The Calgary Greenway Video - Parks Foundation Calgary Initiative

Care of Jim Davidson, who’s yet another supporter of the outdoors and cycling (among other activities) in the FirstEnergy sphere.  Please consider being supportive, as if you’re cruising this blog, you likely enjoy bicycles in Calgary.  Circumnavigating the city by path would be a great addition to our collective cycling repertoire.


I’d like to share with you a brief (5 minute) video from Parks Foundation Calgary (PFC), a private not-for-profit organization whose mandate is to develop parks and green spaces throughout our city.  PFC is building on Calgary’s existing 1,000+km of pathways with the innovative Calgary Greenway project, a 113 km open space, park, playground and pathway network that will eventually encircle the city.  I have the distinct honour of chairing
The Calgary Greenway, a $63 million phased project that when complete will be a year-round destination for cyclists, cross-country skiers, bird and nature watchers, inline skaters and dog walkers.  It will offer a new and scenic continuous pathway for numerous competitive and family races and connect to over 40 communities.

With the recent completion of Phase 1 – The East Calgary Greenway, fundraising is now underway for the 18km pathway, Phase 2 – The Southeast Calgary Greenway.  In addition to the pathway, this phase will feature a comprehensive wetland experience (boardwalk, lookout tower, bird blinds, telescopes), family fitness area and dog park with training facilities – enhancing Calgary’s outdoor space and our quality of life.  As campaign chair, I encourage you to learn more about The Calgary Greenway and to consider contributing to this iconic and valuable project.  You can find additional information by viewing the following video link, with comments by Henry Burris, Mayor Nenshi and others (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwZwSKUoizU), or at http://www.parksfdn.com/.

I welcome you to contact me directly and look forward to speaking with you.
Yours very truly,
FirstEnergy Capital Corp.

James W. Davidson
Chairman & C.E.O.

Whistler

After the 54-40 concert last night, it was a beauty day for downhilling. Sunny, warm, not super busy. Had a post Fondo celebratory breakfast then picked up our gear. Gear reservations here a bit pointless - recall Whistler is attempting to be a real business, but at the end of the day their troops on the ground are transient 19 year olds from Quebec and Australia who are there to get their fair share of snow, trails and party and don't exactly give a shit.

Got about 8 runs of blue and green in, plus I sidetracked a bit for some personal excitement in the blacks. Dusty conditions, but cool in the woods and great just getting the DH flow vs the road bike cardio burn.

It's nice to do the bookends of the two wheeled sport back to back - very different but each helps the other.

Fondo redux

I liked the fondo, but not 100% sure I'd do it again. I'd need to be fit enough/carry enough to stay in a good group in the giro, or just go moderate social pace enough to chat with people in the back. I guess that means actually training like someone who road races and doing more than one road event per year. I do miss the paceline racing, even missed it on TransRockies with big gravel road sections gone to be honest. It's a great way to push hard. The first group of a hundred or so in the fondo is big, jittery, and too much of a vibe that's jockeying for (an irrelevant) position (since they're all say above 75th I'd guess) without wanting to be on the front. I'd rather be ahead or behind that. The ten person paceline we had is a way more fun/scenic/quieter and overall more enjoyable way to do an event like that from my point of view.

I don't entirely get the start times. My understanding is that the giro men/women can't draft anyone in the other categories. So they've put the women start at 6:40, men at 6:50, and rest at 7. But this means the giro men go through the giro women at some point and create the issue/temptation. Obviously early early morning logistics are one factor. But the race men and women might not need quite the same intro speech considering they probably do 30 race starts a year, and the race groups can probably go out with one motorcycle vs. a bunch of extra machinery as they know the drill. Seems to me that a 6:37 mens start and a 6:40 women's would be ideal to separate those two out, and give both enough time before the herd. People would say "but the women might catch on" which is true, but the other way around it's virtually guaranteed they'd interact. Oh well.

For the overall womens content in this event, I'm very impressed.  Large proportion of women, all ages and all goals.  Seems to fit with a Vancouver demographic and value set.  Great to see.

I think doing it as an out of towner more next time I'd be inclined to stay at matching hotels downtown Vancouver and Whistler, do a minimal backpack check with the race to have a bag up at whistler just with basics, then ride back next morning with the backpack on, and shower at the same hotel if they'd let you leave bike box and other luggage with the bell desk, and skytrain to and from airport. Staying right by the start would be good for sleep in and washrooms vs. riding over in the morning.

Side note: I remembered that part way along the climbs after Squamish there were boxes of brass tacks someone threw on the road. I could see them as I wasn't in a crowd, but maybe later in the race they got someone. Many looked run over and smushed by car tires, which is obviously good. Idiots.

Fondo!

Beauty day and lots of fun. I forgot how fun road racing is. I think I was around 3:40, which was an ok ride but sub optimal from a few points as to how it went, but that doesn't really matter.

Cindy and Tania were all smiles and looked great in the "Hot Wheels" team kit. I'm hoping for smiles at the end too. Cyrus saw Cindy in Squamish and said "looked strong".

So starting the 10 minutes early was a blessing and a curse. No sketchy pack riding, but up Taylor way it was fast right away. Or at least faster than I'm used to doing at 6am equivalent Calgary time after a couple nights of scant sleep.

Formed a group of about 10 that wasn't quite the back of the race group, so that seemed good. Pulled my share but not more (unless you count pulling my flab up the hill as a pull), and an hour in felt settled, solid, knew my group buddies, and was having fun. All good. That lasted till about the 70k mark when I ducked into a feed station as fast as I possibly could. My bottles were dry. Problem is, I couldn't close the gap back into the wind. Got close on the hills as I was climbing better, then 10 people downhill are just so fast with no effort. To race this you need either feeds or carry more bottles. So I caught a straggler or two, but 70-90k was solo tt anywhere between 20 seconds back and a minute back of the group. Uphill into the wind. I knew that wasn't going to end well, but it's not like I was gonna sit and wait at the side for a group. It was beauty, great temp, I felt strong, so I just did my thing.

Of course solo into the wind has a predictable result... tired. So I grab a gel and am chugging some water, and hear a noise behind me. Shoulder check and there's a hundred people coasting in a peloton. I get in and I go from 280W to like 100. They surge on the next 5km of hills and I drop cause I haven't recovered yet. I see some of our other group of 10 in there eaten up too.

Once I'm off, Kelley Servinski catches me, he got caught up behind a crash by the sounds of it. Or crashed. Indeterminate. We chat for a bit but split up.

I settle into another pack that is big enough that "everyone" seems to have conserved more which is nice. Headwindy at the end. Some lady next to me biffed a traffic cone and ended her event 3k out. I don't get it, there was kilometers of lined up cones. That one shouldn't have been a surprise.

Guys were lining up their teams for some big train finish... For like a two hundredth spot or whatever, so I just stayed out of those shenanigans.

Watched people stream in for a long time. Tania and Cindy were speedy and happy at the end. Tara who hadn't been riding had a tough finish. And many riders gave rave reviews of their hot wheels kits.

Fun event overall. They have enough money for lots of niceties. It's big though, and 7,000 people just is kind of mayhem.

Whistler Gran Fondo bound

After my 10 year at FirstEnergy party and probably a little more wine than I needed, I did a half day at the office and headed west. Everyone asks about this fancy bike bag Shawn lent me.

Check in for race was efficient, nice sponsors exhibit area, bikes together, and now going for dinner.

Tuesday night cyclocross

I love Tuesday 'cross. I don't know of anything else that intense. I don't know why riding across grass is the most energy sapping thing possible. It was warm, huge huge field size, I got mid to perhaps upper half of the A pack which was nicer than being DFL, and after riding home with Shawn and Devin I've got the next best thing in the world: Tiger Malt.

Whistler Gran Fondo last training weekend

Yesterday was about 3 hours down on Millarville and Priddis area roads to warm Cindy up for what was her first big adventure ride.

Today was supposed to be about 70k but it was closer to 85. Not a huge difference, but the climbing was way more than I thought too. Started in Millarville and went west on the 549 until the fork for McLean creek or the Gorge Creek trail heading south. After doing a few huge climbs we got to a road closure that dampened the plan. Apparently it's been closed for years due to a washout of the gravel road. We saw some hikers who said the road was fine and open for bikes, and looked at the map choices. Didn't want to do a bunch of mountain biking on the 'cross bike so continued on. Super nice valleys back there.

Few hours later made it to Turner Valley to refill empty bottles then did the 11km time trial back to the car.

Big day!