Season Opener 2010

It’s once again that time of the year in Alberta cycling, easily identified as “sometime shortly after Calgary gets a late-April blizzard and cancels the first race of the year”. This time is more formally known as “the first race of the year”.

Aside from the quickly improving weather, the first race for me is always exciting because much time has been spent romanticizing and planning for it over the winter. No matter how many times you’ve done it (11 years now for me), you tend to expect that this New Year will be different (it never is). So although I have my own high expectations in 2010, I know I will experience again for the first time:

-New bikes, winter tans, smack talk and way excessive hot balm
-Big clubs/Teams will have “so many strong guys”…
-Someone will roll a tire/crash/take their team out with them
-Roddi will try to lap the Crit, Bruce will win the TT
-Crosswinds Galore

Speculation is fun nonetheless, So I picked my five favorites for Velocity Stage race this year. Don’t think too hard about these, because candidates are chosen on athletic skill or anecdotal readiness…

Nick Jendzowsky – Nick is a pretty smart bike racer, I always like to see him in the top group. He usually is as tough as his name is to spell - makes a good breakaway companion or party entertainment.

Paul Tichelar - 3 wins and the ABA overall last year. I still can’t figure out what those rainbow circles are on Paul’s bike, but Paul is a good contender in the Performance/Day Job category, which is always the most important performance indicator in the Alberta peloton.

Cam McKnight – Will this be the comeback year for “Mr. ABA”?

Robin Bailey – Still Provincial Champion, still one of the most experienced racers around, still won’t let me sleep on his couch. Later tonight while I am sleeping on an Edmonton Sidewalk, I might dream about Robin’s majestic Provincials win last year.

Jeff Bolstad – Jeff is a pretty good sprinter. He almost joined BiciSport this year, but decided to dedicate more time taking long walks with his Mad Dogg to get in touch with his "spiritual self"

The Wildcards - which one of the “regulars” will get too excited and crash out? Will new Bici Pro Mark “Safety Bear” Webster pull a surprise performance? Will Dallas be able to repeat his strong-arm Prairie Roubaix performance? See you this weekend…