Local Ride Racing presented by Local Ride Bike Shop in Maple Ridge is excited to announce its 2010 women’s road team roster. The elite women’s road team was recently awarded BC Cup Female Team of the Year for its achievements throughout the 2009 season, including helping squad rider Laura Brown achieve the overall BC Cup Series victory.

“As a new team on the scene, I was thrilled with our success this year,” said Team Manager Barry Lyster. “Now, with a season of experience behind us and the high quality riders on our crew for 2010, we expect to accomplish even more on the race courses.”

The 2010 Local Ride Racing women’s road team roster includes steadfast 2009 riders Chelsea “Pickle” Bilsbarrow, Jean Ann “Animal” McKirdy, with planned guest rider appearances by Sandra “Red Racer” Walter. Local Ride Racing is thrilled to announce the addition of three new young riders to the crew: Gillian Carleton, Rachel Canning, and Lisa Perlmutter.

“We’ve added some young riders to our roster who have already shown huge promise. For next season, we’re mixing fresh talent with power and experience, and I envision this combination will be winning races for many years down the road,” said Lyster.

The Local Ride Racing women’s road team will contest the BC Cup road series, Race the Ridge – a premier three-stage omnium road event in Maple Ridge presented by Local Ride Bike Shop, the prestigious BC Superweek, and other high-profile events in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

“I’d like the team to challenge for the win in every race and repeat as BC Cup team champion. I’d like to see at least that, but I think our bigger goal will be to finish on the podium at BC Superweek. I know these talented women have the potential to accomplish that,” said Lyster.

Local Ride Racing is based at Local Ride Bike Shop, a small, locally owned store in Maple Ridge, BC. The squad is recognized nationwide for its high-profile racers, friendly and approachable members, and marketing savvy, which garners them recognition across North America, in local, national, and international press. Local Ride Racing can offer great promotional opportunities to business wishing to support team for the upcoming 2010 season. The team has not finalized its 2010 sponsors, and still has partnership opportunities available.

2010 Team Roster
- Chelsea Bilsbarrow
- Rachel Canning
- Gillian Carleton
- Jean Ann McKirdy
- Lisa Perlmutter
- Sandra Walter

Yes, the bike-loving staff of Local Ride Bike Shop are in a frenzy since Giant shipped a stack of boxes filled with beautiful 2010 TCR and Defy carbon road bikes. Since our trusty mechanics have built them up and given them homes on the showroom floor, we’ve been regularly wiping them down on account of all the drool… just kidding! We’re all very sanitary here at Local Ride. We’re also excited to announce many other models of brand new unisex and women’s s Giant bikes as well, including the Rapid, Dash, Avail, Trance X, and Cypher. Drop on by and have a look.  

Local Ride at the Forefront

Giant Bicycles, the world leader in bicycle manufacturing, released its new custom bicycle retail Point of Sale system to the world last week at Local Ride Bike Shop. “I’m honoured for our shop to have been chosen as the first in the world to help develop this new system for Giant dealers worldwide,” said Barry, Local Ride’sOwner. The new system will be beneficial for the shop’s customers, said Bryan Kao, GM of Giant Bicycles Canada. The software allows transactions to be completed very easily and quickly. If the customer would like a product that the shop does not have in stock, employees can instantly look up Giant’s inventory in real time and give an ETA for delivery. The system also stores customers’ information and their bikes’ maintenance records, which will allow the shop’s mechanics to improve their service and increase the life of customers’ bicycles. “Barry is our partner and we really want to support him in what we see is a growing area,” said Kao.  

Weekly Specials

We’re having a massive clothing sale. There’s always a great find on our 60% off rack, plus we’re offering 30% off in-stock Specialized jackets, jerseys and shorts and 15% off GORE and Louis Garneau short-sleeve jerseys, GORE and Sugoi shorts, and Specialized tights! It’s time to suit up for winter riding, so you might as well do it when prices on these high-quality, comfortable, and functional duds are low!

Featured Products

Giant carbon bikes are replacing purse dogs as the hot new accessory of the season. You don’t have to feed them, they look good with any outfit (especially if it’s Lycra), and they’ll help you get fit! We’re pretty excited about Giant’s 2010 carbon road bikes, especially the classic white and blue TCR Advanced 3 for $2759 and the stealth looking Defy Advanced 3 for $2,299. The folks at Giant are serious about bikes – they design, engineer, and manufacturer all of their bikes in-house, plus they even make their raw materials, like their carbon fiber and ALUXX aluminum.

 By Jean Ann McKirdy

This week the National Track Team is hosting a training camp in Los Angeles, at the LA Velodrome. As a recent recruit to the track, and an experienced competitor in the mountain bike, road and cyclocross disciplines, it was a huge privilege to be invited to participate in this camp. Here I have the opportunity to ride alongside the best Canadian athletes, in a world class velodrome, and learn new skills which I otherwise would not have exposure to do. There are 25 athletes participating in the camp, from all over Canada. Some familiar faces include Olympians Gina Grain and Zach Bell, and World Cup medalist Tara Witten. This camp gives track athletes in Canada the opportunity to train together on a world class track, and gives top tier athletes the opportunity to prepare for upcoming World Cups. It also offers the opportunity and exposure for development to younger and more inexperienced riders, like myself.

Day 1

There are both a sprinters and an endurance group training on the track each morning. I train with the endurance group, where the focus is primarily the team pursuit, and developing top end speed. On Monday some riders were doing testing to meet time standards for carding criteria. Afterwards we did some flying 500m and 1000m in groups of 3 or 4. We did these at about 90%, to warm up a little and get used to doing exchanges with our groups. It was very good for me to get to practice at less intense speed, as it was my first time riding with aero bars on the track, and I was a little unsure as to how the exchanges would go in the new position. I found the position was more stable than I had expected, and while I definitely was not good at them to start with, I was able to improve throughout the day. Afterwards we did flying 1000m to 2000m race pace efforts, which were much more challenging, both physically and skill wise.

After our efforts we had the opportunity to watch ourselves on video, and critique and compare our position and technique relative to the others on the track. This tool is available to us all week, and I found it very helpful in improving my technique and position on the bike. The big challenge for me that day, was getting used to aero bars, getting used to the timing of the exchanges and becoming confident following close to the wheel in front of me. I was often caught closing a gap, after I did my exchange and left too much space between myself and the rider I was following. After seeing the video of myself, I chose to focus on improving those skills the following day.  I love the challenge of learning new skills, and am pushed by the class of the riders around me. Each of them have great skills and knowledge that I can learn from, and the staff and athletes were very helpful in sharing those skills in order to contribute to a program that grows.

Day 2

The schedule for day two said “flying 500m (really hard day)”. When I read it I remember thinking “how hard can 500m really be?”. It was hard. While our intense efforts were only 500m long, the total distance we rode that day was between 90 and 100km. The way it worked was, the group rode around the track on the blue line at a steady pace, while riders were called down to do an intense 500m effort and then rejoined the group. I found that by the 4^th time I was losing speed by the end of the 2^nd lap. For the later efforts riders were coming down in groups of 2-4 to do the effort, with a slower rider sitting on the wheel of a faster rider. This is so that we can still achieve the highest possible speed, as fatigue sets in, and it gives riders a feel of going fast and achieves a higher quality even as people fatigue.

Downtow Laura Brown shows off the retro Team Canada skinsuit.

While one of my goals for the day was to get more comfortable riding close to a wheel in my aero bars, and keep my exchanges tighter, I was also given a new skill to work on on day 2. During the flying 500m, I found that I was not “jumping” as hard as I should going into the effort. I was doing more of a “rolling 500m” than a “flying 500m”. After some correction, my third effort was much better. I jumped much harder going in, which made a difference of almost 1second!

Day 3

Today we did standing 3000m team pursuits, so it was a true race simulation for the women, whose actual race distance is 3000m. The leading rider used the gate to start, so we had a chance to practice the timing of the start in the gate. With a new stem, which lowered my aero bars significantly, I was much more comfortable on the bike, but ouch, those efforts hurt! After the first 3000m I had a true “pursuiters cough” going on. After a couple 3km efforts we did some shorter 1500m efforts in a 6 woman group. I have to admit that today hurt. The intensity that we are riding at is above what I have done in the past, or is typically necessary for racing mountain bike or cyclocross. This is the first time in a long time that I have been pushed to the point where I have tunnel vision and am really struggling to hold a wheel and my line. This is really good for me! I think it is good to mix things up, challenge myself, and be pushed outside my comfort zone. I think it is necessary for improvement, and this camp is providing those challenges and forcing me to be better.

The coaches here, Richard, John, and Jeremy, are pushing riders to improve, and working to create some positive competition within the group. The onus is on us to push ourselves and each other, and more importantly to get results. Riders have to earn their place on World Cup and World Championships Teams. It is competitive, and about results, but they are also focused on development and deepening the pool of riders on the team.

Jeremy tells a few pre-training jokes

Day 4

Today we got a little, much needed, recovery time on the track. After an easy warm up, we headed up the track in one long paceline to do some high cadence motorpacing and paceline riding. We did three ten to fifteen minute sessions of fast, high cadence spinning, and wached the sprinters duke it out between sessions.

Jeff (coach) and Mike (massage therapist) discuss the day over morning coffee.

Stef and Tim get ready to ride to the track for our morning training session.

Local Ride Racing continues to turn heads this cyclocross season – especially Jean Ann, who is leading the Elite Women’s BC Cup Series standings! She won two races in a row: BC Cup #4 in Port Coquitlam on Saturday, followed by Local Ride’s Pumpkin Cross BC Cup #5 on Sunday, and then won again the next weekend in Aldergrove. Congrats girl! The rest of the crew are also holding their own, finishing top ten against the elite men and making podium appearances in almost every category.

Aldergrove CX – a Provincial sanctioned race hosted by Team Coastal – saw some very competitive racing within the race. In the Men’s B race, Paul Craig had to use all of his skill to out wit fellow team mate Ryan Jeans. Saving his energy by sitting on Paul was able to attack with 4 laps to go and drop the group of 3 riders he was with. Bragging rights go to Paul.

In the Men’s A race Mike got an awesome start slotting into 4th place. He battle hard for 60 minutes and held that spot to the end. Steve was not so lucky with his start and was dead last through the first half lap. Once he caught onto Ryan Newsome’s wheel, it was time for the Local Ride duo to put the hurt on. Some well timed attacks saw the 2 pull away from a group of 4 and finish 6th and 7th.

Weekly Specials

We’ve absolutely slaughtered the price of our in-stock Shimano RA80 road cycling shoes. These great entry-level road specific shoes feature three velcro straps and stiff soles, and at this price you can’t go wrong! Regularly priced at $129.95, they’re on sale for $49.95. Plus check out the rest of our selection of Shimano and Specialized cycling shoes, all on sale at 15% off.

Featured Products

It’s coming up on that time of year again… Trainer Time! Daylight Savings is starting up this week, which means you get even less light in the evenings, so we’re featuring Giant stationary trainers. Convert almost any bike to a stationary bicycle so you can ride in the comfort of your own home and maintain your fitness goals without having to ride in the cold, dark, and wet or go to a gym. We have Giant trainers in stock! The Giant Cyclotron Mag II trainer is built on a stainless steel frame with a fast and easy-to-use quick release system. Resistance is generated magnetically and it is adjustable via a handlebar-mounted remote. A great, reliable indoor trainer. $230.05. The Giant Cyclotron Automag II trainer is just as quick and easy-to-use as the Mag II, but it features a lighter aluminum frame for portability, plus it progressively adjusts resistance automatically without need for a remote! $299.95.