We had a good weekend for riding – I hope that everyone got out and enjoyed the weather.

It’s still a bit dark and cold for most of our riders to start morning rides outside but if anyone is up for it I will be riding repeats of the 4.2km loop of Birmingham, Islington, Judson, Royal York on Tuesday and Thursday morning from 6am to 7am (as long as the weather co-operates). It’s a short loop with a climb up and over the train tracks on Islington. Join in and bail out at anytime. I plan to do this loop every Tuesday and Thursday morning throughout the summer – pushing the start time to 5:40am as the temperature and daylight hours increase.

Online Club Registration & Store!
Our OCA affiliation is now active, and you can register online for the club! You can also purchase your club jersey through the store at the same time. Click here to complete the registration process and pay for your jersey.

Paris To Ancaster
On Sunday April 15 the 19th annual Paris To Ancaster bike race takes place. A few ECC riders are participating and we wish them well. For those not familiar with the event it pays homage to the great one-day bike races in Europe, most obviously Paris-Roubaix (which takes place tomorrow – Sunday, April 7 – see more details below if you want to watch it). The race is approxiamtely 55km and runs from Paris to Ancaster in southwestern Ontario. It includes stretches of pavement, gravel roads, rail trail, single-track, tilled farm fields and mud chutes.

Watching World Tour Cycling Events
Sadly the folks at Sportsnet and TSN don’t think that Canadians should be able to watch world tour bike races on TV. This means we have to seek out alternative sources online. I rely on the following sites to get my fix:
Steephill.tvCyclingFans.com both provide links to sites offering live streams.
CyclingTorrents.nl is a terrific source for torrent links to recently broadcast events.
Sports-livez.com has a significant collection of live streams ready for your viewing pleasure.

Paris-Roubaix. Hell Of The North!
The most famous one-day bike race in the world. This is the race to win, and to watch. 257km or racing punctuated by 27* pavé (cobblestone) sections. This is a war of attrition with a great many of the riders who start the race abandoning due punctures, crashes, or that it’s just too damn hard on their bodies. The winners of this race are the true hard men of bike racing – and in recognition of their victory they are given a piece of the course in the form of a cobble. The photo to the right is from the race, on one of the cobble sections. If it rains, or has rained in the preceeding days, this is a muddy mess of a bike race. And yes, they are riding traditional road bikes with skinny, slick road bike tires.

Here’s an amazing video shot during the 2011 race.

Bike Locks

After spending thousands of dollars on our road bikes the last thing we want to do is see them get stolen. To that end most/all of us keep our bikes in the safety of our homes when we’re not riding. But what about when we’re out on a ride? We certainly don’t want to carry around a 10 lb. Kryptonite u-lock! With that in mind there are some great alternatives perfect for the quick stops at roadside rest stops, coffee shops, etc. Abus and Master both offer pocket sized cable locks that provide a quick bit of security for those quick stops.

And if you want something functional and cool, check out the Küat Water Bottle Lock.

1 thought on “ECC News – April 9 – 15

  1. I picked up a great little luggage lock this week just like the Abus in the photo. $8 at MEC in the luggage/travel section. You will only find serious bike locks in the bike section of their store. It should do the trick for an extended cappuccino break during a ride and weighs almost nothing in my jersey pocket.

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