On An Old Ride

First I should apologize for my last post. I was rereading my post and I realized that is some damn crappy writing. Sorry everyone, I will do better this time or I give someone, anyone!, permission to smack me silly in hopes of knocking some good writing into me.

I am subscribed to a cycling journalist's RSS feed. Now first I have to say, cycling journalist? Lucky bastard, this guy has what must surely be one of the greatest jobs out there. (Okay I suppose if I did not like to write, a cycling journalist might be a pretty bad job... But hey I already am a cycling journalist, just not paid for it, and not widely read either.) I guess my point there is if I could give up on the computers to see the Paris-Roubaix, The Giro and the Tour, and be paid for all of that, holy smokes what a cool job!

Anyway our cycling journalist found a website that rates the top ten guys to ride Le Tour. Now personally I put Fausto Coppi at the top, if World War Two had not gotten in the way Coppi would have probably won more races than any other three other guys, combined. But as it was Fausto's career was delayed by the most significant event of the twentieth century. Apparently Coppi actually spent some of the war at an English POW camp where he was a barber.

Of course I am naturally inclined to throw my minuscule clout behind Coppi, my steel frame was made by a company named after The Champion of Champions. I like that Italian Steel, she's old and uses rain water as lubricant for the chain (yes I know I should throw more lousy weather lube on), her rear hub is toast and the bottom bracket is dying. But that old girl and I have been through a lot together, mostly crashes come to mind, but a lot none the less.

I first got the Coppi from Sport House of Canada (they closed in early 1997) back in the spring of Grade 10. Dad wanted to buy me a mountain bike, I wanted a "racing" bike. The owner of Sport House, Tony, a trusted authority to my dad, upon learning that I wanted a road bike became pleased as punch. Tony is Italian and by then (possibly always was) the only guy selling Coppi's in Toronto. Tony went on a diatribe about how big box stores with their shoddy mountain bikes were killing him. Dad always eager to support small family businesses listened with rapt attention.

Tony showed me a used high end white Coppi, all steel, must have been at most ten years old at the time. It was love at first sight, except, and I did not find this out until just this past winter, Tony gave me a seat post that was 0.2mm narrower than the tube. (Back in those days people rode with the saddle much closer to the top tube so how would anyone know the post was too small?)

A few weeks after I brought my 'new' ride home I had to present an item made in Italy to my Eurasia Geography class. Someone in class literally raised their hand and asked "[Your bike is a] copy of what?!" I did not even know who Fausto Coppi was, I figured Coppi was the name of the guy who made the bikes. Ooops! But I still had a good laugh at the expense of some smart ass.

A year later I was coming to the pool (in little Italy) to teach swimming, it was that day that a parent of one of my students, on seeing the Coppi explained with a religious reverence, that Coppi was a racer, "he was the best of the best".

A few weeks later, June of 1995, I was riding down Bathurst Street on a joy ride. I got caught in the street car tracks at Fleet and crashed. That crash was ugly for me, but the Coppi was fine.

The following summer the axle that runs through the back hub broke, riding became grinding, and then riding became impossible. I had to walk the Coppi from the pool to Sport House. I don't even remember how I got home from there, it took Tony two weeks to fix the axle.

When I went to Waterloo for undergraduate school I feared the Coppi might get stolen so I left her in Toronto and bought a beater of such dubious quality I think I used it all of twice. Pretty much from the day I started at Waterloo I did not ride much, but on a co-op work term during the Victoria Day Long Weekend I went flying, the Coppi was my launch pad and my face was the landing gear. (I was not a pretty picture after that flight.)

My return to athletics was slow, starting with skating in 2004 and rediscovery of the saddle in 2008 with a 2006 model year Specialized Roubaix. I did ride the Coppi a couple times between 2000 and 2008 but not very often, perhaps two or three times in eight years. However once we moved I started riding to work, and not being keen on taking my good bike out in the rain I decided to dig my Coppi up from my parents basement. Adding clip in Shimano Ultegra Pedals and raising the saddle gave that Coppi speed and besides a period when the Coppi was getting her rear drop outs replaced, (the advantages of steel), that Coppi was carrying me to work almost every day through the winter.

I should confess here, in the interests of full disclosure, I did once take the Queen Streetcar, if I were criminally deranged I might tell someone that the Streetcar is a good way to get around. But the fact is, in rush hour, on Erin I can get to the office in about 12 minutes, on the Coppi with a bad drive train, about 15 minutes, in a car 25 minutes, Streetcar 45 minutes and on foot, one hour fifteen minutes. Given that a return trip on the TTC costs $5 you really have to ask yourself as the damned thing stops at every stupid little side street between Coxwell and the office exactly what are you paying for? Because when you do the math the Street Car really is no cheaper than splitting a taxi with three friends.

I have had a crash recently, actually I started working on this blog entry before I had the crash! It was this past Thursday, July 23, there is a drive way coated in a black gooey material that becomes slippery when wet. I was riding, in the rain, and I turned left, well I turned the bars left, the wheel turned left, but the Coppi, she kept going straight until I was on my left side. Luckily for my career this time my face was not the landing gear, the left shoulder, wrist and thigh absorbed the impact and I can still feel where.

That Coppi has endured an awful lot, luckily for me, she's a strong girl, she can take it.

On Racing

As I write this one of the guys, Nicki Sorensen, on Team Saxo Bank got a stage finish (Thursday, July 16). He was not really expected to achieve any sort of greatness so I am happy for him. That he is Danish makes me very happy. (During The War the Danes were able to save the life, and business, of every Danish Jew. After the war when the Jews of Denmark returned from Sweden, they found their homes untouched and their businesses functioning, that and the Danes invented -discovered- Kringle, the greatest pastry on Earth.) So when I hear of a Danish victory I am very pleased, the fact that I am cheering for Team Saxo Bank well its hard not to be pleased with the day's results.

I went for a club ride Sunday and it was a study in contrast. The ride itself was to a cliff face called Rattle Snake point, it is an 800m run with a 94m rise but at times the grade meter on my GPS said 14%, the idea is you ride what is almost a pancake to Rattle Snake, climb it a bunch of times, then ride home. There were two options, drive to a west end meeting place and take it easy all the way, or ride hard the whole 150km. Being that I am opposed to the burning of fossil fuels when possible, I choose to ride the whole nine yards. (Being that I have ridden 200 miles in one sitting, 150km did not seem like such an ordeal.)

On the ride out the pack was sustaining between 32 and 37km/h which works pretty well for me. I pulled a little, I dropped back, if while dropping back there was a gap I'd fill the gap, otherwise I went to the very back of the line. In short I did exactly what a cyclist ought to do in a pack. Then someone who shall remain nameless decided that we should do 40~42km/h, I let him charge past me, I caught up at a red light. A couple minutes later he pulled the same damn fool stunt on a long country road with no lights, I was uninterested in burning out my legs, I announced that "I cannot sustain this" and dropped off the back end. This was just after our guy had told me to ride at a steady speed. (This all happened a couple days after he told me, in insulting tones on a web site, that I ought to ride with the group, truth is he said more than that, but I was so offended by his language that I only read the first couple lines.)

I rode the last ten or fifteen kilometers alone, which sucked because there was a head wind, but I saved my legs and enjoyed the sounds of birds and wind in the fields. Then I climbed Rattle Snake for the first time this year, it was a lot easier than last year I am pleased to report. (It might have helped a little that my legs were well rested having had a break for intense spinning for a good 20 or 30 minutes.) At the top of Rattle Snake were three guys who had elected to take the easier option of driving to the west end. One of the guys had a chain that was breaking in two places (two pins were half ejected at nearly opposite ends of the chain). The guy with the nearly-broken chain was contemplating calling a taxi from the top of Rattle Snake to take him back to the meeting point where his car was (about 50km away). The four of us decided to try ride back to the meeting place, we could help the fellow with the broken chain by giving him a draft and possibly assisting in road side repair. I suggested we take a slightly modified route that would avoid steeper hills to minimize the torque on the bad chain, we did that. The guys wanted to stop at a coffee shop, normally I don't like to stop mid ride, but the stop gave me a chance to see if I could do anything for the chain - I couldn't. We talked, we rode easy, and it was very pleasant. (There was a tailwind to be sure, but even so, the company you keep on your ride makes the difference, truth is, if I could ride with those guys again, even if it meant driving to New York city first, I'd probably do that.)

On My Rides

I have been lucky that it is a cold summer. For one thing the electricity use, to air condition the house is near zero. For another I do not need nearly as much water on the long rides as I would if this summer was hot. Sunday July 13 I rode out to Thickson Road, the very spot where Erin and I went down last summer, Erin had just been built only eight days earlier when I crashed so Thickson road will always be a hated road in my books.

I was in good form at the start of the ride, truth was, I was on fire. I wasn't setting the pace, a good portion of the time I was too fast and simply making my own pace with periodic episodes of stop and wait. Of course that all changed at Thickson. Fear does horrible things to your speed, now my crash last year was the result of the guy in front of me slamming on the breaks and as Thickson is a narrow busy road with cars on the left and a gravel shoulder on the right I had a choice, to go down or go down and take someone with me. I did the decent thing, I turned onto the shoulder and as I expected went down, but I went done alone.

This time I was determined not to fall, I did what was required to ensure that a fall would not happen, I rode alone. Of course this meant that much of the ride, the entire return journey, I was alone, as I had waved the guys off.

Riding alone made me realize something, I need to be pushed harder. I have to wonder, if I rode with a group that was tolerant of dropping people what would happen. In theory dropping is not supposed to occur on BCC rides, except that it happens all the damned time. I know because when I was weaker I was the guy being dropped every few miles. Worst of all, I was not being dropped on a sunny Sunday morning on some side road near New Market, although that happened too, but rather the drops that I hated were at night on major roads in the city. At least there is safety in numbers but at night, there are areas of the city I just don't like to ride through, and the absence of adequate street lighting coupled with the knowledge that my bike lights are punny compared to a car lights really makes riding in a pack critical. Well being dropped after sunset in the city is an awful idea, and it happened to me more times than I cared to count.

I bring this up because unless I go at some other person's tempo I'm up a creek. I have been critiqued for letting loose on all engines and I have been dropped for going too slow. I suppose it is a natural predicament of a large group ride, but it is starting to get really annoying. (To say nothing of hypocritical, some of the guys who used to drop me now criticize me for going too fast.)

All of this reminds me of the time I rode with some friends out to Harriston. One had just broken his ankle, I figured it would be my job to do a disproportionate amount of pulling, did I learn a thing or too about how weak I was that day. I recall from Mr. Broken Ankle: "no offense but I think you are bonking", no offense taken, I was bonking, pretty damn badly. The two of them dropped me a couple times, I just was not (am not?) as strong as they are. Periodically they would stop for water or whatever else and that was where I would catch up. I do not believe I ever once complained that they were going to fast, if I had any complaining to do it was over my own lack of preparation, I should not have bonked, that is preventable, and I should be stronger, that is happening through training.

Here is a thought, I recently suggested that there should be some time spent covering sport nutrition for a bike club. Boy did that go over like a lead balloon. I don't get it, I fucked up, pretty badly, more than once. Learn from my mistakes! Why does everyone need to learn through bonking that nutrition matters? The scary part, I was lucky, more than once, I could have gone into one of dehydration or worse, hyper-hydration, a little known killer that results from drinking too much water. Nutrition is important for anyone, but athletes in particular, if for no other reason then if you get it wrong you can die from your mistakes. Of course more likely you just won't perform as well as you could if you did nutrition right. But risk dying for a worthy cause, not for a morning ride.

I need to find a way to better myself without being reprimanded in the effort.

On The Tour

Is it just me or is Specialized sponsoring an awful lot of teams this year? Saxo Bank, Quick Step, to name just two. Well I'll be the first to say it, they make great bikes, I know this because I have two and love them both. But hey its not as if - at the high end - Cervelo or Pinarello, Look or Time are particularly all that different. On the other hand, CTT (Cervelo Test Team) with last year's winner, Carlos Sastre has been doing rather poorly considering the talent they can call on. I guess that's why The Tour is exciting.

Still am I the only person who doesn't like the idea of the Astana 'dream team' concept? It just seems so wrong that a team could be loaded with so much power, I don't much like the notion, mind you if Astana does not leave Paris with the Yellow Jersey its going to reflect pretty badly on pretty much everyone in that team from riders to coaches. By rights Astana should be clobbering everyone from day one. (Which I suppose is the reason I dislike the super high powered team concept, it takes away the excitement.)

But having a dream team also deprives the weaker guys on the smaller teams from really getting a chance at involvement. I mean consider some team that has a couple possible GC types and a bunch of guys brought in for support, just to fall back periodically to the team car and bring water bottles back into the pelaton or pull the sprinter until near the finish. Well those guys know they will never get a yellow, green or even polka-dotted jersey, but at least they get to support someone who might. Well with Astana around that sure is not going to happen. I suspect for most of the rest of The Tour Astana will have both Yellow and Green Jerseys and that ruins it for the fans as well as the guys who really are "just happy to be there to support my team".

As I write this stage seven just ended and Fabian Cancellara just lost the yellow jersey. Before the race started today I just knew he'd loose it. For much of that stage up to the final climb it looked like I might be wrong, he might be able to hold on, even after two tyre failures. Then I saw the same thing that happens to me on long climbs. The gas tank emptied out and he just could not hold on to the rest of the lead pack. It is a downright awful feeling, I know - only too well. That yellow Tarmac of his sure was pretty.

It is a horrible thing when you climb a hill and suddenly slam into the wall and you get dropped like a sack of rotten apples. To loose the yellow jersey, I cannot even begin to imagine. Of course at least Fabian had some guys on his team help him reach the end of that stage, but I think about the Tuesday night rides, when I was weaker, and I was the guy getting dropped, way off in the distance a couple blinking red lights and you would think to yourself, I need to catch those lights, but they only seem to get further and further away. Being dropped, no matter if you are a yellow jersey wearing world class pro or just your average Michael (in this case) with a day job and a mortgage, sucks in a big bad ugly way.

On The Mountain Stages, Explained

The following is from James Raia's blog and I find helpful to understand what the guys on Versus mean when they say a Category 3 climb.

Since Tour de France riders are in the midst of spending three straight days on some of the most famous and infamous climbs in the Pyrenees, it's a good time to define the severity of climbs and how they make or break riders' races.

Climbs in bike races are categorized in increasing order of difficulty, from 4 to 1 and then “hors categorie” or “above category.” The designation is of above category is often shortened to HC, and it's reserved for the most difficult ascents.

Race organizers can categorize mountains in their races as they wish. But Tour de France organizers follow strict guidelines via the length of a climb and its average gradient or grade.A climb with a 10 percent grade, for example, rises one foot for every 10 feet it advances

Here's how Tour de France organizers rate climbs:

Category 4 – Typically shorter than two kilometers and with about a five percent grade or as long a five kilometers with a two or three percent grade.

Category 3 — Can be as short as 1.5 kilometers with a steep grade of up to 10 percent. Can also be as long as 10 kilometers with an average grade of less than five percent.

Category 2 — Can be as five kilometers with an eight percent grade or as long as 15 kilometers at four percent.

Category 1 — Can be eight kilometers at eight percent to as long as 20 kilometers at five percent.

Hors Categorie — Reserved for the most severe ascents. Can be a category 1 climb with a summit at the finish of a stage. Can also be 10 kilometers with an average grade of 7.5 percent or as long as 25 kilometers at with at least an average grade of six percent.

The above category climbs in the 2009 Tour de France:

Stage 7 — Andorre-Arcalis (elevation, 2,240 meters), (10.6 kilometers, 7 percent, summit finish.
Stage 9 — Col du Tourmalet (elevation, 2,115 meters), 17 kilometers, 7.5 percent, mid-stage.
Stage 16 — Col du Grand-Saint Bernard (elevation, 2,473 meters), 29 kilometers, 6.2 percent, early stage.
Stage 20 — Mont Ventoux (elevation, 1,912 meters), 21.6 kilometers, 7.6 percent, summit finish.

Now what is Rattlesnake with a 16% climb over a 1km distance? Technically because it is so short I guess only a Category 4 climb. Personally I'd rather have a 20km at 5% than a 1km at 16%.

On Labour unrest and Bragging Rights

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) local 416 and 79, also known as the City of Toronto inside and outside workers are on strike and have been for almost two weeks now. I will admit, it is a pain in the rear end to dispose of garbage and I cannot swim at the city run pool so I cannot train for a triathlon but truth is I don't want the strike to end, not unless the union makes major concessions.
Now I am told by newspaper columnists that Torontoians are "spoiled" that we cannot cope without regular garbage pick-up that life the universe and everything would collapse in a sea of used coffee filters and empty ink cartridges if the strike lasts. I think we are made of stiffer stuff than that. I also think my opinion is shared by millions of neighbours of mine. If the city gives in, then at the height of a recession when a city not known for having a well balanced budget at the best of times will find itself saddled with hundreds of millions of dollars in unfunded liabilities it just cannot handle. But more to the point is the principal of the matter.

The major sticking point, union workers want to keep their 18 bankable sick days per year (up to six months of sick days can be cashed in at retirement for a prorated salary.) I have, count 'em, zero sick days per year. Early this year when I got back from China I was sick as a dog, could not sleep on the flight home and the change in weather buggered up my system. I asked my boss if I could work from home he told me he needed me that first day to set something up but I could go home once my thing was setup, that first day back was Thursday, I worked until about 5pm at my desk in the office. The following day, I worked until 9 at night before I left the office to work from home. My "sick time off" was Saturday and Sunday. Oh sure I get 20 or so vacation days, but I'd trade those for 18 sick days and the statutory 10 vacation days in a heart beat. Besides, bankable time off? Hey CUPE the 70s called, they want their well treated employees back!

In fairness if I had the benefits of a city worker I'd strike too, but the thing is that the economy is so bad I really think the Union should show some compassion to the people who pay the salaries, people like me, City of Toronto rate payers. Ultimately every concession the city makes to the union I will be paying for and I never got a raise or additional sick time.

Anyway I've been watching reruns, and sometimes live bits of the Tour and damn those guys are remarkable. When I bust my gut I can sprint as fast as they average, well a little faster than average but no way I could keep that up for 110 or 120 miles. What I can do is ride 192 or so (computer crashed, twice) miles. Burn so many calories (over ten thousand) that the counter had a variable overflow and zeroed out. In short I can out ride my Garmin, but more than that I can ride far with some speed. I averaged over 29.1km/h (almost 20mph) over a 10 hour 37 minute period I covered 309.4km (assuming you trust the Garmin).


So what lessons and experiences can I draw from this?

Well first I was lucky, a strong tail wind helps the speed situation and when you ride alone for 200 miles you need that tail wind, a head wind would have killed me. Also I did not get the nutrition perfect, I had the nutrition closer to right than I have ever had it before but it was still not perfect. In 20 to 25 degree weather (about 70~77 degrees) I need one twenty four ounce bottle with three scoops of Perpetuem and five servings of Endurolytes with water every hour. I need to force myself to guzzle the bottle every hour otherwise I am just not getting enough of what I need. (I know I did not consume enough electrolytes, my joints cramped really badly when I stopped.)


Also I have learned that point to point rides are high risk if there is no support. It is critical that I always have support lined up for any solo distance situation. (Particularly if there is a risk of flash thunderstorms.)

Finally some border guards are actually pretty decent, at least when you ride. In both directions the reaction to "I'm riding return Toronto to Rochester" was exactly what a normal person might expect, not a paranoid 'are you hiding something under your shoe covers?' Unlike last time, when the American bordert guard gave me the third degree.


Speaking of shoe covers I noticed a bunch of guys on the tour, particularly during the time trials seem to be wearing shoe covers. Let me guess, during the trials it reduces aerodynamic drag but during regular stages adds too much weight? Well this "summer" has been so damn cold I may need covers for an entirely more conventional reason.

Anyway my legs are stiff as 2 by 4s, for an old house, I think these new houses are built with pussy wood or something. I better go stretch.

But here is a parting thought, check out the Dickipedia entry on Lance Armstrong, yes I know if I were at all important in the grand scheme of things I'd have a well earned entry in there, at the very least for this blog! But anyway, the Nancys who write for the Dickipedia deserve a big hairy white (or black?) sausage! Calling cycling gay for spandex! Bunch of pussies, actually let's be honest, probably a bunch of fat lazy couch potatoes who cannot go more than 3km/h without burning green house gas producing chemicals. Hey Dickpeida writers! Dick Cheeney called, he said thanks for the contribution, now go drive your SUV somemore, Sarah Palin needs the money for 2012!