La Grange is pleased to announce your new and returning members elected to serve a two-year term on the VCLG Board of Directors. Velo Club La Grange congratulates those elected and thanks everyone who voted. Elected listed in alphabetical order.
Bill Birrell
Jan Datomi
Jaycee Cary
Robert Yates
Bill Birrell
Jan Datomi
Jaycee Cary
Robert Yates
Here are the candidates for the La Grange Board Election beginning September 18, 20201.
PLEASE VOTE!
(candidates listed in alphabetical order)
Bill Birrell
Club Member since 1993. La Granger of the Year 2009.
I’ve been passionate about cycling since watching Eddie Merckx in the 1968 Olympics. My orange Schwinn Varsity soon gathered dust because in Rye NY there was no one to ride with. I rode on and off through school, but never found a steady group of similarly motivated riders. I finally found my jam when Bill Mock rode up next to me on San Vicente and told me of the club rides. He sold me a “blobby” jersey out of the back of his Honda after my first Friday ride and I was hooked. Claude Innocente found out I was a studio executive and recruited me for the board in the mid-’90s to help him negotiate sponsorship deals. The deals with Helens and Robert Forster PT proved to be longstanding pillars of the club’s success. Through Claude, I met Raymond Fouquet and learned of the old world heritage of Velo Club LaGrange. Years later I put together a crew of Edgar Burcksen (editor) and Bill Pitcher (cinematographer) to make The Ride, a documentary about the roots of the club. If you haven’t seen it, please check it out on the club website. On the bike, my engine proved to be more of diesel than an F1, so I focused on ultra events: doubles, Furnace Creek 508 (DNF), and then discovered the TransAlp. I wanted to help other cyclists achieve their potential and I earned my USCF Coach certification. Mark Thomas and I held bike handling clinics to help folks keep the rubber side down. My coaching led to co-founding with Bob Rasner Grand Masters Cycling, an off-shoot of VCLG.
I want to be a board member once again to help the club help our members. Cycling takes us to so many wonderful places, leads us to meet so many fascinating people. The isolation of the pandemic has underscored my experience that the social aspects of the club keep all of us coming back. "See you at the ride tomorrow" is strong medicine. My goal is to enhance the way the club gives back to its members and honor the traditions that made Velo Club LaGrange what it is today. I hope to have the opportunity to serve you.
Jaycee Cary
I submit myself for re-election to the La Grange Board of Directors. It has been my honor to serve the La Grange membership in a variety of positions over the years. There is no doubt that this is a lot of work, but I volunteer my time and energy to La Grange because I want this club to be vital, valuable, and great. Raymond’s legacy deserves nothing less. This only happens if we all invest our passion and enthusiasm. I will continue to vigorously support the La Grange efforts of inclusion, equality, competition, and community and will lead with transparency, fairness, and integrity. Thank you.
Jan Datomi
I’ve really enjoyed my time on the La Grange board, and I am kindly requesting another term. For me, La Grange represents the things I enjoy the most, fitness, fun and community. My goal as a board member is to provide members with as much fun and value as possible. Seeing members enjoy and feel challenged by La Grange events is what makes being on the board so worthwhile for me. I have been fortunate enough to have been president of La Grange these last six months, and would love to continue on. I believe I process the organizational skills to help keep La Grange moving forward. Please take the time to vote and please help me continue to work for La Grange by voting for me. Thanks.
Jonathan Rios
Jonathan is an avid cyclist and triathlete. As a relatively new member of La Grange, he was hooked after a full summer of racing on the LG Race Team and participating in two parts of the LG Cup. The cycling community is very strong and La Grange represents the pinnacle of bringing people together over a mutual activity.
Outside of the world of cycling, Jonathan is a skilled nonprofit professional specializing in fundraising for the arts and works directly with boards of all scopes and sizes. He hopes to bring his nonprofit expertise to La Grange to ensure the continued success of the club while continuing to to engage our membership at all levels. Beginning on October 1st of this year, he will also begin a three year term on the Board of Directors of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras.
Robert Yates
Though covid is still ever-present in our lives and group activities, I have really enjoyed being able to contribute to the board and the club. I am proud of the work we did with the town hall on stopping AAPI hate, and more recently thoroughly enjoyed supporting our members by sagging the LG50 ride. As the world becomes more "normal" and steps out of Zooms and more into the real world, I would love the opportunity to continue giving my time and energy to the board, the club, and its members.
Now that I am back in LA, and I am able to settle more into my role, I look forward to sharing some of the invisible burdens the more established board members carry that keep the club running smoothly.
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RACING NEWS: The Women continue the podiums @ Ontario
Aaron Werthwein sets new Piru TT Record
Team LG’s track day at the San Diego Velodrome
The LG Cup Event #2 - The 500m Sprint: RECAP
CLUB NEWS: The Annual LG Santa Barbara Century: RECAP
Dan Baron célèbre le cyclisme et la joie de vivre en France!
Incredible teamwork, ladies! We are proud that you’re rockin’ the LG colors!
Full Race filmed by Tina Grant.
Our own Aaron Wirthwein CRUSHED the Piru TT Record, surpassing it by almost 2 minutes. The Axel Merckx category is where riders do a time trial on a regular road bike, not a TT bike, with no aero bars or disc wheel. Aaron had the 2nd fastest time of the day doing a 20K in 28:28 @ 26.2 MPH average. This is fast! Note the other record holders: Cameron Wurf, a Tour de France racer for Ineos Grenadiers; Drake Deuel, a young cycling phenom; and local legend Katie Donovan. Amazing work, Aaron! Congrats!
It was another great day of intramural racing at the LG Cup Event #2 - The 500M Sprint. Everyone gave their all for that painful 38+ seconds. Some just went faster than others! Fastest men and women’s times of the day:
Robert Efthimos—38:48, men’s 40-49 (tie)
Sam Selfridge—38:48, men’s 30-39 (tie)
Tina Grant—45:11, women’s 30-39
Full results can be found in the images above! Congratulation, winners!
On Saturday, July 31, La Grange held its annual Santa Barbara Century Ride. There are a lot of logistics that go on behind the scenes and this year’s story was more unusual than most. The La Grange van needed a trailer hitch to be able to tow a trailer so we could transport the bikes back from Santa Barbara to Van Nuys. On Friday afternoon, I picked up Alex Kim, who volunteered to drive the van and provide support for the ride along with Hannah, his wife. We drove to Hawthorne, where the van was parked, and then I followed Alex to the U-haul location on Obama Blvd. near La Brea. They hooked up the trailer but the trailer lights would not sync with the van’s lights. After well over an hour, it was determined that the issue was related to the van and not the trailer. As a result, they could not dispatch the trailer to us. We had no choice but to leave without the trailer but we did leave with 24 of their moving blankets. I took a visual of the back of the van and since it is fairly tall, I thought that it would fit 20 bikes if wheels were removed and the bikes were stacked and wrapped in the blankets. We would not know until we started stacking the bikes for the trip home, which made the day interesting since there wasn’t a “plan B” to get the bikes back if they all could not fit.
Since the first train in the afternoon did not leave Santa Barbara until 6 pm, 12 riders departed the Van Nuys train station at 8 am, which is an hour later than usual since there is usually a 4:40 pm train we take back. One rider had a mechanical issue with his bike within a mile of the start so Alex and Hannah picked him up at the station and drove him to SVO since he had a backup mountain bike in his car. As we climbed Sepulveda, the temperature reached 82˚ at Skirball, and we were dripping. When we arrived at SVO, the temperature had dropped to 62º and it was refreshingly cool. To my surprise, there were well over 30 people at SVO. Were they all planning on riding up and taking the train back? If they were, someone else would have to transport their bikes since I thought 20 bikes was feasible but more than that would be pushing it. Well, fortunately, most of the others were only joining us to Trancas, the first rest stop after SVO, and three others stayed with us to Point Mugu Missile Park before they turned around to head home.
After SVO, we had a beautiful ride. There was cloud cover for at least half the day and it never got hot even when the sun appeared. However, we had a headwind the entire ride, which slowed our progress getting to Santa Barbara. We had no mechanicals and no flats after mile 1. We arrived in Santa Barbara around 4 pm and it was time to load the van. We took the front wheels off all the bikes and started loading. The van was like a bottomless pit and it swallowed all the bikes with room to spare…for maybe one more bike. Someone mentioned that we should have filmed the bikes being loaded. We didn’t…but we could film it being unloaded. The “tired 20” walked to Bier Garten for some well-deserved beer, pizza, fries, and other grub, and then walked back for the 6 pm train. We arrived before Alex since the train made only two stops before Van Nuys. If you missed it, you missed a fun day, and the photos tell the story of the day. We hope you can join us in 2022.
Rich Hirschinger
Century Czar
Unloading 20 Bikes from the LG “circus” van!
The August LG50 ride was a tremendous success. The route, led by Pablo Maida, was challenging but not overly difficult, the SAG stop at King Gillette Ranch was beautiful, and our SAG team was off the charts. The ride was co-sponsored by Tri-Fit LA and owners Gina and Bernard were on hand while Moses Wolfe-Pogar, Tri-Fit’s new Performance Director, was rocking the climbs! Board member Robert Yates and his sons, Alistair and Simon, provided incredible support. It seemed the SAG van was everywhere we needed them to be, without fail. The other noticeable thing was that we were joined by several riders who saw us on the road and just tagged along. Everyone is welcome and we like making new friends. Join us for the next one!
(photos by Robert Yates and Tina Grant)
My new French friends.
I recently had the luxury of being invited to a little town in the South of France called LaCroix-Valmer by my new girlfriend who said: “you must ride there “. Keeper , right ?
I did a quick search and was able to rent a nice carbon Scott bike at Blue bikes about a mile from where we are staying. They seem to be a chain around the south and rent everything from road, mountain, ebikes, mopeds, and motorcycles.
When I picked up the bike I asked about group rides and the best they could muster was to tell me about the local club in nearby Cavalaire and gave me the phone number of the club President, Jean Michelle. Fortunately, my host was fluent and we called Michelle and told him some silly American was here and wanted to ride with them. He gave me the meeting spot for their Friday “coffee ride” and said it was an easy 40k to St. Tropez.
I was expecting something similar to the Friday MDR ride so I showed up rocking my LG50 kit figuring the french flag might be an ice breaker. It was a very civilized start time of 8:30 AM probably because everyone there was either retired or on vacation. No one spoke English but they were all very welcoming and I had many bonjours & ca va’s and most were shocked when I said I was from Los Angeles. I guess they don’t get many people crashing their club ride but one did say the rides were “ouvert “. I definitely stuck out like a sore thumb and as everyone rolled in the old guys would point at me and say “French French French , blah blah blah , California, and ‘sprinter’ ”. I guess I wasn’t really built for their terrain, which I was soon to find out.
One rider finally showed up who spoke a bit of English and was able to give me a little lay of the land. He would point to the wheel in front of me and say to “stay on those”. Not really sure why on an easy “coffee ride” but duly noted.
At 8:30 on the dot, we rolled out of town at a very comfortable tempo. It wasn't until we turned uphill that some of the guys started throwing down the gauntlet, especially as scooters would go by and they would jump on them and motorpace. We rolled along the ridgeline back through La Croix Valmer, Ramatuelle and Escalet then into downtown St. Tropez, where we dodged all the tourists gawking at the superyachts. The roads were well paved if a bit narrow but most cars would sit behind and maintain a respectable distance other than one Audi driver with a bike rack; go figure. I think we came back roughly the same way but I was too busy wondering why I was working so hard on a Friday "cafe" ride. We ended up doing only around 40k but almost 3000 feet of climbing. I decided they were pleasant enough to show back up on Sunday for their 100k ride.
Sunday morning....my English-speaking friend was gone so the only info I was able to get was a map from the club Facebook page.
I was a little hesitant because it looked like around 10k feet of climbing with two big cols and finishing back through a town I had visited the day before, Gassin, which had some 18/19 % climbs at the end of the ride. With the heat, humidity and my rental bike with punishing aluminum wheels and a too short stem, I wasn't sure I was in the mood for that kind of ride. I pointed at my wahoo and asked a few of the guys in very broken french how high but I got lots of shrugs back and they just said "lots of up". From my earlier ride I knew there was an A & B group but it was never any mention of it and we just dropped the B group 2 minutes into the ride towards Royal Canadel and they were never seen again. We continued along the coast, ocean on our left just like anySaturday on PCH. However, the Pepperdine Hill came every couple of miles. Hill, town, hill, town, repeat. We rolled through Cavaliere, Lavandou, Mimosa and a bunch of other places I've never heard of or cannot pronounce. The pace was comfortable and there were giant sections that you would turn off the road onto gorgeous bike paths. They were well marked and had very few if any hazards. As soon as we took a right turn off the coast, I knew there would be some climbing ahead. After the first climb, there was a nature break and these guys just did their business and rolled out again in 2 minutes. No chit chat for them. We climbed over into the Provence valley and the roads (and heat ) reminded me exactly of Solvang. They began to put the hammer down and we crested over into the beautiful village of Collobriere where I was told there was a water break (or at least they nodded when I held up my empty water bottles).
Here's the fun part - as I approached the local market and pulled out some money, they shook their heads and said: "free". Then the local shopkeeper walked out with a crate of water like it was preordained and sat it down and we passed the bottles around. Can you imagine the 76 station at Trancas doing such a thing? Again, very little chit chat and we rolled back out of town and hit our “first” climb. We climbed the col de Babaou, which was marked as 5k but is actually 6.6K with a mild average of 4.4%. The reward at the top of the forest was the most gorgeous views and a twisty 12K descent and brakes were never needed. There were no cars in sight and the only thing you had to worry about was all the cyclists coming up the opposite direction.
At the bottom of the descent, we came to an intersection and were still about 1000 ft. above sea level. There was a semi fire road with a railing across and there was a lot of debating about if we should enter. It seemed with all the fires in the area many of the roads were closed and I was hoping we were going to continue our descent down back into Lavendou but alas, a rider came from the opposite direction saying the road was closed but after some more chit chat they said “president decides” and we rolled out once again onto the “closed” fire road. We rode the beautiful ridgeline back along the coast climbing back up to around 2000 ft. and entered another gorgeous protected forest before we took our final descent back into Royal Canadel. At this point, I was relieved due to the fires, that we were not hitting the next Col nor dealing with the steep pitches and heat of Gassin. One more little hump and a lightning fast descent and we were back in Cavalaire. As we rolled into town one of the guys made a drinking motion and waved to follow him and we ended up at La Rhum Caffee, their title sponsor, and I treated my new friends to a round of drinks. I showed them all pictures of our website and our founder, Raymond and invited them to come join us on the World Famous Nichols ride. So, if you happen to see some guys from Velo Club de Cavalaire decked out in pink and blue, please extend them the kindness they showed me.
Dan
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Sometimes you need bike service to come to you. VeloFix Pasadena recently came to the aid of a La Grange racer, Nick Gillock who was in dire need of timely expert service. Check your membership benefits page to see how VeloFix can help you.
Please welcome our new members who joined in August 2021!
Esteban S., Marshall W., Kenny N., Peter S., Shauna H., Christopher G., Barry F., Geoffrey B., Ayad M., and Giovanni V.
And a hearty welcome back to returning members, Max de B. and Family and April A. and Family.
Welcome, everyone! We are happy to have you.
This calendar is where you’ll find all of our upcoming events IN ONE PLACE. You’ll find both LG On-Bike and Off-Bike events as well as non-LG events. Check it out and bookmark it! Here is the schedule for September!
September 11 – Mammoth Grand Fondo
September 8 – LG Board Meeting
September 18 & 19 – SCNCA State Road Race Championships
September 25 – LG Cup #3: THE Piuma Hillclimb
September 25 – The annual LG Club Picnic
September 26 – SCNCA Criterium Championships
Have an event you would like to add? Send a request to Sam at sam.selfridge@lagrange.org
