VELO CLUB de VIS - RIDES

Where have we been? See below.

Where might we go? Nowhere and everywhere - see the homepage for our plan for a virtual vis rides.

2019 - VANCOUVER- HORSESHOE BAY / DEEP COVE - VANCOUVER

Le Tour de VIS

Start at English Bay, a couple of laps of Stanley Park, then over the Lion Bridge and along Marine Drive to Horseshoe Bay for coffee. And back …

Ryan and Kaitlynn at English Bay Bike Rentals got us all out on the road quickly at 7:30 am.

By 7:45 we were at A-maze-ing Laughter for a freezing cold and navigationally questionable lap of Stanley Park.

Then up through the redwoods onto the spectacular Lion Bridge for an amazing sunrise. Before hopping across some railway tracks onto Marine Drive West in North Vancouver.

On along rolling roads to Whytecliffe Park for the view and snacks at Lookout Point, then down to Horseshoe Bay for coffee at Blenz.

We headed back to the Lion Bridge and took the Mount Seymour Parkway up to Deep Cove.


Cafe Orso served great coffee and avocado on toast, before a shortcut through Cates Park to the beach and then a ride along the Dollarton Highway and over the Second Narrows bridge.

Back through the avenuies and along False Creek to Engligsh Bay. Before another lap of the park and grind across the river before sunset … when we finally had to give the bikes back.

 

Le Prolog

Le MobiDisaster. For about 3 minutes we had a 31 VISser peloton roaring along the boardwalk from the conference centre. Then, power outages due to the windstorm left many of us without bikes and walking to an impromptu sake tasting session ...

Riding through the windstorm, 31 people on bikes, all going so well and then … PARK CLOSED!

 

Big wind, big waves, big bike lockage blockage, big split. Those with bikes cycled on round False Creek, everyone else called Mobi customer support and then decided to walk it!

 

Took the ferry, tried the sake and had a lovely meal at the Granville Island Public Market. But not enough cycling for me this year!

 

2018 - BERLIN / POTSDAM

Le Tour de VIS

A nice ride round round Berlin and then down towards Potsdam …

We met at Rad-Kreuz, were soon on bikes and headed out for a lap of Flughafen Tempelhof.

Over the river, past the wall and to the Rathausse for photos of the Fernsehturm at Alexanderplatz.

 

Back over the river and through the Brandenburg gate before heading up Teufelsberg and through the woods along the Havelchaussee.

Coffee, cake, bread and blankets in what those of us who wanted to get to Potsdam will call “Potsdam”.

 

Then back through Forst Düppel and the Grunewald …

 

… to the bike shop.

 

Le Prolog

Fewer photos of the Critical mass event as I had a bit of a problem with the phone ...

A nice afternoon ride on Bromptons and various city bikes to Templehof, Viktoriapark and a food hall at Muskauer Straße.

 

Sebastian gave us a great tour of Neukölln.

Some of us then headed on to the Critical Mass event that lit top the City.

 

2017 - PHOENIX / SCOTTSDALE / McDOWELL MOUNTAINS

Le Tour de VIS

We rode 100km through the cacti and around the mountains from Scottsdale, with almost 1,000m of climbing in blazing sunshine. Epic.

Out of the Arizona Outback Adventures rental place (thank-you Alyssa, Jon) and past Pinnacle Peak Park on our way up the Reata Pass.

 

A super-fast SCI Utah chain gang down the epic East Rio Verde Drive, then through Rio Verde on to the cactus lined McDowell Mountain Road

 

Refreshments and a spin through McDowell Mountain Regional Park on wide open roads that disappeared to the horizon, before a climb and rapid descent at Fountain Hills to get us back home

 
 
 

Le Prologue

A post conference ride to Rott 'n Grapes for connect four, sushi and baseball

Excellent preparation for #LeTourDeVIS

The Phoenix Grid Bike system seems to work pretty well

 

Le Other One

Wes and I did a quick reccy up South Mountain as we'd spent s many evenings / mornings Skyping about it. We met Jeremy on the way out of Phoenix and he showed us around and back via the beautiful San Juan road. Coffee and vegan empanadas at Azukar Coffee for breakfast and back by 9:30.

 
 
 
 
 
 

2017 - PHOENIX - Le TOUR du MOUNTAIN

Check the route using the Strava links to the left ...

We planned to climb (all or some of) South Mountain - a reasonably challenging ride but on nice roads, and with gradients and distances well within the bounds of what Velo Club de VIS riders are logging throughout the year on Strava.

Then they closed the mountain for a running event!

We have four options, to suit various levels of fitness & challenge. All of these involve heading south from the Convention Centre in a single peloton. We will then head up various bits of the mountain to suit, until an agreed time. As it warms up we will head back down the hill, meet at the park entrance and head back in to Phoenix as a group.

By way of comparison, Le Tour de VIS 2016 in Maryland involved 84.2km / 1,078m climbing.

It will be hot, but not impossible as WeatherSpark suggests. Local riders advise us to head out at dawn - sunrise is at 6:30. The great thing here is that if we head out early we will miss the traffic and we would be back in the city when it gets warm, and home in time for flights in the afternoon and evening. Maybe we'll stop at the South Mountain Cafe for Chilaquiles on the way back.

South Mountain is one of the largest Municipal Parks in America. It has the highest density of chuckwallas per hectare that has ever been reported.

I have no idea what a chuckwalla is.

2016 - LE TOUR DE VIRTUAL

Could we collectively ride 1,000km in November and December?

Well, almost.

We were on track on 20th November ...  490km completed

Less so on 20th December ...  710km completed

Then crazy challenge coordinator J.Dykes fell off on 31st December and ended up in hospital with a broken collar-bone, thoughtfully paving the way for his heroes Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte to follow suit in the New Year. Never mind, we had fun.

Rides in California, New England, virtual London, the snowy Austrian Alps, the dry plains of Alberta and the bumpy lumpy soggy hills of Rutland are getting us close to the 1,000km target.  

 

2016 - BALTIMORE

We rode 85km with almost 1,000m climbing into the rolling hills north of the City, as suggested by Brenton @ Race Pace Cycles ...

We  stopped at ...

 

8am at the inner harbour, up Calvert then out along the Falls Road and a climb to the Bonjour patisserie on Falls and West Lake for un grand petit dejeuner. Then pavement heaven along smooth slick rolling Hillside Road ...

 

Onwards and up into 'horse country', along beautiful Belmont Avenue and on to Veloccino Coffee at Butler, for repairs (thanks Marc), bike tests, electrolytes and a cold press ...

 

Along the corn-edged Cuba Road, up Ivy Hill then back down to Baltimore in autumn afternoon sunshine, with bike return to RacePace and a meal in cleats at Little Havana.

Warm sun and sweet and greasy plantain means memories of the freezing soaking in Chicago fade forever ... 

 

Le Prologue

Baltimore introduced it's bike scheme for us so a few of us warmed up on Friday night on electric bikes ...

 
 

Le Crazy Hallowe'en Fancy-Dress BaltimoreBikeParty

... and then, along with Super Mario & Luigi, Teenage Mutant Ninja Raphael, the Cookie Monster, Superman, Spiderman, Captain America, a very quick squirrel, several ghosts, bears, sharks and skeletons and a cable guy BMX genius called Jesus, headed to the wonderful Hallowe'en fancy dress BaltimoreBikeParty. BIKE PARTYYYY!

 
 

2015 - CHICAGO

Le Tour de VIS

Rain, wind, waves and an unexpected and prolonged interaction with the various saturated cows, zombies, superheroes and Scooby Doos participating in the Halloween Monster Dash half marathon made #LeTourDeVIS Chicago a bit of a challenge. But we braved the weather, found good coffee and managed not to skid into Lake Michigan. Just about.

 
 

 

Le Prologue

Miriah and Brian set things up on Friday - we all used Divvy bikes to head along the Lakeshore and up to the Hop Leaf bar in a loosely formed and easily distracted peloton. 

 
 

2014 - PARIS

In 2014, #LeTourDeVIS was introduced as a post-VIS bike ride open to all, with a peloton of 20 decked out in ColorBrewer  jerseys taking in Le Tour Eiffel, Le Chateau de Versailles and a well known laboratory in science park near Gif-sur-Yvette that does some pretty cool visualization. Wes and Lora figured out the route, the rest of us rolled along behind ... 

 
 

2013 - SEATTLE

Jo and Jason found helpful bike shops (Velo downtown and the Montlake Bicycle Shop) and a great route from the centre of Seattle round Lake Washington. Breakfast at a brewery, fantastic coffee and brunch back at Oddfellows listening to Elliott Smith

 
 

2013 - SANTA BARBARA

The Velo Club de VIS came about after an exhilarating ride in California. Ross, Miriah,  Jason & Kerry climbed the Gibraltar Road after a workshop at UCSB. The ascent was spectacular and involved climbing through and above the cloud, dodging vultures and descending rapidly through thick mist.

 
 

2012 - ATLANTA

Atlanta didn't seem to have a very vibrant roadie scene so Jason headed to Chattahoochee National Forest, found some grits for breakfast, got a lift in a pick-up to the top of a hill and pounded down and around on a Mountain Bike. He felt like he needed a bike club.

 
 

2010 - SALT LAKE CITY

Aidan, Jo, Jason and Yarden cycled up in the hills above Salt Lake just before VisWeek. This included a climb up the Snowbasin road under Mount Ogden. Yarden did a great job getting bikes set up.