The Long Road January /February Vol
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The Long Road January /February Vol. 22 No. 1 www.randonneursontario.ca President’s Corner Editors Desk As we enter into a new cycling season it is time Hello everyone, well winter is still with us. The to reflect on the past season. Because the prov- skiing has been not too bad as a cross training ince is so large and the travel distances make it exercise. But I know a lot of people are itching difficult for everyone to get together, the club to go riding. will be holding two Awards Nights. The Randonneurs Ontario Annual Awards Dinner It’s also that time of year for membership re- will be on February 26th at the Montreal Bistro newals. The documents required are included in Toronto. The Ottawa chapter will be holding with this newsletter. Please read the forms care- an Awards night on February 19th at the fully. Also, a special note that the disclaimer/ Cheshire Cat. These are the nights that we waiver has to be witnessed, which is a new re- honour the club members who achieved quirement. exceptional milestones. So mark your calendars and be sure to come out and join the festivities. Toronto Awards Dinner Look for the information on these events Date: February 26th elsewhere in this newsletter. Location: Montréal Bistro & Jazz Club 65 Sherbourne St. Toronto, ON M5A2P9. The club will be represented at the Toronto Phone: (416) 363-0179. International Bike Show March 4th to the 6th. Cocktails at 6:30 pm Please make a point to come out visit our booth Dinner at 7:00 pm and socialize while you are there. Cost: $40.00 The Executive has met twice this year and we Please send your ticket requests to Jim are working very well together. We have “new” Griffin along with payment by Feb. 19th members who bring a lot of strengths and James Griffin insights to our meetings. We will be discussing the Route Change protocol and setting this up 8735 5th Side Road shortly. We will also be posting our Route R.R.3 Everett ON L0M 1J0 Archive on the web page for our members. We have also moved to a new provider for hosting Ottawa Awards Dinner (Continued on page 2) Date: February 19th In this issue: Location: Cheshire Pub, upstairs 1) President’s Corner Dinner at 6:00 pm 2) Editors Desk Cost: whatever you order to eat and drink 3) Book Review 4) Erratum 5) Rocky Mountain 1200 Part 3 Good luck to everyone. 6) Membership forms and disclaimers Jim Morris Randonneurs Ontario Long Distance Cycling Association www.randonneursontario.ca President Peter Leiss [email protected] 416-423-4570 Vice President, Brevet Scott Chisholm [email protected] Vice President, Anne Pokocky [email protected] Vice President Ottawa Patricia [email protected] Von Niessen Vice President, Isabelle Sheardown [email protected] 705-434-1637 Vice President, Huron Carey Chappelle [email protected] Vice President, Niag- Dan Waldron [email protected] Secretary Tony Kaduck [email protected] Treasurer Jim Griffin [email protected] 705-434-9316 Director-At-Large Anita MacKinnon [email protected] Director-At-Large Michael Thomson [email protected] Director, Jim Morris [email protected] 613-829-6621 Communications (President’s Wheel - Continued from page 1) grew so quickly neither of them was able to find the time to actually go to PBP but they our web page, which will save the club some did go and complete the Raid Pyrénéen. The funds. two Mikes idea was the seed that has grown into the club that we have today. Over 100 Alan Thwaits, who brought us in to the Brevets are scheduled over four chapters that electronic age by continuing the development of cover everything except for Northern Ontario. our web page and mail list, has decided to step We have over 100 members cycling distances down as the List Administrator. Jim Morris has that seem to be impossible to the average offered to fill the breech for us. Thanks Alan, person yet every member is just that, average for your years of hard work. people with a passion to go further and challenge him or herself. The Toronto Chapter and the Simcoe Muskoka Chapter will be holding a New Mem- Finally, our club works because of the work of bers night April 15th. The location of this event our members who volunteer their time and will be announced shortly. expertise. Without you there is no club. So try to find the time to organize a ride, work on a As I sweat out the kilometres in the basement committee or help in other ways and thank waiting for reasonable weather I have the those who do that for you. opportunity to reflect on the club’s history. It is amazing to think that two guys Mike Barry and I hope to see many of you at the upcoming Mike Brown who where inspired by Jock events and out on the road. Wadley started this club to achieve their dream of completing PBP in 1983. Because the club Peter Leiss RANDONNEURS ONTARIO NEWS - Page 2 To further offset the influence of rider co- Book Review operation, he made room in the Tour in the 1920's through the mid-1930's for touriste- Geoffrey Wheatcroft - routiers - those prototypical randonneurs - who rode independently of any team sponsorship. Le Tour: A History of the Tour de These touriste-routiers form a shadowy pres- France, 1903 - 2003; ence throughout the Tours of these years. Never Simon and Schuster, 2003. challenging for the lead of the overall classifica- tion - a preserve of the professional riders of the To be a randonneur is to be connected to grand sponsored teams - the names of these riders are traditions in cycling and bicycle sport. It is also recorded winning a stage here, taking a difficult to be, a little bit, in love with France. In cycling, mountain climb there: tough men taking on the there is no greater tradition than that of that most brutal of cycling events with only the faint most French institution, the Tour de France, hope of meaningful pecuniary reward. with which randonneur cycling is connected, if As influential as Desgrange was on shaping the not at the hip, then, perhaps, at the toe. race, the story of the Tour is very largely the Henri Desgrange is our common parent, and story of the riders who have participated in it. 1903 the year both in which the Tour was first The chronicle is a procession of the most distin- run and in which the ride that would eventually guished names in the history of cycling sport - give rise to the randonneur movement, took Petit-Breton, Lapize, Thys, Bottecchia, Frantz, place. Magne, Maes, and Bobet. It is a history of great Desgrange - sadistic, abusive, arbitrary, and rivalries - Bartali and Coppi, Anquetil and connected to a mean-spirited streak of French Poulidor, Hinault and LeMond - and of great political life - placed his mark indelibly on the individual specialized skill, that of the climbers first years of the Tour. Making up Tour rules - Bahamontes and Virenque, for instance. often in the course of the event itself - Des- The history of the Tour encompasses both great grange made riders' participation difficult and, personal triumphs and, equally, the story of in- not infrequently, influenced the final outcome dividual tragedies. The history incorporates the of the race. stories of Christophe whose great riding skills His own athletic background was in time trial- were undermined by ill-timed illnesses and me- ling. It was perhaps this that framed his attitude chanical failures, of Vietto who sacrificed a cer- to the Tour and its riders. He was interested in tain Tour victory to his team captain and then seeing that the rider who worked the hardest, was denied the opportunity to secure a victory who suffered the most, and who had the most for himself by the advent of the Second World individual talent, was the rider who was the War, and of Poulidor, the best rider never to win eventual Tour winner. He resisted technological the Tour. Tom Simpson, one of only three riders innovations, such as multiple gearing, that to die during the course of the event, is an es- would give a rider an advantage not based in a sential part of the Tour's history. So, too, the rider's own abilities. At one point, he went as far Tour riders whose lives were marked by trag- as to require all riders to ride a generic bicycle edy - Bottecchia murdered, probably by fascists; to avoid any advantages a particular manufac- Coppi throwing his life away in scandal and dis- turer might build into a bike. ease, Pantani victimized by his own depression More surprising from someone who founded following his disgrace in the sport; and the gen- Audax cycling, he had contempt for co- eration of cyclists sacrificed to military service operation between riders and devised rules to in the First World War. suppress the advantages gained by riders work- More recently, the story of the Tour has been ing together. He applied these rules arbitrarily to one of the dominance of single strong riders rid- promote riders he favoured or, more specifi- ing at the head of powerful teams - Anquetil, cally, to disadvantage those riders he despised. Merckx, Hinault, Indurain, and Armstrong. It is The Long Road is published six times a year, every two months.Contributions are always welcome. They may be sent electronically to [email protected], or mailed to 138 Gladecrest Court, Nepean, ON, K2H 9J7.