Alrighty then, time for your weekly update! I'm writing this on my phone so I'm just gonna pre-apologize for any strange autocorrect crap. Anyways! Tuesday saw a big group led by Tim at the research park checking out the crit course and working on intervals. Thursday also saw a fairly large group (20? I didn't count) slamming up our river valley! And on to the big event this weekend, the Velocity Stage Race!
The time trial early Saturday morning saw people doing well despite the wind, with our awesome tent city managing to keep 20+ racers warm(ish) and dry(ish) and a huge thank you to all the people who helped setup, supply, and tear it down! Too many people to list and you definitely made it better for the cat1/2 and 3s lives a lot easier after coming back. The races weren't without incident, with Kevin Hessels and Kevin Gregg sustaining road rash in crashes in their respective categories, so here's wishing them a speedy recovery. The criterium in general was one of the best I've ever been in despite the cool temps, no one crashed and there were no incidents.
The racer list is a bit long but here goes; Thanks to Shauna Telford, Kent Flood, Matt Hewson, Liann Cameron, Colin Bellinger, Scott Rusnak, Tim Bulger, Robin Kim, Kevin Hessels, Kevin Gregg, Fabien Carriere, Alex Inglis, Brendon Younie, Derek Singbeil, Aristotelis Kollias, Graham Watts, Greg Nicholson, Brandon Langille, Sarah Gilchrist, Danielle Meunier, Tiffany Baker, Kelly MacGregor, Jessica LaCoursiere, Christine Henderson, Nancy St. Hilaire, Tania Dean, and last but not least Erin Wilson got bravely flying our colours despite the conditions, and many for the first time! (That list was hard to write on my phone lemme tell ya...)
And an additional congratulations to Sarah Gilchrist for her upgrade into Category 4, and Graham Watts into Category 3! There are way too many stories from this weekend to get into it here but memories were definitely made!
Anyways, updates!
1.) I'm moving intervals to Hawrelak Park tommorow, meeting at 6pm. Be ready for 2-3 laps on, 1 lap off 4 times. This is due to the weather and gives us an option to call the ride due to rain/cool temps and not be stranded too far from home. Intervals are the single best way to improve your fitness in a road race or time trial, or in general.
2.) We need ride leaders for Wednesday still. To be a ride leader you just need to find a safe route that is 35-40km in length and be willing to direct whoever is at the front the right way. You don't need to pull all the time. Please email me if you are interested. This route is a great start: https://www.strava.com/routes/5116063
3.) For all the rides that meet at Transcend, please congregate on the east side of the building by the entrance of the bike shop, instead of the main entrance, blocking all the customers to the shop. There is a side access door that you can still enter the shop here.
4.) All weekend rides are a go! Saturday and Sunday included, as our Sunday ride leader is back in town! Keep your eyes peeled on the Facebook page for pick-up rides this holiday Monday as well.