Upcoming Big Time Goodness

The Provincial Individual Time Trial Championships will be held this Sunday.  It should be a cool event so check it out.  The fastest cyclists in Manitoba will be searing their legs, lungs and heart on highway 243, but the race within the race will be to see who takes home the ABES Grossen Preise.  The AGP is the race for cyclists who do not have an MCA race license but want to get in on the good times. 

The fine folks at Back Alley Cycle have gotten into the spirit and are offering this sperm fast helmet to one lucky winner.

Jack Black models one of the BAC prizes du jour

If you want to help with the event, contact Bruce at his usual haunts. 

Happy Birthday!

I know it's hard to believe but this strapping young man...

...is all grown up.  He can even grow a beard! 

Happy 42nd to our ringleader!  Maybe even buy him a beer this Thursday...

Thursday

Pre-game ritual - double dog with double mustard 

David with his new shirt, Duke with his new hat

Bombers win! 

Celebrate good times - come on!

Wednesday

Duke knocks it on the green on #9 

Golden wheat abounds 

James was seen putting in his Bunge miles on the highway

Filet mignon, sauteed mushrooms and onions, tomatoes, shrimp,
baked potato with chives and sour cream, beer, red wine
and Buck's BBQ chips for the appetizer 

Tom, Duke and Mr. Athena on the rooftop patio 

Lorenzo is in town!

Paul B rocking the summer long-sleeved shirt

There is no longer a ThNR dilemma - for some of us.  I'm going to the Bomber game with Shaun, Duke and DSwank who won tickets to the game.  We plan on checking in at the clubhouse when we return.  The rest of you dirty hippies can meet at ABES headquarters at 8.  Go Bomber!  JS 

ThNR Dilemma

Soooo...the Bomber game is on during the ThNR. Here are some options:

A - Forget the Bomber game and ride like we usually do – we can always watch the end of the game at the clubhouse

B - Forget the ride and watch the Bombers kick some Eskie ass

C - Watch the 1^st half at my place, enjoy a half-time ride then retire to my place or the clubhouse for the 2^nd half.  (My TV is lame but my wife left me with the kids so I have the room (it's not as bad as it sounds).  

D - Listen to the game on CJOB on somebody's portable interwebs device

E - Bike to the Bomber game

F - Other idears?

Post your preference.  


Bach'ing it this week has allowed me to enjoy some evening bike rides.  This time I brought my camera.  Here's what I saw...

Charles and Jenn were out with Austin on their driveway bike park 

Athena Bike Club members prepare to ride

Virginia and cycling racer Cindy enjoying a backyard garden tour

Late, late, late night supper:
Pork tenderloin, sauteed mushrooms and onions,
fig and goat cheese puff pastry blooms
and a glass of red wine

A momentary digression from cycling...

We're all cyclists (or at least most of "us" consider ourselves cyclists).  And Altona is at the beginning of a long road towards a major goal:  building a skate/bike park.  Chances are most of "us" will never ride on this park.  Concrete obstacles are usually things we avoid on our kinds of rides.  But for the youth of this community it would be a Mecca.  A place to hang out and indulge in what have long been considered fringe sports.  These aren't your baseball's or hockey's.  No coaches making you do drills or parents yelling instructions from the stands.  Just the simple joy of a board or a bike and you. 

If you've ever doubted the beauty or athleticism of skaters take seven minutes of your day and watch this amazing film.  Watching it made we long for this park to happen so I can go out and get my kids some boards...

http://vimeo.com/user395655hh/theepicandthebeasts

Say Whaaat!?!

The good folks at FGBC and RRR (the racing division is hereby called Dark Red Racing) are putting on a Team Time Trial race at Birds Hill Park tomorrow and the Athena bike club will be there racing.  I’ll say that again – the Athena bike club will be there RACING!  Cindy, Lisa, sweet Cheryl Koop and her Dark Side sister Charlene will rip off laps at BHP.  Cool.  It should be a good race if the Dark and Red side have anything to do with it.  ABES will race as well – someday.  I’ll be busy enjoying a steak dinner and my one round of golf a year, but I’m still a tad envious.  Good luck ladies – have fun! 

I went for a lovely bike ride last night and wished I had brought my camera to take the following pictures…

-          A sprayer plane taking off and landing at the airport - golden wheat fields in the background and the motocross course in the foreground

-          Steve B polishing/prepping his new Harley for a 2.5 week road trip to the left coast.  The bike was showroom purty and Steve was bareback ugly

-          Some dude on a BMX getting sweet height jumping over the train tracks – beautiful sunset lighting and he was holding a cigarette

-          Schiesse wondering why his employers are sending him on a work-trip to Tel Aviv this week.  Schiesse was not bareback

In lieu of my pictures, please enjoy these cyclocross beauts instead...

Good times.  JS

Goodness

Achtung Baby

Bruce is quietly kicking A these days.  First he put on a very sweet grass track race for the good folks in Gretna (really it was for us but whatever), now he's working with Olympia Cycling Club to help put on The Provincial Individual Time Trial Championships in our part of the prairies.

Sperm helmets, fancy bikes and cows - we'll have it all!

Ian Hall from OCC tells us the current deets...


Olympia Cycling Club, in partnership with the Altona Bicycle Enthusiast Society, is hosting the provincial individual time trial championships on Sunday, August 5th, 2012 in Gretna, Manitoba.  A separate, non-championship time trial (the ABES “grossen Preise”) will follow the provincial medal race for all citizen racers and non-licensed riders – this is your chance to see how you stack up against the top riders in the province (or to enjoy a personal challenge on a beautiful course, whichever way you care to look at it).   

Early details are below.  A complete race bible is coming soon!

Date: Sunday August 5th

Time: Registration and Sign-in – 12 p.m.-1 p.m., racing starts at 1:30 p.m.

Course: Out and back on PR243, a loop or “Schleife” to Schoenwiese, MB and back. Smooth asphalt with paved shoulder. Hunting ground for your personal best average speed!

Distances (subject to change):

• Elite/U23 men – 36.5km
• Elite/U23 Women, Junior & Master Men – 22.8km
• Junior & Master Women, U17, U15 – 16.4km
• U13, U11, U9 – 9.8km
• ABES grossen Preise – 16.4km or 9.8km

Cool beans!  Since this race is open to non-MCA'ers, it's a good chance for us to get out and have fun with the big boys and girls, check our mettle in the race of truth, and compete against our pals for the ABES Grossen Priese!

Talk to Bruce if you can volunteer to help put the ABES stamp on this race.

Right arm.  JS

ThNR Report

Albert, Duke, Steve B, Pole Vaulter, Steven W, Gavin, Franklin, James, Ike, Mark, Tom, Jeff, Mike and I scooted around town on a muggy Thursday night.  We had a good sweat going on as Gavin pushed the pace and kept us racing until it was time to hydrate.  It was so wizard!  Curt, David and Paul B joined us at our clubhouse where the minutes include: Franklin is napping on his holidays, David is getting antibiotics on his holiday for his jerking elbow injury/self-inflicted STD, Sir-Hogs-A-Lot hopes to save kittens from trees as a firefighter - way to go Schiesse, Duke returned from his BC trip where Lorne could not get his act together and Jerry has his own deluxe ThNR, 24 Hours of Falcon good times was discussed, a divorce celebration took place in Rocktona where both parties partied, bike insurance options, Gavin hates mascots – as a kid he abused Baby Tugs Bear enough for the Care Bear to tell him to F*CK OFF!, some kid puked peanuts and orange crush on Duke at a Fury game (which included player and local restaurateur Rico Bravo), the first album/cd/cassette we ever purchased included: The Split Enz, Men at Work and The Police – Synchronicity, DSwank likes the website Chain Love for bike gear, Jeff has updated his Facebook relationship status, Bunge has a summer bike challenge to see which site can cycle the most (cool), Paul B likes fat grooves and sweet moves, and Albert has started to inquire about Road Trip 2013.  Good times.

Bruce is planning to show Gretna some bikey goodness at the Hot-Spot Festival this weekend - unicycle hockey (ha) and grass track racing.  The races start on Saturday at 1:00.  Come out and ride/race and we'll show'em how we do it.  This is a co-ed event and everybody who's in the know, "should" participate.  It’s going to be fun so get off you’re A and get on your B in G.  JS

ThNR

We should get together.  

Bring your bike.

8pm.

Dan's Rad Trip Stats - photos by Albert

Day 1

Jasper to Johnson Creek – 82 km’s – includes “detour”

Average speed – 22 km/hr

Max speed – 66 km/hr

Elevation start - 1043 m

End – 1613 m

3 flats for me

Day 2

Johnson Creek to Waterfowl Lake – 96 km’s

Average speed – 20 km/hr

Max speed – 68 km/hr

Elevation start – 1613 m

End – 1993 m

Max - 2075 m

Min – 1405 m

Last 22 km’s – 300 m climb

Walter prepares deep fried sausages for breakfast

Day 3

Waterfowl Lake to Banff

Distance – 123 km’s

Average speed – 25 km/hr

Max speed – 70 km/hr

Elevation start – 1693 m

Max – 2060 m

End – 1437 m

4 km’s of 4%-7% downhill flow

Parkway was awesome

Day 4

Banff – Peter Lougheed Provincial Park

Distance – 124 km’s

Elevation start – 1437 m

End – 1700 m

Dan drove a support vehicle

Day 5

PLPP to Longview

Distance – 112 km’s

Average speed – 23 km/hr

Max speed – 65 km/hr

Elevation start – 1700 m

Highwood pass – 2206 m

End – 1237 m

Bruce was nearly arrested

24 Hours of Goodness

That was fun.  Notes from the weekend...

-  The course was 7 challenging/enjoyable km’s of fire-roads, single track, rocks/roots, grass and newly constructed bridges.  JP has a video. 

-  I enjoyed 2 night laps.  It's a cool way to ride bike.  Sometimes the shadows made me duck my head, but it also makes it feel like you're going very fast.

- Sitting by the fire and “racing”.

- Team Double A was in tough this year - other teams entered this year so our chances were slim.  David had all sorts of issues so he had it tough on the bike, but the rest of us managed to eke out more laps than last year.  Well done.

- The best team name: Out of our Falcon minds.

- Cycle Chick Andrea impressed everybody with her dogged determination riding lap after lap despite some crashes.  

- Meeting a cyclist who was riding an old Canadian Tire bike and only started re-riding bikes on Thursday. 

- Stinkler showed everybody they’re pretty good at riding bikes – taking 2^nd (Jason) 3^rd (Alf) and 4^th (Peter) in the 24 hour solo race, 1^st in the two-man, 8 hour race with 17 laps (Tim/Kevin), and Craig Doell and co. won the 24 hour corporate (family) division beating out team White Russians who had the best team attitude/drink.

- The only thing missing was more ABES.  That and my butt butter.  That would have been nice too.  

- Thanks go out to David for his continuous updates to the blog – great idea.  And of course, big thanks to the good folks at FGBC, RRR and BMBC for creating a great course and organizing a deluxe day of good times.  

In other news...

I don't have any pictures of the 24 hour party.  David already posted his and others will likely pop up.  I do have a picture of three mo-fo's who are camping in my backyard.  I spotted Lyle, Ian and Josh when I was biking home from work.  They're on a bike tour.  One Pilsner led to another and soon there was no good reason to leave the cycling mecca of Manitoba.

The White Russians

Some of the FGBC boys had a bee in their bonnets. Something about challenging their ABES counterparts to some form of riding/drinking challenge at next years 24 hour race.

Finite

The 2012 version of 24Hours of Falcon Ridge is done. Team Double A finished in 6th place out of 9 teams in the Co-Ed division with a total if 20 laps.

Another great event hosted by Birch, Fort Garry and Red River. Thanks!

Close to the end

Cheryl is out for Team Double A on what is probably our last lap. After she finishes we will have 20 laps! An improvement of 3 over last year. Not bad even with my wussy performance.

The morning after

Team Double A is still chugging. Jonny and Cindy have already put in morning laps and Cheryl is out on the course.

Shuttin' er down

The combination of antibiotics, a severed derailleur cable and just plain tiredness have caused me to shut it down for the day. Maybe inspiration will hit in the morn.

Cindy

Cindy coming in hard after her third lap!

The Dark Lord

Not so dark when wearing orange but he'll still choke you with his mind.

Jonny

High Lake time is almost over. So now we have to ride down. Damn. Oh well. No rest for the wicked.

Jonny services Craig Doell

Cycle Chick

Sporting the latest in post-crash knee fashion Andrea Tetrault (aka Winnipeg Cycle Chick) shows us her love of endurance mountain biking.

High Lake

Technical difficulties

Wifi seems to be iffy and 3G is spotty, so we will do our best.

4 laps in and Cheryl is out for number 5. Jonny and I are heading up to High Lake soon to man the checkpoint. Been hanging wit the very relaxed White Russians team.

Cruising along

Only 2 hours in and Team Double A ( or as Jonny says Team Double D) has three laps under our belt. Jonny ran about thirty minutes for his and I came in just under forty.

Here are the sweet Athena ladies Cheryl and Cindy accompanied by Dark Lady Charlene.

And we're off!

Jonny is our first lap since Cheryl and Cindy are (wo)manning the High Lake checkpoint. I'm in for round two. We'll see how it goes.

Craig represents!

Quasi-ABE Craig Doell shows off the guns in his sweet new sleeveless kit. One hour until the main event starts.

The Fire

Jonny G. And Barg worked hard on the fire. Eventually it started.

On our way

Had to stop for some prerace grub at Sawney Beans Pub in Steinbach. Delicious!

ThNR Report

Bruce, Chaz, James, DB, Shaun, Steve, Steven, Gavin, Albert, Franz-man, James, Ike, Tom, Paul W, Shiesse and I arrived at the clubhouse.  Most of us peddled to Gretna to check out the new grass track for the Hot Spot Festival.  It is sweet.  We raced awhile before returning to our beloved clubhouse.  Some of the less enthusiastic enthusiasts kept their cycling local, stopping for refreshments on Paul W’s deck – eventually, Paul W found out what was happening and joined them as well.  David joined us at the clubhouse where the celebrations were delicious thanks to a bounty of jerked meat provided by Tom, Paul W, David and Albert.  8 different flavored jerked meats were enjoyed and all concluded with happy endings.  Minutes included: Rad Trip 2012 memories, Gretna Grass Track Races – July 21, Gavin crashed hard at Lake Minnewasta - thank you helmet, David crashed at Moto Park 10 and now has an infection in his elbow (dirty boy), the OCC/ABES Provincial Time Trial will be coming to our corner of the prairies – August 5, 24 hours of camping/biking is this weekend – David has dubbed our team: Double A (Defending Champs) – either because we’re ABES and Athena, or we’re powered by small batteries, or we need more time to develop in the minors – either way “Defending Champs” will likely not be in our title next year, Paul and Marguerite are going to Otter Tails County for a week of cycling and purging, the ABES hippies reviewed the Winnipeg Folk Fest goodness, the high/lowlights of the Tour de France crashes and sprints, the challenges of peeing with bibs (while biking?), nipple chafing, and the Sunflower Festival royalty as podium girls.  Good times.  JS

Gretna bound

Not racing is fun too

If you want a Saturday Breakfast Ride, post a comment.

Family Bike Club - Sunday - We'll meet at 6:30 at Moto Park X.