2009 QuinTuple Pave Classic: The Lowdown

I know, you want to see pictures. Here you go. More words below.

Registration. Almost left on time...

From straight road to cross bikes, lots of variety

Sitting around for an hour produced shivers. It was cold. Then it was warm. Embro for the day: Mad Alchemy Special Edition Coffee flavour. Warm enough in the morning, just a bit of burn in the afternoon. Nice.

Yes, some - meaning a lot - of the climbs were loose like this. All doable though. I like to run a 34or36x28 around here.

Giacomo. Kinda looks like the strada bianca, no?

Visually, this was the coolest part of the route for me. It was so cool to see the stream of riders coming down. Rodd rode the whole thing, I dismounted at the bottom...conservative, me...gasp. True.

Check out the guys' crossin it up/down. Tis the season...almost.

Yep, even the tire-nerd organizer flats. My Challenge Paris Roubaix succumbed to a sharp rock and was punctured to the tune of about 4 mm in the middle of the tread. Hole+Park tire boot (via Phat Moose) = good to go. I highly recommend these beauties. I recall using two or three on the Ride of the Dammed (in other people's tires, that is).

Andy. Pebbly.

I love these low angles; nice one Rodd. Thankfully, none of the climbs are silly steep when its loose like this.

Jeff and Jamie. Just pick a line and go with it. Like mountain biking.

And then we were there. We all seemed concerned about cramping whilst lounging here.

The BBQ was a hit. Thanks for coming everyone, it would have been lame without you! Next year we'll try to do it at Lac Leamy. This hinges on the kindness of volunteers.

So, as I wrote on Sunday night, the QuinTuple went down swimmingly. It was a beautiful day, many cheerful riders came out, we had a dynamic duo providing key voluntary support, and the route was a hit despite its looseness.

Here are some numbers:

• 42 riders
• 2 volunteers
• 135k route + 8k neutral roll out ridden
• 2 mass pee breaks
• 1 box of bananas consumed
• 7 flats and counting
• two topples and counting
• lots of burgers, beer, cookies and chips consumed, in no apparent order

Once we receive photos from teams (we only have two including mine in so far), we can figure out the finishing times. The Tall Tree A team finished a few minutes before the Euro-Sports crew and then the Wheelers. After that we were off to get the BBQ going. My team, composed of Neil, Rodd, Nathan, Stu and me (duh), leapfrogged a bit with the Euro-Sports, Wheelers and Tall Tree B and C for a while, as we all seemed to flat. This added a degree of excitement, posing the opportunity to chase. However, when the others got away I think they were a little tentative about the route, and did not necessarily take the opportunity to try to get away. Hopefully riders will get familiar enough with the route, and with the cue-sheets for next year and feel confident about the turns. In that case, if we are not at the front calling the turns they'll still have a chance to open up gaps. We found the 5-person format really fun and exciting. Feedback was positive all round on that count. We're looking forward to doing it again, with improvements, next year about the same time. We might have to work around the mountain bike WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS at Mont St. Anne though! Speaking of the Worlds, have you all heard that Steve Peat won the downhill? If you don't follow mtb stuff, this won't be meaningful to you. If you do, you'll know that he's been the 'bride's maid' numerous times before. According to Rob Warner - the most hilarious commentator in sport I am aware of - 'Everybody in the world wanted Steve to win.' Well, I can't speak for everyone in the world, but I sure did. He deserved it, and he got it, by 0.05". I have a feeling he had a hard time getting up Sunday morning. Also on the topic of the Worlds, check out the XC. The course is awesome...well, in my opinion anyway. Its is technical, and has rollers, drops and jumps! Sweet! Geoff Kabush had a great week, anchoring a 2nd spot for the team relay(!), followed by 5th in the elite men's race. He is a fantastic rider.

Ok, so Worlds aside aside, lets get back to the plot. We still need teams to submit their photos to the quintupleclassic@gmail.com address so we can confirm times and get the photo evaluation rolling.

I've posted a smattering of photos Rodd captured here. The batch can be found here. I'll post the contest submissions for everyone's viewing pleasure once I have them all. If you'd like others to be able to find your photos easily, send me the link and I'll post it here. We all love the photos don't we.

The cyclocross schedule is now up, which allows us to go ahead and schedule the event I mentioned last night. Here is the scoop. The first will be a fixed gear frolic. We did one last fall and it was a big hit. It was a mellow ride out to Carp at a conversational pace. A diverse group came out, from young 'fixter' (the product of cross breeding a fixed gear with a hipster) Shane to Big Dummy on his singlespeed commuter (which we made an exception for, cause we are inclusive), to Alex on his brakeless speed machine. all had a great time, and we took in a lunch at a great restaurant in Dun Robin. This year's Frolic will be Halloween themed, and fall on OCTOBER 25th. This date corresponds to the Kingston cross race. Details will follow.

The other event in the pipe is 'cross themed, but, surprise-surprise, 'different'. Cross bikes will be the best bike for the route. The first section will be paved, the second section off-road, the third and final paved. The off-road bits, we'll call em 'sectors' cause that's so Roubaix, and I love Roubaix, are yet to be locked down. I have certain parts locked in, but other parts need to be confirmed...as in we have to test to see whether they will be too gnarly. We DON'T want people to be flatting (more than once each). Here is the coolest part: teams of two (2). Like the QuinTuple, it won't be a 'race,' but there will be some healthy competition. I'm excited about this one; I think its going to be awesome. Distance will be approx 100k-120k, and again, we'll have detailed route info in advance. The trails will all be in the Park, so they should be familiar to most. Date: NOVEMBER 22. This date corresponds to the Upper Canada Village 'cross race.

One more event(ish) notice. On October 18th, the Tall Tree team will be riding the Paris-Roubaix route AFTER the 'cross race in Almonte. Jamie and I did this last year (on a wheel borrowed from Glen Rendall; thank you Glen), and the route was absolutely stunningly beautiful in the fall colours. In addition, it hurt way less then in April. In a word, it was outstanding. This year, we'd love others to join us. If you think you'll be up for a quick, but not fast roll of the route apres throwing it (or yourself) down on the race course, make a note and bring extra clothes, food, wads, whatever you need. I'll post again on this as we get closer.

Ok, I'm cross-eyed. Forgive any typos, etc. I'll fix tomorrow. Off to sleep.