July Newsletter

Normally at this time of year I’m touring with my friend, Peter Tabaczuk, on a ten-day bicycle trip somewhere. This year we are planning on a September tour so I was free to set my own schedule. I wanted a good training ride and noticed that the Brampton Cycling Club had a 2-Man Time Trial on July 1st. Mirek Mazur agreed to be my partner in this event and we practiced together.

On the morning of the time trial, I called Mirek and he said that he thought the weather was awful and didn ’t want to race in the rain. I thought, ‘Hey, it’s only a 25k northwest wind’ and I couldn’t see any funnel clouds in my area, so I went alone.

Parking was at the firehall in Cheltenham and I was greeted by Brian Zuest. Brian said that someone would likely come along in need of a partner. People started showing up and I was introduced to Geoff Banner who agreed to ride with me. I didn’t really cue in on who Geoff was for a couple of minutes. He told me he had the course record for the 80k time trial and I knew I was in for a good ride.

We had a couple of false starts so our minute men ended up 3 minutes ahead of us. With the wind direction we ended up with some help on the first two legs of the course and the last leg almost straight headwind. Geoff took the first pull and was very aggressive, he was going 50 to 55 kph and I could hardly keep up. Almost right away we started a nice rotation and it worked really well. After 20k we could see our minute men. We were pulling hard into the increasing headwind and brought the speed back up on the next tailwind sections. We caught our 3 minute men with 10k to go. I find that the only thing more inspirational than chasing your minute man is escaping him. After we turned into the headwind on the final stretch I heard a shout. I looked back and found that I was dropping Geoff. I let up a bit so he could get back in my draft and a second later he shouted again and pointed to his flat tire. He urged me to go the next 4k alone but I didn’t want to because in a 2-Man Time Trial your finishing time is based on the second man across the line. Geoff rode on his flat, 25 to 30 kph. We could see our minute men coming as we crossed the line with the fastest time of the day of 58:04.

Call Peter Schouten – 519-442-5418, Paris, Ontario

‘New’ Cramerotti 54 cm Road Bike, Columbus Cromo DB frame

Bike is 2 years old but only 100 km on it. Owner is a runner, thought he’d like a

contact Martin Reid, acting for owner – 905-577-9922

Have you ever planned a race and/or group ride with what you wear etc. based on ‘The Weather Network’? If you have, as I have in the past, you soon realize that with all the radar devices, meteorologists and weather-telling gadgets, they are sometimes completely wrong, maybe because of a trough or El Nino or something!?

Back in late April on Good Friday, they called for cold, windy conditions. Now I’ve been mountain biking all winter long in the snow, but the wind blowing this morning was tough. With the Hilton Falls Mountain Bike Enduro under my belt where I hammered out a first place finish, I arrived at the race feeling confident. The early season road scene would be a whole new game, although not entirely new. You see this was my first road race since about 1985. Friday morning came and I was very nervous, and yes it was VERY windy. Well 15 years of running and triathlons had taught me to place yourself towards the front to be in the thick of the action. This was a technique I would later alter somewhat for the Springbank Road Race.

The pack flowed and we were soon at a cruising altitude of 46 kph…not bad if you’re doing your interval homework and scoring well into the 90 percentile. I have to tell you I’d missed a couple of interval classes and spent most of the winter doing LSD. After a lap or so I was dropped and this was where that wind I’ve been talking about come into effect.

It became harder and harder to knock this little guy on my shoulder off who kept saying, ‘Dave, this isn’t worth it, pack it in, quit.’ Well, I never quit anything and I didn’t want to discredit the club jersey further by quitting, so on I went thinking towards the O-Cup mountain bike season and Springbank.

Without much fanfare, Springbank was a carbon copy of Good Friday, except that I had met a new friend when Rob Cheskey introduced me to Fred Pepper. Fred powered his way to the podium with a super ride that was very impressive. I left London not feeling great about my race, but still happy because I’d hung out with the guys for a while and met a new club member. To me the day was actually a success.

The Ontario Cup mountain bike circuit has been much kinder to me…maybe I just get along better playing in the dirt. I know there are some club members that race mountain bikes. I just haven’t come across any at the races so far.

After so many years away from the sport, I’d learned that, in order to race in the Master Expert class, you must first accumulate enough points in Master Sport to advance. So my goal this season was achieved at the Ontario Cup #3 race in Hardwood Hills where my 2nd place, coupled with a 3rd and 5th at Dagmar and Kelso respectively moved me up to the next class. There were two races remaining, the Provincials and World Masters in Bromont.

At the time of writing this I was getting ready for our club’s Snake Road Hill Climb, how well did it go? If I have a good time and catch up with old or new friends it will be a great day…I’m sure. If you do happen to pass me sometime, at least give me a wave or a nod, and oh, don ’t look for that little guy on my shoulder, I fired him!

Starters: Frank & Judy Morrow

Jean Guy Bonenfant July 31st

SUE PALMER-KOMAR has continued to race strongly at the top level in international competitions. Great to see her out at some of our club races now and then!

She raced the Tour de L’Aude back in May (see ‘Globe and Mail’ article in hard copy newsletter). Her best day in this stage race, where she got 15th overall, was on Day 3, where she felt ‘crappy’ in the morning, but ‘came on’ during the race to get 7th, and felt especially good on the long climbs. ‘You never know,’ she says.

Sue raced the Montreal World Cup race, which was wet and dangerous, then the Philadelphia World Cup race, where she says there was ‘nothing noteworthy’.

‘Hubby’ Chris Komar and baby, Trinity, accompanied Sue on the trip to Fitchburg. She recalls getting only about four hours of sleep some nights, so was racing tired. It was Trinity’s first time in a ‘race caravan’, riding with Chris in the van. One time when they passed Sue and she didn’t say ‘hi’, Trinity started crying.

Halfway through the racing season, there’s still lots of good racing ahead! The ‘up and down’ weather continues to befuddle us all . . . . definitely better now than back in April though.

The C.T.T.A. 15k event went off okay on Wednesday, July 4th despite rain and windy conditions (see ‘tornado’ report in this newsletter!).

Seems like we’ve had more rain this year than usual. I’ve raced in the rain May 27th (Flamborough), June 3rd (Welland), June 16th (Salem R. R.) and two of the three 15K T.T.’s I’ve done.

Some of us are heading out to the Nationals at Dieppe, New Brunswick in late July. FRED PEPPER has been gearing up for this year’s Nationals I.T.T. since last year . . . and his results this year show it! Fred has quickly become well-known on the racing circuit in the ‘Master B,C,D Peloton’. Fred has already done P.B.’s in 2001 in 40k t.t. and 15k t.t. (twice!).

TARAS KLEBAN has flown out to Edmonton to contest the National Track Championships . . . just talked to him tonight (Monday, July 9th) and his plane from Edmonton landed this afternoon in Toronto. He got 4th in the sprints, 5th in the kilo and 7th in the pursuit in his last year as a Junior. Maybe he’ll do a write-up on his experiences there for our next newsletter?

MICHAEL SZELAG is having a cycling-packed year. His 2001 Cross-Canada-Tour kicked off on July 1st amid fanfare on the landmark Signal Hill in St. John’s, Newfoundland. His entourage included several junior riders; the group is using a ‘relay’ technique so each rider gets enough rest in between riding stints in one of the support vehicles in the caravan. Named the ‘Tribute to Canada Tour’ he plans to finish in Vancouver in 31 days. His contingent of riders includes locals Ian Lawson, Ray, Andrew and Ryan Polawski, James Byrne, Teresa Ciancolo and Ivan Sverko.

Hamilton’s Channel 14 will be providing some T.V. coverage.

Included in Michael’s itinerary is a stopover in Hamilton for a couple of days, where he has organized a downtown bicycle race around City Hall on Sunday, July 15th. The O.C.A. was looking for someone to step in and organize a race for this date, to be the Provincial Criterium Championships. Included in the race schedule for this event is a Citizens’ race.