HCC Newsletter for November 2001

For the sixth straight year, we had favourable weather for our race, the "season opener" of the Southern Ontario Cyclocross Series.

Randy and Fred had committed to helping out, and Sandy’s phone campaign brought out Peter and Zack Morris and Pat Conway. Martha Finn helped with Registration and Heather Pepper and Keith Oliver marshaled. Randy got to the work of laying out our course; nice to have precedent to go by – he followed basically the same route as in previous years; he and Fred planted the flags to delineate the course, and set up the seven barriers which I’d brought.

I’d taken extra organizational steps the previous evening such as preparing race pin-on numbers. I was without key personnel Frank and Judy Morrow, who were off in San Francisco for a few days, so I had to do preparation ahead for race registration.

I was sure that we’d have fewer racers this year, due to the memorial ride in Milton for cyclist Jacek Wierzbicki taking place this same day. This turned out to be true; we were down to 36 entered racers, compared to 55 in 2000.

The first group (Juniors, Women and Master B, C, D) did seven laps; race starting a little past 11:00 a.m. The second group (Master A and Senior Men) began at 12:30 and did nine laps. All racers finished except Chris Kiziak, a Master A from "Halton Road and Trail", who flatted.

We had seven racers from New York State; in fact OUR race was the "season opener" for the New York State Cyclocross Series! This is a prestigious event!

All comments about the course were favourable; it was FAST with a few short, challenging climbs and a couple of off-camber riding sections. I saw John Roden, one of the Buffalo riders, crash on an off-camber part near the S/F line, one of the few "technical" parts of the course.

We saved money on "race officials" by doing the job ourselves. The race is designated "Citizens Sanctioned" which means that anyone can participate (provided they are a member of the O.C.A. or an affiliated club or licenced). Others had to purchase a "one-day licence" at $5.00. The Citizens Sanction allows a club to "run its own race" if it chooses; commissaires (race officials) are optional.

Getting the finishing order for a cyclocross race can be challenging, particularly for a multiple-category race. The faster riders always tend to "lap" the slower riders, so you have to keep track of this. It can get confusing keeping track of who’s ahead, not so much the first 2 or 3 places, but further down the line. Everyone wants to know where they placed in the race.

We "toned down" the cash prizes this year, and were fortunate to have three $50.00 gift certificates kindly donated by "THE FITNESS TECHN IQUE" and nearly a dozen merchandise prizes kindly donated by "SPOKES ‘N’ SLOPES". Both of these bicycle shops, located in Milton, have been regular donors for Hamilton Cycling Club events over the years. Much appreciated, thank you Keith; and Matt and Martin.

As for next year, I guess we could run it again. It’s a popular event with the racers! I hope more club members will commit to lending a hand next year.

Rob

phone Keith NOW to reserve seats (905-335-5178) – dinner at 7:00 p.m., awards to follow.

Rene Arnolis November 10th

SENIOR TIME TRIAL CHAMPIONSHIP 1st Fred Pepper 20 points

FASTEST 15K TIME TRIAL Mirek Mazur 20:25 – May 31st, 2001

ALBERT PENROSE helping out at the Good Friday Road Race and marshaling the turn around regularly for Thursday evening time trials. Now 84 years old, it’s amazing that he can muster the energy and enthusiasm to be involved. Thanks, Albert!

BARB MORROW continues to be our club’s timekeeper at most H.C.C. time trials. Thanks, Barb!

MICHAEL SZELAG – another successful ‘Race Canada’ cross-country tour; a superb organizational job at the downtown Hamilton ‘Provincial Criterium Championships’!

TARAS KLEBAN – our H.C.C. ‘Junior Champ’ who traveled to Edmonton for the National Track Championships, just missing the ‘podium then was the top Junior at Bromont for the Easter Canadian Track Championships!

FRED PEPPER – gets serious. Under Mirek’s coaching, Fred has reached new heights in time trialing, lowering his ‘15k t.t. series average’ by more than 30 seconds, and placing 2nd in I.T.T. at the Nationals (Moncton) and 1st at the Provincials!

ZACK MORRIS – it’s great to see a youngster full of enthusiasm, and racing in an H.C.C. jersey! This, thanks largely to his uncle PETER MORRIS. Similarly, JAMIE PEPPER, a couple years younger yet, has been battling our 15K T.T. course, thanks to his dad, Fred.

SUE PALMER-KOMAR – another year of racing ‘at the highest level’ for Sue. We’re all proud that H.C.C.’s Sue was top North American at Lisbon for the World Road Championships 2001; this along with numerous other international race achievements during the year!

SANDY CHESKEY organized our Tuesday Evening Criterium Series, doing Registration and Lap Cards and tabulating results weekly, sending in results to ‘Canadian Cyclist’. She also has done a fantastic job on our newsletter!

MARISSA CHESKEY took charge and ‘rescued’ two situations; first, during our trip to Moncton, it was her who persuaded the chief commissaire to let me race, at the last possible moment (I’d missed the ‘registration deadline’). Marissa also made sure we got PIZZA for our season-ending Tuesday Evening Crit. ‘party’. The delivery system screwed up so Marissa drove and got the pizza – for FREE! The ‘pizza money’ was donated to the Jacek Wierzbicki fund.

C.T.T.A. – H.C.C. rules! Once again we win the ‘team’ competition over Brampton and Oakville. Four H.C.C. members completed the series (an 80, a 40 and a 15). Ron Baines, Dermot Kelly, Rob Cheskey and Randy Brown. Congratulations to Randy who is the ‘overall’ C.T.T.A. Champion for 2001 and the ‘age-handicapped’ Champion as well!

Based on the success of ‘Good Friday’ 2001 we will likely apply to hold the race in 2002 at Guelph once again; same goes for Dundurn Cyclocross. We (the executive) will decide for sure at a meeting on November 19th. The date applications deadline is November 24th at the O.C.A. office.

Whenever I’m out driving I’ll see a park or a field and think to myself ‘cyclocross course’. In Milton alone there are four or five possibilities right in town! Most are school yards.

With my fitness peaking in September this year, I made the decision to fly out to Edmonton for the ‘Cross Nationals, following Taras Kleban’s lead earlier in the year when he flew out for Track Nationals. I borrowed a ‘bike box’ - a heavy, yellow plastic, hard-shell case – very durable and protective. Actually, Spokes ‘n’ Slopes bike shop lent it to me. I made the mistake of packing my box of tools in the bike box, to keep the number of pieces of luggage down. The box was so heavy I could barely lift it!

My trip to Pearson Airport on the morn of November 2nd was tense. Pouring rain and heavy stop-and-go traffic had me very antsy. I found the "Park ‘n’ Fly" okay, the shuttle buses were frequent, the bus driver was even friendly and helpful. My headache, likely stress-induced, didn’t help.

My Canada 3000 airbus took flight at 10:45 a.m., an hour late. I opted to read and write rather than take in the flight movie. Breakfast was served; I’ve always enjoyed meals on planes. After a four hour flight, we landed in Edmonton, where, from above you could see fields of brown swirled with white snow, as we approached the airport. I got my rental car and drove into town to scout the course for the race, located about 15k northeast of the downtown core. Edmonton is bisected diagonally from SW to NE by the beautiful meandering North Saskatchewan River. The course, in Goldstick Park, was just to the west of Strathcona (Esso) Refinery. I snapped a photo for Fred Pepper, who works for Esso. The course was a ‘good’ cyclocross course – open and fast; shale track, grass, ½ k of paved road, a footbridge crossing and undulating trail with considerable mud over frozen ground.

Race Day, Sunday, November 4th – the warmest day here in weeks, apparently, about 7C for our 11:00 a.m. race – up to 15C later! The slippery mud over ice in the low lying areas certainly taxed a rider’s bike handling skill. A long run-up after the footbridge taxed the cardio. Onto the stretch of paved road, trying to clip into mud-caked pedals, mud flying off the knobby tires.

In the end, I finished 2nd in the Master B category, beaten by a Saskatchewanian, and beating the Albert champ – they’d had their ‘Provincials’ here the week earlier.

The next day, before my flight home, I had a great hour’s walk in parkland skirting the big river. It took me nearly four minutes to walk across a footbridge high above it! Lots of magpies here (an exotic looking bird). No oak or maple trees; only conifers and poplars. My Canada 3000 flight home was smooth – supper was great! If I’d made this trip one week later, I might still be stuck in Edmonton!

Even if you miss our banquet, you can still get together and schmooze at the A.G.M. – at NOON , at the WINCHESTER ARMS – with lunch ‘on the club’!

This year the club has experienced a healthy increase in membership. I’m hoping that we will have a lot of members come out to our A.G.M. and learn more about the club.

The club needs NEW FACES on the EXECUTIVE; having said this, however, I commend my cohorts on the 2001 executive for the terrific job they’ve done in running the club and its activities.

Anyone who would like a copy of the H.C.C. ‘Constitution, Rules and Records’ please phone Rob or Sandy at 905-878-3971 and we will send one out to you. Any proposed changes to the constitution and rules must be submitted to us A.S.A.P. These proposed changes (as stated in section 6 of the constitution) must be published and distributed to the club members fourteen days preceding the A.G.M.

We will have ‘club archives’ for perusal at the A.G.M. for those interested in the history of our club.

This year the O.C.A. included the I.T.T. Championship as part of the ‘ O’-Cup Series, so attendance for most categories, including my ‘Master B’ category, was good.

Fred seemed to be the ‘favourite’ in our category, after he took the silver medal at the Nationals I.T.T. Championships. It was a strong field though, including last year’s Provincial I.T.T. champion, Tony Abramavicius, and Charlie Squires, who finished third at Moncton, behind Fred. (Olav Stana of B.C. had won.)

I was a bit annoyed when the start list was posted and I discovered that I started a minute ahead of Fred. I’d been caught earlier in the year in a 15K T.T. by Fred; it was a bit demoralizing. We did two laps of a 17.1k circuit, which was quite hilly. Even after 5 km I was expecting Fred to be closing in, but we reached the end of the first lap and he hadn’t caught me yet. I felt like I’d already achieved a goal. I used a gear ‘one lower’ going up the major climb during the second lap, but felt I kept a good pace to the end . . . and Fred never caught me!

Once I crossed the finish line, I slowed and circled back, all the while counting seconds to myself. I saw Fred cross the line and was pretty sure he’d beaten me by at least 20 seconds. I was disappointed yet happy at the same time. I figured I’d had a pretty darned good effort.

Henry, Zack and Peter all had good rides. The O.C.A. didn’t have a medal for Zack’s age group; he was the only rider. Henry has steadily improved over the season, but he needs a year or two more before he can hope to see ‘top five’ results as a Senior. It does take perseverance. Way to go guys!

Hamilton Swan Song for cyclist?

Mike Hanley - Spectator Oct 17

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