@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.
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@Cyclops
Classic
I presume that V behind the cloud is a shitload of pain and suffering waiting to heap it down on you MFs
Enjoy
Another thought for a Euro Cogal, the Pyrénées is fairly well served flightwise from the rest of Europe. Somewhere like Bagneres de Bigorre is pretty close to Lourdes and Pau Airports and only an hour and a half away from Toulouse. Between the three of which there is a good number of airlines/flights/departure points. Given enough notice it should be possible to get some pretty reasonable fares. Accommodation should be pretty reasonable if you're not after five star.
We'd then have access to some legendary tarmac - something like this maybe?
@RedRanger
The ocean moderates the temps for those guys, and the clouds limit solar heating. :)
But as a meteorologist, seriously, don't use the weather channel (weather.com) anymore. Every since they were bought out they have let a lot of meteorologists go and the quality of their stuff has declined. Also guys, any product that goes more than 5 days out for the west coast is rubbish. More than three is still quite poor.
I'll gladly provide some forecasts for you as things get closer, Something a bit more cycling specific and detailed.
@huffalotpuffalot
Bicycling just posted their own video with a buck:
@King Clydesdale
Interesting what you said about weather channel. Do you have a better site (or mobile app) you prefer?
I find it pretty accurate for Portland, but we are ~115km inland, and have a small mountain range between us and the coast. For example, this last Saturday was wonderful, and weather channel had been predicting that for almost 10 days, in amongst other days of rain.
However, the forecasting for coastal areas is crap. It'll say "sunny and 65" while I'm sanding there, on the damn beach, freezing my ass off in a fog bank.
@King Clydesdale
Espresso vaporized. WIcked payback for the Rule 7 violation.
@mcsqueak
The weather service (weather.gov) would be a step in the other direction. They forecast out of Portland itself (the weather service has many offices across the country, each forecasting for their own respective areas, instead of the weather channel where they all work out of Atlanta, Georgia).
Accuweather.com is another alternative. Fog is tricky all around, and no one seems to forecast it well, however Accuweather at least will cloud up the coast when they think its going to be a gross day there.
Cool. Oct 15? I may be able to attend. I'll watch for more details...
Off-topic side note: I have a friend here in Portland who just told me he is moving to Bainbridge island this weekend. Unfortunately too late for me to take advantage of for this weekend's festivities, but certainly in the future.
How's the cycling on Bainbridge island? I formally call for a future Seattle cogal on this island if it's a good one for cycling.
@King Clydesdale
+ 1 ouch!