Entries Tagged 'road cycling' ↓

We had a smaller group than normal with only 9 riders which was probably due the fact that it was Mother’s Day and everyone else was out with their mom’s for brunch. 

Mother Nature stepped up for all the mother’s out there and ordered up some fantastic weather.  It was a little cool when we headed out but it quickly warmed up and turned into a beautiful day.  All riders completed the round trip with only one casualty, Kathleen’s Polar monitor popped off and hit the pavement pretty hard but it still works. 

Here are the ride stats according to my trusty Sigma computer…

Distance: 53.47 km (add a couple of km since I forgot to reset my computer before leaving the shop)

Average: 28.89 km (keep in mind we had a pretty sweet tail wind on the way home)

Max: 50 km (Dan was showing off at the Formal Garden and I couldn’t let him have all the glory)

That’s all for now,

Allan

Although the Weather Network said -1C, an MCA event was going on at Bird’s Hill Park and our usual route was still flooded, 22 riders made it out for the Sunday morning stretch.  A good mix of returning veterans and newcomers made for interesting topics of conversation.  Personal introductions, bike/tech reviews, riding tips and my favorite of the day, “What was that dead thing on the side of the road?”  The group worked together all the way to Assiniboine Park, despite a rather stiff NW wind and the Clip in/Clip out training opportunites of stop signs and traffic lights.  Once at the park, the faster group continued on to Headingly while the slower group made the turn around for home.

The route to Headingly saw one casulty…Al’s rear tire tube will be missed, but was otherwise just a usual wind in your face Manitoba ride.  The pace ramped up a little and was by all accounts being driven by Dan on the front.  He could not be reached for comment but it’s rumored he was just trying to get to the Headingly Wind Generating Station ahead of the group so he could turn off the wind.  Very considerate… and suspect.

The ride back (wind assisted…I guess Dan never did find the switch) went quite smoothly.  The speed ramped up a little more but settled back down once we got back onto Grant.  (I have it on good authority that John was ready to start handing out tickets at one point).  We modified the route on the fly and managed to avoid alot of traffic and stops.  The stretch to the finish was marked by a time trial finaly as several riders soloed off in an attempt to catch the break.

In my opinion, the ride went very well and I would like to thank  Al, Dan, Dave and Jeff for being the Leads and Sweeps for the group/s.

Hope to see you all out again in the weeks to come.

I checked out the new crit series tonight (as a spectator for now) and I was very impressed.  Props to the Provincial Team for organizing this series as it’s been a few years since we have had such a thing.   If you want to kick back in the park for an evening I would suggest checking this out.   Not only is is it fun to watch but it’s free.

Okay I’ve gone from not posting for awhile to 3 posts in one night.

See ya later,

Allan

22 riders, beautiful sun shiny morning, big wind! (not so beautiful). Overall, another great early season ride. Another great group of guys and gals and a full spectrum of age categories and skill levels. I hope everyone enjoyed their ride as much as I did! 

We split at Assiniboine Park – some of us continued to Headingly at a higher pace and others turned back to head home. Some wanted to continue on but not at a higher pace so maybe we could have split into 3 groups? Anything is possible!

I had my own personal time trial from the Perimeter to Headingly thanks to Dan’s blistering pace into the wind . Thanks to Carla and John for the pulls! After several months (years?) of slothdom it feels good (yes!) to be a little sore all over this morning.

See you all in a couple of weeks (I’ll be at Grand Beach this Sunday).

The first Alter Ego Sunday Road Ride was awesome!  The weather ended up being a little warmer than anticipated making for quite an enjoyable ride.  The pace was very casual, ramping up on the final kick to Headingley.  For those of us that turned back a little early, completing about 41km, it was a historic ride.  One of our newest members completed the longest ride she had ever done!  It was awesome knowing that personal bests will be continually improved.

For the rest of us, it was a great first ride with many stops and starts.  Our new route is being tweaked every week while our traditional route dries out.

Thanks to all that showed up.  Keep in mind all can show up with MTB bikes for Kids of Mud both Tuesday and Thursday.  Check out the Alter Ego  KOM portion of our site for start times and locations.

With the coming of a new bike season we have taken the feedback from last year and have upgraded our Club to the 2009 version!

Club info in a nutshell:

Requirements

• Must hold a valid MCA licence (recreational, citizen, or race) for insurance purposes
• $25 fee

Ride Calendar

• Sunday Road Ride
• Monday MTB Ride
• Tuesday & Thursday MTB Ride to coincide with Kids of Mud
• Saturday Road Ride (for FOG members)
• …and Monthly Adventure Rides

Club Benefits

• Earn up to $75 in store credit for riding your bike
• Receive 2 complimentary Ready to Roll tuneups
• Members Only discounts
• Free super cool water bottle
• Free Level 1 and 2 CCA coaching for anyone who wants it

All the Details
AECC Membership Information (MS Word)
AECC Membership Information (Open Office)

AECC Club Ride Information (MS Word)
AECC Club Ride Information (Open Office)

AECC Membership Form (MS Word)
AECC Membership Form (Open Office)

One of the grand classics is celebrating it 100th running on Saturday March 21. Twenty five pro teams of eight riders each will face the 294km race south from Milano and ending in the traditional sprint finish in Sanremo. Before reaching the finish, the riders first must cover the ride south for 130km, then will race along the Ligurian coast broken up by the multiple hard leg breaking climbs or Capos  The last two capo’s are things of legions, the Cipress and the Poggio. Many additions of  MSM have been won or lost on these climbs. The Cipressa sits at km 270, length of 5.6km at 4.9% with max of 9% and is the lead up for poggio. The Poggio is the last chance  for a rider to get away before the sprinters come out to play, it’s 10km left to race.  Last year Fabian Cancellara  got into a 15 man break away on the Poggio and then got away by him self  and time trialed the last 200m to the finish, spoiling the sprinters day. Who will take it tomorrow???

Fabian Cancellara's solo move

Classic or not a Classic?

Monte Paschi Eroica

This will be the 3rd running of this Race tomorrow. What other race of the Pro level runs on gravel roads? The race will cover 190km in total but 57km will be on the Strade Bianche of the area. Some sections up to 13km of the white gravel. It has all of the feeling of the Hell of the North, but gravel sections instead of the Pave. This Race evolved from a cycling event that had participants wearing or riding at least one item form the glory days of cycling. Woolen get ups, turn of the century bikes,  old team replicas, and sipping Chianti at the rest stops were the order of the day. This is in my mind is an instant Classic.  Only true hard men of cycling survive to win this race,  2007-Alexandr Kolobnev and 2008- Fabian Cancellara

Will this be Three in a row for team CSC?

day two heated up of the classic season at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, a lot of the top guys raced 209km yesterday in Het volk and took on the feild today. wow.

Boonen pulled out the top rung of the podium today after coming up short yesterday.

Tom Boonen (Quick Step) gets it by a bike length in Kuurne. Photo ©: ISPA

Ah yes, it upon us, the best time of the cycling calendar, Classic Season.

Thor Hushovd (Cervelo TestTeam) gets the win in the season opener in Belgium.

Yesterday it all started with the first one, Het Volk, or now called Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.  Under usually nice weather the real racing season got under way, the usual breakaways formed and lasted until the big boys come out to play. With 55km left in the race Rabobank hammer the pace and when they got to the top of the Taaienberg four of them were at the front, including one of my fav’s, Juan Antonio Flecha. They never go more than a 15 sec on the main field and then after 15km the four were caught buy a groups with all the favorites. The move contained Boonen, Sylvain Chavanel, Leif Hoste, Gilbert, Greg Van Avermaet, Nuyens, Langeveld, Flecha, Posthuma, Bram Tankink, Haussler, Andreas Klier, Hushovd, Pozzato, Niki Terpstra, Martin Velits, Marcus Burghardt, Tomas Vaitkus, Kevyn Ista and Thomas Voeckler. Langeveld and Haussler attacked out of this group but were caught in the last 200m, with Thor Hushovd pulling off the first classic win in 2009 for the Cervelo test team. Hasussler,  Cervelo test team finished in 8th

I love the under dog, a Professional Continental team coming to the top of the Pro tour teams