On Good and Bad Government

I have another entry in the works, but I wanted to comment on a few things in the mean time.

First anyone who rides along the lakeshore in the city must know about the disaster that is the new bike trail running from Coronation Park to Marilyn Bell Park. Holy smokes? What was the idiot who designed that trail thinking? First there needs to be a clearly marked separate trail for pedestrians and joggers. Second this trail is too narrow. Third there are far too many traffic stops. The old route had problems, but compared with this route, well this route sucks. Who signed off on this thing before work was started? Were any cyclists consulted? The designers of this trail, the cyclists consulted, the politicians who approved of this thing, must all be about the most oblivious people on earth. What a sad waste.

On the other hand, I found the following video on YouTube, well actually the Globe and Mail found it and wrote an article about it. It is a thoroughly Canadian video, it is made by policy wonks, its boring, there is no yelling, no breaking things, no swearing and makes me proud to be Canadian.

On Averages

It has been a modest goal of mine to maintain an average speed on a ride of 30km/h. Now my GPS is considerate enough to stop the clock at speeds of less than 4.8km/h (except that in reality by the time the thing clues in that I am in the "auto pause" speed zone my foot is typically on the ground waiting for a green light.) That said, I have achieved my goal a few times, but not so often that I don't get excited when I see that glorious "three zero" on the GPS at the end of the ride.

Anyway I have found that the more I ride back country roads the faster my average speed. When I ride to work, from The Beach to downtown, cranking out 28km/h is a hammerfeast that entails racing faster than cars, but when I go out McCowan road to Ravenshoe (or further) and back, breaking the 30km/h limit is almost easy.

Now part of the explanation must be the air quality. There is little evidence of human activity on McCowan road, no people means less pollution. As well it is very easy to zone out on McCowan, there are few things to make me zone back in so maintaining a steady prolonged hammer is not overly hard. But the main reason must surely be the simple fact that I can ride for miles with little, if any reason to ever stop. (I would like to think that if I were not so exhausted by the time I reached the border, my performance on the way to Rochester would have been much better for the same reason.)

I guess the moral here really is, hell is other people. Okay I am being cynical, hell is cars and crowds. Now a big pelaton of cyclists, usually that is a good thing.

I have posted up on the BCC site a ride to lake Simcoe for labour day. It might very well be the last chance I have to ride there until 2010, so far no takers. Actually one guy read the post and said he would rather ride on Tuesday night which I do not understand, okay granted Tuesday night only takes three hours, Lake Simcoe requires six hours, but Lake Simcoe is more than twice as far and it is during the day, with less traffic, a lot less traffic. Anyway, if anyone reading my blog wants to do a nice long road ride I am open to two options: a. we hammer 170km with a couple quick stops for water refills or b. we go a a strong but not overly fast pace and enjoy the scenery. Either option works for me.

I must have BO or something, it seems like almost every ride I organize has absolutely no takers, well Aaron came with me once, last summer. Oh well, at least I'll be good and strong for a time trial.

On A New Motto

This is very much a work in progress, but I've been thinking of a new motto, or maybe it is more a slogan, used especially when people start bitching that the route is too long:

Distance is a state of mind.

Only I should follow it up with something, like:

Distance is a state of mind, speed is just an after thought.

Except that does not work for me, so I've got:

Distance is a state of mind, speed is a...

Anyway if anyone has a good idea for what I could put in there I'd sure like to hear it. I suppose I should translate it into Latin too, shouldn't I, or is that just going over the top?

For what it is worth in my Grade 13 yearbook (back when I went to school and dinosaurs roamed The Earth Ontario high schools had a grade 13 year, I did in fact not flunk, ever.) I had has an entry beside my photo: "Ex mens et manus, veritas, luxor et scientia." (I may have misspelled some of that, but if you translate it, well when I translate it, I find it modestly inspiring.)

On What Happens When The Party Ends

I have been reading Jeff Rubin's book Why Your World is About to Get a Lot Smaller. There is a lot there I already knew: World demand for oil keeps growing, available supplies are dwindling and discovery of new reserves is not nearly enough to replace what we are exhausting let alone keep up with demand growth. Also, no matter how you slice it, ethanol requires more energy in the form of fossil fuels to harvest, transport and process than you get back in the gas tank. Then there a lot of things Rubin said I did not know, when efficiency goes up this actually causes demand growth, if mileage standards go from say 30mpg (miles per gallon) to 40mpg, then the demand initially drops. The demand drop causes a price drop which causes people to drive even more, ever farther, even bigger cars. For example, consider before 1973 a "muscle car" might be a sedan with a 5L engine. In recent years who cares what the car has check out my Toyota Tundra! Or my BMW X5! (Notice I used companies not reputed to be gas guzzlers, and the Tundra is just the tip of the iceberg, what about another other Toyota creation, the FJ Cruiser? Or the BMW M series cars? And don't get me started on the lunacy coming from Detroit.)

Of course there are electric cars. They cost more to make than they sell for, the battery technology is not there and probably never will be as good at storing energy as gasoline. But the real problem with EVs? The electricity is just a way to transport the energy, all that electricity has got to come from somewhere. Nuclear? We won't need just one more nuc, we would need scores of them just to replace all that gasoline, in Ontario alone! Solar? Maybe if we put a large part of Nevada under a solar panel we would have enough electricity to cover expected demand growth without EVs on the grid. Wind is not reliable, it does not always blow, or sometimes it blows to hard. And as many rate payers already know, per megawatt, wind isn't cheap. We can power our EV cars on coal, if we do not mind the green house effect. Carbon capture with coal? Well add a $60 or $70 per ton of coal premium to the price.

The point is an era is rapidly coming to a close. The era of cheap energy, when it was possible for your average American to hop in the car and drive from Los Angles to New York in two days, is about to end. The new epoch will be marked by considerably more expensive food, people will have no choice but to live closer to work, and vacation will almost certainly not involve journeys of more than a modest distance, perhaps to the abandoned suburban cul-de-sacs, to watch as many of those monster homes get ripped down and turned back into that critical farm land close to where the consumers are.

I suppose my job is not very secure, will there still be enough power for computers? Maybe I should learn a trade like woodworking, or hey, bike repair! I'll bet cycling is about to enjoy an unprecedented surge in popularity.

Truth be told, I don't think there is a day that goes by when I don't long for $200 per barrel oil. The fact is when it is too expensive to drive I will finally be free to dedicate my worries to potholes and ignore the menace of miserable Toronto area drivers.

Anyway in the time between when I started this composition and now I went on a BCC ride up to Simcoe and back. It was a little more direct than the route I did with Aaron Arndt but still well over 180km. I love that route though, and have I become strong. Last summer Aaron pulled me almost all the way the home. This time I certainly did my share of the pulling all the way. That said, I wish Aaron could come with, I'm sure Europe must be an athlete's paradise compared to couch potato North America and our second rate drivers, but with guys like Aaron, Andrew, Ian, Laurie, Thi and myself we could have one hell of a hammer feast. If I could get the six of us in one pelaton for 180km, I have trouble believing we would be any slower than 35km/h average (probably more like 40km/h). Now that would mean bragging rights, except let's be honest, I'd be dropped in the first 10km. I have bursts of strength, but those guys are all much better than me.

On Getting The Weather Right

Lately it has done a lot of raining, now this is not to say I cannot handle the rain but to be entirely honest riding in the rain sucks. For one thing the ride gets filthy, one evening after work I was about to ride home when the sky opened up. Now the predicted weather was much nicer than what I got nailed with, so while I don't mind getting wet, my bike wasn't the Coppi (which I allow to get exceedingly dirty) rather it was a just washed Erin. In the 8km ride from the office home Erin got caked with an unbelievable amount of dirt. I must have gone through some brackish puddle as well because the wheels smelt foul from a distance. Ultimately I had deflate the tyres and run a rag between the rim and tyre to clear whatever had caused the smell.

Now a week ago it was predicted that it would rain on Sunday (August 2). So based largely on the expectation of rain, I went out on August 1 and saw a movie, Hurt Locker, with my brother. I did not get to bed until 2am, I did not bother to set the alarm, whatever for? There wouldn't be a group ride, except, August 2 was a beautiful day. One of the few people who did show made fun of me for not coming out.

So this past Sunday (August 9) was one of my favourite routes, to Lake Simcoe and back. The weather forecast was looking rather scary by Saturday night, hail, tornadoes, thunderstorms, something for everyone! But I figured the forecasted weather was pretty bad on August 2 as well. Only this time the various weather reports I checked were right, or at least close to the mark. The day started cloudy and humid but at least there was no rain.

As for the ride itself, there really is something to be said for McCowan road up northbound from about Mt. Albert Road to Ravenshoe Road (about 10km). I was completely zoned out, in the drops pulling at a steady 38~42km/h. At Ravenshoe I stopped prior to crossing the road, of the eight people in our Pelaton I had accidentally dropped all but two others. I could have kept going but I figured I better stop to let everyone catch up. Those 10km were just about the greatest 10K I have ever done, not just the speed or the pull, but the feeling, the wind, the scenery, everything just felt right. Actually I have to admit the scenery up there is just remarkable. I would ride up there any day of the week it is so pleasant in that area.

Shortly after we regrouped it started to rain. At first it was just a shower, that lasted perhaps a minute or two and then stopped. We made it to the coffee stop where I refilled my bottle with water and a bag of Perpetium I brought from home. We proceeded along Lake Road and ultimately looped back via Warden towards the city, but then things got ugly around Boyer's Road. The rain started coming down with a vengeance. Drops that must have been the size of golf balls were hammering my helmet so hard I couldn't tell if it was rain or hail. When the drops contracted to a more normal size the number of drops picked up so that it became a more traditional summer storm. The rain persisted all the way back, occasionally being punctuated with a bolt of lightening.

Ultimately I bumed a ride home from Woodbine and 16 from Dan. Of course the rain stopped and the sky cleared just as we pulled into the parking lot where Dan had parked his car. (Couldn't see that coming.)

Erin did not do so well. She went through so much water the gap created by the aero part of the rim (between the tube and the spoke) filled with water. After I removed the tyre and tube (wanted to rotate my tyres) I had a mini flood in the basement. Erin was also caked in mud from top cap to deraileur hanger. But I am pleased to say she took her knocks well, a very through cleaning later and she looks good as new.

Anyway below are some pictures from our journey to Lake Simcoe.

On Thoughts On The Tour

One day someone will need to explain to me why so many elite athletes are such elitists. Alright we all, already know why, we live in a society where that sort of behaviour, like the Lance Armstrong Alberto Contador spat, is actively encouraged. After all that soap opera makes (made?) for some great food for the journalists, besides hero worship is burned into the human condition. But I think we owe it to ourselves to remember that a garbage collector makes a greater contribution to the quality of life for the average person than any number of athletes no matter what the sport.

Anyway I have been trying to find athletes in the tour who behaved with decency, sorry Armstrong fans but the Livestrong idea would seem a more genuine act of goodness if Lance did not have cancer prior to starting his little venture. Not to say Livestrong is a bad thing, it just seems to me that the inspiration is not as altruistic as I would like. Although I have to admit when all you know is what these guys do on the saddle it is hard to judge character.

Do any of the athletes adopt kittens from the local animal shelter? In the off season do they donate blood? Do they give back to their community by going to public schools and telling the children to study hard? Sometimes I think giving a yellow jersey to the guy who happens to have the fastest legs or the strongest EPO or the best technology too arbitrary. Well alright the organizers of The Tour seem to have done a really first rate job of flushing the drugs out, now if only there was a way to flush the obnoxious behaviour out. Let's face it, every time an athlete behaves like a baby it hurts the sport as a whole.

One thing I do have to admit really impressed me was what Andy Schleck did for his older brother on Mont Ventoux. Very likely Alberto Contador had won the tour at the second individual time trial but Andy still had one last shot to clobber Contador if he could just hammer up the side of the mountain. A bunch of times Andy attacked but every attack he would look back to see if his brother, Frank, was in his (Andy's) draft. As soon as Andy saw his brother had dropped off the back end Andy throttled back thus ensuring that Andy would not win, but trying to help his brother none-the-less. To me, that is class.

Or how about when Fabian Cancellara pulled the guys to the base of Mont Ventoux. I was watching thinking, 'that guy needs to save his legs for the mountain'. Then I realised Cancellara was sacrificing himself, he is no climber. Cancellara might very well get disqualified for taking to long to get up the mountain but at least the Schlecks, his teammates, would be well rested for the ascent. To risk getting disqualified 20 days into a 21 day race, the biggest event of the cycling calender no less, oh sure it ultimately is to Cancellara's benefit if Andy or Frank could get The Yellow Jersey, but try telling most athletes, "you should give up everything you have worked towards for the good of someone else". That to me is also a really decent thing.

I have to say the management of team CSC/Saxo-bank really impress me, getting guys that work so hard for the common good.

It has been a week now since Paris and the end of the Tour. The Armstrong/Contador spat has gone from ugly to pathetic and immature. Team Astana is historical with all of their strong riders clearly planning to pack it in and move on. And the thing that amazes me? An American cycling journalist, yes the same guy I mentioned earlier, was complaining that the cost of driving (road tolls and gasoline) in France was too expensive. Alright I'll be the guy to say it, you are in France, watching a bike race, are the train engineers on strike?! There is a reason Europeans are healthier than us, they drive less!

Its an interesting thing, but every year my opinion of the French goes up a little. Once I was really disgusted by the nuclear tests in French Polynesia. But over the past few years the health care available to everyone, the child care, the overall quality of life. I've got to hand it to the French they know how to live. I just wish I could speak the language better. Not to say I dislike Canada, If I did I would leave, but I think we could do well to look at how Europeans, The French, The Germans, The English, The Scandinavians and so on, do things, they have lots of good ideas, why do we only consider how things work in America? Sometimes I think if Canada packed up and moved a little South East, maybe annex the Canary Islands, we would be much better offer, warmer weather and closer to Europe while safer from the Americans.