February 1, 2024In 2023 I was hoping to be a better racer. I spent the winter actually using the gym we have at work, doing time on the stationary bike so as not to lose all my kilometres in my legs. They say you should do strength training and I tried but it’s a pain.
The other thing I did was join a club. Velocity Cycling Club is my new bunch. We have a coach and club jerseys and it’s all a bit more community-building than the lone-wolf cyclist thing I’ve been doing. I went on a couple of group rides and they were fun. The first was about 60km and easy riding. I self-selected to the slow group, and was the only person in it (along with the bunch leader). But it was good. I got to learn about some of the group riding norms and hand signals. Old Paul was very welcoming in general and did a good job showing me how to get close to people in the bunch.
January 27, 2024 Cyclocross (also cyclo-cross, ‘cross or cx) is my favourite discipline of riding bikes. In its contemporary form you ride your bike around in a field and sometimes have to get off your bike and carry it because the hills are too steep or there are stairs or someone put a bunch of boards across the track. I often think of it as the least efficient way of using your bike. It’s awesome.
January 27, 2024 Velocity Cycling Club is the group I ride with. There are a few clubs in the Edmonton area that I could have joined. I was going to join ERTC (Edmonton Road and Track Club) back in 2020 but doing things in groups wasn’t feasible that year. I ended up with VCC mostly because a couple of the older guys from their club were friendly at a few of my 2022 cyclocross races. Also, nice jerseys without extraneous advertising.
January 26, 2024 I’m riding my bike again. It’s been a few months off dealing with some other issues, but I’m making my legs go ‘round in circles again. The big difference compared with last winter is that I’m riding indoors.
I got a Wahoo smart trainer in fall when the cyclocross season was getting smoked out and it was dangerous to go outside and breathe heavily. It was heavily on sale because it isn’t a full-on smart trainer that replaces your rear wheel and has a computer out front built in. It’s the kind that rolls against your rear tire.
November 11, 2023 Race Info
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I missed out on writing this up at the end of the 2023 CX season, and now that 2024 has come around, I don’t have a bunch of the data I like to put in these race writeups. Nonetheless, here’s what I can find (thankfully I did do my CrossResults upload back when the race happened).
This race was postponed from earlier in the month because of some freakish weather. There was supposed to be a second race on the Sunday but with the rescheduling, that didn’t happen.
October 21, 2023 Race Info
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I missed out on writing this up at the end of the 2023 CX season, and now that 2024 has come around, I don’t have a bunch of the data I like to put in these race writeups. Nonetheless, here’s what I can find (thankfully I did do my CrossResults upload back when the race happened).
Results
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Open Women
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- Francesca SEAL
- Susanne MCARTHUR
- Quinn FLATER
Open Men
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- Mark FAGNAN
- Andrew DAVIDSON
- Scott DESMARAIS
Expert Men
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- Adam ROBERTS
- Brendan CARDIFF
- Jason PROCHE
Sport Women
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- Kathryn SWEENEY
- Hazel ROBERTS
- Madeline MAGLEO
Sport Men
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- Josh BARKER
- Sean SWEENEY
- Carl MILLER
Novice Men
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- Cor SINKE
- William KINDZIERSKI
- Arun WARD
My Results
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Read More
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