going....going....gone..

Hey all. The first "messenger" evening at the London velodrome went pretty well. All told there were 12 of us from Toronto who made the journey down to race and do the learn to ride. Although there were at least 4 in the bunch who could have been in the "A" group, we all did a program with just our Toronto group. We all did a flying lap time...cheers to Mike with a scorching...at least for us...9.16 second lap. Everyone had a pretty good time as far as timed laps with everyone putting in lower than 11 second laps....even me! WOO WHO! The second event we all did was a 20 lap scratch race with Mark of Kingz of the Road, coming over the top on the last turn to nip Dave at the line. So all those folks who tried to give Mark a hard time for his "fixie pedigree" or "track king" moniker can feel free to go down and try to beat him. The next event was a 15 lap scratch with Stephano leading the group off the line. I guess he did not realize that the first lap was a neutral lap on the low "cote d'azure" section of the track to get up to speed. Most followed him into the steeper banking at a low speed and before we knew it the whole group was falling and sliding down the track en masse. Much laughter ensued...both from the spectators and all of us. We got it together for a second start and after a fairly mellow first 10 laps Mike took a flyer and took off from everyone for the win. The last event was an unknown distance event and we were all kind of burnt out a little from riding the track all day. It was agreed that we would all stick together at a moderate pace until the bell for 3 laps to go. Apparently Chris "granola" didn't understand this and tried to go off the front on his own. This was a gutsy move for a guy who has only been riding fixed for 2 weeks. In any case he got caught by the group before the bell. The final 3 laps were hotly contested with Dave just holding off Mike at the line.
It was an awesome day of riding and racing. Our next trip down will be Saturday July 30th. Anyone who would like to join us is welcome. Let me know if you are interested and we can make arrangements to get you down there. K.

That sounds like a blast! I'll make the one after next, going to a 3 day hippie music festival the weekend of the 30th. Anaïs sez she'll come too so maybe we'll throw some schwag for winners? Didn't do squat this weekend but decompress from the big apple debacle. I'll be by tomorrow or tuesday with your jersey btw, hope you like it! gotcha patch too.

That sounds like fun, i'd like to come with you guys. Hows it going to go down?

I'll be there! Last time was a blast! I'm still bummed that I had to miss this one!

The Tour went through Grenoble today. I saw all the racers and got a roll of pics. I shook Jan Ulrich's hand too. He's dreaaaaamy. Hope alls still going well with you folks!

Shiznaz did you get to ride any part of the climbs?

no man not yet I'm so busy at school, I had to skip class just to see the start of the race! This weekend will be all booked up too because I've got a big essay to write and a presentation to do that comprise of my whole mark... anyways, I suppose I am learning alot about national identity as it relates to european integration and such...

Shiz, I'm so friggin jealous of you...

here is my routine, I wake up at 7am, turn on OLN and keep and eye on the tv while I get ready for work Usually I can catch the start of the race before I leave. Then I pretend I'm a racer as I blitz into work (Queen/university)....oh yeah you might not know it in France, but Toronto is have a heat wave (42 degrees with humidex this week). Once at work, (shedding water like a snowman in the Mojave desert) I go to this website http://www.letour.fr/2005/TDF/LIVE/us/1100/index.html
and keep hitting refresh about every 5 minutes until they get down to the last 20km of the stage (or a crash happens), at which point I run into our office boardroom [where the only TV with cable is], and watch till the end of the stage.

how has everyone else been these days?? I'm without a fixie now (hit a car), looking to go single speed me thinks..

Hi. Sorry to jump in here but, speaking of the tour, now that they're in the alps we're hearing a lot of talk about the steepness of the climbs. This has me wondering the % gradient some of our local hills here in Toronto. One of the climb's in today's stage was average 6.1% I believe. Anybody know what that translates to in Toronto terms? How steep are the hills we ride? Avenue Rd., Ellis Ave., Mt. Pleasant, Don Mills, Beech, High Park, Bayview, Pottery Rd., etc...

I've been told the Yonge stretch just before York Mills (long downhill) maxes out at 10% at the steepest.

I don't think the problem is the steepness but the steepness and the speed in which they're going up. I'd love to try some massive climbs. There are none around here. Unless I bulk up the only thing i'd be moderately good at is hills. I get my ass kicked on the flats regularly on club rides.


**** what happened?

Anyone for a ride anytime between 4-6pm today? Say yes :D I'll be at the wheat sheaf at 4-4:10

j-walkers on university ave. cutting accross queens park and trying to run through 3 lanes of busy morning traffic... a whole bunch of drivers in front of me flipped out, tried to dodge the pedestrian by switching lanes, screetching tires, horns beeping etc.... I was riding at warp speed and not paying close enough attention either, so it's just as much my fault. No room to stop or hop the curb by the time I clued in, so I slammed into the back of one of the stopped cars (an SUV), bent the fork on my bike, put my elbow through the rear window and my knee through his tail light. The driver was out of his car though and yelling at the pedestrians...so he didn't hear what I was up to in the back of his truck. I picked myself up, brushed off the glass/plastic and fled before he knew I was there...

my old [bent] bike vs. rear ending some rich guy in his new SUV, I thought I'd better just leave while no one was looking.

so yeah....I'm thinking of converting a newish road frame into a SS... kind of like a Langstar I guess...

hey wasted, i'm glad you managed to bike away in one piece... although i'm not sure how you did it with a busted fork and elbow! traffic goes warp speed around that queens park loop.. i have no idea what pedestrians are thinking to even try jay walking through that.

rob, i don't think i'll be able to make the wheat sheaf today.. sorry.

how about this heat.. damn.

in case anyone is interested, cycle therapy is having their 1 year anniversary sale (1233 Dundas Street East 416 778-6473) SATURDAY JULY 16, 10:00AM - 6:00PM
25-75% off stuff.
i got on their mailing list somehow and received the mass email.

no comparisson, if you will double the Mt. Pleasant and make it a little steeper, maybe, extend the Scarborough Bluffs maybe, there's a climb I can,t remember the road its at Moore Street near loblaw,its a dead end road, and extend the climb, again maybe....

Of coarse you can't compare the length of the climbs. I was just wondering the grades of the hills around town. I read an article that said Lance and the Spanish rider on stage 10 averaged 24-25 km/h on the final climb. They estimate that Lance was putting out 450+ watts for the 53 minute climb based on his weight and the grade of the climb. That's funny because most of us can ride for only about 2 minutes at that power output, which is just long enough to get up most hills around here. Not to mention this was at the end of the stage.

For me, my Tour De France type hill (although not comparable on length either) was the Hamilton Mountain. We did that on our fixies (52/16). We had to ride on angles for part of the climb since it was so steep. Of course we had just ridden 100km, but man...if there was a peleton we would have been dropped off the back!

Yeah the students on our campus are morons. I'm guessing you were heading southbound where it was slightly downhill.

If you want to watch the TDF, there's a bunch of torrents going around in the road cycling forum. You could leave it downloading while you're at work or something come home and voila.

I think Cavern ran out of those steel forks gokibiuri and me got on our bikes not sure.

that's alright about the fork... the frame is old, designed for 27" wheels, low BB... other reasons why I won't fix it up for a second time. Looking to build something new.....

yeah I've been downloading the torrents of the stages I missed for the TDF... good effort by someone out there....

WW - PM me. I have some frames etc.. (all new) and will try to help you get back on the road as affordable as possible.

thanks bikeo, PM sent.

Thanks for the heads up. Got a set of Arkel 42l bags, two seat posts, various tools and a Brooks champion flyer saddle for under $250. Yay!

Hey Cavernmech, is there one room for one of my friends to go down on the 30th as well?

Nice Score! I was going to head down myself just to check out the place (I've ridden by a lot of times but never stopped in) but didn't get a chance..

Any fixed gear guys into a long ride on Sunday? No gears allowed. The Toronto Fixed Gear Group is doing a 100km ride (but if you leave from Toronto, it will be 160km since the starting point is 30km away)

Possibly....Have to see if I'm free this wkend. 160 is a lot on a fixie...

It's a lot on any bike in my opinion. But I've done it a few times (mind you I was in much better shape then)...Should be fun!

Hey shiznaz, there's other fixies on campus!
Ran into a chick on a fuji track at SS, she was all decked out in messenger gear, know her?

no, was she hot?