Categories: Cogals

Bringing the Mountain to Muhammad: Seattle Cogal

@Cyclops has taken it upon himself to organize North America’s first official Cogal right in the backyard of where it all started: Seattle, Wa. @Scaler911 and @McSqueak have confirmed that they will be driving up from Portland, OR to attend and we hereby invite any and all Velominati to attend.

We’ll be doing a no-drop ride on Whidbey Island, following a route that is not terribly hilly and easily accommodates varying distances, though I myself will be planning on a 100k or more. We’ll leave the Coffeehouse Bookstore in Langley at V minutes past 10 to give everyone plenty of time to find their way up to the island and into Langley. Route details will be published in the posts below when it is confirmed. (I have to do some research as I’ve not done the ride in it’s entirety myself.) Hope to see you there.

UPDATE: The route has been posted on MapMyRide. It is a 160km ride with the option to cut section off for those who are getting tired.

UPDATE: Those who are interested are invited to dinner Friday Evening at Quinn’s Pub on Capital Hill in Seattle. Please arrive as close to 6:30 as possible; late-comers will not be guaranteed a seat at the table if the place is full.

Yours in Cycling,

Frank

—

Though there are two 2011 U.S. National Champions about 30 minutes down the interstate from me – southeast Idaho isn’t exactly a road bike Mecca. And I wear the V-Shirt whenever I’m traveling in the area to races (whether to participate or spectate) but I’ve only had one person recognize the Sign of the “V”. So the chances of running into or riding with a fellow Velominati are pretty slim. Let alone the demented brainchild of all this nonsense – Darth Strack. What’s a boy to do? Take the bull by the horns and make it happen my own self, that’s what. I figure that anywhere that I can drive to in a day is not too far to go for a ride so I’m off to Seattle to see whether this “Frank” character is indeed worthy to be praised or if he’s just some guy behind a curtain pulling levers and turning dials.

The plan is for a meet and greet (and eat and drink) Friday night Oct. 14 and a ride on Saturday the 15th. A few blokes from Portland way are planning on coming up as well so it looks like it is going to turn into a little Gran Fronkdo. Anyone that can make it is invited. We haven’t sorted out the details of the route or meeting place or time or anything important like that but we should have all that set in cobbles by early this week, so stay tuned.

Cyclops

I really like riding road bikes as fast as possible. I live in Lexington, KY so here is a standing offer to anybody coming my way: Need a place to crash, need a steak grilled to perfection, need a beer you can't see through, need your wheels trued, need theological insight? I'll hook you up. Just get a hold of me.

Next A New Decade »

Previous « Velominati Super Prestige: Paris-Tours

View Comments

Buck Rogers says:

Oct 19 2011 at 1:05 pm

@frank
I welcome ALL the management pearls that you can throw our way. This is my first foray into planning a ride like this so please, manage all you want!

Would love an AAR, as we say in the military (after action report), on your trip planning and execution.
itburns says:

Oct 19 2011 at 1:15 pm

@scaler911
I live in Houston but had a friend in Portland years ago that turned me on to the Edgefield. I think I've stayed there 4 times over the years. One of my all time favorite places.
itburns says:

Oct 19 2011 at 1:18 pm

@Jeff in PetroMetro @BuckRogers

Texas Cogal Sunday December 4th in Austin. Will put it on the calendar.
Steampunk says:

Oct 19 2011 at 2:27 pm

Hmm. Haven't been in TX since I lifted a LOOK out from under JiPM some months ago. Will have to see what early December holds...
frank says:

Oct 19 2011 at 2:52 pm

@Buck Rogers

@frank
I welcome ALL the management pearls that you can throw our way. This is my first foray into planning a ride like this so please, manage all you want!
Would love an AAR, as we say in the military (after action report), on your trip planning and execution.

Trip report being organized now.

@Cyclops

Oops.

Well, you neutralized it be putting it in reverse on the way back going up the hill you originally attacked going down. I didn't realize it was possible to have one person display such a wide range of speeds on one day in one location.
G'rilla says:

Oct 19 2011 at 3:03 pm

@mcsqueak

@Jeff in PetroMetro

@Cyclops
And, a big OOPS on my part referring to miles instead of kilometers. I meant 160km. That's gonna cost me a couple of extra intervals tomorrow.

I just inherently "know" miles and feet in references to distance and elevation, and have to convert to m/kms in my head.

Don't convert! It's much easier to go cold turkey. Switch your meter and don't worry about how far or cold it is in the Imperial system.

I don't know (or care) how far 140km is in miles or how cold 18ºC is in F. But I know that 140 is a longish weekend ride and I should have knee warmers or tights if it gets much colder than 18º (windproof ones under 10º).

Another benefit is that you can give an honest blank stare if someone starts talking about riding at an average of 27 miles per hour.
mcsqueak says:

Oct 19 2011 at 3:16 pm

@frank

@Cyclops

Oops.

Well, you neutralized it be putting it in reverse on the way back going up the hill you originally attacked going down. I didn't realize it was possible to have one person display such a wide range of speeds on one day in one location.

Ha! Almost all of his starchy potato-power had run out by then.

@G'rilla

Don't convert! It's much easier to go cold turkey. Switch your meter and don't worry about how far or cold it is in the Imperial system.

Yeah, I keep meaning to do that, in order to finally get a native sense of what those speeds and distances feel like without conversion. The reason I didn't hand the 500 over to you that day was that I was afraid we'd lose the ride data if we monkeyed around with the settings too much in the middle of a logged session.
eightzero says:

Oct 19 2011 at 5:31 pm

@frank

@Jeff in PetroMetro, @Buck Rogers
The biggest thing we learned at our Cogal was, and forgive me for my management speech here, but to do a better job of expectation management. We had intended for no-drop group ride and we had people attacking off the front within 1km of leaving Langley while others were dropping off the back. Everyone still had a great time and always waited, but at the end of the day we ended up with two groups riding at two speeds for sections of the ride.
Moving forward all Cogal rides will have a designation; a Rule #5 ride for hard rides, Casually Deliberate rides for no-drop rides, etc. Minipump lashings for people who disobey The Rules or the designation of the ride would be standard on any ride.

Frank, I had a great time, even though I was off the back from the gun, and for the reasons I added to my AAR. (Read: I'm an old fat fuck....) But one thing that could add to managing expectation is to break up a 160km ride a bit. When me and my VMH do centuries, we go from rest stop to rest stop to fuel up. If you broke up the 160km route into 4-5 segments with meet-up places, it would make for automatic regrouping. Sure, the faster riders get there first and lounge about a bit, and the lantern rouge has to expedite the stop, but then all can have a rolling expectation. Then riders like me can noodle a bit more without saying on every hill "oh what has that Merckx-Damn Dutchman talked me in to?"
scaler911 says:

Oct 19 2011 at 6:14 pm

@frank @all,
McSqueek and I have (just barely at all), talking about a Portland cogal. Good advice I must say. I have a route in mind, but any lessons learned will be helpful. You Texans will have to let us know how it works out.
Still bummed about Seattle.
Jeff in PetroMetro says:

Oct 19 2011 at 8:42 pm

@Steampunk

Hmm. Haven't been in TX since I lifted a LOOK out from under JiPM some months ago. Will have to see what early December holds...

I hope you show up. It could be anywhere from 0C to 24C that weekend. Who knows? Might be worth a plane ticket to find out!