Tour of Alberta

Hello Draughters,

 

As some of you may be aware, pro cycling is coming to Alberta! The Tour of Alberta will be held September 3 to 8th beginning with the prologue in Edmonton and the last stage finishing in downtown Calgary. Many of the top teams have confirmed such as Garmin Sharp, BMC, Cannondale, Argos Shimano and Orica Green Edge. Elite riders such as Ryder Hjesdal, Peter Sagan, Cadel Evans, Ted King, Christian Vandevelde, David Millar etc. will all be here.

 

Full information and maps of stages are here: http://tourofalberta.ca/site/

 

Just wanted to make you aware of a few things:

• Stage 4 will include laps around the Road to Nepal/Highway 22/Millarville area (where we ride!) on September 7th. A few of us are going to ride out and watch the pros crush our Strava times.
• Stage 5 on September 8th includes an all ages Street Festival to be held downtown near the finish line around Centre Street and 4th Ave. Several blocks will be shut down and the festival will include live bands, a number of exhibitors, food trucks, street performances, kids bike races etc. A few of us are on the organizing committee and it should be a great time, and absolutely free. This is a fantastic opportunity to support pro cycling in Alberta. Please come and watch. The finish will be a four lap circuit around the downtown area so it should be exciting!
• If you are interested in volunteering on September 8th, Stage 5 to be a course marshal on the downtown circuit, or helping out at the street festival/finish line, please drop me an email: lchan@conroyross.com. You'll get a free shirt and a chance to see the pros up close as they whip by.

Please consider volunteering or attending the festival or viewing the race. And please tell all your friends so that the inaugural Tour of Alberta is a raging success!

 

Thanks,

Lorraine

Upcoming Draughter Rides - 23 August

Here are the rides planned for the next week:

 

·         Saturday – No organized ride, as the Banff Gran Fondo is this weekend.  For those participating, have a great ride.

·         Sunday - the ride will leave at 10:00 am from the SW Corner of the Westside Church Parking lot (3939 69 Street SW), and be about an hour and a half to two hours.  Beer to follow.  This is a no-drop ride, so it is great for new riders.

·         Monday – The Face Punch ride will be a double whammy.  We will meet at the Edworthy parking lot on the South side of the river, and do hills both at Edworthy and Mackay Road.  This will be great training both for longer, more gradual climbs, and short steep climbs.

·         Wednesday – You are on your own for cyclocross training, as I’m out of town.

 

Ride on,

 

Mike

Team Time Trial - 22 September

Gabe and I are looking for two more Draughters to enter a team in the Crankmaster’s 20 km team time trial in Airdrie on 22 September.  Clark, this means you.  For those of you who have never done a team time trial before, I won’t sugar coat it.  We will ride in a tight paceline taking approximately 30 second pulls at the front, before rotating through to recover and repeat 90 seconds later.  For safety we will all ride road bikes, because we don’t really know what we are doing, so having access to brakes will be a good thing.  The goal is to average 40 kph or better, so it should be an approximately 30 minute effort, by the end of which you will be starting to lose consciousness while wondering if your heart is going to explode in your chest.  If that appeals to you, please let me know.  We will try to get out at least once before the race to practice so that we can do the Draughters name proud.  As always, the race will be followed by beers.  Thanks, Mike

Tyler Hamilton Update

I’ve talked to the organizers and confirmed the following:

 

·         They are targeting a riding group of 20-30, which will give everyone a chance to chat with Tyler and should make for a good ride.

·         They are happy to make sure that all Draughters get invited to the dinner the night before, which gives you a good chance to hang out with your fellow Draughters and old Tyler what’s his name, plus you get to chill at the best craft brewery in Calgary and try our new white IPA, ‘The White Shadow’.

·         You will get a tax receipt for your donation, so depending on your tax bracket, it is practically free (to be confirmed by one of the many accountants that ride with the Draughters).

 

Feel free to contact the JCC directly, or I can set things up for you if you want.  Please let me know.

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

 

Bike Ride for Relief with Tyler Hamilton

For anyone who is interested in riding with Tyler Hamilton, please see attached.  The route will likely start in the SW at Red Deer Lake School and be the Road to Nepal loop that will be part of Stage 4 of the Tour of Alberta.  It is for a good cause and Tyler is a very nice guy who generously donated his time when he heard about the flood in Calgary.  Please feel free to pass this on.  Thanks and best regards, Mike

 

From: Janine Herman [mailto:jherman@cjcc.ca]
Sent: August-19-13 3:53 PM
To: Janine Herman
Subject: Bike Ride for Relief with Tyler Hamilton

 

Good afternoon,

The Ride for Flood Relief with Tyler Hamilton to raise funds to support Kidsport is coming fast! There are limited spaces available to ride with Tyler on Sept. 2.

I have attached an information flyer and a registration form.

The first 20 people to fill in their form and register will be invited to join us at the VIP dinner with Tyler Sept 1 at Wild Rose Brewery and will be entered into a draw to win one of 5 autographed copies of Tyler’s New York Times Bestseller “The Secret Race, Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France” with a new afterward by the authors.

You can e-mail the registration back to me or fax it to 403-253-7915 or call me to register!

See you on September 2 to support a great cause!

Thanks,

Janine

 

 

Janine Herman |  Executive Director

Calgary JCC

1607 – 90 Avenue SW

Calgary, AB  T2V4V7

T | 403.444.3170

F | 403.253.7915

 

Upcoming Draughter Rides - 16 August

In addition to some great rides over the next week, the jerseys have shipped, so as soon as they arrive I’ll sort out with the people who ordered them how to pay (except Rory, who is star, and has paid already) and pick them up:

 

·         Saturday – Lorraine is planning a long road ride early tomorrow morning.  If you want to join the ride, please e-mail her at lchan@conroyross.com.  This is a good chance for a nice long ride before the Banff Gran Fondo.

·         Sunday - the ride will leave at 10:00 am from the SW Corner of the Westside Church Parking lot (3939 69 Street SW), and be about an hour and a half to two hours.  Beer to follow.  This is a no-drop ride, so it is great for new riders, so don’t be shy.

·         Monday – The Face Punch ride will be hill repeats in Montgomery up Mackay Road.  This is a short but steep hill, so we will be doing repeats at maximum effort but with significant recovery between each repeat.  We will meet at the Edworthy parking lot on the North side of the river, and do a warm-up before the repeats.  And before you mock this ride, four people showed up to do repeats at COP last week.

·         Wednesday – Cyclocross training night.  This can be done on either a CX bike or a hardtail mountain bike, you just need to take off any cages/fenders/rakes/baseball cards in the spokes.  Please e-mail me if you are interested.

 

Ride on,

 

Mike

More Rides this Weekend

The forecast looks pretty good, so if you are in town, please come join a ride or two:

 

·         Saturday – Lorraine is planning a long road ride early tomorrow morning.  If you want to join the ride, please e-mail her at lchan@conroyross.com.

·         Sunday - the ride will leave at 10:00 am from the SW Corner of the Westside Church Parking lot (3939 69 Street SW), and be about an hour and a half to two hours.  The weather forecast is looking good, so I am committing to going for a beer afterwards on the patio at the taproom, so even if you don’t ride, think about coming for a beer.

·         Monday – The Face Punch ride returns, with hill repeats at COP.  We will meet at the bottom of the hill by the skeleton track (Canada Olympic Road) at 7:00 pm. 

·         Cyclocross – CX season is just around the corner, with the first race on 02 September.  I have done my first training session, trying to learn how to jump on and off my bike, and run with it up hills.  I’m pretty sure I looked like an idiot (or more of an idiot than I normally do), but it is really fun, unless you jump on the seat the wrong way.  If you know how to ride CX, please send me an e-mail so that we can meet up and you can teach me.  If you don’t, but want to try, send me an e-mail, and we can train together.  If you have no idea what cyclocross is, watch this, it is awesome http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRZOa_E9Qs8.  Did I mention drinking beer after CX races is very common?

 

Ride on,

 

Mike

Lots of Rides this Weekend

If you are around, please come out and join one or more of the following rides:

 

·         Saturday – Gord will lead a mountain bike ride starting at 8:00 am from the West Bragg Creek parking lot.  It will be the first ride of the year for some of us, so Gord has promised to make it all very ridable.  Lorraine is also planning a road ride that morning, but is going to play it by ear because of the weather forecast, so if you want to ride with her, please e-mail her at lchan@conroyross.com.

·         Sunday - the ride will leave at 10:00 am from the SW Corner of the Westside Church Parking lot (3939 69 Street SW), and be about an hour and a half to two hours, with a quick beer to follow for those who want.

·         Monday – we will be doing a long ride (3-4 hours) starting at 7:30 am leaving from the corner of 37^th Street and Highway 22x in the SW.

 

Have a great weekend whatever you are doing.

 

Mike