The Cogals
Cogals (pronounce it correctly: kog-al) are meetings of like-minded misfits brought together by the promise of beer, preceded by a bike ride. Cogals are free, open to all, organized by our fellow Velominati and are always followed by consumption of post-ride recovery ales and merriment. These are gatherings of unbridled observance of Rule #4.
Cogals differ themselves from other group rides by the meeting the following criteria:
- First, Cogals are free, organized and supported through Velominati, though not necessarily a Keeper. Anyone is welcome to join a Cogal. Legally speaking, however, we have no involvement, so if you crash or die, it’s your own problem. Please be careful to study the route previously and take precautionary measures to stay safe.
- Second, a Cogal is a day-long undertaking that focuses 100% on the bike. The rides are categorized (Casually Deliberate, Rule #5, Rule #10, for example) but are long. This is what you’re doing today, nothing else; see Rule #4. Rides can be any length, but a minimum distance of 130km should be expected.
- Third, Cogals always include a session of Malted Recovery Beverage Consumption after the ride. Whenever possible, it should also include a pre-ride espresso.
Not all the events in The Cogals are actual Cogals. We also post rides and events that are of interest to the community, as well as Keepers Tours, which are Velominati-hosted, paid cycling Tours tailored to the tastes of a velominatus.
Any member of the community is welcomed to organize a Cogal. If interested, either post your interest below or email us with the following information:
- Date of Cogal
- Starting Address (ideally somewhere neutral, like a café or park)
- Route (MapMyRide, Bikely, or Strava)
- Ride Classification (Casually Deliberate, Rule V, Rule VV, or suggest another)
- A paragraph describing the Cogal
Upcoming Cogals
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Submit Your Own Cogal:
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@paolo
Small world eh. We were in the White Hart last night re hydrating after our regular Tuesday night ride. It still serves some of the best beer you’ll ever taste.
Weather can be a little shonky though….
@Steampunk
Our regular riding night is a Tuesday, but if you’re about on the 26/4 I’m sure we could sort something out.
Oh man, looking forward to the Ontario Cogal! Doing some route research has turned up the following 2 photos courtesy of Google Earth/Panoramio. Fuck yeah! Apparently the Cogal goes down the 2nd hairpin and then back up a few kms later.
@Tartan1749
And the first one is Rattlesnake Point – nastiest little climb in Southern Ontario! 22% at its steepest.
@Tartan1749; @Mikel Pearce:
Second one (on Forks of the Credit Scenic Road) is beautiful, but not nearly as bad as it looks. The first one could be beautiful, but I wouldn’t know; it’s much worse than it looks and I don’t have the form to admire the scenery on the way up. The second kilometer of the ride involves taking on Sydenham Hill: 10% over 1.3km (the first pic is the lone semblance of peace on that climb, and it feels a lot worse than this pic seems to indicate). Which will get the bodies warm and the heart rate up.
This is going to be one excellent ride.
@Tartan1749
Does that mean you’re thinking of coming up for this? That would be terrific! Steel Town to Steel Town (Pittsburgh to Hamilton) is less than five hours by car. If there’s enough out-of-town interest, I can look into trying to organize some kind of B&B discount or something for parties looking for somewhere to stay.
@Mikel Pearce
If I’m not mistaken, that’s the 22% right in the picture, right? The next road over, Bell School Line makes a less severe step ladder like climb””at 15% and 17% respectively. But it doesn’t require the kind of sustained effort that the climb above sets. If I’m not mistaken, Rattlesnake averages above 14% for well over half a kilometer.
@Steampunk
I do plan on attending. Have to get the VMH approval first, but maybe we can make it a mini vacation for the holiday weekend. Regardless, in order to have a respectable showing, I’ll need to be in fine shape by then.
You guys are making my legs hurt looking at those pictures.
@Steampunk
Yes, I’m pretty sure it is, although it took me a while to recognize it for the same reason you give above – ie that I’m usually communing with butterflies at about that point …
Bell School is nasty as well, but it’s nowhere near as hard as Rattlesnake, and the pain of Bell School is over much more quickly, whereas Rattlesnake just seems to go on forever.
@mcsqueak
The climbing around the Niagara Escarpment area is just amazing. There are six climbs within 10km of Rattlesnake that are all just amazingly nasty.
@Mikel Pearce, @Steampunk
We should try and recruit DerHoggz as the rumor is that he lives between Pittsburgh and Erie.
@Tartan1749
Excellent idea. Get on it!
@Tartan1749
The other part of the ride you need to check out on Google Earth if you can is the Grange Road. Dirt/mud road that goes straight up.
@Mikel Pearce
Yes. I can dig in and punch my way up Bell School Line. Rattlesnake is a whole other can of worms. Sydenham requires a good bit of effort and the Grange Road is tough.
The Ontario Cogal is not for the faint of heart.
@Tartan1749
If it would help, the starting point is an hour from Niagara Falls and the much prettier village of Niagara-on-the-Lake, which is wine country. You could certainly spend most of the weekend down there with lots for the family to do, see, and enjoy. And I hear Toronto is a nice little town, too…
@Steampunk
I’m pretty sure the Man With the Hammer stands at the top of Rattlesnake …
Sydenham is tough, but it’s so early in the ride. We will really need to just use it as a warm up. Casually Deliberate the whole way up.
I’m really looking forward to this ride. It will motivate me all winter. Trainer time!
@Mikel Pearce
I look less like Tommy V (head bobbing and tongue wagging) on Rattlesnake, and more like the guy from The Triplets of Belleville. I’m not above confessing that the first time I climbed this, I misjudged the severity of the climb leading up to this point, and had to circle in the driveway just visible on the left three or four times before I even tried to push my way to the top.
@Mikel Pearce
Sydenham is a nice starter. It’s not a back-breaker, but it reminds you that Newton was onto something with that whole gravity theory thing. Casually Deliberate is the right way to climb it.
As I just intimated in my last post, the Man with the Hammer stands somewhere around the place this pic was taken. If you can get around the switchback and not be totally demoralized by the “right turn” sign in the picture, then you’re probably going to be okay. Also, if you can spit out your heart and lungs to make room for more air, then it’s probably not so hard either.
@Steampunk
I’m right there with you. The first time I climbed Rattlesnake (on a tri-bike), I had to stop and dismount at about that same point because my quads were cramping. I vowed then that no hill would ever make me get off my bike again. So far I’ve been able to keep that vow.
@Mikel Pearce
I came close on the Grange Road about a month ago, but that was mainly because the ground was so soft, but I managed to weave my way up.
@scaler911
Good route Scaler… I might have considered going down Lusted instead of SE Bluff – would be shorter I guess but you get one more hill :O)
and if you want to add a little scenic out and back going up Shipley Rd is great..
@Mikel Pearce
@Steampunk
Ah, I remember those roads well. I used to do training rides out there with the boys from Veltec when I raced for Racer Sportif.
Remember to take the outside line on that hairpin!
@mouse
Only way not to get killed by the cars coming down, really. But it does feel like the long way around…
@mouse
When were you with Racer Sportif?
I’m blown away that the English Cogal is going to happen.
Can’t wait!
@936adl
Sounds like a cracker of a route, my aunt lives 5 miles from Brown Clee. Sounds like we’ll have to visit for the weekend.
@Steampunk
I was with Racer Sportif from 1988-1991.
Before that with the now well defunct CORCC -Central Ontario Racing Cycle Club.
Happy days.
@936adl @Chris
I’ll not make it over for this one chaps, as too much other stuff on, but sad to miss it – maybe get another in the diary after this, and I’ll try to join you
@dr c
If this one’s a success I’m sure that there’ll be others!
@mouse
Very nice! Did Racer Sportif have the less-than-savory sales rep it has today back then? Any chance we can coax you back for the Cogal in May?
Xyxax? DerHoggz? Anyone else in the neighborhood?
@Steampunk
Ah it looks like a great ride. I’ve laid down my 2012 Get Out of Jail Free card for Vermont, land of the (hopefully) midnight sun. Second edition?
@xyxax
Man, we all burning a serious amount of kitchen passes on this 200-on-100 ride, eh? I told my wife that all I wanted for Christmas was a guilt-free, completely full day of riding on the 28th of June!
@xyxax; @Buck Rogers:
I hear you. I’ve stamped my pass for Vermont. Haven’t actually raised the Ontario Cogal yet. But here’s the genius of it. It’s in my own backyard, and I have to organize it, right? Right?? Which means I have to ride it. The rationale is sound in my head. Pretty sure Mrs. Steampunk will bash a six-foot hole through that, though. It means, however, that I’ll be riding for my life on May 27 (Cogal riders might look out for erratically driven Saabs on the road””might be the Missus come to run me down…).
@xyxax
Definitely. Maybe we could look to try something between here and there. Finger Lakes? Catskills?
Thrilled, though, that you’ll be in Vermont. That Gunnar looks like it could provide a lot of wind shelter…
@Steampunk
Any rides in the finger lakes or Catskill (but more finger lakes) would work for me as its a straight shot north. Also a Lancaster ride would also not be to far for me either.
@Buck Rogers @Steampunk
The pitter-pater of little familias doesn’t make it easy for any of us, eh? My long-term strategy is unfolding: just contributed $ for a nice new first road bike for Mme. xyxax, contracted a babysitter for twice a month to get in 4-5 hour rides together starting January, she’ll get the bug and give up running and…voila, she’ll be going in my place come June….hey, wait a minute. But you get the idea.
@Steampunk
I’ve been told that I break wind well. Always wondered if it was a compliment.
Besides you’ll all be well ale-ed and fast asleep by the time I come rolling through in the bed of the Dumptruck of Awesome.
+1 on Finger Lakes.
@Steampunk
I’m psyching myself out right now about possibly doing the Ontario Cogal, I’m scheming away right now. I think I could do a little touring up and back. I have some friends that live in Buffalo, and possibly Erie. It would be like 500km or so one way, but I think I could break it up crashing at people’s places. I could also drink up north for the post-ride recovery!
This will happen.
@Steampunk
Um, hmm… Not quite sure how to answer that one on the interwebs without inadvertantly slandering someone.
What I remember was a cast of charactors; Dennis running the shop with his brother/other family relation (I think, Martin). Dennis was great. Wonderful enthusiasm for racing. He also had a lot to teach about colourful polish phrases and put downs to hassle your cohorts.
There was Radek, the strongest MOFO Cat 3 (sandbagger extraordinaire, never would upgrade to Cat 2 despite always having the points to do so). Amazing bike handler, my guess was schooled in the hardcore eastern bloc racing scene.
And a guy we called Zvishek (his real name escapes me) who was acting as our de-facto coach. He would set us intervals and other aspects of our training structure (not much of a structure in those days, just ride lots, race lots, and try doing some intensity).
Zvishek apparently was a rider of some repute newly landed from the eastern bloc. He came equipped with stories of the semi-pro scene there where the doctor would visit you to inject you with “vitamins” and it wasn’t as though you had much of a choice about it.
This was around the time as well that pro riders were mysteriously dropping dead in their sleep from strangely high red blood cell counts.
It’s interesting to think back on it now in the context of where we are now vis-a-vis doping.
@Steampunk
Oh, and sadly I wouldn’t be able to make it back to Canadia in May, despite it being around the time of my mum’s birthday. Just a biiiit to far from Melbourne at this stage in my life. Too bad too, it would have been good to visit the old stomping grounds. Make it a good one. See if you can get them weeping like little girls.
@Tartan1749
SO, word is you may be going to the Cogal from Pittsburgh… any possibility of maybe carpooling? A little mini-tour would be cool, but if that doesn’t work out, would you mind? This is all extremely tentative and possibly a pie in the sky.
I know someone who grew up in Hamilton I think, he said within 15 minutes of Dundas. He is aboot 30 years old, last name Farrell. Any of you guys familiar?
@xyxax
This is either the most brilliant plan or a total disaster. Best of luck!
@mouse
Colorful times! Nice recounting. It’s a shame you won’t be able to join us in May, but I guess “being on the other side of the world” constitutes a passable excuse.
@DerHoggz
Hamilton is a city of half a million people. There are a lot of people here I don’t know.
@DerHoggz
Sure am planning on it. Have to work out if the wife and kid will be attending as well. Either way, a carpool will be a stretch as 2 bikes won’t quite fit in my Z (I can barely get mine in there).
Glad to hear it won’t just be Steampunk and myself at the Ontario Cogal! Though that would have been just fine, of course!
@Tartan1749
Thats cool, I might be able to wrangle one of my family’s cars to take up, it is just older and not so trustworthy. It should be fine though.
For all of you unfortunates like me that cannot be in Northern France this late March/early April, there is the once-every-two-years Paris Roubaix cyclo going off on June 10, 2012. This will not be anywhere near as much fun as riding and the watching the Ronde and P-R but it works well if you are going to be in France the first couple of weeks in June (like me).
Here is the link to the website in English. They just opened up on-line registration today and I am signed up.
http://www.vc-roubaix-cyclo.fr/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=132&Itemid=13
Obviously, if I could be there in March, that’s where I’d be. But since I cannot, I’ll be on the pave’ in June instead.
If any other Velominati are going to the June one, please let me know. It will not be an official Cogal as I think that a Velominati has to organize it to qualify, but nothing says that we still cannot get togetehr and drink ourselves silly afterward!!!
It costs 22 Euro to enter the long version if you go without one of the official tour set up groups. You just have to show up at the start and ride the bloody thing. At least that’s my plan!
Just a heads-up to anyone that might be interested.
dammit – I am going to miss the 1st PDX Cogal – on my way back from Japan! I’ll have to organize a spring one instead!
@Gerard
Sorry to hear that! Yes, please schedule another one for later in the year!
@Mikel Pearce
I could also make the ontario cogal so you guys could see what a french canadian 21 year olds cyclist look like. Just need to make sure the marinoni will be ready before the 27th of may
@godsight
Awesome! And a Québecois on a Marinoni sounds appropriate. Of course, the owner of our starting point used to build Mariposa bikes. The Cogal will be a terrific ride!
@godsight
We may have to put you young fellers on the front for a while to tire you out … What was that someone said about age and treachery …?
@Mikel Pearce
My thoughts exactly!