WELCOME TO VELO SFU

In the spring of 2005 a group of mostly middle aged faculty at SFU formed the road riding bike club "velo-sfu."  The group hung together for a number of years until many started
to retire. By about 2010 it was pretty much finished, although a few of us continue to ride together from time to time.  Here are some pictures from the first couple of years.

  In case anyone ever wondered, this is the reason rider wear black pants.


PHOTOS OF VARIOUS RIDES

Our team is terrible at remembering to bring a camera (or film) to an event, but here are some pictures of a few of our rides in 2005.

Event #1: The   "Pacific Populaire" organized by the BC Randonneurs

  One of our riders suggested we try the Pacific Populaire ride. It starts in Vancouver, heads out to Richmond, and then back into town. At least that was what the 50km ride was like.  It was raining so hard that only three of us showed up, and only two found each other. A great first showing!! Unfortunately for David Goodman (the odd man out) he ended up on the 100km route. In his words the 50k was for  "those wimping out due to a little rain" His route started in Vancouver, looped around UBC, out to and around Richmond, then back to the start via another loop around UBC.

Here's what the weather looked like:

If you look closely half way up the right side, you can see Walter Piovesan (a librarian, I told you faculty was interpreted loosely!) and my self. He's wearing green, I'm in yellow. This is what Walter and I looked like after the ride, and trust me, it doesn't do justice to how wet we were!



   Riding up Burnaby Mountain (organizer Craig Scratchley)

Our second riding event on April 20th was a little dryer than the first one. The weather was wonderful as  six of us headed down, around, and then up the moutain ... some of us for the first time ever, some of us for the second time that day! Only one flat tire and one lost member.  Here are some pics.

Christian, Walter, Simon, and Doug.

Walter, Craig, Doug, and Leigh ... enjoying the real purpose of riding.

   Riding through the beautiful Langley Uplands (organizer Doug Allen)

April 30th, DA manages to pick the only rainy day of the week to do a great 65km ride through emerald of the Fraser Valley: the Langley Uplands. No pictures
of the ride, but here's the ceremonial post-ride smokie roast.
From left to right: Corina, Mike, Craig, DA, Simon, Dave G. and John (the boss) Waterhouse.

The 2005 "Canada Day Populaire" another event put on by the BC Randonneurs

This was a 138km ride through the Fraser Valley to mark Canada's 138th anniversary of confederation. Although we rode up Sumas Mountain, the hardest part was along the flat Wells Line road where a massive head wind kept our pack at only 17k per hour. As you can see below, we're now riding in our official SFU jersey. Unfortunately, they ended up with an orange rather than a red trim.
 That's Dan, Simon Watkins, Walter, me, Dave, and Mike. We lost Gwen and Christian.

Here we are as a team up on Burnaby Mountain:


From left to right: David, Dan, Craig, Tom Poiker, Walter, Simon, Jerry Sheppard, Leigh, with Gwen and Doug on bottom. What an athletic group!

The Main Event: The BC Lung Trek for Breath and Life

  The BC Lung Ride on Sept 10-11 was excellent. We raised around $5000, and had two great rides. Simon Watkins was 3rd or 4th to cross the finish line (no more information necessary!) Here are a few of the finishing photos (I do have front teeth.)





The last one is the view of Cultus Lake from the Camp where we stayed over night.



Pacific Populaire 2006

Unlike last year, the weather was rather nice for our ride around Vancouver. Here are a few pictures:

 This is Dan Brimm in second spot behind some old guy.

Here I am in my plastic sweat bag that I bought in anticipation of a rain storm. I'm also freeriding on the draft.

Here's Walter and Dave Goodman at the start of the ride. Walter is
telling Dave "I know a short cut that will save us 30 minutes in time".

Here's another one of Walter. You can tell he's thinking "How can I beat all of these riders? Should I take a short cut?" Right in front of him in the yellow jacket with the black stripe is John Waterhouse. He's thinking "maybe I should have trained for this after all. ... I can't wait for the snack break.."

The 2006 Canada Day Populaire

A smaller group this year, but 4 of us managed almost 26 km/hour over the 140km course. Sorry to John for not getting any photos.
 

The midpoint:

Victory!! Actually our arms are just locked from being in the riding position so long.