I will try to give you a fast, brief outline (non – grammatical) of my fantasy once-in-a-lifetime trip arranged for me by two sons Darcy and David who accompanied me. The trip is run by Cervelo in combination with a tour company they hired to process it along with their own employees. I traveled with my son Dave on Friday, July 16 to arrive in Toulouse on Saturday to transfer to the Château built in 1640 to meet the group. I will not describe the hotels in any detail except to state exceptional luxury. If they’re good enough for Dr. Sanja Gupta, (CNN) Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise they ought to be good enough for a boy from Barrie.

I will not also bore you with the gourmet French meals that lasted three hours biting into our riding time and devoid of pasta. I was in doubt whether this was a bike tour which had gourmet meals or a gourmet tour that happened to include some biking.

On arrival we were met by mechanics and bike fitters to choose from one of 39 Cervelos (including some experimentals) to be fitted plus receiving a full kit and a helmet. You will now get to see me in glorious Cervelo black with the big E. After receiving our bikes including Zipp wheels we had the opportunity to have the mechanic adjust them. The slower less accomplished riders had to have the cassettes changed to give them more spin power on the hills.

We participated from stage 14 to the final in Paris stage 20. Our group primarily consisted of nine riders five of which were capable of riding to the top of any stage and four who were not. I did not make any Cols. You are able to go on any stage and ride it in the morning of the race. Our rides consisted anywhere from 40 K. to 90 K. on portions of the stage. Some days we did not ride any portion of the stage but would set up a country ride and then take the bus to a portion of the stage to watch. We did not ride any of the time trial stage 18 or 19 and 20.

The first two days of riding we had Carla Ryan with us an Australian who rides for the Cervelo women’s test team. You can look up her biography on the cervelo.com web site. My summary is a well oiled steady pumping machine when she got on the front.

For the next three days we are at the Hotel Rex in Tarbe which was also housing the Bbox family and team. I did get somewhat annoyed by Thomas Voeckler asking me at breakfast on how he should ride the stage. Across the hall was the Bbox team masseur next door to ours. On these three days we had as our riding Cervelo person Roger Hammond who is a most knowledgeable, personable individual. On the rides he would discuss his history of biking how we should be riding and indeed when I came to the 1 km 16% grade put his hand on my back and up I went. He also went down and did three more and then down again to check the gradient. The fact that he has placed up high in the Paris- Roubaix would answer a few questions.

Some of the transfers between stages would be done by bus and others by the fast TVG train.

When I was in the hotel in Tarbe returning from a ride with my full Cervelo kit on a TV show run by young people pretended that I was Thor Hushovd and did a mock interview with me much like a Jon Stewart interview. I had many amusing comments from my riding partners. I later apologized to Thor for any repercussions.

For the Paris- Champ Elysees section we had grandstand seats at the finish line. That was my lucky day in that I along with four others were chosen to ride in the team car for one lap along with the coach yelling out commands. On each lap many of the team cars come in switch tourists then go right back out on the course. It gives you a different perspective riding in the team car. After the race we were hosted by the team at the team bus. Later in the evening we had a Seine river cruise again with the team sponsors and family. I sat at a table with the team doctors (don’t use Preparation H) and other personnel. At this time I met and talked to such people as Thor Hushovd, Carlos Sastre, Brett Lancaster, Eric Zabel, other team personnel and the owners.

I thank the members of the Barrie Cycling Club for their assistance in getting me prepared for this trip which I wished you could all be on.

On the Monday I did a historical trip to the beaches of Normandy to review the landing areas of D. Day. What brave young men they were to jump in the water with a full pack on run across a sand beach of 150 yards while being slaughtered and peppered with bullets from what appeared to be impenetrable bunkers.

I returned this past Tuesday where my luck held and I was upgraded to first class

George W.Taylor

Had a phone call just now from Brad Watts. As some of you know, Barb had a fall while crossing some railway tracks on our group ride last night. She bumped her head, and gave many of us quite a scare.

I’m happy to report that she is feeling much better already today. She has some wicked road rash, and a cracked collarbone, but no breaks! I am sure that I speak for all of us in wishing her well, and to get better soon!

Brad wanted me to pass along his feelings of thanks, and appreciation for the way everyone came together to help yesterday. It’s great to be a part of a club where everyone pulls together in times of crises.

I have to agree. Thanks to everyone who was out on the ride last night, especially the Bailey’s, and Todd McDonald who provided the first response.

Brad will be out next week, and we can expect to see Barb in a couple of weeks, so lets send our healing thoughts to her until then!

cheers,
robb

Photo Credit: Mark Wanzel

Look for updated TT results to be posted later today, and a note that there is a TT this week, Thursday night at 7pm, please arrive at the Oro Fairgrounds by 6.30 to get signed in. Big thanks to Mike & Judy Doble as always for keeping the series running like a swiss watch!

In other news, I rode my bike yesterday, first time in three weeks since breaking my leg, and 2 weeks since having surgery on it. Hope to see you all out on a group ride next week!

Sign in at 6:30 and racers off at 7:01.

We had 10 out last time, and are hoping to see a few more this week, don’t miss out, the summer is half over!

We had a great Monday night mountain bike ride, with 5 new members coming out for their very first club rides ever! This is very exciting, and we’re looking forward to this Monday night. We’ll be meeting at the Board of Education building in Midhurst again, at 6:30pm.
The following Monday, June 28, the ride will be held at the 7th of Oro, and Bass Lake Sideroad, also beginning at 6:30. The trails in Oro are even more beginner friendly than in Midhurst, please feel encouraged to bring out your friends, significant others, kids for these fun, educational rides!

The interclub this past Sunday was held in the pouring rain, and was won by Dave Viney. Big congratulations to the Mountainview guys from Midland, for putting on a race on a brand new course, and having all 5 groups come together in time for the finish. Well done!

We’ll be riding from Fred Grant Saturday, and Sunday at 9am this weekend, hope to see some people out. The Saturdays have been a popular starting out ride for people, then most have joined the downtown Tuesday night ride the following week, lets keep it up, hope to see you there!

Sunday looks to be a great day for a long cruise with friends, join us at 9am.

Tonight we have the 4th of our 15km TT series at the Oro Fairgrounds. The weather is going to hold off, and I am looking forward to finally riding one myself. See you there.

Saturday is the second interclub race of the year, put on by the Mountainview Club. This is the Lafontaine course, and is a new one.
The race starts at 10am, so make sure you arrive in time to sign in, and get your numbers pinned on.

Sunday, weather permitting, will be our Adopt-a-Road cleanup day, so again, we will be removing the Sunday morning ride from the Calendar, and instead meeting at the Johnson St Parking lot for 9am. Please wear appropriate clothing for cleaning on the side of the road. Shouldn’t take long, our section is already very clean. See you there!

Now, a couple of final notes regarding group riding.

The downtown ride is seeing great success, with new members joining it every week, and a good time being had by everyone! Two things I noted during this weeks’ ride, which I need to address.

The first is regarding rear wheel skewers. I know a lot of people in the club ride Mountain Bikes, where it’s standard to leave the skewer handle pointing straight backwards. On a road bike, this is not a great idea, as another wheel could become caught up on it. I insist that everyone please keep their skewers pointed inwards, so that nothing is sticking out past the stays/dropouts/derailleur at the rear of your bikes. Thanks!

Second, if there is a wide, paved shoulder on the right side of the road, then please use it. There’s no need to ride on the line between lane & shoulder. Take the shoulder, so that only the outside row of riders are on the roadway. This is much safer than taking up half a lane and having 1m of space on our right too.

cheers,
robb

I am hereby making the decision to postpone our clean up of Ridge Rd until the following Sunday, June 13.

Thank you, I hope to see you there!

Bring a bike, and a helmet, and you’re good to go. Bring your significant others, kids, friends, neighbours.

We’ll be riding through downtown, and around the lakeshore, this won’t be an epic journey, but it will be a lot of fun.

Please come out, and join the club as we kick off Barrie’s first ever official Cycling Safety Week!!

We’ve got a busy week here at the BCC.

We’ve got our weekly club MTB ride tonight, Monday at 6pm, leaving from the Simcoe County Board of Education building in Midhurst. Join us for a great time in the trees.

Tuesday will see both our group rides leaving at 6:30, the social ride from Fred Grant Square, and the pain ride from Sunnidale Park. We’ve had some great rides the last few weeks, looking forward to seeing lots of you out tomorrow!

Saturday marks the first day of Barrie’s first Annual Safe Cycling Week. We played a major role in getting this proclamation signed, and are looking forward to growing the event in years ahead.
Celebrate Barrie is also on Saturday, hopefully some plans for a kick-off event will come together this week.

Sunday, we are taking the usual ride off of the calendar for this week only. The Barrie Cycling Club has volunteered to adopt a section of Ridge Rd., and it’s time for us to do our first of 2 annual clean-ups.

We are going to need some volunteers to assist with this, we have a section of road that’s about 1.5km long to clean up. It’s already quite clean, i’ve been scoping it out recently. I don’t expect it to take longer than 2hours at the most. Please come out, help us give something back to the communities we ride through on a daily basis.

Meet at 9am at Johnson’s Beach. Please bring gloves, and appropriate clothing for picking refuse from the side of the road. We will provide safety vests, and all the garbage bags we’ll need. I look forward to seeing many of you there, pitching in.

cheers,
robb

We are expecting lots of people, so don’t miss the fun, join us!

This Saturday, May 29, marks the first day of our learn to group ride program. If you’re new to cycling, or new to group riding, or just want to learn the ins & outs from experienced riders, please feel more than welcome to join in.

We’ll be meeting at Fred Grant Square for 9am, and will instruct/ride for about an hour & a half. There may be some more riding afterwards, but the ‘lesson’ will be complete in that time.

We are really excited to offer something like this to riders from Barrie, and we hope that lots of you take advantage so that we can get you out on our Tuesday night rides, and on our ride to benefit the Simcoe County M.S. Society in September!!

It would not have gone as well without the help of many people.

First and foremost, I doubt this race would have happened without any of the amazing parents who signed you up, and brought you to Barrie. Thank you to each, and every parent who was there today in body, or in spirit. The support and encouragement received from each of you was truly fantastic.

Second, I must thank all of the people who helped with planning, and day-of tasks.

I hope that I don’t forget anyone in this list, my most sincere apologies if you helped us today, and I haven’t listed you.

Thank you to: Orrin Bowser, Steve Homenuk, Mike & Judy Doble, Doug Pogue our timing guru, Michael Kolesar our Commissaire from the OCA, Laura Hagerman our OCA on-site representative, Cliff Lilley, Jamie Herbst, George Taylor, Denise & Mark, Colin McGuire, Jim Tyler, Denis Charlton, Mike F & Dave. Again, if I missed you, I am very sorry!

I would also like to thank the Ontario Provincial Police for their patience, instruction, and safe keeping of all our racers.

In addition to these individual thanks, I’d like to thank Bikeland, Blacktooth Grin, The Bike Zone, Days Inn Barrie, Velocity Cycle & Ski, the Trek Store Barrie, Hardwood Ski & Bike, Napoleon Gourmet Grills, Golf Hunter Inc, Husky Property Maintenance, W R Best Memorial School, the Township of Oro-Medonte and the County of Simcoe. Without the support of all of these businesses, and local Communities this race would never have been possible. Thank you from each and every one of us.

If you are looking for race results, you can find them here:
Time Trial Results
Road Race Results
Overall Combined Results

We really hope that you enjoyed the race, we can’t wait to do it again next year. We already have LOTS of ideas to make it a better, and more enjoyable experience for everyone, parents & racers.

THANK YOU!

If you have any comments, positive or negative, please feel free to offer them below. We are listening.

cheers,
robb

Download a GPX file of the course here: (right click & save as) BCC Youth Cup Course GPX File

Check out a lap of the course!

One Lap of the BCC Youth Cup Course from Robb M. on Vimeo.

This is a stage race geared for boys & girls ages 10-16, and it features a Time Trial and a Road Race all in the same day.

We have a fantastic course, almost entirely made of brand new pavement! It features some rolling hills, and some wide open flat sections. It measures a perfect 6km in length, with wide, safe corners all the way around.

View BCC Youth Cup Course in a larger map

Registration is located here, on the OCA website. Please note that there will be NO day of registrations accepted for this event.
Online Registration

Click here to view the Technical Guide

We will have some demonstrations from the local bike shops on hand, a display and helmet fitting station set up by the Safe Kids Committee, a part of Safe Kids Canada.

We’ll also have a BBQ on site offering food and refreshments.

Accommodation Special Offer
The Days Inn-Barrie has extended the following offer to racers and their families who are travelling from out of town to race.

Their special event offer is $85.00 +taxes/night based on Single or Double Occupancy in a standard room.
Children (racers) under the age of 18 receive a complimentary stay!

You will need the group code which is included in our Technical Guide when making your reservation.

The Days Inn-Barrie is located just of Highway 400 at Essa Rd. The hotel offers an indoor heated saltwater swimming pool & a whirlpool.

High Speed internet and complimentary breakfast is also included in this special offer to Barrie Youth Race participants and their families!
Call now to book: (705) 733-8989 or 1-(866)-335-8989

We are less than a week away from hosting our first Ontario Youth Cup Road Race. 
Things are looking good, we have a great course, hopefully the weather cooperate too!

We are going to need some volunteers to help with registration, marshaling, and aiding the finish line judging. If are are able to lend a hand, please email me youth@barriecycling.com

I am aiming to be on site for 7am, Saturday May 22 to begin taping etc. 

Also, the club is proud to announce our very first official MTB ride. This will be a weekly ride beginning at 6pm from the Simcoe County Board of Education building in Midhurst. 

This is a social, teaching/learning ride. It’s a great opportunity to bring your wife, girlfriend, or even children out for an easy paced ride through some of out great local singletrack!

Myself and Shane Hollingshead will be your ride leaders on Monday nights. Hope to see some of you there!

Cheers,
Robb

We had a discussion meeting last night, and while we all agree that what occurred last week was a serious event, it is the kind of cycling crash which can happen anytime when riding in a group. We definitely feel there are things which we can do to prevent something like this from ever happening again though.

To help us ensure this is the case, I want to communicate some key points that came up last night.

First and foremost, there needs to be some distinction made between the Downtown, and the Sunnidale Tuesday night group rides.

If you are new to the club, newer to cycling, or even if you’re just making it out for your first group ride of the season, we must insist that you ride with the downtown ride, before attending a Sunnidale ride.
Both rides are social and fun, however the Sunnidale ride typically culminates in a high speed paceline of experienced riders, with a finishing sprint (or two). This adds a whole new dynamic to group riding, and it’s something that takes a little getting used to, regardless of your fitness level.

When you do make the choice to ride from Sunnidale on Tuesday night, please be aware that the group will ride at the pace of the majority, it will not cater to the minority who may be struggling with the pace of the majority. It is possible that you will be dropped by the group if you’re not able to keep up.
Ensure you know the rides general direction, and how to get back to town if you are dropped. Please take this into account when making your decision about which Tuesday night ride to go on.

We’d also like to take the time to remind everyone, that MP3 players, or headphones of any kind are not permitted to be worn while group riding. If you want to ride with music on, then why not ride alone? Kind of defeats the social aspect of things.

One other measure which we are going to put in place when coming back into Barrie along Ridge Rd. is that we are going to turn right off Ridge onto 5/6 sideroad, which eventually turns into Georgian Drive. This idea was being considered before last weeks events, and after last nights discussions we all agree it makes sense. The pavement is better, it’s a long straight line with good visibility and a finishing climb. We all feel it’s a safer route to return on.

Another point brought up last night was the perception of our Sunday morning touring rides. Besides our upcoming Saturday learn to group ride program, the Sunday ride is the best opportunity for new members/riders to come out for an easy paced, fun, conversational ride that can also be a total learning/teaching opportunity for everyone. The Sunday rides are the most low key rides the club has held traditionally, and we intend to keep them that way!

Finally, if you’re new to the club, or newer to cycling, let us know when you get to a group ride. We’ll either take you on ourselves, or find one of our experienced club members to help mentor you along the ride to help you learn the subtle nuances of group riding. Don’t be shy, let us help you!

cheers,
robb

As most of you may know, we had a crash during one of last week’s Tuesday night group rides. One of our club members was seriously injured, and ended up in Toronto after an Air Ambulance ride.

I am very happy to let you all know that Dave Smallwood is now back at home with his wife. His physical recovery has been nothing short of amazing thus far. Goes to show what kind of advantages being in shape can have on recovery. (right Dr. Bailey?)

We are going to hold an on open meeting/round-table discussion tomorrow, Monday night at 8pm. This will be held downtown at Second Cup, or elsewhere if we need more space.

If you want to be part of the discussion about how we can prevent something like this from ever happening again, please join us on Monday evening.

cheers,
robb

Each ride will be starting at 6:30pm for the duration of the summer.

One ride will be leaving from Fred Grant Square, and will be deemed a social ride, with nobody being left behind, and a conversational pace being maintained.

The second ride will be leaving from Sunnidale park, and while social, will often end up as the Tuesday night World Championships of the World. It’s a lot of fun, but not for everyone, so choose accordingly.

See you all out tomorrow night, the weather is looking pretty good so far!

TT starts at 7pm, try to arrive by 6:30 to get signed in and warmed up before you start.

Look forward to seeing lots of you out there!

The first race is the Oro Short course this year, and we’ll be meeting/signing in at the Oro Fairgrounds as per usual!

Race starts at 10am, please arrive by 930 to get signed up and put your numbers on.

Looking forward to seeing lots of you there.

The idea of the night is to welcome spring with open arms, to hear what the club has in store for 2010, it’s a lot different than in years past!

It’s also a night to meet your fellow club members, and to potentially welcome new members to the club. This evening is welcome to anyone from around the Barrie area, who already rides a bike, or who is thinking about taking cycling up. Come out, meet the club, meet the exec, and have some INCREDIBLE wood fired Pizza.

Local business, Pie Restaurant has graciously offered to host the evening, and will be providing us with a flat rate deal on all the pizza we can eat while there!
They are located at 34 Commerce Park Dr.

If you could shoot me an email letting me know you plan to attend, that would be fantastic!
pizza@barriecycling.com

See you in 2 weeks for delicious Pizza!

We’ll also have membership forms, and cards on hand. If there’s any club clothing left, we’ll bring that too!

We’ve been targeting the week of May 30-June 5, 2010. This morning I received a phone call from Simcoe County, where they expressed an interest in helping us to make this a County Wide Bike Safety Week!

Initial plans are for a ‘car free’ day in downtown Barrie on Sunday, May 30, and an official ride to work/school day on Weds, June 2.

If you are an employer in the region, or if you are employed in the region, please let us know if your company is willing to sign on as a community partner. Ideally we’d like them to support the bike to school day on Weds, by potentially allowing parents to arrive late, on bicycles after they’ve ridden their children to school.
If you can help out, or want to join onboard, please contact me via email. My email address is robb at barrie cycling dot com.

Thanks!

I haven’t made an update here since last year? Well, LOTS has been going on. I guess it’s time for an update.

Our 2010 OCA affiliation forms have been filled out and submitted, this means we will have membership cards in hand very soon. We also will provide all the local shops with forms & some club brochures in the next couple of weeks.

We have a whole bunch of great things that are set for the year ahead.

Saturday, May 22, we’ll be hosting an OCA Youth Cup Road Race & TT for riders ages 10-16. More info on the series is available on the OCA Website.

We will of course be participating in the Interclub road race series as we always have, however this year instead of Owen Sound being the third club, our friends from the Mountainview Cycling Club of Midland will join ourselves & the Newmarket Eagles in the series. The schedule is close to complete, and will be posted this week.

Mike Doble has again volunteered to run the club Time Trial series on alternate Thursdays through the summer, we’re very lucky to have his help!

We have joined a coalition along with the OPP, the County of Simcoe, the towns of Oro-Medonte, Innisfil, Springwater, Vespra & the Blue Mountains to create a rural road safety initiative/education program. After just two meetings a lot of progress has been made. The County has agreed to add a 1m strip of pavement to all new construction and re-pave jobs from herein. Oro-Medonte has agreed to something similar, but with the upcoming Pan-Am games, there is also potential to create an actual network of cycling routes through the area.

We have volunteered to adopt a section of Ridge Rd. The County responded to our request by granting us the section from Range Rd, through the town of Shanty Bay to the 3rd line of Oro. Our responsibility is to spend two days per year cleaning the shoulders of that section of litter & debris. For this, we get a sign along the side of Ridge Road with the Club’s name on it!

We’ve been hard at work to put together a program of rides designed to appeal to people who just like to ride bikes, as opposed to the ‘cyclist’ style rides we’ve typically focussed on.
These rides will be taking place every Saturday through the summer, and we’re really excited to teach new people what it’s like to change a tire, or ride in a group properly!

Hopefully some of the riders who attend these new Saturday rides will aspire to ride in our Charity event for the Barrie M.S. Society on Sunday September 18th. This will be a fully supported, exciting ride of multiple distances up to a full Imperial Century, or 160km! We’re really excited to showcase some of the challenging and picturesque terrain in our backyard.

I am sure that I’ve forgotten some things, but the gold medal game is almost on! I can’t believe it’s been so long since an update went out, apologies for that, but the Barrie Cycling Club is looking for 2010 to be the best year yet!

One last thing. We never had an end of year dinner last year, so I think perhaps a club meeting/pizza night is in order for this month, does this sound like a good idea?

This is what we’ve got left:

Send email to: BCC Clothing if you would like to pick any of this stuff up before Christmas!