Hamilton CC Newsletter

MARCH 29TH, 2002

An early Easter this year enhances the possibility of bad weather for our SEASON OPENER for bicycle road racing in Ontario.  Hopefully we’ll be lucky again; last year’s April 13^th event ran smoothly, with agreeable weather.

As you may recall, prior to last year’s Good Friday we were concerned about having enough entries to cover the costs, particularly the new police presence for traffic control.  Surprisingly, our total field of riders was up in 2001 to 235 racers, over the 190 from 2000 and 1999.  Because of this success, we decided to hold the event in Guelph again this year.  Our goals remain the same:

1.        for the Hamilton Cycling Club to ‘do our part’ for bicycle racing by putting

on  a good event for racers.

2.       maintain good public relations with the municipality, course residents etc.

3.       to at least ‘break even’ financially and hopefully raise some money for the club.

As usual, we count on club members to come out and assist at the race.  While ‘traffic control’ is in the hands of the police and the ‘Community Events’ group who marshal the course, we still require ‘our people’ for sweeping the course, putting up signage, parking control, registration, finish-line control, judging (‘pickers’ at the finish line), car driving (two cars per race), someone to prepare and hand out awards, a liaison person between registration and finish line, and people to sell coffee and donuts at our ‘snack bar’. 

Lots of organization has taken place at our meetings leading up to Good Friday and most of us on the club executive have key roles to play.  Hope you can come out and be a part of this event and help our club put on a good race!

                                                                                                            Rob

COMBINE TIME TRIAL ASSOCIATION 2002 SCHEDULE

by Ted Jukes, B.C.C.

Hello again one and all as we prepare for yet another season of cycling. After a few e-mails and discussions at all 2001 season club banquets we have finally come up with our 2002 season schedule. At a recent evening meeting in Milton the schedule was finalized as follows.

 No you are not dreaming, and no the above schedule is not a mistake. For the year 2002 there will be no 80 Km Time Trials on our schedule. After all the discussions during the winter and hours of negotiation (well 20 minutes anyhow) it was decided to remove the backbreaking (and other various aches and pains) dreaded 80 Km Time Trial.

The new format for year-end medals and trophies is as follows:

Cadets and Juniors must complete: Two 15 Km Events and One 40 Km Event in order to be eligible for the Cadet or Junior year-end awards.

All other competitor’s seniors and Veterans must complete Two 15 Km Events and also Two 40 Km Events to be eligible for the Senior and Veteran year-end awards.

Fees for each event will remain at $ 5.00 per event.

Again this year the host club will hold a prize draw at the completion of each event for all the competitors registered for the event.

For those of you that really feel you will miss that dreaded 80 Km Time Trial you are all invited to compete in any of the Brampton or Hamilton Club 80 Km Events. As a matter of fact all members of Brampton, Hamilton or the Oakville Cycling Clubs are invited to participate in any of each other’s club run non-Combine events.

This year each club (Hamilton, Brampton and Oakville) will present a Best guest award at their respective year-end banquets. This will be awarded to a member of Brampton, Oakville or Hamilton Club members for competing at one or more of the others ROAD RACE SERIES OF EVENTS.

HAMILTON CYCLING CLUB SCHEDULE 2002

PLEASE NOTE:  Other events may be added to this schedule.  If you have ideas for new events, please call with your suggestions.

Randy  519-442-2118

Rob      905-878-3971

Crash Course in Tucson        

                                                                                    by Fred Pepper

This February I had the opportunity to get in on a training camp and enjoy some cycling in Arizona. Mirek Mazur organizes a couple of camps a year, each for about a month. I limited my “vacation” to 2 weeks and Mirek found a spot for me among his group of about 20 elite riders. It was a great opportunity to see how people who are near the pinnacle of athletic performance live, and hopefully pick up a few secrets.

The desert was a real contrast to the rolling green fields of Southern Ontario. The only natural vegetation seemed to be cactus and the landscape looked kind of like a gravel pit.

Mirek has been going to Tucson for years and when I arrived and got organized he offered to take me for an afternoon ride while everyone else was relaxing. We rode across the city on streets with wide bike lanes, and soon were at a park. The Saguaro National Park is a conservation area of sorts and has an 8-mile loop of road in the desert. The road follows the mildly rolling terrain as it twists and turns past rock outcroppings and various types of CACTUS.  Mirek said that the road was a lot of fun, “you can ride it at full speed” but “watch out for the first hill, I had a Junior crash on it a few years ago”.  My trusty guide sped off, over the hill and into the park - I chased anxiously. “Wow” I thought “this is a steep hill”…“Mirek seems to be negotiating the hairpin right turn at the bottom easily enough”… “Gee I hope he keeps right so I can sweep around the outside of him”… well I knew I wasn’t going to die as I somersaulted over the handlebars of my steed. It all seemed as if it were in slow motion as I heard my voice scream in terror and felt sharp needles puncture my forearms and shins. The needles hurt a bit but I was OK – Mirek was not. It was either relief that I didn’t wipe out his new Colnago or possibly the sight of me going over the bars but he could hardly catch his breath between bouts of laughter. I was able to ride the bike back to the house but I had to replace the fork that Rob Cheskey saved in an earlier unpublished tale.

We had a pretty regular routine for our rides; we would all meet at 10AM and head out to various places around the countryside.  Probably the toughest ride was up Mount Lemmon. It rises to an elevation of over 9000-ft over 25 miles but the 14-mile mark (6500-ft) was plenty. I stopped at Windy Point after 1hr and 15 minutes of steady climbing, it was cold and I was aching from the relentless uphill grade. I vowed to lose some weight, get in shape and stop swearing out loud – boy it was hard. 

My food discoveries on this trip were the Burrito and the Smoothie. I did my best to tag along on as many trips for this stuff as I could. My competitive spirit runs through everything I do, and when Mirek said he ate a burrito named El-Gourdo I figured I could do it too. This burrito was huge, it came on a platter and weighed a couple of pounds. Beaten again! And this time by a chicken burrito, I’ll go back again to take another run at it but I have information from a very good source that Mirek did not beat El-Gourdo either.

A big highlight of my trip came on my last full day there. The time trial stage of The Valley of the Sun stage race was in Phoenix and I volunteered to help out. There were easily 500 competitors as it took from 9AM to 4PM for all of the riders to time trial with 30 second start intervals. What a scene! I saw Peter Mazur, Gord Fraser, Danny Pate, Genevieve Jeanson and Desi Desrochers to name a few. The course was  20 k out and back, it was 80°F and there was a slight cross wind – perfect conditions. There didn’t seem to be a lot of fretting about the latest UCI rules here or there as I watched people go off on some of the trickiest looking bikes ever to be in a wind tunnel. 

In closing I will tell you that this was the best cycling vacation of the several I’ve had. This one was unique in that it involved day trips from a single point, rather than Point to Point (Sault Ste. Marie to Gaspe for example) and I had a nice bed and hot shower every day. The companionship of the group of people I was with was outstanding, I lost a couple of pounds and felt my condition improve while I was there, what a great way to end the winter (early).

HOMETOWN – Paris, Ontario

RESIDENCE – Victoria, B.C., Canada

BIRTHDATE -  April 29, 1980

HEIGHT – 5’3”

WEIGHT – 108

NATIONAL TEAM MEMBER SINCE

Junior since 1995, Senior (elite) 2001

CURRENT WORLD RANK – 32, 4^th Canadian

COACH – Joel Filliol

WEBSITE – www.competitionzone.com/natasha.htm

TOP ELITE PERFORMANCES

·         1^st place ITU Guatemala 2001

·         1^st place ITU Puerto Vallarta 2000

·         1^st place Dannon Grenelefe 2000

·         2^nd place ITU Ixtapa 2000

·         2^nd place Pan-American Championships 2000

·         6^th place ITU World Cup Cancun 2000

·         8th place ITU World Cup Cancun 2001

·         9^th place Pan-American Championships 2001

·         9th place ITU Athens 2001

·         10^th place ITU World Cup Toronto 2000

Elite Triathlon Career: Named to Triathlon Canada’s National Elite Team in 2001… In first race as an elite placed 9^th in a very competitive field at the 2001 Pan-American Champs in Florida… Followed that performance with a victory in ITU Guatemala triathlon… Looks forward to representing Canada at the World Champs in Edmonton this year… In 2002 will be racing as a professional in the made for TV F1 Series in Australia

Top Junior Performances

·         Silver medallist ITU World Duathlon Championships, Jr. Elite 1999

·         9th place ITU World Triathlon Championships, Jr. Elite 2000

·         6 time Canadian Jr. Elite Champion, Triathlon and Duathlon, 1995- 2000

            UPDATE:  TONY MARRIOTT

My cycling activities were suddenly curtailed on 21 Nov last year, when a van turned right into me on Derry Rd. in broad daylight near the Milton Hospital.  The following day I had screws and a plate put into my left ankle. Prior to that I had been age group (65 -69) winner in the Subaru, sprint triathlon series, for 2001.  That included the Milton triathlon, which introduced triathlon into the area in 1985. I went to the Carleton Place duathlon to qualify for the Worlds Duathlon (10k run, 40k bike, 5k run) in Rimini, Italy in September.  As there was no other 65-69 age group competitor I qualified easily!  The trip to Italy was combined with a visit to Nice, France, for an international meeting for geriatric psychiatrists.  After that I became a "geriatric cyclist" in Rimini, finishing 8th out of 16 in my age group.  The cycling course was 6 pancake flat loops by the long, sandy beach.  There were plenty of highly competitive Italians, and others from around the world. Not all the American team was able to get there, as the event was immediately after "Sept 11".  There were nearly 100 in the Canadian team, which won three age group medals.  During the year two of my family caught the "triathlon bug''.  Michael did the Florida Ironman, and 'Tricia participated in the Milton women's triathlon.  Christopher is the chief cyclist (year round and long distance) but has not been competitive.  Keith MacKay of ‘The Fitness Technique’ let me have some used rollers to facilitate rehabilitation so I am getting out on the road again now on a Canadian Tire 12-speed.  I hope to see you guys out in the near future.

MASTERS WORLD CUP 2002 FOR X-C SKIING

QUEBEC CITY, FEBRUARY 24TH – MARCH 2ND

This is a world championship for ‘master age’ cross-country ski racers (30 years old and up).  There are ‘5 year age groupings’ for both males and females.  There are three races for each racer, in his or her age group, a 30km, a 10km and a 45km (shorter distances for women and older males) and we had to choose in advance, ‘Classical’ or ‘Freestyle’ technique for each race.

I had competed at the ‘Masters World Cup’ during its last visit to North America, at Lake Placid in 1998.  Since then, this annual competition has been hosted by Russia, Norway and Austria.  It visits North America every fourth year; the next visit here is to Idaho in 2006.

The snow-free winter we’ve had in Milton had forced me to drive north at least twice a week for ‘on-snow’ training in the two months preceding my departure for Quebec. 

My ten-day stay in Quebec City was one I’ll never forget.  Plenty of snow, long walks through beautiful old neighbourhoods and walking and skiing on the Plains of Abraham, where trails are groomed daily.  This was just minutes from the tourist apartment in an older home where four of us were staying, about two kilometres from VIEUX QUEBEC, where narrow, steep and winding streets with quaint cafés and bars in ancient stone buildings dominate the landscape.

I’d take a daily walk to the ‘Depanneur’ (corner store) to buy a ‘Globe and Mail’ to catch up on the Olympics.  I found the Quebecois clerk to be very charming with her accented English; nowhere did I find anyone unpleasant or unaccommodating.

On race mornings, I’d be out early; it was a thirty-kilometre drive to Val Cartier and the Myriam Bedard Biathlon Centre, which was where the races took place.  Fortunately, one of only two Tim Hortons’ here in Quebec City was located on the way to Val Cartier.  It was there I’d have my normal pre-race breakfast, a toasted bagel, a muffin and a black coffee, and struggle to glean something from the French daily ‘Le Journal de Quebec’.  A couple of months here and I think I’d be prête à parler.

Staying with me at ‘La Pergola’ Inn were athletes I’d stayed with before at Lake Placid in ’98 and at Charlo, New Brunswick in 2001 at the ‘Nationals’.  We all did our part cooking meals and cleaning up.  I had an ‘attic bedroom’ with a skylight, a curved-top window facing the street, a comfortable bed and lots of room for all of my junk.  I even brought my bike and indoor trainer as well as six pairs of skis. 

There were nearly 1000 competitors from over 20 countries entered in the races.  Mid-week we had a social banquet where the 1000 or so of us were treated to a multi-course meal, a trio of roaming minstrels and a lot of conversation and camaraderie.  I only wish I had the language skills to converse with some of the many different peoples here.  There were about 100 skiers from Russia; they took home the bulk of the awards. 

In my first race, a 30km freestyle, I finished 22^nd of 52 entries (6^th of 24 Canadians).  My second race was a 10km classic where I was 18^th of 49 (7^th of 29 Canadians).  In the final race, a 45km classic, I was 13^th of 44 (5^th of 25 Canadians). 

I’m reasonably satisfied with my results, but my goal now is to continue to improve as a cross-country ski racer.  This means upping the training a bit next year.  For now, it’s back to the bicycle for the next nine months!

Two other athletes from the H.C.C. competed at Val Cartier – Harold Osborne and Dave Harrison. 

Harold pulled a leg muscle during his first race, finishing the race, but was unable to race again.

Dave enjoyed the week, he brought his girlfriend Maria and they skied at Mont Ste. Anne and Camp Mercier, as well as Dave’s racing at Val Cartier.  The highlight of Dave’s week was an episode on a shuttle bus, when he was conversing with an Italian and a French skier, both of whose English was spotty.  They seemed like ‘regular guys’ in their manner.  Dave was impressed when he found out that they were double gold and silver medallists in the mens 45-49 age freestyle races.

Dave plans on racing the AROUND THE BAY running race on March 24^th, then the BOSTON MARATHON on April 15^th.  WHEW! now that’s an all-round athlete!

EARLY SEASON TRAINING

MIREK MAZUR held a month-long training camp at Tucson, Arizona in February.  He reports that PETER was in fine form and recently raced the “VALLEY OF THE SUN” professional stage race in Arizona, representing team Mapei.  He finished 7^th overall, racing against top Mercury, Saturn and other American based team riders.  Peter is now in Italy. 

H.C.C.’s henry dudko was stymied by expensive car repairs and so his plans fell through to attend Mirek’s camp. 

H.C.C. ace FRED PEPPER went down for two weeks and was briefly side-lined when a CACTUS jumped out of nowhere and attacked him.  The resulting crash forced Fred to fork out the big bucks for a new carbon fibre fork.  Fortunately, he was back on the road in short order, after a day of pulling cactus spines from his arms.

Mirek is leaving again soon for California, to take in the REDLANDS stage race, where some of his clients are racing.  SUE PALMER-KOMAR will be racing at Redlands. 

Mirek didn’t watch any of the WINTER OLYMPICS.  There was no T.V. where he stayed, but he was not surprised that CLARA HUGHES won a bronze medal in the 5000 M speed skating.  “She has done well before at high altitude.” explains Mirek.  “Some athletes can adjust to it; for others, like Brian Walton, they have trouble with it.” 

Mirek sounds like he is in top shape and has hopes of cracking 20 minutes in a 15K T.T. in May, “if he is still in shape by then”. 

H.C.C. and C.T.T.A. Champion RANDY BROWN has been riding regularly except the past week or so, being stymied by a head cold.  He and I had planned a SKIING outing for Sunday, March 10^th.  He arrived at my place in Milton at 8:00 a.m. and got put to work clearing branches from a felled tree in my back yard.  The 20-foot sumac met its demise thanks to GALE FORCE WINDS during the night and fell onto my neighbour’s driveway, just touching but not damaging their cars!  My top fence rail is ‘toast’ having taken most of the weight of the tree’s upper branches. 

Once this was cleared, Randy and I drove north.  The further we drove, the poorer became the driving conditions.  Whiteouts were the order of the day.  With Highways 24 and 10 both closed, we were forced to head back and settled for a two-hour walk on the ski trails at Orangeville, where there wasn’t adequate snow to ski on. 

Randy rides weekends with the BRANTFORD GANG, along with other H.C.C.’ers like DENNIS KINGS, DERMOT KELLY, HENRY DUDKO, PETER SCHOUTEN, PAUL BOWKUNOWICZ and others.

ONTARIO ROAD, MTB AND CYCLOCROSS 2002 RACING SCHEDULE

Design by QEF Contact webmaster at cyclist@hamiltoncycling.com