Starting today I am on call. This means for the next week I must be near the laptop and blackberry and able to deal with issues promptly. So no riding for me.
In other news, The Tour is over, I think I predicted somewhere in this blog that Contador would win, I think I also predicted that Schleck would do well, I also believe that I predicted a certain American from Austin would not even make the podium. Well the only mistake I made, I didn't think Armstrong would fall apart so miserably. But hey, Armstrong is an old guy now, I guess he got so used to winning. For Lance I will bet it felt like, come to France, ride around for a few weeks, pickup prize, repeat every year, maybe he needed to take a few sips from the bitter draft of defeat to wise up?
I once heard a guy say he expected to finish first in a race he was going to do. Loosing is important if for no other reason than to teach a little modesty. My guy, well he came in 7'th, not bad, but a far cry, by something like eight minutes in a one hour race, from the first place my guy expected. I wonder what happened to his ego?
Toronto will have a municipal election in November, I am trying to decide do I vote for the most (only) bike friendly candidate, or the least bike unfriendly candidate who I think might actually win?
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Monday, July 26, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
On Being Dropped and Riding Alone
Before I forget, yesterday I rode 131km, today 163km (100 miles is 161km, so I have done a century! - for the first time in two whole weeks, recall on the trip to Rochester I ended up riding 285km in a day, and that was July 3.)
Anyway a few statistics and then some highlights from today's ride with the BCC.
As noted, I covered just over 163km, I did it at an average of just over 30km/h, burned off almost 7000 calories and I ended up stopping three times. The first stop, a Tim Hortons so some of the women who came out needed to use the washroom - I cleaned my glasses with a napkin. The next stop, at the bakery in Goodwood, I refilled my bottles with tap (probably artesian well) water, finally I stopped alone, at my office for some water cooler water on the way home.
On the way out the guys were feeling well frisky I guess, they were going fast, too fast to last the 140 or so kilometers so I came up to the front and told them to slow down and actually got a few thank yous for that which was really nice. Ultimately I ended up pulling for a while which is alright with me, I like to pull.
As we got near major turns I would try to jump way ahead of the pelaton, okay it would have looked like I was making a break away, but in fact I was simply making sure to make the turn way before everyone else so they would see me turn and join in. There was one problem, on the way from Oshawa to Goodwood there were quite a few rollers and well, I could stand to loose a few pounds. I get clobbered on hills. I would try, at the base to pickup some speed and jump ahead of everyone else, they of course, would, by in large, pass me, but at least I'd still be somewhere in the pelaton at the top of the hill. At least that is my thinking, the problem in a bike club is, one guy starts hammering and before you can say dropfeast, everyone is going full hells bells out. I tried to stay on, I really did, and exploded, a-la Fabian Cancellara on the Cor du Tourmalet, but unlike Fabian who was doing a domestique's job of pulling Andy Schleck, I was just trying to lug my own rear end up the hills and stay with the guys.
I got dropped.
Hey it could have been worse, unlike everyone who dropped me, I knew the route to the bakery and then home. I think I should insert advice for anyone going on a long ride in the country side, turn by turn directions on bars is nice, but when you are trusting that you will see the road signs and that your directions are actually... accurate - you are most likely to find yourself in some serious trouble. If someone is going to go for a ride, either bring a GPS, like mine, one that will tell you, you are off course, or perhaps drive the route before hand. But if you do not have an instinct for distance, make sure you ride with someone like me, someone who studies maps for hobby and knows almost all the major roads from Peterbrough to Hamilton, from Barry to Lake Ontario.
The guys went off course, I tried to yell at them, first that they dropped me, and a bunch of other people it turned out. Later I tried to yell that they were not turning where they were supposed to. I could have tried to snap the distance, but when a guy gets dropped there really is not much incentive to race back up to those who dropped him to say, hey guys, you are riding on a really crummy road that is high traffic and will not even get you where you want to go. In any case, I'm not sure I could have snapped the gap, it was too big and I was still recovering from my explosion.
Actually in a way the guys who dropped me were lucky, sort of, the route they took was much shorter, by about 9.5km, over what by the time they dropped me was only about 30km for me. On the other hand, they rode on some of the lousiest roads, for cyclists, north east of Toronto. Roads with very heavy auto traffic volume and very fast auto traffic volume, personally I get my fill riding home from work in rush hour so I took quiet scenic roads with more rollers and five other guys, we talked, we rode, we climbed a pretty tough hill into the wind, it was nice.
We caught up with the fast guys at the bakery in Goodwood where we discussed the journey home. I had been warned that there was construction on one of the key roads, then someone else chimed in that there were cement barriers on another key road. Alarm bells were ringing, a detour around the barriers was dreamed up, someone else suggested that the construction ought to be done by now and we should just brave it. Well we got to the first road, where the construction was and the word gravel comes to mind, so does the expression exposed road bed. Now don't get me wrong, I've rollerbladed in 100mm wheels over gravel and exposed road beds, but that doesn't mean I like it. I had a chance to bail and did just that.
As soon as I dodged the first patch of construction I pondered my revised route, and observed I was riding alone. Well at least when I ride alone it is difficult to get dropped, and its not like I have not rode alone before. I dreamed up a route that involved a little bit of Scarborough, I do not like riding in Scarborough, but if I had stuck with the guys, there would have been even more Scarborough. (Scarborough drivers... sigh.) So maybe this riding alone was not such a bad move? Then I thought, I'm sick of this Perpetuem in my water, I just want some plain water that does not taste like chalk. It occurred to me that I could just ride on to the office, if I took a route a little further west the office would be on the way home and I would get to avoid Scarborough completely.
I wondered for about five whole seconds if everyone who was with me would mind using Leslie street to get home, then I remembered, short of a sudden case of split personality disorder it was just me and my ride. In a way riding home alone was a good thing, the fact that I had a huge tail wind for the journey home helped and in general riding alone sucks, but this one time, I think fate handed me a big huge favour by making me elect to hack it on my own.
As I neared home I saw the GPS was at 158km, I dreamed up a quick detour, just to make sure to cross the 100 mile mark. I was hunting down a couple rabbits on the bike trail when I hit 161km. (I caught the rabbits too, about 161.5km). For anyone not enlightened by a bike yet, a rabbit is a term for another cyclist one is attempting to chase down.
Although speaking of rabbits, there was a guy, on Leslie, just north of my office, in a full Cervelo Test Team kit and with a Cervelo bike who caught up and passed me, but passed me so slowly that I was able to hop onto his wheel. Then he started dying on the hill, so I got in front, he moved off to the right and would not take my draft. When I yelled to him to take my wheel he did not even look at me. At a red light he zoomed up the right hand side of the lane and I stopped behind the last car, so he had a good 20 second lead on me as soon as the light changed, but rather than try to catch him I slowed down to make the turn to my office, people with attitude like that... I do not know what to say to them, but he really was not that impressive. Especially since I was snapping the gap even though I was actually trying to get away from him by riding slowly.
Anyway a few statistics and then some highlights from today's ride with the BCC.
As noted, I covered just over 163km, I did it at an average of just over 30km/h, burned off almost 7000 calories and I ended up stopping three times. The first stop, a Tim Hortons so some of the women who came out needed to use the washroom - I cleaned my glasses with a napkin. The next stop, at the bakery in Goodwood, I refilled my bottles with tap (probably artesian well) water, finally I stopped alone, at my office for some water cooler water on the way home.
On the way out the guys were feeling well frisky I guess, they were going fast, too fast to last the 140 or so kilometers so I came up to the front and told them to slow down and actually got a few thank yous for that which was really nice. Ultimately I ended up pulling for a while which is alright with me, I like to pull.
As we got near major turns I would try to jump way ahead of the pelaton, okay it would have looked like I was making a break away, but in fact I was simply making sure to make the turn way before everyone else so they would see me turn and join in. There was one problem, on the way from Oshawa to Goodwood there were quite a few rollers and well, I could stand to loose a few pounds. I get clobbered on hills. I would try, at the base to pickup some speed and jump ahead of everyone else, they of course, would, by in large, pass me, but at least I'd still be somewhere in the pelaton at the top of the hill. At least that is my thinking, the problem in a bike club is, one guy starts hammering and before you can say dropfeast, everyone is going full hells bells out. I tried to stay on, I really did, and exploded, a-la Fabian Cancellara on the Cor du Tourmalet, but unlike Fabian who was doing a domestique's job of pulling Andy Schleck, I was just trying to lug my own rear end up the hills and stay with the guys.
I got dropped.
Hey it could have been worse, unlike everyone who dropped me, I knew the route to the bakery and then home. I think I should insert advice for anyone going on a long ride in the country side, turn by turn directions on bars is nice, but when you are trusting that you will see the road signs and that your directions are actually... accurate - you are most likely to find yourself in some serious trouble. If someone is going to go for a ride, either bring a GPS, like mine, one that will tell you, you are off course, or perhaps drive the route before hand. But if you do not have an instinct for distance, make sure you ride with someone like me, someone who studies maps for hobby and knows almost all the major roads from Peterbrough to Hamilton, from Barry to Lake Ontario.
The guys went off course, I tried to yell at them, first that they dropped me, and a bunch of other people it turned out. Later I tried to yell that they were not turning where they were supposed to. I could have tried to snap the distance, but when a guy gets dropped there really is not much incentive to race back up to those who dropped him to say, hey guys, you are riding on a really crummy road that is high traffic and will not even get you where you want to go. In any case, I'm not sure I could have snapped the gap, it was too big and I was still recovering from my explosion.
Actually in a way the guys who dropped me were lucky, sort of, the route they took was much shorter, by about 9.5km, over what by the time they dropped me was only about 30km for me. On the other hand, they rode on some of the lousiest roads, for cyclists, north east of Toronto. Roads with very heavy auto traffic volume and very fast auto traffic volume, personally I get my fill riding home from work in rush hour so I took quiet scenic roads with more rollers and five other guys, we talked, we rode, we climbed a pretty tough hill into the wind, it was nice.
We caught up with the fast guys at the bakery in Goodwood where we discussed the journey home. I had been warned that there was construction on one of the key roads, then someone else chimed in that there were cement barriers on another key road. Alarm bells were ringing, a detour around the barriers was dreamed up, someone else suggested that the construction ought to be done by now and we should just brave it. Well we got to the first road, where the construction was and the word gravel comes to mind, so does the expression exposed road bed. Now don't get me wrong, I've rollerbladed in 100mm wheels over gravel and exposed road beds, but that doesn't mean I like it. I had a chance to bail and did just that.
As soon as I dodged the first patch of construction I pondered my revised route, and observed I was riding alone. Well at least when I ride alone it is difficult to get dropped, and its not like I have not rode alone before. I dreamed up a route that involved a little bit of Scarborough, I do not like riding in Scarborough, but if I had stuck with the guys, there would have been even more Scarborough. (Scarborough drivers... sigh.) So maybe this riding alone was not such a bad move? Then I thought, I'm sick of this Perpetuem in my water, I just want some plain water that does not taste like chalk. It occurred to me that I could just ride on to the office, if I took a route a little further west the office would be on the way home and I would get to avoid Scarborough completely.
I wondered for about five whole seconds if everyone who was with me would mind using Leslie street to get home, then I remembered, short of a sudden case of split personality disorder it was just me and my ride. In a way riding home alone was a good thing, the fact that I had a huge tail wind for the journey home helped and in general riding alone sucks, but this one time, I think fate handed me a big huge favour by making me elect to hack it on my own.
As I neared home I saw the GPS was at 158km, I dreamed up a quick detour, just to make sure to cross the 100 mile mark. I was hunting down a couple rabbits on the bike trail when I hit 161km. (I caught the rabbits too, about 161.5km). For anyone not enlightened by a bike yet, a rabbit is a term for another cyclist one is attempting to chase down.
Although speaking of rabbits, there was a guy, on Leslie, just north of my office, in a full Cervelo Test Team kit and with a Cervelo bike who caught up and passed me, but passed me so slowly that I was able to hop onto his wheel. Then he started dying on the hill, so I got in front, he moved off to the right and would not take my draft. When I yelled to him to take my wheel he did not even look at me. At a red light he zoomed up the right hand side of the lane and I stopped behind the last car, so he had a good 20 second lead on me as soon as the light changed, but rather than try to catch him I slowed down to make the turn to my office, people with attitude like that... I do not know what to say to them, but he really was not that impressive. Especially since I was snapping the gap even though I was actually trying to get away from him by riding slowly.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
On Riding in Humidity
Thursday as noted, I rode from work to the dentist then on to the Thursday night hill crazy ride through Scarborough. It was supposed to, and in fact did rain on Friday morning, so I drove to work. I was going to go for a nice evening hammerfeast through the city but was instead tasked with going to the Data Centre, again.
I sent a note to Thi Ng and Ian Wilcox of the Beaches Cycling Club asking if either (or both) would like to do a quick early morning 80km tour of the city. Thi was booked up with his wife and Dim Sum, Ian the man who eats NCC (Nuclear Custard Cakes) went to bed at 3am and so naturally took up my offer and met me around 10:30 on the Lake Shore trail near the Boulevard club. I had already done a loop through Mississauga but was happy to add an extra 60km to the 70km I had already logged.
I think perhaps I pushed myself a little hard on the Mississauga loop, or more likely, Ian is in fact a space alien who has some sort of bizarre metabolism that can enable him to clock in speeds that convert typical tyres into jello. Or perhaps Ian takes EPO? Is there a motor in his bottom bracket (unlikely, I've done repairs to his drive train myself, I have never found anything unusual there). I suspect that the truth is a lot more innocent than any of my innuendo. I suspect rather that while Ian was sleeping, or perhaps under some hallucinogenic induced comma someone surreptitiously slipped Ian another one of those damned NCCs.
Assuming the guilty party is reading this post can they please stop feeding Ian that stuff? Damnit I'm busting every part of my anatomy trying to keep up with this guy, 40km/h, 45, 50, 55, 60 kilometers an hour, heck I'm passing the cars, and Ian is just motoring along like he is out for a pleasant ride to the store to get some baguette and maybe have a smoke whilst wearing a striped jumper. This is an annoying position to be in. I've got sweat pouring off me in such volumes that armed with a hydro electric damn a guy could make a pretty penny selling the energy from my falling sweat to Ontario Hydro. Then Ian starts complaining about a drop of sweat in his sun glasses, I'm thinking, I should buy myself a a new pair of swimming goggles for my next ride behind that engine.
So yes, Ian did make me hurt, but it was a good pain and I am looking forward to my next ride with Ian. No not because I want to hurt, rather because I have something special in store. A bungee cable and a six pack of real beer - for me, I'll give Ian the NCC.
I sent a note to Thi Ng and Ian Wilcox of the Beaches Cycling Club asking if either (or both) would like to do a quick early morning 80km tour of the city. Thi was booked up with his wife and Dim Sum, Ian the man who eats NCC (Nuclear Custard Cakes) went to bed at 3am and so naturally took up my offer and met me around 10:30 on the Lake Shore trail near the Boulevard club. I had already done a loop through Mississauga but was happy to add an extra 60km to the 70km I had already logged.
I think perhaps I pushed myself a little hard on the Mississauga loop, or more likely, Ian is in fact a space alien who has some sort of bizarre metabolism that can enable him to clock in speeds that convert typical tyres into jello. Or perhaps Ian takes EPO? Is there a motor in his bottom bracket (unlikely, I've done repairs to his drive train myself, I have never found anything unusual there). I suspect that the truth is a lot more innocent than any of my innuendo. I suspect rather that while Ian was sleeping, or perhaps under some hallucinogenic induced comma someone surreptitiously slipped Ian another one of those damned NCCs.
Assuming the guilty party is reading this post can they please stop feeding Ian that stuff? Damnit I'm busting every part of my anatomy trying to keep up with this guy, 40km/h, 45, 50, 55, 60 kilometers an hour, heck I'm passing the cars, and Ian is just motoring along like he is out for a pleasant ride to the store to get some baguette and maybe have a smoke whilst wearing a striped jumper. This is an annoying position to be in. I've got sweat pouring off me in such volumes that armed with a hydro electric damn a guy could make a pretty penny selling the energy from my falling sweat to Ontario Hydro. Then Ian starts complaining about a drop of sweat in his sun glasses, I'm thinking, I should buy myself a a new pair of swimming goggles for my next ride behind that engine.
So yes, Ian did make me hurt, but it was a good pain and I am looking forward to my next ride with Ian. No not because I want to hurt, rather because I have something special in store. A bungee cable and a six pack of real beer - for me, I'll give Ian the NCC.
Friday, July 23, 2010
On More Pain
Remember the Cervelo ad from the 2009 Tour where one of the Cervelo Test Team time trialists was going on and on about how, "when you like zee pain, zen you know you are good"? I'm not so sure I'm there yet. Well actually last night, right after I rode, I liked the pain. This morning, no not so much.
I think though that while an occasional hill is good, I prefer a better mix, one or two good long steep hills and some flats, and maybe some rollers. With the high temperatures and humidity, the wind from going fast really helps to cool things down.
So here is my past seven days of riding:
- Saturday/Sunday (July 17/18): Stuck driving back and forth to London Ontario, 950km and not one of them on the saddle - sucks.
- Monday July 19: Rode to work and home again, 75km, a few thousand calories, back on the bike. Rode too hard to every red - so excited to be back on the saddle - wanted to puke my lungs out every time I stopped.
- Tuesday July 20: (by the way, Happy Anniversary Neil Armstrong - an Armstrong who was dignified by his silence - Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins). Thought it was going to rain, drove to work, then to the Data Centre, squeezed in a quick 85km race the cars ride in Mississauga, should do that again soon, what a ride!
- Wednesday July 21: Slept, hey come on, I did stay up until 4am from Tuesday night on account of the Data Centre - hey is anyone hiring a senior network analyst? (I want a job that doesn't kill me, I think I am averaging 60 hour work weeks.)
- Thursday July 22: Rode to work, then to the Dentist, then to the Thursday night ride. Total distance, thereabouts 115km, total calories, in the neighbourhood of 5000, top speed on a busy four lane road, over 55km/h - scary when the truck pulled out in front of me and I almost crashed into him - what is with pickup truck drivers?
Now as for the Thursday night ride, well I climbed the Scarbrough Bluffs at Brimley, three repeats, yes I suck, but in my defence I still have not fully recovered from my all nighter on Wednesday/Thursday July 14/15, forget about London and then the Tuesday/Wednesday just past. Okay enough excuses, for anyone not fully up to speed on Brimley, this is no Tourmalet - actually I feel like a bit a fool talking about Brimley the day after Schleck and Contador dueled it out on that Hors Categorie climb. But anyway here is Brimley details, it is a 72m climb, starting at 85m above sea level, the climb takes 970m, below is the hill in profile.
I think though that while an occasional hill is good, I prefer a better mix, one or two good long steep hills and some flats, and maybe some rollers. With the high temperatures and humidity, the wind from going fast really helps to cool things down.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
On Pushing too Hard
This week I have not had too many chances to ride. Monday I rode to work, I suspect because I spent pretty much all of the previous weekend driving back and forth to London Ontario and no saddle time, I pushed way too hard, every single red light I wanted to cough my lungs up because I had no chance to slow down gently.
Of course Tuesday I spent in the Data Centre so I did the ride before that but I was so drained that Wednesday I went home from work early (by car) and slept. I still have not caught up with my sleep but at least I am doing a little better than yesterday. Question, is it possible to be so fatigued that one exhibits all the signs and symptoms of alcohol consumption without drinking anything? I felt drunk with fatigue and I haven't had so much as a millilitre of the good stuff in a week - yes I know, I need a life.
That actually reminds me of a story, once years ago, I got to a police roadblock where they were doing spot checks for drunk drivers. The cop sticks his head in my window (to smell my breath of course) and asks when I last had something to drink. I reply, "a couple weeks ago" and the cop starts laughing at me. Hey at least I earn more than he does, but I bet his job is more exciting than mine (not that I would want the excitement.)
Anyway an annoying thing for me, why is it that Versus no longer shows the Tour, I found a website that does have it, actually there are several, free places to watch and I am looking forward to seeing Schleck clobber Contador, but it would be nice to hear Phil explain why riding in a pace line saves a rider up to 30% the effort of riding alone, even up the side of the Tear My Legs Off mountain. Speaking of which, the boys are climbing what looks like the Col du Soulor in the rain now, after this the Col du Tourmelet and then no more categorized (or HC) climbs until 2011.
A final thought, I've always thought Armstrong was a jerk, but seeing how well Contador behaved the other day when Andy dropped his chain, well I really hope Contador just bonks or cramps completely and Schleck beats Contador by a good three or four minutes. (Am I being mean or does Contador have it coming?)
Of course Tuesday I spent in the Data Centre so I did the ride before that but I was so drained that Wednesday I went home from work early (by car) and slept. I still have not caught up with my sleep but at least I am doing a little better than yesterday. Question, is it possible to be so fatigued that one exhibits all the signs and symptoms of alcohol consumption without drinking anything? I felt drunk with fatigue and I haven't had so much as a millilitre of the good stuff in a week - yes I know, I need a life.
That actually reminds me of a story, once years ago, I got to a police roadblock where they were doing spot checks for drunk drivers. The cop sticks his head in my window (to smell my breath of course) and asks when I last had something to drink. I reply, "a couple weeks ago" and the cop starts laughing at me. Hey at least I earn more than he does, but I bet his job is more exciting than mine (not that I would want the excitement.)
Anyway an annoying thing for me, why is it that Versus no longer shows the Tour, I found a website that does have it, actually there are several, free places to watch and I am looking forward to seeing Schleck clobber Contador, but it would be nice to hear Phil explain why riding in a pace line saves a rider up to 30% the effort of riding alone, even up the side of the Tear My Legs Off mountain. Speaking of which, the boys are climbing what looks like the Col du Soulor in the rain now, after this the Col du Tourmelet and then no more categorized (or HC) climbs until 2011.
A final thought, I've always thought Armstrong was a jerk, but seeing how well Contador behaved the other day when Andy dropped his chain, well I really hope Contador just bonks or cramps completely and Schleck beats Contador by a good three or four minutes. (Am I being mean or does Contador have it coming?)
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
On Pain
I am in the Data Centre the Carrier Hotel in downtown. There are buildings like this one in every city of any size all over North America. Your phone calls, web browsing, emails, all that good stuff pass through buildings just like the one I'm in. In fact, if you are in Canada it is highly probable that your next phone call will pass through wires not two meters away from me right now, yes even local calls in Vancouver have decent odds of being routed all the way to Toronto and then bounced back to Vancouver.
Here is a dirty little secret, the very building I am in also houses the data centre for a major Canadian mobile phone company. This is bad because if this building, even just the floor the mobile carrier operates on were to say flood, or burn - all to frequent events for major data centres - the mobile phone company would literally be unable to continue as a business, their cell phones would become paper weights.
Anyway I mention all this not to show off, there are plenty of people, most much smarter than me who work here all the time. I bring this up because it is now just after midnight on Wednesday morning. I babbled on about a data centre because I missed a Tuesday night ride, I figured I better explain why.
The good news for me, the reason this post is not my usual irritated tone, is that I did manage to squeeze in a little trip around the city prior to coming back to work. I rode, well I won't try and cheat, 84.88km in just under 3 hours. I burned, well a lot of calories and I raced the cars. (They usually beat me, but not by so much that all that many motorists would laugh.) Typically the light would turn green and I would be half way to the next light before the first cars would even catch up. In short the ride was a very intense interval session, burn hard to the next red light, recover for 15 or 30 seconds and then burn hard again to the next red. While my average speed was only a little shy of 29km/h, my sustained speed, that is the speed I was booking when I was not slowing down for the next light, was somewhere between 35 and 40 km/h.
I do not have the route, my GPS is with my ride at home; but, I can describe some of the interesting bits (I'll post the route some other time.) I took the Lakeshore trail west, and passed... well everyone from Stadium road right to Park Lawn. At one point there were two guys in kits from a very unpopular bike club, now I should insert here that most of the time when I passed someone it was a pleasant thing, just a "on your left" and "thank you" but for these guys I hammered, hard. I think, too hard, they did not even try to catch up. Oh well! (This club has a reputation, well earned, that everyone not in the club knows exactly what the bottom side of the noses of the club membership looks like... they need some tissue!)
I hammered on, I personally like to find a distinctive looking car and see how long it takes for the car to properly drop me if we both obey the traffic laws, well alright, no motorist in Toronto obeys the speed limit but that just makes the challenge harder for me. I made it from below Bloor up Royal York to The West Way (where I turned off) in range of a red minivan, total distance, about 4 or 5km.
Eglinton Avenue is a disaster, I lost a lot of time, bouncing through potholes and fighting a miserable head wind. I went south on Tomken, passing cars, at speed, as I went - which would sound a lot more impressive I admit if the cars in questions were driving at the posted limit, they were not even close.
Dundas from Tomken to the West Mall was a great place for intervals, hammer at 45~55km/h and then stop. Repeat every few hundred meters. I think I spent more time out of the saddle accelerating than I spent in the saddle maintaining speed. Oh before I forget, the West Mall is being resurfaced and is one lane in each direction, and Evens Avenue is so badly in need of resurfacing from West Mall to Islington it is rather sad.
I went back up Royal York, at The Queens Way a Taxi driver asked me if I was Andy Schleck or Alberto Contador. I told him I thought Contador was a dick. The taxi driver told me he had not heard the latest on the tour, I told him that Contador was ahead by 8 seconds. That driver was cooler than every other taxi driver in Toronto combined! I wish more cabbies followed the TDF, I'll bet they would be a lot more considerate to cyclists.
I climbed Christie street but it was nothing impressive, I was starting to hurt, on the other hand the trip down that hill, at Russell Hill Road was awesome. I was clocking over 50km/h - it's a 40 zone, and that's 40 for very good reason. Taking a turn at speed is a total adrenaline rush and a half.
In short, the ride was painful, but all in a good way. I should do it again sometime, but maybe try to go a little faster.
Here is a dirty little secret, the very building I am in also houses the data centre for a major Canadian mobile phone company. This is bad because if this building, even just the floor the mobile carrier operates on were to say flood, or burn - all to frequent events for major data centres - the mobile phone company would literally be unable to continue as a business, their cell phones would become paper weights.
Anyway I mention all this not to show off, there are plenty of people, most much smarter than me who work here all the time. I bring this up because it is now just after midnight on Wednesday morning. I babbled on about a data centre because I missed a Tuesday night ride, I figured I better explain why.
The good news for me, the reason this post is not my usual irritated tone, is that I did manage to squeeze in a little trip around the city prior to coming back to work. I rode, well I won't try and cheat, 84.88km in just under 3 hours. I burned, well a lot of calories and I raced the cars. (They usually beat me, but not by so much that all that many motorists would laugh.) Typically the light would turn green and I would be half way to the next light before the first cars would even catch up. In short the ride was a very intense interval session, burn hard to the next red light, recover for 15 or 30 seconds and then burn hard again to the next red. While my average speed was only a little shy of 29km/h, my sustained speed, that is the speed I was booking when I was not slowing down for the next light, was somewhere between 35 and 40 km/h.
I do not have the route, my GPS is with my ride at home; but, I can describe some of the interesting bits (I'll post the route some other time.) I took the Lakeshore trail west, and passed... well everyone from Stadium road right to Park Lawn. At one point there were two guys in kits from a very unpopular bike club, now I should insert here that most of the time when I passed someone it was a pleasant thing, just a "on your left" and "thank you" but for these guys I hammered, hard. I think, too hard, they did not even try to catch up. Oh well! (This club has a reputation, well earned, that everyone not in the club knows exactly what the bottom side of the noses of the club membership looks like... they need some tissue!)
I hammered on, I personally like to find a distinctive looking car and see how long it takes for the car to properly drop me if we both obey the traffic laws, well alright, no motorist in Toronto obeys the speed limit but that just makes the challenge harder for me. I made it from below Bloor up Royal York to The West Way (where I turned off) in range of a red minivan, total distance, about 4 or 5km.
Eglinton Avenue is a disaster, I lost a lot of time, bouncing through potholes and fighting a miserable head wind. I went south on Tomken, passing cars, at speed, as I went - which would sound a lot more impressive I admit if the cars in questions were driving at the posted limit, they were not even close.
Dundas from Tomken to the West Mall was a great place for intervals, hammer at 45~55km/h and then stop. Repeat every few hundred meters. I think I spent more time out of the saddle accelerating than I spent in the saddle maintaining speed. Oh before I forget, the West Mall is being resurfaced and is one lane in each direction, and Evens Avenue is so badly in need of resurfacing from West Mall to Islington it is rather sad.
I went back up Royal York, at The Queens Way a Taxi driver asked me if I was Andy Schleck or Alberto Contador. I told him I thought Contador was a dick. The taxi driver told me he had not heard the latest on the tour, I told him that Contador was ahead by 8 seconds. That driver was cooler than every other taxi driver in Toronto combined! I wish more cabbies followed the TDF, I'll bet they would be a lot more considerate to cyclists.
I climbed Christie street but it was nothing impressive, I was starting to hurt, on the other hand the trip down that hill, at Russell Hill Road was awesome. I was clocking over 50km/h - it's a 40 zone, and that's 40 for very good reason. Taking a turn at speed is a total adrenaline rush and a half.
In short, the ride was painful, but all in a good way. I should do it again sometime, but maybe try to go a little faster.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
On Driving, Final Thoughts, For Now
I filled up the car after driving to London Ontario and back (twice). The car is a small diesel (a VW Jetta to be specific). Total distance driving in two days: 954km, total fuel consumed, a little more than 7/8'th of the tank, size of tank 50L. In other words, at just under one dollar per litre of diesel, I blew $43 and about 45L driving 954km.
It probably helps that the air conditioning does not work, but still, when the fuel economy is that good, why do I have to buy either a VW or a Mercedes if I want a small diesel? By switching from a regular gasoline or petrol powered vehicle to alternatively a bicycle or small diesel look what I have done to reduce my carbon foot print, when will other people join in?
I rode to work yesterday, since July 1 I have done 1018km on Jordan, I rotated the tyres last night. I went to bed expecting it to be raining this morning and clear Wednesday. When I woke up, the prediction had been revised, clear Tuesday rain on Wednesday. Good job guys. Well I guess if the weather stays nice maybe I do a little ride tonight, but I'd rather ride to work, that way not only do I get to ride, but I get to reduce the driving I do at the same time.
Here's another thought. I saw an advert recently for a power tap. I know I should, from a training standpoint, use one. Knowing my power would be really helpful in ensuring I am training properly. But check out the price, the Cycle-ops power tap is about $1000, mind you a couple years ago, the Cycle-ops was $2000, so give it another twenty years and maybe I can afford one.
I want to know, why are power taps so expensive? Hook up a spring with known elastic properties to the drive train, measure the force applied by measuring the flex of the spring (all very easy to do applications of a high school electronics course) then gauge speed of the spring as it rotates, again trivial. Now multiple, force in Newtons times speed in meters per second equals Watts of power. Where does the $1000 price tags come from? The fancy packaging? Sorry but I just cannot bring myself to piss away that kind of money for technology that is so simple.
It probably helps that the air conditioning does not work, but still, when the fuel economy is that good, why do I have to buy either a VW or a Mercedes if I want a small diesel? By switching from a regular gasoline or petrol powered vehicle to alternatively a bicycle or small diesel look what I have done to reduce my carbon foot print, when will other people join in?
I rode to work yesterday, since July 1 I have done 1018km on Jordan, I rotated the tyres last night. I went to bed expecting it to be raining this morning and clear Wednesday. When I woke up, the prediction had been revised, clear Tuesday rain on Wednesday. Good job guys. Well I guess if the weather stays nice maybe I do a little ride tonight, but I'd rather ride to work, that way not only do I get to ride, but I get to reduce the driving I do at the same time.
Here's another thought. I saw an advert recently for a power tap. I know I should, from a training standpoint, use one. Knowing my power would be really helpful in ensuring I am training properly. But check out the price, the Cycle-ops power tap is about $1000, mind you a couple years ago, the Cycle-ops was $2000, so give it another twenty years and maybe I can afford one.
I want to know, why are power taps so expensive? Hook up a spring with known elastic properties to the drive train, measure the force applied by measuring the flex of the spring (all very easy to do applications of a high school electronics course) then gauge speed of the spring as it rotates, again trivial. Now multiple, force in Newtons times speed in meters per second equals Watts of power. Where does the $1000 price tags come from? The fancy packaging? Sorry but I just cannot bring myself to piss away that kind of money for technology that is so simple.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
On Excessive Driving
I had to go to London Ontario to a client site this weekend. Sucks.
I had to drive to London Ontario to a client site this weekend. Sucks worse.
I had to drive to London Ontario to a client site this weekend and apparently the weather was great for riding back home. Sucks balls it sucks so bad!
I had to... oh you get the idea and someone else ran a club ITT and in one day got a bigger turn out than I could despite all my begging and pleading. Since I am practicing not swearing (I've had to spend the day in the presence of clients.) I will not say what I'm thinking.
It gets better.
Yesterday (Friday) I packed up the servers for the client site and we brought them down, only we discovered that the servers, HP Proliant DL 380s were incompatible with the HP Proliant DL 180 rack rails that were in the boxes. Ooops, that would be a my bad. So I had to schlep back to the office in Richmond Hill (200km most assuredly Not in on the saddle.) Get said rack mount rails and haul back to London Ontario. Total distance driven (thanks to traffic jams and a car with no working air conditioning in 37 degree heat), since Friday night, 670km. Total distance ridden: Zilch, bupkiss, nadda, ZERO!
At least I may have discovered a great place for an ITT, in my efforts to keep a wind happening so I wouldn't melt in the car I drove on some back roads, and well this might just work.
It is a lot further than the traditional ITT circuit, but that might be a good thing. Drive out to some point near the start and ride from there as a warm up. No riding in crowded cities, and ITT on a flat circuit... mind you, if we are doing an ITT, and driving to the start... hmmm, rural Ontario out near Kitchener Waterloo might work. Then after we could all go to the Math Building at U(W) and watch Michael gag as I enjoy the memories of undergraduate skule.
I had to drive to London Ontario to a client site this weekend. Sucks worse.
I had to drive to London Ontario to a client site this weekend and apparently the weather was great for riding back home. Sucks balls it sucks so bad!
I had to... oh you get the idea and someone else ran a club ITT and in one day got a bigger turn out than I could despite all my begging and pleading. Since I am practicing not swearing (I've had to spend the day in the presence of clients.) I will not say what I'm thinking.
It gets better.
Yesterday (Friday) I packed up the servers for the client site and we brought them down, only we discovered that the servers, HP Proliant DL 380s were incompatible with the HP Proliant DL 180 rack rails that were in the boxes. Ooops, that would be a my bad. So I had to schlep back to the office in Richmond Hill (200km most assuredly Not in on the saddle.) Get said rack mount rails and haul back to London Ontario. Total distance driven (thanks to traffic jams and a car with no working air conditioning in 37 degree heat), since Friday night, 670km. Total distance ridden: Zilch, bupkiss, nadda, ZERO!
At least I may have discovered a great place for an ITT, in my efforts to keep a wind happening so I wouldn't melt in the car I drove on some back roads, and well this might just work.
It is a lot further than the traditional ITT circuit, but that might be a good thing. Drive out to some point near the start and ride from there as a warm up. No riding in crowded cities, and ITT on a flat circuit... mind you, if we are doing an ITT, and driving to the start... hmmm, rural Ontario out near Kitchener Waterloo might work. Then after we could all go to the Math Building at U(W) and watch Michael gag as I enjoy the memories of undergraduate skule.
Friday, July 16, 2010
On Jobs and ITTs
I get more readers on this blog, remarkably I get readers at all here!, than on the BCC site. There's something really strange about that.
Anyway I've got to go to London Ontario to work this weekend, we are setting up a system at a large corporation there. The only tan I will get is from a bunch of computer monitors, meanwhile the weather here looks wonderful. (Maybe I can fit Jordan in the trunk of the car and if I get lucky... the car windows will be smashed and Jordan will get stolen... okay forget that idea.)
Point is I doubt I'll have much to post, or time to post it for the next couple days, sorry.
I did want to ask though, for anyone who might want to try some variety, I'm thinking, maybe going forward an alternative to the traditional BCC side, an out of town ITT on some quiet country roads in Erin Ontario. (There is a personal reason for Erin Ontario I admit, look just to the right of this column at the pictures of my bikes.) But there are actually some very lovely roads for riding up there. The idea is, drive to say a Tim Ho's and then warm up riding to some arbitrary starting line, and do a nice 40km circuit. After, well I guess drive home. Thoughts?
Anyway I've got to go to London Ontario to work this weekend, we are setting up a system at a large corporation there. The only tan I will get is from a bunch of computer monitors, meanwhile the weather here looks wonderful. (Maybe I can fit Jordan in the trunk of the car and if I get lucky... the car windows will be smashed and Jordan will get stolen... okay forget that idea.)
Point is I doubt I'll have much to post, or time to post it for the next couple days, sorry.
I did want to ask though, for anyone who might want to try some variety, I'm thinking, maybe going forward an alternative to the traditional BCC side, an out of town ITT on some quiet country roads in Erin Ontario. (There is a personal reason for Erin Ontario I admit, look just to the right of this column at the pictures of my bikes.) But there are actually some very lovely roads for riding up there. The idea is, drive to say a Tim Ho's and then warm up riding to some arbitrary starting line, and do a nice 40km circuit. After, well I guess drive home. Thoughts?
Thursday, July 15, 2010
On Wear and Tear
Sorry if I'm not 100% Compos mentis today, I'm afraid I had to work until 3am in the data centre and then by the time I got everything sorted for the day it was 5am and time to get ready for work. In short, besides a few cat naps I've stolen (at my desk at work, on a pile of empty boxes in the data centre, etc.) I basically am running on the 5 hours of shut-eye I managed to sneak in the night before last. Being an IT guy and trying to be... well anything else, is damn near impossible.
So here is a random thought, Dragonwave makes Microwave relays used to telecomunications, Dragonwave is Canadain and their sales were down massively, blamed on cancelled orders from their biggest customer. (I know Wind Mobile uses Dragonwave, I wonder, are the Egyptians pulling the plug on their Canadian foray?) Anyway none of the above has pretty much anything to do with anything. I just read about Dragonwave this morning in the business section of the paper and have been wondering about Wind, there is a lot of evidence that starting a mobile teleco in Canada is damn near impossible and I think Wind is near dead proof of my point.
Now as for wear and tear. I had a chance, while in the data centre to think about my ride. On Friday July 2 I put brand new Verdestein Fortezza Tricomp tyres on Jordan and the next day rode to Rochester NY. Well yesterday, July 14, I noticed that the back tyre was really starting to wear down. Now there is a rule of thumb in cycling, after 1000km, switch the front tyre with the rear tyre because the front will hardly have any wear, and the rear will be almost spent, after another 1000km, throw both tyres out and put on a fresh pair. How could it be that these tyres were already almost half spent after just 12 days? So I added up all the mileage I've ridden since July 2, here it is:
So here is a random thought, Dragonwave makes Microwave relays used to telecomunications, Dragonwave is Canadain and their sales were down massively, blamed on cancelled orders from their biggest customer. (I know Wind Mobile uses Dragonwave, I wonder, are the Egyptians pulling the plug on their Canadian foray?) Anyway none of the above has pretty much anything to do with anything. I just read about Dragonwave this morning in the business section of the paper and have been wondering about Wind, there is a lot of evidence that starting a mobile teleco in Canada is damn near impossible and I think Wind is near dead proof of my point.
Now as for wear and tear. I had a chance, while in the data centre to think about my ride. On Friday July 2 I put brand new Verdestein Fortezza Tricomp tyres on Jordan and the next day rode to Rochester NY. Well yesterday, July 14, I noticed that the back tyre was really starting to wear down. Now there is a rule of thumb in cycling, after 1000km, switch the front tyre with the rear tyre because the front will hardly have any wear, and the rear will be almost spent, after another 1000km, throw both tyres out and put on a fresh pair. How could it be that these tyres were already almost half spent after just 12 days? So I added up all the mileage I've ridden since July 2, here it is:
- July 3: 285km (almost to Rochester NY)
- July 4: 178km (rode around Rochester then home from Niagara Falls)
- July 7: 75km (rode to and from work)
- July 8: 100km (rode to and from work and did the Thursday night hills ride)
- July 10: 64km (ITT and warm-up for ITT)
- July 11: 155km (BCC Sunday ride)
- July 14: 75km (rode to and from work)
Total: 932km. Well I guess it's a case of little wonder my tyres are nearly half spent, they are 93% of the way to a rotation. In fact, by the time I get home from work today, since I rode in, I will be due for a tyre rotation. Damn, 1000km in less than two weeks, there are months when I don't drive 1000km!
Oh, in case anyone is wondering, the other consumable is the chain, usually about 3000 to 4000km, get a chain wear gauge from your local bike shop if you don't already have one and check the wear... I guess in my case every two weeks!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
On Public Transit
Sucks.
I honestly think I should just leave it with one five letter word. Lets face it, surface transit in North America is appallingly awful. I remember I once wrote a long winded email to a columnist at the Globe and Mail because she made a similar tirade against public transit. Now that I ride so far to work every morning I understand exactly where she is coming from.
I mean when I drive the Bus or the Street Car is no big deal, you get ahead of it and you are good to go until you catch up with the next one. But on the saddle, well I'm still going to pass every bus or street car given enough mileage, it just takes a little longer. The fact is the sorry sods who drive these things seem to forget no matter the colour of the light, they have to stop to load and unload, I don't, unless the light is red of course. I've lost count, honest to goodness, of bus drivers who seem to think I'm racing them (or are they racing me?).
With respect guys, yes, you can go faster than me in absolute terms, I max out at around 60km/h depending on conditions, buses are probably governed to, I'd have to guess 100km/h or so. (In fairness bus drivers are probably used to cyclists who max at around 30km/h - but then they don't even start to close the gap after the light changes until... well typically I've passed the their next stop.)
The thing that really annoys me about buses though, diesel exhaust. Yes I drive a diesel car, but its a small car, buses spew tons of black filth into the air that I am running a 150 to 180bpm heart rate in. (My car also spews the diesel exhaust about one foot -30cm- above grade, the bus exhaust is about 10 feet -3m- up.)
I realise public transit is a good thing, if more people took the bus, or rode their bike, there would be few of those pesky cars to deal with. The civil war among car drivers might finally end if more people took the bus. But it just seems to me that in North America the way we designed our cities, it's like we thought the word BUS was spelled without vowels. I guess what is needed really is something like the truly great cities, like Copenhagen, have, physically separate roads for bikes, transit and regular vehicles.
One final thought, if we consider almost any suburban road, going from one side to the other, there is a property line, typically marked by a fence, then some grass, then a totally unused sidewalk, then yet more grass, then the curb, then the road, then the other curb and grass, another unused sidewalk and finally more grass. Would it not be possible to turn some of that grass or perhaps an unused sidewalk in a road level bike lane, physically separated from the cars and the buses yet not requiring massive infrastructure changes?
I honestly think I should just leave it with one five letter word. Lets face it, surface transit in North America is appallingly awful. I remember I once wrote a long winded email to a columnist at the Globe and Mail because she made a similar tirade against public transit. Now that I ride so far to work every morning I understand exactly where she is coming from.
I mean when I drive the Bus or the Street Car is no big deal, you get ahead of it and you are good to go until you catch up with the next one. But on the saddle, well I'm still going to pass every bus or street car given enough mileage, it just takes a little longer. The fact is the sorry sods who drive these things seem to forget no matter the colour of the light, they have to stop to load and unload, I don't, unless the light is red of course. I've lost count, honest to goodness, of bus drivers who seem to think I'm racing them (or are they racing me?).
With respect guys, yes, you can go faster than me in absolute terms, I max out at around 60km/h depending on conditions, buses are probably governed to, I'd have to guess 100km/h or so. (In fairness bus drivers are probably used to cyclists who max at around 30km/h - but then they don't even start to close the gap after the light changes until... well typically I've passed the their next stop.)
The thing that really annoys me about buses though, diesel exhaust. Yes I drive a diesel car, but its a small car, buses spew tons of black filth into the air that I am running a 150 to 180bpm heart rate in. (My car also spews the diesel exhaust about one foot -30cm- above grade, the bus exhaust is about 10 feet -3m- up.)
I realise public transit is a good thing, if more people took the bus, or rode their bike, there would be few of those pesky cars to deal with. The civil war among car drivers might finally end if more people took the bus. But it just seems to me that in North America the way we designed our cities, it's like we thought the word BUS was spelled without vowels. I guess what is needed really is something like the truly great cities, like Copenhagen, have, physically separate roads for bikes, transit and regular vehicles.
One final thought, if we consider almost any suburban road, going from one side to the other, there is a property line, typically marked by a fence, then some grass, then a totally unused sidewalk, then yet more grass, then the curb, then the road, then the other curb and grass, another unused sidewalk and finally more grass. Would it not be possible to turn some of that grass or perhaps an unused sidewalk in a road level bike lane, physically separated from the cars and the buses yet not requiring massive infrastructure changes?
Monday, July 12, 2010
On Jordan
As I have documented earlier, Erin was cracked and as it turned out the crack was fatal. Obviously I am upset, hey I like my bike enough to name her; but life goes on, or I guess I keep grinding. So I have a new ride, Lesley thought, because of the black colour scheme this bike looked more 'bad ass' and so a more 'bad ass' name, Lesley thought was Jordan. (Apparently one of Lesley's co-workers, Jordan is a bad ass.)
Here are some pictures of Jordan during the build and after a good cleaning.
Here are some pictures of Jordan during the build and after a good cleaning.
On Sunday Morning Rides and Other Things
No I have not stopped writing my little novel, I just found a little time to work on this Blog as well. Anyway before I get into the Sunday ride, I should add one detail I previously omitted from the events at the ITT I did on Saturday.
The ITT was on an open road, there were police on hand and notices advising motorists a race is in progress but despite the fact that this was a quiet country road that could have been closed without serious impact for a the four or five hours on a Saturday morning, it was left open. As a result besides sharing the road with fellow trialists I had the chance to share the road with motor vehicles.
Just after the turn around near Stoney Lake, a minivan came along and passed me, but for whatever reason chickened out when the time came to pass the guy not 5m in front of me. The minivan sat between us and all I could do was mutter expletives as I breathed carbon monoxide and drafted the damn thing. Finally after about 30 seconds I got fed up with the motorist and rode in the oncoming traffic lane around the minivan. So I did break a major rule of time trialing I drafted, in my defence though, I was trying really hard not to. (Question, why can't the OCA just close the damn road for the morning? sigh.)
Anyway yesterday I went for a ride with the BCC, it was a very scenic route through rolling hills North West of Toronto. The company was great and the speed was just about right. The fact was you cannot do much better than the ride I had yesterday... well sort of. There is a hill, on Mount Pleasant Road near Kleinburg, this hill has a grade of about 10% and rises through about 100m of elevation. I was, I thought, justifiably proud of the fact that I was the first person in our group to complete the climb. The view south east from the top was astonishing. Anyway we rode home, it was a very friendly and pleasant group ride, the sort I really like and I was happy - but for the fact that I was drinking fluids too fast, ran out of supplements and was just about to start bonking (I was drinking plain water for the last 45 minutes or so) as I got home.
After the ride, and a lot of food, I set to work cleaning my new Roubaix. Now while cleaning my bike I like to have the television on, so I had a choice, I could watch what would turn out to be a Spanish victory at the World Cup, or I could watch a rerun of the Tour De France. As anyone who knows me would know, I watched Andy Schleck clobber... well everyone, it was beautiful! (Come on, the Tour or a football game? I can see a football match anytime, but this is The Tour!) Except, and this is why I'm not so proud of my hill climbing abilities, Andy did his little clobber routine against everyone on a Category 1 hill. At one point during the climb Phil Liggett was saying something to the effect of "the lower part of the mountain is only 7 or 8% but this section, for the next 3 or 4km is 9.9 to 10% grade." The best part, the stage of the tour the guys did yesterday, stage 8, ended with a Cat 1 hill, it was preceded by a couple Cat 4, a Cat 3 and a previous Cat 1 climb and the guys covered almost 190km.
Memo to self, I will never be a great, or even all that good, sigh.
Of course I already knew that I won't be Mister Amazing, but still, to have one's own mediocrity shoved in their face like that, it hurts.
The ITT was on an open road, there were police on hand and notices advising motorists a race is in progress but despite the fact that this was a quiet country road that could have been closed without serious impact for a the four or five hours on a Saturday morning, it was left open. As a result besides sharing the road with fellow trialists I had the chance to share the road with motor vehicles.
Just after the turn around near Stoney Lake, a minivan came along and passed me, but for whatever reason chickened out when the time came to pass the guy not 5m in front of me. The minivan sat between us and all I could do was mutter expletives as I breathed carbon monoxide and drafted the damn thing. Finally after about 30 seconds I got fed up with the motorist and rode in the oncoming traffic lane around the minivan. So I did break a major rule of time trialing I drafted, in my defence though, I was trying really hard not to. (Question, why can't the OCA just close the damn road for the morning? sigh.)
Anyway yesterday I went for a ride with the BCC, it was a very scenic route through rolling hills North West of Toronto. The company was great and the speed was just about right. The fact was you cannot do much better than the ride I had yesterday... well sort of. There is a hill, on Mount Pleasant Road near Kleinburg, this hill has a grade of about 10% and rises through about 100m of elevation. I was, I thought, justifiably proud of the fact that I was the first person in our group to complete the climb. The view south east from the top was astonishing. Anyway we rode home, it was a very friendly and pleasant group ride, the sort I really like and I was happy - but for the fact that I was drinking fluids too fast, ran out of supplements and was just about to start bonking (I was drinking plain water for the last 45 minutes or so) as I got home.
After the ride, and a lot of food, I set to work cleaning my new Roubaix. Now while cleaning my bike I like to have the television on, so I had a choice, I could watch what would turn out to be a Spanish victory at the World Cup, or I could watch a rerun of the Tour De France. As anyone who knows me would know, I watched Andy Schleck clobber... well everyone, it was beautiful! (Come on, the Tour or a football game? I can see a football match anytime, but this is The Tour!) Except, and this is why I'm not so proud of my hill climbing abilities, Andy did his little clobber routine against everyone on a Category 1 hill. At one point during the climb Phil Liggett was saying something to the effect of "the lower part of the mountain is only 7 or 8% but this section, for the next 3 or 4km is 9.9 to 10% grade." The best part, the stage of the tour the guys did yesterday, stage 8, ended with a Cat 1 hill, it was preceded by a couple Cat 4, a Cat 3 and a previous Cat 1 climb and the guys covered almost 190km.
Memo to self, I will never be a great, or even all that good, sigh.
Of course I already knew that I won't be Mister Amazing, but still, to have one's own mediocrity shoved in their face like that, it hurts.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
On the 2010 OCA Time Trial in Norwood Ontario
So I have now done my first OCA official, fully sanctioned Individual Time Trial, complete with measurements of the bike and everything - even an entry fee.
The ITT itself was on a very pleasant and scenic road through central Ontario, in fact I'll draw the route on Bikely. Or just look below.
Actually the 180 degree turn was a little further along, because the route worked out to about 37 or 38km. Now with the exception of the turn itself the route was very nice, quite flat, just a few 4% climbs nothing more than perhaps 10 or 15m of elevation change and by in large the roads were in reasonable condition. The turn was 180 degrees on a country road that was hardly wide enough to turn with a TT bike, had I been on a road bike I would have been laughing, but hey one technical turn in 35 kilometers, not bad.
Prior to the event I learned a valuable lesson, well two actually.
1. Before putting on bike shoes, use the washroom and then do the paper work then get ready (ended up needing to ride out to a quite area, not easy to find when everyone is warming up, to have a natural break... oops.)
2. In an ITT know the rules of bike sizes, I was okay there, but I actually was overly paranoid, the UCI rule states, the nose of the saddle must come no further forward than 5cm behind a line that extends through the centre of the bottom bracket - I can move my saddle forward almost 4cm - ooops! (I wonder, how much a saddle move would help my time, I suspect on a one hour circuit, probably three or four minutes!) On the other hand my bars extend too far, but I cannot do anything about that, I'm too big, the rule is the ends of the bars (excluding the moving parts of the shift levers) must not go past 75cm in front of the same line that goes through the bottom bracket. Because of my height I get an exemption, which is, if the rider's elbows form less than 120 degrees when on the saddle and reach the end of the bars the bars may extend as far as 80cm from our line but no further. In my case the bars extend out to about 76cm - oh well.
Anyway this might be my first OCA ITT, but it is a far cry from a first ITT, nonetheless I still felt horribly unstable at the start and did not get my foot clipped in until about 10m out, a minor loss, I can live with (perhaps 1 second was added to my time.) I think at the previous ITT the guy who 'launched' me had a better grip so I was able to properly clip in.
For some reason, soon to be investigated when I went to move from the 42 to the 55 ring (from the small to big chain ring) the first time I tried the chain stayed on 42. Now I should insert that originally I had Specialized S-Works chain rings, and those damned things were so flexible every time I would try to upshift the ring would flop out of the way and the chain would land back on the 39 ring (the S-Works rings were 53/39). I replaced the S-Works ring with a regular... well huge Dura-Ace 55/42 ring. Ever since Dura-Ace was installed the problem of the flopping chain ring has gone away, until the ITT, a second attempt at an upshift worked and I was off, loss of time, I'd guess around 3 or 4 seconds.
Sadly, for me, the guy right in front of me never showed up, so I did not have a rabbit to chase down. After about 8km, my usual ITT distance I started hurting and a guy from the Lapdogs started passing me. I put the hammer down hard and put mister Lapdog behind me, a little later he would catch up again and I would have to hammer hard again, after about 25km of cat and mouse with the guy from the Lapdogs he finally got ahead of me and I just could not snap up the distance. He probably finished about 5 seconds before me, but started 30 or more seconds after me.
I read that last paragraph, and think to myself, I'm a dick! I mean, who cares how I did relative to the guy behind me, this was an ITT, as in Individual Time Trial, and I shouldn't worry about Mister Lapdog, I should worry about Mister Michael, who by the way had gone in with a goal (not previously posted) of doing an approximately 40km ITT in under one hour, and for that I can be very happy to report (from the OCA website):
Bib: 83, Name: COLE Michael, Team: Beaches Cycling Club, Cat: RME.4, Time: 0h 58m 33s, Gap 4m 51.59s.
I wonder, if the saddle had been adjusted right, (oh yeah, and if I had not been biking to Rochester NY not 168 hours earlier) would I have trimmed 4 minutes and 52 seconds off my time? I doubt it, but maybe. Oh right, no more dickishness, I promise.
In short I'm happy, I hurt, I felt like I could not go any faster and I did something pretty damn remarkable, I did a 38km ITT in under an hour.
Now time to clean a bike.
The ITT itself was on a very pleasant and scenic road through central Ontario, in fact I'll draw the route on Bikely. Or just look below.
Actually the 180 degree turn was a little further along, because the route worked out to about 37 or 38km. Now with the exception of the turn itself the route was very nice, quite flat, just a few 4% climbs nothing more than perhaps 10 or 15m of elevation change and by in large the roads were in reasonable condition. The turn was 180 degrees on a country road that was hardly wide enough to turn with a TT bike, had I been on a road bike I would have been laughing, but hey one technical turn in 35 kilometers, not bad.
Prior to the event I learned a valuable lesson, well two actually.
1. Before putting on bike shoes, use the washroom and then do the paper work then get ready (ended up needing to ride out to a quite area, not easy to find when everyone is warming up, to have a natural break... oops.)
2. In an ITT know the rules of bike sizes, I was okay there, but I actually was overly paranoid, the UCI rule states, the nose of the saddle must come no further forward than 5cm behind a line that extends through the centre of the bottom bracket - I can move my saddle forward almost 4cm - ooops! (I wonder, how much a saddle move would help my time, I suspect on a one hour circuit, probably three or four minutes!) On the other hand my bars extend too far, but I cannot do anything about that, I'm too big, the rule is the ends of the bars (excluding the moving parts of the shift levers) must not go past 75cm in front of the same line that goes through the bottom bracket. Because of my height I get an exemption, which is, if the rider's elbows form less than 120 degrees when on the saddle and reach the end of the bars the bars may extend as far as 80cm from our line but no further. In my case the bars extend out to about 76cm - oh well.
Anyway this might be my first OCA ITT, but it is a far cry from a first ITT, nonetheless I still felt horribly unstable at the start and did not get my foot clipped in until about 10m out, a minor loss, I can live with (perhaps 1 second was added to my time.) I think at the previous ITT the guy who 'launched' me had a better grip so I was able to properly clip in.
For some reason, soon to be investigated when I went to move from the 42 to the 55 ring (from the small to big chain ring) the first time I tried the chain stayed on 42. Now I should insert that originally I had Specialized S-Works chain rings, and those damned things were so flexible every time I would try to upshift the ring would flop out of the way and the chain would land back on the 39 ring (the S-Works rings were 53/39). I replaced the S-Works ring with a regular... well huge Dura-Ace 55/42 ring. Ever since Dura-Ace was installed the problem of the flopping chain ring has gone away, until the ITT, a second attempt at an upshift worked and I was off, loss of time, I'd guess around 3 or 4 seconds.
Sadly, for me, the guy right in front of me never showed up, so I did not have a rabbit to chase down. After about 8km, my usual ITT distance I started hurting and a guy from the Lapdogs started passing me. I put the hammer down hard and put mister Lapdog behind me, a little later he would catch up again and I would have to hammer hard again, after about 25km of cat and mouse with the guy from the Lapdogs he finally got ahead of me and I just could not snap up the distance. He probably finished about 5 seconds before me, but started 30 or more seconds after me.
I read that last paragraph, and think to myself, I'm a dick! I mean, who cares how I did relative to the guy behind me, this was an ITT, as in Individual Time Trial, and I shouldn't worry about Mister Lapdog, I should worry about Mister Michael, who by the way had gone in with a goal (not previously posted) of doing an approximately 40km ITT in under one hour, and for that I can be very happy to report (from the OCA website):
Bib: 83, Name: COLE Michael, Team: Beaches Cycling Club, Cat: RME.4, Time: 0h 58m 33s, Gap 4m 51.59s.
I wonder, if the saddle had been adjusted right, (oh yeah, and if I had not been biking to Rochester NY not 168 hours earlier) would I have trimmed 4 minutes and 52 seconds off my time? I doubt it, but maybe. Oh right, no more dickishness, I promise.
In short I'm happy, I hurt, I felt like I could not go any faster and I did something pretty damn remarkable, I did a 38km ITT in under an hour.
Now time to clean a bike.
Friday, July 9, 2010
On Time Trial Rules
Tomorrow I will do my first Ontario Cycling Association (OCA) sanctioned Time Trial. (I have done many Individual Time Trials (ITT) before but as this will be a fully offical, conforms to the rules of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) - sort of, I thought it best if I put up some links to the rules of TT bikes and ITT in general.
An aside, I just said this race will conform to the UCI regulations - sort of, the reason for the sort of, the UCI changed the rules for the shape of the 'box' that makes up the area behind the steerer tube, and encases the down tube and top tube. In particular whereas before I think the rule was that bikes were supposed to have boxes no bigger than 8cm on a side, the UCI previously did not bother to enforce the rule if the steerer tube was integrated into the box. The UCI decided (just before an ITT in fact) that now they would enforce the rule. Ultimately it turns out my 2009 Specialized S-Works Transition is not legal unless I cut off the wings on the downtube. (Given that we are talking about ruining a $3000 frame, that is not exactly likely to happen, sorry guys.) So I am hoping that the OCA will recognize the fact that those wings will make such a modest difference - hey it's not like I'm going to make a podium finish here - versus the financial hardship removing said wings would impose on me that the OCA will, like USA Cycling waive the above rule for weaker cyclists like myself.
Anyway here are some useful guides:
1. This page on Slowtwitch (a Tri website) discusses rules and contrasts Tri vs. TT configurations (basically the rules for Tri are pretty trivial, for TT, they are insane.)
2. This PDF is straight from the horse's mouth (in the spirit of I don't trust anything on The Internet) this comes from the UCI and is a sort of users guide on how to build a legal road or TT bike. (I suspect the link will break pretty fast, the UCI seems to like moving things around, sorry.)
3. This PDF is the UCI regulations for road races, it does not explicitly state, the bike geometry or anything like that but it does govern the rules for the race itself. (Chapter 4 is on Time Trials and like 2., above, the UCI seems to like moving things around so I suspect this link will not last very long.)
4. This page is where the UCI rules are, I suspect this link will break soon enough too. But for the time being this is where I found links 2. and 3.
An aside, I just said this race will conform to the UCI regulations - sort of, the reason for the sort of, the UCI changed the rules for the shape of the 'box' that makes up the area behind the steerer tube, and encases the down tube and top tube. In particular whereas before I think the rule was that bikes were supposed to have boxes no bigger than 8cm on a side, the UCI previously did not bother to enforce the rule if the steerer tube was integrated into the box. The UCI decided (just before an ITT in fact) that now they would enforce the rule. Ultimately it turns out my 2009 Specialized S-Works Transition is not legal unless I cut off the wings on the downtube. (Given that we are talking about ruining a $3000 frame, that is not exactly likely to happen, sorry guys.) So I am hoping that the OCA will recognize the fact that those wings will make such a modest difference - hey it's not like I'm going to make a podium finish here - versus the financial hardship removing said wings would impose on me that the OCA will, like USA Cycling waive the above rule for weaker cyclists like myself.
Anyway here are some useful guides:
1. This page on Slowtwitch (a Tri website) discusses rules and contrasts Tri vs. TT configurations (basically the rules for Tri are pretty trivial, for TT, they are insane.)
2. This PDF is straight from the horse's mouth (in the spirit of I don't trust anything on The Internet) this comes from the UCI and is a sort of users guide on how to build a legal road or TT bike. (I suspect the link will break pretty fast, the UCI seems to like moving things around, sorry.)
3. This PDF is the UCI regulations for road races, it does not explicitly state, the bike geometry or anything like that but it does govern the rules for the race itself. (Chapter 4 is on Time Trials and like 2., above, the UCI seems to like moving things around so I suspect this link will not last very long.)
4. This page is where the UCI rules are, I suspect this link will break soon enough too. But for the time being this is where I found links 2. and 3.
Monday, July 5, 2010
On Bicycles and International Borders
In the past two days I have biked across the border, twice. The first time, Saturday July 3 at around 12:30 EDT at the Rainbow bridge there was one car in front of me at the bridge and when the border guard found out I was biking from Toronto to Rochester he was... well his reaction was exactly what I was expecting (hoping) for. His final remark to me was, "have a safe ride."
Now as I noted earlier, I did not quite make it to Rochester, Jeff was tracking my progress on Google Latitude, which apparently reported that I was moving at around 30km/h on the multi lane limited access expressway that is the Lake Ontario State Parkway, I guess the rGPS isn't quite as great as Google would like everyone to believe (I was about 10km away from the Parkway, on route 18). At some point Jeff decided to drive out and meet up with me, which he did about 35km from his home. Now having run out of powder (my own mix of carbs, soy protein and electrolytes) and now surviving on diluted Poweraid (most gas stations don't sell Hammer Nutrition products), my muscles were starting to cramp and I was not exactly feeling 100%. Jeff offered me a lift and I took him up on the offer.
I did not want to fight the West Wind for the journey home so Jeff, ever so kindly drove me to the border (and if Jeff ever reads this, I really do appreciate that drive), I would bike across the border and take the GO train from Niagara Falls, which meant returning on Sunday as there is no weekday service to Niagara Falls. While in line at the border I made the egregious error of lining up at a new border guards queue, and being that I was on a bicycle as opposed to everyone else in their two ton steel cage, I couldn't really switch lines without annoying several motorists, so I waited while Mister dot all the I's and cross all the T's processed people at about half the speed of all the other agents.
Finally it was my turn to face Canada's answer to border security. Let me just say to border guards far and wide, as a good generalization most bicycles do not in fact have licence plates. Sorry guys you will just have to make do with my passport. (Which reminds me, I have to get a new one, sigh.) Even better than the fruitless search of a licence plate and let me add, honest to god, you cannot make stuff this good up, the border guard asked me if I had made any significant purchase while in the US. Imagine if you will, I am on a fancy schamncy S-Works Specialized Roubaix (in fact the same frame that carried Tom Boonen to victory in the 2009 Paris-Roubaix) with all the fittings and trimmings of a very expensive, very fast road bike. My jersey pockets are loaded down with supplements, passports, credit cards, cash, tire changing equipment and a Blackberry. I do have two water bottle cages (with water bottles, that have, surprisingly - water inside) and fitted on one of the cages is two CO2 cartridges. My only other storage, a tiny saddle bag, has just enough room for two inner tubes, a photo copy of my health card, a Tim Hortons prepaid card and a multitool.
So the border guard asked me if I had made any purchase, I often wondered what I would do in response to such a question. It turns out, I would stare at the border guard looking incredulously at the source of such a profoundly lunatic question. The border guard suggested that perhaps I bought my bike in the US - a curious notion, since I had to get to the US first before I could buy my transportation home. Ultimately the border guard did let me go, after having found out that I have been to such bastions of criminality as China, the UK and France. (I'm still not sure why he made three passes through my passport, but hey at least that his his prerogative, apparently being mind numbingly air-headed is also his prerogative!)
Having cleared the silliness that was that particular border crossing, I had an hour to kill before the GO train would arrive, I decided to go to St. Catharines and get the train there, except I took too long (head wind) and had no choice (not that I was bothered) but to bike home. The ride home, 154km, a little riding around in Rochester with Jeff, plus 285km on Saturday means that in about 40 hours I rode about 3 full proper centuries. I did not achieve the outlandish goal of biking to Rochester and back, but given what I did achieve (and the pain I endured almost from the beginning - I rode the Coppi earlier this week and the saddle height is now so far off the mark that my right knee is still hurting). I think I can be proud of what I did, I think I can also say that if I ever propose to ride to Rochester again, can someone please come and kick some sense into me, biking a double century in a day without support is a really dumb idea and I would not recommend anyone do it.
Now as I noted earlier, I did not quite make it to Rochester, Jeff was tracking my progress on Google Latitude, which apparently reported that I was moving at around 30km/h on the multi lane limited access expressway that is the Lake Ontario State Parkway, I guess the rGPS isn't quite as great as Google would like everyone to believe (I was about 10km away from the Parkway, on route 18). At some point Jeff decided to drive out and meet up with me, which he did about 35km from his home. Now having run out of powder (my own mix of carbs, soy protein and electrolytes) and now surviving on diluted Poweraid (most gas stations don't sell Hammer Nutrition products), my muscles were starting to cramp and I was not exactly feeling 100%. Jeff offered me a lift and I took him up on the offer.
I did not want to fight the West Wind for the journey home so Jeff, ever so kindly drove me to the border (and if Jeff ever reads this, I really do appreciate that drive), I would bike across the border and take the GO train from Niagara Falls, which meant returning on Sunday as there is no weekday service to Niagara Falls. While in line at the border I made the egregious error of lining up at a new border guards queue, and being that I was on a bicycle as opposed to everyone else in their two ton steel cage, I couldn't really switch lines without annoying several motorists, so I waited while Mister dot all the I's and cross all the T's processed people at about half the speed of all the other agents.
Finally it was my turn to face Canada's answer to border security. Let me just say to border guards far and wide, as a good generalization most bicycles do not in fact have licence plates. Sorry guys you will just have to make do with my passport. (Which reminds me, I have to get a new one, sigh.) Even better than the fruitless search of a licence plate and let me add, honest to god, you cannot make stuff this good up, the border guard asked me if I had made any significant purchase while in the US. Imagine if you will, I am on a fancy schamncy S-Works Specialized Roubaix (in fact the same frame that carried Tom Boonen to victory in the 2009 Paris-Roubaix) with all the fittings and trimmings of a very expensive, very fast road bike. My jersey pockets are loaded down with supplements, passports, credit cards, cash, tire changing equipment and a Blackberry. I do have two water bottle cages (with water bottles, that have, surprisingly - water inside) and fitted on one of the cages is two CO2 cartridges. My only other storage, a tiny saddle bag, has just enough room for two inner tubes, a photo copy of my health card, a Tim Hortons prepaid card and a multitool.
So the border guard asked me if I had made any purchase, I often wondered what I would do in response to such a question. It turns out, I would stare at the border guard looking incredulously at the source of such a profoundly lunatic question. The border guard suggested that perhaps I bought my bike in the US - a curious notion, since I had to get to the US first before I could buy my transportation home. Ultimately the border guard did let me go, after having found out that I have been to such bastions of criminality as China, the UK and France. (I'm still not sure why he made three passes through my passport, but hey at least that his his prerogative, apparently being mind numbingly air-headed is also his prerogative!)
Having cleared the silliness that was that particular border crossing, I had an hour to kill before the GO train would arrive, I decided to go to St. Catharines and get the train there, except I took too long (head wind) and had no choice (not that I was bothered) but to bike home. The ride home, 154km, a little riding around in Rochester with Jeff, plus 285km on Saturday means that in about 40 hours I rode about 3 full proper centuries. I did not achieve the outlandish goal of biking to Rochester and back, but given what I did achieve (and the pain I endured almost from the beginning - I rode the Coppi earlier this week and the saddle height is now so far off the mark that my right knee is still hurting). I think I can be proud of what I did, I think I can also say that if I ever propose to ride to Rochester again, can someone please come and kick some sense into me, biking a double century in a day without support is a really dumb idea and I would not recommend anyone do it.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
On Goals - an update
Previously I wrote out, with tongue planted very firmly in cheek, some goals, here is my current status.
1. Do at least one, preferably all three OCA ITTs, try to average no less than 40km/h for distances of 15km or less and no less than 37 km/h for longer ITTs. (A little ambitious, but it is always better to aim high and come up short than aim low.) - Well truth be told there are two OCA ITTs, but I am registered for the first one on Saturday July 11.
2. Toronto to Rochester without wanting to just roll over and die when I get there. - Failed, wanted to roll over and die when I got here, but yes I'm in Rochester NY right now, sans car, but avec my bicycle! (Actually... it turns out the rear brake was rubbing when I cleaned my bike, the morning after, I thought I was just bonking hard. When Jeff came out about 35km from his home - in his car - and offered me either a bottle of water or a ride over the last 35km, I took him up on the second offer, so I only covered the first 285km or 177miles, I failed to do a double century.)
2b. Rochester return to Niagara Falls if not all the way home, subject to weather. - The GO train does not run from the Falls on Mondays and there is not enough time to recover, Jeff will be driving me to the border and I will take the 7:20 train home from there. Truth is this ultra randonneuring is too painful for me.
3. Achieve demerit point velocities in a 60 (or higher) zone, in Ontario one must be driving at least 15km/h over the posted speed limit to get demerit points. (Note this goal cannot apply on downgrades greater than 3%. In other words, my goal is not achieved if I scream down a steep hill, I need to be on near flat, flat or up hills and doing the required 75km/h to reach this goal.) - Oh pulleeese, where did I come up with this?
4. Ride to Lake Simcoe a bunch of times, of course, hey it is my favourite ride. On McCowan between Doane Road and Ravenshoe road pull at no less than 40km/h the entire way. On the journey home, once south of Ravenshoe, on Warden, average no less than 33km/h to Stouffville Road. (If the lights are green, average at least 35km/h.) - Well does it still count if I was pulling North on Warden at around that speed? Anyway if I didn't quite achieve the specified speed, I came awfully close on June 27.
5. Ride the panacke of South Western Ontario to Rattle Snake Point, climb said hill with a 53/39 chain ring and 11/23 cassette. Have enough left in my legs to still be able to catch any break aways or race David Silcox to the next Taxi without going into cardiac arrest as soon as we reach the "finish". - Haven't done a club ride to Rattle Snake yet, this season, oh well!
6. Do. Not. Bonk. Ever. - See this one sort of... who are we kidding, this one is a complete contradiction of 2. and 2b. A person cannot do a double century without bonking, It. Is. Just. Not. Possible!
1. Do at least one, preferably all three OCA ITTs, try to average no less than 40km/h for distances of 15km or less and no less than 37 km/h for longer ITTs. (A little ambitious, but it is always better to aim high and come up short than aim low.) - Well truth be told there are two OCA ITTs, but I am registered for the first one on Saturday July 11.
2. Toronto to Rochester without wanting to just roll over and die when I get there. - Failed, wanted to roll over and die when I got here, but yes I'm in Rochester NY right now, sans car, but avec my bicycle! (Actually... it turns out the rear brake was rubbing when I cleaned my bike, the morning after, I thought I was just bonking hard. When Jeff came out about 35km from his home - in his car - and offered me either a bottle of water or a ride over the last 35km, I took him up on the second offer, so I only covered the first 285km or 177miles, I failed to do a double century.)
2b. Rochester return to Niagara Falls if not all the way home, subject to weather. - The GO train does not run from the Falls on Mondays and there is not enough time to recover, Jeff will be driving me to the border and I will take the 7:20 train home from there. Truth is this ultra randonneuring is too painful for me.
3. Achieve demerit point velocities in a 60 (or higher) zone, in Ontario one must be driving at least 15km/h over the posted speed limit to get demerit points. (Note this goal cannot apply on downgrades greater than 3%. In other words, my goal is not achieved if I scream down a steep hill, I need to be on near flat, flat or up hills and doing the required 75km/h to reach this goal.) - Oh pulleeese, where did I come up with this?
4. Ride to Lake Simcoe a bunch of times, of course, hey it is my favourite ride. On McCowan between Doane Road and Ravenshoe road pull at no less than 40km/h the entire way. On the journey home, once south of Ravenshoe, on Warden, average no less than 33km/h to Stouffville Road. (If the lights are green, average at least 35km/h.) - Well does it still count if I was pulling North on Warden at around that speed? Anyway if I didn't quite achieve the specified speed, I came awfully close on June 27.
5. Ride the panacke of South Western Ontario to Rattle Snake Point, climb said hill with a 53/39 chain ring and 11/23 cassette. Have enough left in my legs to still be able to catch any break aways or race David Silcox to the next Taxi without going into cardiac arrest as soon as we reach the "finish". - Haven't done a club ride to Rattle Snake yet, this season, oh well!
6. Do. Not. Bonk. Ever. - See this one sort of... who are we kidding, this one is a complete contradiction of 2. and 2b. A person cannot do a double century without bonking, It. Is. Just. Not. Possible!
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