, Bull City Cycling, for five sweet days of riding. We are going to ride him into the ground. Needless to say, others are welcome to join.


5) Birthday Ride


The route is planned. Don't forget to RSVP. Details here.

6) Gianni's Grass Track Glossary

Last but not least is the latest entry from our grass-stained friend Gianni:

Derny

Note: I don’t if or how we’ll work this into the grass track series, but hey, a guy can dream… and it’ll be something to think/talk about during those lonely hours in the early morning during the 24h race.

A Derny is a motorized bicycle for motor-paced track cycling events such as during six-day and Keirin racing) or motor-paced road races (relative uncommon thesedays). It is driven by a 98cc Zurcher two-stroke engine and by being pedalled through a fixed gear, typically of 70 teeth on the front chainring and 11 on the sprocket on the back wheel. The combination allows for smooth acceleration and slowing, important when the rider taking pace is centimetres from the pacer's shielded back wheel. A coupling between the motor and the back wheel ensures the machine will not stop dead if the motor seizes.

The first Derny 'Entraineur' or 'Bordeaux-Paris' models, with their characteristic petrol tank across the handlebars, were built by Roger Derny et Fils of the avénue St Mandé, Paris, France in 1938, but the name derny is now applied to all such vehicles, regardless of manufacturer.

On a derny, the driver (often a fairly large dude … for aerodynamic reasons) sits close to the back in an upright position to provide an envelope of low wind resistance for the cyclist drafting behind. The machine can pace riders up to 90 km/h, although races rarely exceed 80 km/h.

For most derny races, the cyclist sits in the slipstream of the derny for the duration of the event. In keirin races, common in Japan and familiar elsewhere, the derny brings several riders up to speed, at which point it pulls off and the race finishes in a sprint without the pacer (a future post will deal with keirin in more detail).

Even the most modern of dernies are noisy and smelly. Part of the “atmosphere” of a six-day. It goes without saying that racing behind a derny requires nerves of steel and a massive ability to handle high speeds.

Video of a derny race from the Ghent Six Day:

tnr minutes

a fine gathering, however, distinguished by the lack of bicycle riding. Craig proved to be the only tnr'er, and G commuted from his place. Two bikes on the rack... We'll chalk it up to the near inability to move on unsalted surfaces.

colin, tomek, tenacious v, the president, the impaler, juan eppstein, the aforementioned riders and your humble secretary in presence.

despite repeated attempts to steer the conversation to the Coen part of this weekend's 24hrs of Coen, it was tough to herd the cats. it took quite some time to determine the order of filmage... but we may have come to consensus: the initial discussion was chronological vs alphabetical, but we ended up with number of letters in the title, and should a tie ensue, then alphabetical, then chronological, then which brother is listed first in the credits. So, I think we covered the bases. Beyond that, we have no idea what the point of the films are, other than to focus attention when setting on the couch not riding. "You need to watch a whole film to win" was mentioned, but I believe we are still open to suggestions. I expect it should take us no time at all on Saturday to figure this out. Self governing collective indeed.

There was a majority move to drinking the "dark and tan" (is that what it was called?). A mixture of Guiness and Keith's. I missed that move, and it was soon over, deemed "not worth it" by my immediate neighbour, Colin.

There was a good stretch of time where people took turns talking about how badly they'd been schooled by Jonah C. It even included some of us ne'er-do-wells who continue to avoid racing for the most part... Ice Bike a couple of years ago...

This weekend's course also received due attention. G's bold suggestion to shovel a path across the river is now, clearly, all wet... and in due course, hopefully, frozen. We could only speculate on the state of sidewalks and trails... it could be interesting.

I mentioned an email exchange I had with Ian where he suggested that it was go time on saturday, and Tom threw a riposte that I will not repeat here, so here's hoping for some old skool grudgery. Without Dr. H here, the podium seems a bit more wide open... although there's a frightening rumour that skinny Luc is, wait for it, training! Spin classes? Yikes.

Look for a post shortly with directions to the race headquarters and suggestions of what to bring... oh yeah, that's easy: everything you need to ride/drink/eat/sleep.

Out.

Hike-a-Bike

That nasty climb they made us haul our bikes up two hours into the race? Here are a couple shots of Alex and me as we get close to the top (courtesy of Michael R.). By this point we'd been pushing and carrying our bikes up the mountain for about 45 minutes. These capture the "horrible" in TMHTE much better than any of my photos do.





At least we can take some consolation from the fact that we resisted the temptation to take this trail on the second stage. It looks way shorter on the map, but Alex had heard that it's not a good idea. This is why:




Here's the profile of our ride: