Weather Relief On the Way
Maybe, just maybe, you’ll wake up to a cooler day this Saturday morning. The long range forecast looks more summer-y and less sweltering across most weather apps I’m looking at. There’s even a 60% chance of daytime showers in one of them. But then next week, the heat wave looks to be returning, with highs back around 30°. And all actual readings are taken in the shade. Direct sun will be hotter! Pre-hydrate during the 2 hours prior to your rides to set yourself up to feeling better during any hot weather riding.
Saturday Ride
The Saturday ride will meet again at Charlesworth Way, just east of the 50th Street and Ellerslie Road intersection. If rain doesn’t materialize according to the potential forecast, you’ll have about 86km of riding out towards Ardrossan and then Antler Lake. I’ll be on the road driving back to Edmonton that day. Take charge and organize yourselves into appropriately paced groups.
Sunday Gravel Ride
Some of you are still looking for gravel. I’ve got another option to consider courtesy of Jason Redfern again. This circuit starts in Camrose and loops around Dried Meat Lake. It’s the longest yet, at 105km. If rain doesn’t make it a mess on Saturday, then meet Sunday morning, 10am, at the corner of Camrose Drive and 68 Street.
Track Night
After my holiday hiatus, your track night returns with a slightly earlier time: 6:30pm. I’ll queue up the endurance session I had planned for the last scheduled session, which got rained out.
Velocity Volunteers for the Midweek Race
This coming week is our club’s turn to help run the Midweek Race. We’ll need to suggest a route and have about 3 in-ride volunteers to keep each group organized until we launch them into “race mode.” I’m thinking of trying to host something on the west side of the city for a change. Please send me an email if you can help us out: coaching@velocitycyclingclub.ca.
Wednesday Hills
If you’re not helping or riding in the Midweek Race, you can meet at the same Wednesday time, same place: 6:30pm leaving from Emily Murphy Park.
New Date Proposed for the Airport Fondo!
When I was selecting the date for the Airport Fondo, I was only looking at the ABA race calendar, which was empty for the weekend of August 17. But it turns out, that’s the weekend of the Festivus Gravel event – which isn’t an ABA-sanctioned event, so it didn’t appear on the calendar. Nonetheless, I don’t want to conflict with this event, because I know a number of you will be riding that one and not ours.
So I’m proposing to move the Airport Fondo to Saturday, August 24. And if the weather turns bad due to rain or air quality issues, we could have a backup date of August 31. You may have marked your own calendar already, but I hope a move of one week won’t interfere with any other plans for most of you. This way, you can have one extra week to train, build further from fitness gains by riding the Festivus Gravel (if you participate there) and put one more big event into your legs before taking on our own Afterburner Gravel event just two weeks later! Let me know if this really messes up your plans. If I hear from enough of you, I’ll put it back to August 17. If the 24th works for you, then please put your name on the sign-up sheet:
Great Canadian Fondo Tour de France Discount Code
For those of you who haven’t registered yet for the August 11 Great Canadian Fondo (previously L’Etape by Tour de France), the organizers have a special discount running only until this Sunday. Use code TDF to get $25 off your entry.
I’ve reached out to the organizers to get a club discount like last year, but I haven’t heard anything back from them. So, this TDF code for $25 off might be your last best deal before the basic rates rise on Monday, July 15.