Bike to Work Month...

Not yet June, so very close though. And the weather has turned at last with a blast of heat and sunshine. Wonderful! Monday (May 30th) was bike to work day and from what I've read there were a lot of people out riding, getting their free pancake breakfast. I remember back in the late 80's and early 90's helping to organize some of these events as part of the Toronto City Cycling Committee... working with folks like Dan, Sue and Barb to try to get Toronto more bike friendly. Creating BUGs, chairing the Bike Commuter program, even getting IBM to fund a breakfast. All good.

Monday was a perfect day for it too with the dramatic improvement in weather. Summer knocking on the door, perhaps busting the door down it was so eager to arrive! My "bike to work" was a ride to get some new headlights for my camper, one of them was out so I thought I'd replace them both. As it turns out, the bulbs were fine... I had a fuse I needed to replace. I'll look over the wiring and contacts over the next couple of weeks to make sure things are as good as can be.

Duvel, at the home of Duvel in Moortgat

Today was another day of riding for me, felt great to be on the bike and just cruising around. I had a meeting with a friend to talk photography and web sites which was a long and pleasant lunch at Allen's. Treated myself to a Duvel, even poured it myself the way I learned when we visited the one place in Belgium that beer is made.

Hot and sunny riding, I enjoyed working up a sweat. I tried to take a few photos during the day, I'll end with a couple I thought were worth sharing. Happy Bike to Work Month everyone! And welcome to June.

Riding and taking pictures... this is what I get

Hot, sweaty, blue skies, life is good (new glasses too : )

A Bike Race that Also Became a Bus-fest

Today was the Duke's Epic 8 Hour bike race, held at Mansfield Outdoor Centre. Andrea was invited to join a 4 person mixed team and actually decided to do it! So we packed up Babe on Friday and drove up be able to get there, enjoy being there, and not have to get up too early the next morning as is so often the case for a race. We got there to see a few friends and their Westies just wrapping up their pre-rides. A couple of them were leaving their campers parked overnight (just to save their spots) so we pulled up next to them to camp for the night even though we were supposed to camp in a completely different area. Oh well :)

A quiet night

Part way through dinner, there was a knock on the slider and one of the folks looking after the event let us know we were parked in what they would be using as a lane-way to moves cars in and that we'd have to relocate before 7:30. So much for really sleeping in. Still, it was good and very quiet until around 7 when the frenzy slowly began. Here's a photo from the night.

Pop Pop Tops

In the morning, we sat and had our coffee and watched as it all unfolded around us. Hundreds of cyclists all looking for the best parking spots for their cars. The early arrivals got the better ones, unless you were in a Westy. A few of us were already lined up so easy to find. A few words with some of the people guiding folks on where to park and we were off to the races, so to speak. I did get a chuckle when one asked "how will I know it's one?".

When the dust had settled there was a nice line-up of campers ranging from some early 70's bay window buses through a bunch of Vanagons (of which 3 of 4 were assuan brown!!!) plus one Eurovan.

Bay, Bay, Vanagon, EV, Vanagon

The EV is the first VW bus with the engine in front... they lined up the engine rather than the nose

All in all, a very cool happening. Oh... and Andrea's team took gold. She was happy too. I'll publish photos from the race on my website soon, I certainly took lots.

Memories of the Giro d'Italia

Now that I have a few days at home without the need to travel I've been following the Giro a little. Andrea mentioned that Friday's stage will go over the Mottarone, which brought back a flood of memories for both of us. We went to watch the Giro and ride some of the route through the Dolomites and Alps in 2008, and we spent a week before the organized part of the trip exploring Stresa on Lago Maggiore and the surrounding area.

While we were in Stresa we did some of the touristy things like going to Isola Bella and the sister islands that were part of an estate and are now preserved for people to visit. It was certainly beautiful, and we enjoy it a lot. And shopping, dining, walking... all the usual stuff.

Stresa

The Mottarone Profile

We also used the time to get our legs ready for riding in the mountains and our first good, hard ride was a loop that took us around to Lago d'Orta on the west and then a sharp climb up the Mottarone. I took this photo at the bottom...

The Giro will tackle it from the other side though, the part we rode up was very steep at the beginning while our ride down was very scenic and part of it was through a forest. I think the way we rode it was the harder route! One thing we both remembered right away was the hot chocolate we had at the ski resort at the top, it was a very well received treat as we were damp and cold from the effort to get up there.

An amazing cup of hot chocolate, on the top of the Mottarone

Tomorrow's stage will be one I will make a point of watching...

Coverage of the Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau

All of the articles I wrote and photos I submitted for this event have now been published so I thought I'd just put up links here in case people are interested. These represent a day of travel and two days of work.

In Velonews:

2011 Chrono Gatineau: a Peter Kraiker gallery

Georgia Bronzini wins 2011 Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau 

 

And in the Pedal Magazine website:  

Chrono Gatineau 2011 Full Results - UPDATES

Chrono Gatineau Report, Full Results, Photos UPDATED

GP Gatineau RR Report, Full Results, Photos - Bronzini Wins Gold, Numainville 2nd

 

Good Things Come in Threes

In this case, it's three Springs... I've had the pleasure of watching spring arrive at home and across Ontario these past few days which makes it my third spring this year. When Andrea and I were in North Carolina, the dogwoods were flowering and the trees were just opening their leaves to a mix of delightful greens. Then again as I went through the middle states of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri... spring was full on there. Now it's here, that brief period when everything bursts out (and of course there is pollen everywhere). So, while it's all still blooming I took a few photos and thought I'd put a few up here. I hope you enjoy them, and I hope you're enjoying your spring wherever you may be.

 

 

Trip 3: Bourget, Gatineau and Mississippi Mills

I left Toronto on a very wet Wednesday morning, keeping my fingers crossed that the new hydraulic configuration for the clutch was going to behave as it should. For the first part of the drive it was just a mess and the wipers were going full time. By the time I got to 115 and headed up toward Peterborough things were looking up and Babe and settled into a smooth groove with her purring along at around 62mph (100 km/h) and me enjoy the tunes coming through the stereo. She does have a good sound system! Then it was onto highway 7 all the way east with only one stop for fuel along the way. I rolled into Bourget around 6pm and finally found Jackie's place... she lives on the edge of town and is between a forest and a farmers field (well almost, there are a few other houses around : ). I met her two sons (Alexander and Connor) as well as her pooch Drako. And got a tour of her house which is a nice bungalow on a good sized plot. Here's a shot of her jeep and Babe at the side of her place.

Babe meets the pirate Jeep

Longo-Ciprelli and Hughes

A little socializing, a nice dinner and before long it was time to call it a night. It was wet out and the forecast was for rain overnight so I didn't pop the top, just made me bed and crawled into it. And sure enough it was grey and wet in the morning. Jackie was already up (of course) and coffee appeared in front of my eyes as if by magic. Then it was time to get on the road and make my way to Gatineau for the "Crono Gatineau" which is the first of the two races I'm covering. I got there around 9:30, lots of time to get my media credentials and check out the course and warm up area. The field was limited to 36 racers and they were sent of in waves of a dozen each at 11, 12 and 1pm. Shooting an ITT is not really all that exciting and it's a challenge to get distinctive shots. Here's one I like, it's of Jeanne Longo-Ciprelli almost at the finish with Clara Hughes in the background almost catching up to her (Jeanne started a minute before Clara).

Frank's shop

Another fine dinner with wine back at Chateau Bourget, another quiet sleep in the camper (with the top up this time). I was booked in to see Frank Condelli (a great guy who also happens to be a mechanic who specializes in Vanagons) around 8am so I just got up and hit the road around 6:30. Coffee in Almonte and there I was. I had wanted Frank to give Babe as thorough a check-up as he could in a short day however the first thing we started in on was the clutch. It was just working in the morning when I started up, and all of the action was at the bottom of the pedal stroke. It took most of the morning to nail it down, and included replacing the master cylinder and adjusting the push rod.

His wife Rita made a delicious quiche for lunch with asparagus fresh from their garden, and even made part of it vegetarian for me when she learned I didn't eat meat.

Frank, putting the horn back on Babe

After lunch Frank got down to looking at all the twiddly bits, finding a few things to improve on as he went along and finding a couple of things I will want to look into sometime this summer. Overall he liked what he saw and I was happy with his overall view of my camper. He did recommend getting a Krown treatment to keep the body as solid as it is and even recommend the folks he uses down in Carlton Place. I was headed that way anyhow so I dropped in on the way and they were able to fit me in with only a 1/2 hour wait. I was on the road with a freshly treated Babe by 4:30.

Art = Love

Kayla and I went up to visit Oma yesterday and thought we would go to the Explorers Cafe for lunch. Unfortunately it was closed...

I couldn't resist taking a couple of photos of the van in the parking lot though and thought I'd post there here.

The van clearly isn't going anywhere any time soon. Next time I'm up there I will have to ask about the story behind it.

Woodnewton - wet, wild and CAA

The second Ontario Cup MTB race was held at Woodnewton yesterday, a little piece of land south of Brooklyn, ON that was first used for MTB racing last year. It had been raining for a couple of days so there were lots of huge puddles (ponds) and the course was very slick. It made for some good photos of course, and gave me an opportunity to test out my rain gear. Everything worked fine except for my boots, time to replace them.

The other thing that didn't work out fine was Babe... when it was time to go I hopped in, put my foot on the clutch and there was nothing... the pedal just went down to the floor. Now I know what that little spotting under her was... the hydraulics for the clutch must have been leaking. Sigh. So... CAA tow number 2. It was hard to describe the location to the dispatcher, I really was just in the middle of a field. And it took them a while to get there so by the time Babe was hitched up I was the last one there. Since I wasn't driving, I took a Fat Tire Amber Ale out of the fridge and sat back to wait.

We got all the way to Arkansas and back without a problem, or perhaps it was just luck that it didn't happen while I was away. Either way, it was good luck that it happened within towing distance of my mechanic's shop. I had lots of time to ponder these things while I sat there and enjoyed my beer.

As we left, I locked the gate behind us.

Day 9, Across the Canadian Border

<Note: blogger.com had a problem this week and as a result this entry vanished. It may get restored, in which case this will be a duplicate. Fortunately, I still had a browser open with the entry so I copied the text to a file.>
Amazing how time flies... I had meant to write something each day, or at least most days. Instead I'll try to put together a trip report after the fact, since I'm now back home sitting in my study.

The weather was cool and wet to start and by the time I got to Arkansas it was hot and mostly sunny. The only time it rained on me down in Devil's Den (where I camped in Arkansas) was on the Thurs. afternoon shortly after the pros had finished their time trial. By the weekend it was up to around 30˚C in the day and a comfortable 20 at night. As for driving, it went smoothly with very few hiccups. Long though... I didn't dawdle much and it took me 3 days each way. The camper ran well, with around 3000 miles added to her on this trip. Still a little bit of an oil leak so there's some spotting on the back however she's not burning any oil and I didn't have to add much. I had the knob for the lock on the slider fall off and was afraid I'd lost it after searching for a while... not a real problem, just not easy to replace. It turns out it had fallen into my cycling bag, so all is back to normal (I will put a drop of "Loctite" on it now that I'm back). The other minor thing that's happening is the glow plug light comes on when there's no reason. I suspect it's electrical and probably a poor ground. I've had no problems starting the next day so it's only a nuisance, rather than a problem. So... Babe has been a good friend on this trip, no doubt about it.

On the way down, I posted a couple of photos so I won't go back that far and I'll pick up the thread in Devil's Den which was my destination and "home" during the race. The State park is about 30 minutes south of Fayetteville and was the setting for the first stage of the race (an uphill time trial). Driving there was really a trip, and I was very spent by the time I got there... so having a little time to relax once I got there was good. It didn't last long, the little time I had meant a lot though. And this photo is one I like from that little window... the river was flooded a week before and still high when I took this photo...

Base camp at Devil's Den State Park

I booked a site in advance and because it was over a weekend the only site I could get that had electricity was in the full service area and cost a little more per night. It was a nice spot though and during the week it was mostly empty. Once the weekend arrived though, every site was occupied.

One advantage to camping here was being right in the middle of the first stage of the Joe Martin Stage race; a 2 short hill climb time trial. So I was able to go back and forth very easily and even checked the course out by bike before the race to find good spots to shoot from. One disadvantage to camping here was that it's at the bottom of a valley surrounded by steep hills (the Ozark mountains) and I couldn't get any WIFI or cell phone coverage. In order to file my photos and talk with Andrea I had to drive up and out of the park to a lookout spot. That was one thing I should have thought about... it was a real nuisance to pack up the camper every night and drive for 5 minutes, then do my thing and drive back down. It made for a grumpy part of my day, as Andrea can attest to.

The race itself was well organized and I enjoyed covering it. My photos are up on both VeloNews.com and CanadianCyclist.com, these links will get you to the galleries. There was only one other cycling journalist; Lyne Lamoureux of PodiumInsight.com who I've met at a few races. Local photographer Tom Ewart was also shooting for the race organizers and I see his photos made it to cyclingnews.com. The road stages were a challenge to shoot, with the Friday one being the most difficult. It was one long loop with the men and women on the course at the same time but with different start and expected finish times. So it was only possible to get to a couple of spots to get photos, and to still get to the finish. This is a photo of the women's finish, with Canadian Lex Albrecht finishing 2nd.

After Sunday's criterium all the racers were in a good mood... a combination of relief at having done the race and joy at having some time to relax and party.
Here are a couple of podium pics that didn't make it to the official galleries that show a little of the party mood. The Colavita team didn't need any podium girls to get things happening up there, while Frank Pipp used the oversized GC leader's jersey to ham it up a little.



Lyne and I sat and had a beer at a local brew pub before heading our separate ways. We had lots of good conversations about the business of covering bike races as she is also relatively new at doing it full time (about a year ahead of me). A lot of it has to do with building relationships with the teams, and I can see how important that is. I look forward to seeing how she makes out, and I definitely like her approach. Once on the road, I made my way north and east, meandering through the countryside expecting to find some nice place to camp for the night. Instead I ended up in Missouri and back on an interstate where I "camped" at the first rest stop I came across. So much for that idea. And to top it off I had crappy wireless coverage so it was hard to have a conversation with Andrea.

The next day (Monday) was a nice sunny day and I drove until I found a place to have breakfast. I ate, sorted photos, drank lots of coffee, and when I was done I hopped into the camper and used the WIFI to send in my galleries... job officially done (I will submit my invoices today). Then back into the camper and off I went. I didn't have a destination in mind, I just figured I'd go as far as I could and still leave myself time to find a nice campground and have a relaxing evening. After crossing the Mississippi at St. Louis I got off the interstate and took smaller roads to find a place to spend the night. I noticed a state park ahead and thought it looked good. The park surrounds a lake with a big dam, and at first I went to the part above the dam (Eldon Hazlet State Recreation Area) however... remember I mentioned the Mississippi? Well, flooding was very real and the campground was under water and closed.

So I went around the lake to the South Shore State Park (below the dam) and it was great! A small campground with 15 sites in total, the best spots by river were taken however the other loop only had one trailer in it. $12 for the night, including electricity, so I paid and parked and popped the top.

Johnny, Dana and me

The wireless connection was good, so I got a cold beer from the fridge and called Andrea on skype. We were having a great chat when I noticed something... a Bay window westy pulled into campground! I hopped out with my computer to show Andrea and had a chuckle over it, I hadn't seen many westies this trip at all. I waved, they waved and I got back into Babe and chatted some more. Then they pulled up in front of my site and hopped out. Holy SH!T, there's Johnny standing there holding out his hand! We had met at a bike race in April up at Mansfield (where he lives) and here he is in the middle of nowhere Illinois. What are the odds of that! After the initial surprise at the meeting, they also parked and had some dinner and settled in for the evening. I let them know that I had firewood so they should wander over later, which they did. We had a great evening chatting about life and campers and travel. It turns out that Dana and her partner's house had burned down, and along with it their fully restored camper which was in the garage. Johnny was helping them replace the camper and he and Dana had flown down to Santa Fe to buy the '73 shown in the picture. They were just driving it back to Ontario and happened upon the same campground. I'll have to check to see if they made it back.

Metamora-Hadley Campground

We talked about places to stay the next night and Johnny mentioned that he usually goes up through Flint Michigan, and that there's a nice campground just past Flint. They didn't expect to make it that far the next day however Babe has been running well so I thought I might try for it. After taking the group photo I hopped into my camper and started on the road. The forecast was for rain however I didn't get any, maybe I was just ahead of it. At least it wasn't as windy as it had been the day before so it was a much more relaxing drive. I found the campsite (Metamora-Hadley State Recreation Area) and it was virtually empty (a Tuesday night in May in Michigan... I was glad they were even open). Here's the view I had out the slider... it was a nice spot.

 A good sleep, a shower, and on the road before 8AM. Traffic was good, and I cruised at around 65mph all the way back to Toronto... even made it in time to have lunch with the gang at the pub :)

In total: 1 province, 6 states, 9 days, 106 gallons of diesel, 2,739 miles (almost 4,400 km) and 4,061 photographs... not bad for trip #2!

Day one to Fayetteville

441 miles, a mixed bag of weather, and watching the odometer roll over to 100,000 miles... not a bad start. I'm parked in a rest stop in Piqua, Ohio which is just north of Dayton. The day has been a mix of rain, sun, clouds and more rain... at the moment it's rains steadily and the parking lot is filled with truckers taking a break. At least the rain will drown out the traffic sounds, and the train that whistles when it goes by! You never know what you get at a rest stop. This is not one of the better ones I've been at, still the price is right as always.

Here;s a shot of the odo rolling over... it was about 4pm and south of Detroit on I-75 (I'm actually still on I-75, I'll head off it and go west / south tomorrow).

Tonight's shot is dark and wet... and after about 4 hours of packing and 9 hours of driving I'm ready to call it a night. I'll check the election results when I get up... in taking with Andrea it sounds like the NDP are pulling a rabbit out of the bag at the expense of both the Bloc and the Liberals. I'm afraid I may wake in the morning that Canada has a Conservative majority though... sigh.

Packed, ready to hit the Road

I am just finishing my packing, running a little behind so this will be a short post, I'll likely add more tonight.
I covered the first Ontario Cup MTB race of the year yesterday, at Mansfield ON, for Pedal Magazine and expect the photos will be up some time today. Andrea had a great day and took the bronze medal, she had a good chance for silver too so it looks like she's ready for her season.

And today, I'm making my way down to Fayetteville Arkansas. I expect it will take me 3 days each way, so I better get a move on! First I'll go vote of course, and then head for Sarnia to cross into the States. Here's a shot of the camper, packed and waiting for me to hop in. The magnolia in the front yard is just starting to bloom...