Sublime, or ridiculous?

This one goes out to all you weight-weenies out there, we know there are a few. Courtesy of the veloptimum blog, we bring you a decidedly non-UCI legal 2.85 kg bike.

There's precious little here that's not carbon. Naturally the frame, fork, rims, handlebars, seat and so-on are made of our (well your) favourite layered, composite material. Interestingly (and I do mean this, as opposed to many people who say interestingly when it is only interesting to them) it appears even the chain-rings are carbon.

We wondered about the durability of those rings, and got us to thinking what good is a 2.85 kg bike, that costs goodness knows what but you can only get one good Olympic distance out of one? Well, the makers claim it's good for 23 000 kms, a figure we (for one) find remarkably precise!

Looking at the stock items on the frame, aficionados will see that Campy Record 10 and SRAM Red all get an outing. The pedals of choice for this weight-saving exercise were Speedplays; which is good news because an informal TZ poll shows that Speedplays are TNS's pedal of choice already! The AX-Lightness rims are commercially available, but are for tubs only, not clinchers. Which is probably good as choosing the wrong inner-tubes could significantly add to the weight of the bike! Also, the brake-calipers appear to be stock items and not custom (if a fully carbon brake-caliper can ever be considered something as mundane as "stock"). So, if you're serious about looking to shed some weight from your whip, there are a couple of small pointers here without having to go all custom on us!

We were most interested by the retro gear-levers. They gutted a set of Record 10 brifters and left them as old-school brake-levers, mounting some even more retro-looking downtube shifters to the headtube. So again, in the interests of weight, something to consider. If you're road-racing in a pack, having fingertip control over your gears is a massive advantage, and one the TA would be loathe to give up. However, if time-trailing is your thing, and you're resolutely sticking to your tried and trusted Cinelli 64-42s, then perhaps old-school might be the best school!

It's not even that an iconoclastic thing to do either. Remember; even in the days of STI/Ergo Marco Pantani famously used an old-school left-hand Record brake-lever and corresponding down-tube shifter on mountain stages, ostensibly to keep weight down and improve his climbing performance. Check out the photo below and you'll see what we mean.

In hindsight, the 60% haematocrit probably helped too. And there's the second lesson (the third, if you count "don't take performance enchacing drugs"). As cool as this would be, if your BMI is up there, perhaps it would be cheaper to watch the grams in your diet, not the grams on your bike.

Keep drooling

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Travelocity Gnome (TM)

TNS has it's own version of the Travelocity Gnome! Cookie MacKilt has been going places recently, certainly more places than his erstwhile guardians. And more cookies! He even has his own Facebook page where you can follow his progress across the endurance-sport world.

Here are a few examples of Cookie's recent travels. Here's Cookie at the Fundy Loppet.....

at Leah Jabour's Ugly Sweater Run.....

(Hmmm, brunch, nom nom nom)

the Falmouth Half & 10K.....

(left, no right, no Coookies)

the TNS Banquet....

(Hey, Kilt-guy, you give me Coookies?)

(Hmmm, lashings of extra lasagna, nom nom nom)

and the TNS AGM

(yes, the meeting was chaired by a Muppet)

That cookie-lovin' monster sure does get around.

So head on over to Facebook and Friend Cookie. I'm sure if we try, Cookie could have more friends than Triathlon New Funswick by the end of the day (sorry Scott!). Oh, and if you're searching for him, remember, even though TNS is a non-sectarian organisation, nonetheless it's Cookie MAcKilt (with an 'a'), not McKilt (without).

Hmmm, Coookies....

Or if you're feeling highbrow, Hmmmm, biscotti....

AiDa

Many, many thanks to Ron MacDougall!

Go athletes go!

It used to be said that it was always time to have a drink as the sun was over the yardarm somewhere. Similarly, just because as age-groupers we are, in the main getting our base miles in on the trainer (remember a base mile is 60% longer than a base kilometre), it doesn't mean someone, somewhere, is racing.

Meggie Soehl will be skiing cross-country for Team Nova Scotia at the Canada Winter .games. She was profiled recently in the Herald alomg with the rest if the team, where we learned that this will be her third Canada Games; two winter and one summer, making her our very own Clara Hughes! Her sister, Marie Soehl, will be there too in cross country ski as will Liam McInerney and Lydia McInerney. Cross Country ski is a week two sport out at Ski Martock, so if you're in the vicinity, go along and give them a cheer. Additonally, Cole MacDonnell is in .biathlon, which we recently heard described as "all the fun of cycling, with firearms". Biathlon (note, not bi-ath-alon. Just sayin') is a week one sport we think, so if you're around, check the schedule and go gice him a shout. Just remember to stand behind him when he stops skiing!

We mustn't forget TNS behind the scenes at the Winter Games; Mark "Cookie Monster" Campbell is one of the big-dogs (venue leader) at one of the skiing venues and TNS ED Sarah "Hopalong" Wood is keeping them straight at the Oval.

Meanwhile, in the pool, pretty much the rest of the 2009 Canada Games squad was fighting it out at the AUS swim championships; Emily Wood, Brad Piggott, Macgregor Grant and Parker Vaughan as well as Matt Piggott. Em, Matt and Brad all made their times and will be heading to Nationals in Calgary in a coup,e of weeks.

Good luck to all as they race againat the the best in the country

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Half, Hypothermic.

So we guess the racing season has begun for many of us. We saw that Cookie Monster (both of them), Ron McScotch, Geoff Bennett, Darlene Chapman and Gerrad Lewin, hit a 30km/50km loppet in New Brunswick back in January.

Rumours that Cookie, in the 50K, lapped McScotch in the 30K have to remain unconfirmed.

Never too early to get a jibe in (if the alleged lapping wasn't enough), Cookie has been coaching McScotch on the finer points of ski-etiquette (the original caption for the photo below was something like "Ron in mid-stride") and judging from the looks of things, we might have to do the same and weigh in on the finer points of fashion-etiquette. Red and green and plaid on blue skis?

Puh-leeze.

There were a good number out at the long-track speedskating endurance events a couple of weeks ago, including McScotch, Moka Case, Charles Verge, Ron Allen, Darlene Chapman and Marie-Claude Gregoire. Oh, and Cookie McKilt too.

Yup we might to start the Challenge again soon; we make it Tartan 3 - Cookie 1 and it's only just February. It's going to be a long season for somebody's knees!

Cross-country ski and long-track aren't part of our core competencies; running is. So it wasn't a surprise to hear of so many at the Hypothermic Half in Dartmouth this weekend. The weather wasn't quite hypothermic, but it was very wet, windy and slushy. The conditions reminded the TA uncomfortably of the "epic" 2005 Bluenose. It will likely take a week or so for the results to make it on-line but the entry-list read like the TNS Awards banquet; Mike Bedard, Jamie Haynes, Brooke Brown, Carolyn Burke, Moka Case, Elizabeth Corkum, Freda Cormier, Caitlyn Cormier, Andreas Burger, Julie Curwin, Heather Doucette, Caitlyn Gillis, Erin Gillis, Stacy Juckettt Chestnutt, Pat Kennedy, Leanne MacDougall, Norma Jean MacPhee, Dion McKay, Chris Milburn, Erin Pike, Beverley Richardson, Steve Saunders, Tammy Slaunwhite, Sara Strickland and Erin Thibault. We read somewhere on Facebook "Stace won it", which wouldn't surprise us in the least. Chapeau all for for slogging through the slush and the wind.

Once more, our apologies if the TNS member tracking software didn't pick you up. To be honest, it might have received a mild concussion yesterday from us banging on the side of it to make it work (like a 50's TV) and so it wasn't quite up to registering names correctly.

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Photos from various Facebook accounts and Ron.