The Cogals
Cogals (pronounce it correctly: kog-al) are meetings of like-minded misfits brought together by the promise of beer, preceded by a bike ride. Cogals are free, open to all, organized by our fellow Velominati and are always followed by consumption of post-ride recovery ales and merriment. These are gatherings of unbridled observance of Rule #4.
Cogals differ themselves from other group rides by the meeting the following criteria:
- First, Cogals are free, organized and supported through Velominati, though not necessarily a Keeper. Anyone is welcome to join a Cogal. Legally speaking, however, we have no involvement, so if you crash or die, it’s your own problem. Please be careful to study the route previously and take precautionary measures to stay safe.
- Second, a Cogal is a day-long undertaking that focuses 100% on the bike. The rides are categorized (Casually Deliberate, Rule #5, Rule #10, for example) but are long. This is what you’re doing today, nothing else; see Rule #4. Rides can be any length, but a minimum distance of 130km should be expected.
- Third, Cogals always include a session of Malted Recovery Beverage Consumption after the ride. Whenever possible, it should also include a pre-ride espresso.
Not all the events in The Cogals are actual Cogals. We also post rides and events that are of interest to the community, as well as Keepers Tours, which are Velominati-hosted, paid cycling Tours tailored to the tastes of a velominatus.
Any member of the community is welcomed to organize a Cogal. If interested, either post your interest below or email us with the following information:
- Date of Cogal
- Starting Address (ideally somewhere neutral, like a café or park)
- Route (MapMyRide, Bikely, or Strava)
- Ride Classification (Casually Deliberate, Rule V, Rule VV, or suggest another)
- A paragraph describing the Cogal
Upcoming Cogals
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Submit Your Own Cogal:
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@Rob
Ahhhh, what, no mushrooms??? It will not be the same without you Rob but we’ll raise a glass to you after we finish!
@Steampunk
Yes, Canadian picture ID will do, as long as you are not wearing your toque in the photo, eh?
And yes, I REALLY need to get to one of your, “Let’s see what awesomely famous rider just happens to show up to THIS Cogal” ride!
Hope that you can make it but if not, you will just be another one that we will raise a glass to after the ride!
@roger
Yeah, MP’s just LOVE jokes about bombs. Just make sure that you are either well ahead of me or behind me when you make it. I really have never liked being caught in crossfire.
How about jokes about going to visit a fictitious character from the future? I had a moment of panic last year when, approaching West Point, I realized I didn’t know Buck’s real name. I felt pretty confident that his last name was in fact Rogers, so I figured I’d go with “Visit Dr. Rogers” when the MP asked me the reason for going on post.
@CanuckChuck
Ha! I REALLY wanted to name one of my sons Flash Gordon Rogers but the VMH wouldn’t have it. What a lost opportunity right there!
you’re still a young buck, make it happen! the vancouver and seattle cogal reports brought back that itch the connecticut one alleviated temporarily, now to wait until october…
@roger
It’s getting CLOSER!!! And after my ride today I’ll be up to six rides for the year! Woooo-whooo! Look out, I am coming through!
@the Engine @snoov @JohnB Is everyone still in for Saturday then?
Forecast looks OK, wind is supposed to be a steady force 5/6 gusting 9 or even 10 at high levels which might make the Glen Finglas loop a no go. The rest should be fine though, with very little above 400m and most of that not too exposed. Will just have to make sensible calls on the day, I don’t particularly fancy trying to ride over the high point of the route with 100kph gusts!
Apart from the stiff breeze, looks like it will be dry, which should be good!
@campbellrae1
A day for the mtb’s then.
V past 09.00 at the Spar car park in Drymen
The cloud-capp’d tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Well Up For It. 12 Brunehaut Blonde boxed with a bottle opener. Personally happy with a 100kph wind as long as its at my back but it rarely is. @snoov Yours at 0640 ish? There may be another from my neck of the woods if he gets a CX or MTB in time. I gave him The Rules when laid up injured a few weeks back and now on the road to being initiated. Looking at other transportation options (only got small cars now) so I’m still able to pick you up. Watch for email tomorrow.
I’m assuming a fuelling stop at some point mid ride?
That Shakespeare was quite the guy. Got the spirit of the Scottish CX Cogal to a T.
Sorry guys, with a baby imminently due and the flat two months from peaking I’ll have to work at home instead. Got new tyres for this ride but my hormonal VMH just won’t have it – and she’s right, right now, it’s not all about the bike.
@snoov. I think we can all agree that an imminent first offspring coupled with a hormonal VMH are legitimate exceptions to Rule #11. Just this once mind. The best of luck in getting the family home ready in time. I can wield a paint brush if help is required.
@snoov
@snoov
It’ll be fantastic and both of you will be very happy – enjoy the experience and relative peace before your imminent new arrival learns to crawl.
Can I have your tyres?
@the Engine
You mercenary. He’ll need them for the next one albeit with an extra 10psi to cope with the baby seat on the back
campbellrae1, the Engine and Mrs Engine. Thanks for today. My neck, hands and undercarriage certainly know that we we did 6hrs+ off road today. Fuelled only by 2 slabs of damn fine buttered fruit loaf and a double espresso. No punctures and more importantly no ticks after our trek through the trees and bracken. Dropped in by snoov on way home. His family home to be is coming along very nicely indeed. Inside the 2 months from peaking to my eye. Till the next one. Cheers. JB
I’ve been reconning fireroads for some possible SF/Bay Area dirt/mixed terrain Cogal options. This morning was a beautiful piece of trail with ~300m vertical in 10k, all smooth dirt and fine gravel, 8%-15% and parallels a paved route up toward Diablo.
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@EricW Cool, did you strava the route?
Will have dirt wheelset sorted soon.
@Nate I did, but it’s on the Garmin. Will upload it tonight.
@Nate
Here’s the Strava route, 400m total, 300m first climb to the ridgeline, with a ridge trail that runs all the way to Hayward, near Crow Canyon.
http://www.strava.com/activities/79868260
@EricW Very cool. Let’s get some further reconnaissance in effect!
@Mikael Liddy @Daccordi rider Adelaide Cogal 2014 ?
@Barracuda
There’s still some time in 2013…
@Mikael Liddy
Working on a route from Victor Harbor to Willunga and return, post some draft maps asap … some cracker roads down these parts
@Mikael Liddy @all
Draft South Oz – South Coast 2014 ( sometime ) Cogal
Hopefully link works
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/287968421
Thoughts
@Barracuda looks good, not used to rides that long with less than 1k of climbing though “semi-colon hyphen close brackets”
@Mikael Liddy
Ive assumed tongue firmly in cheek, Nettle Hill in the back blocks of Victor is not to be sneezed at and then Willunga Hill straight after a gut full of food at “La Terre” will be fun. Am assuming “Casually deliberate” would be the order of the day anyway.
Say February some time, let the dust settle from the awesomeness that is the TDU !
@Barracuda yup, use TDU week as last minute cram session of training. I like it!
@DNARD
I was toying with the idea… either something casual on the Eastern Shore (from St. Michaels, involving the Oxford ferry and finishing at the Eastern Shore Brewing Co.) or doing some serious climbing out of Thurmont.
We’ve put the South Ozzy Cogal up for all and sundry, open to suggestions, date is tentative, so are the legs !
Kimberley BC will have its first know Cogal this weekend Sunday Sept 29. Starting at the Bean Tree Cafe on the platzl we will be leaving at 10:00am so please order your machiato earlier, or girly latte if you want to be chastised. We will be riding what we estimate to be 160ish km. (although map my ride has a different distance. The ride will finish at the pedal and tap for post ride merriment. The ride pace will be somewhere between Casually deliberate and Rule V depending on the characters that show up. This time of year the weather can be tough in the mountains so please remember Rule #9. Hope to see some people there.
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/296727501
@CanuckChuck I used to live in the DC area. There’s some great riding to be had down in Prince Frederick, especially Chesapeake Beach on south. Constant rollers and great scenery, very little traffic if you stay off the main highway (route 2). I always wanted to do a three-day ride down PF to Solomons from Annapolis and then cross the bridge spend the next two days noodling back to Annapolis on the other side of the Patuxent River.
@Bianchi Denti has put together our own @itburns Memorial Cogal for this Sunday… all Welliminati are welcome. It is also the start of our Spring Classics, so this one will be dubbed ‘Hutt Volk’ as we take in the roads of Lower and Upper Hutt…
Wellington Cogal
Sunday 20 October 2013, 9:30am from Aro Valley Fish & Chip Shop
Distance: approx 130km
Welliminati unite for a casually deliberate, no-drop ride to celebrate the life of @itburns, a friend we unfortunately never met. This is also to show our support for the itburns Memorial Cogal taking place at Westpoint, NY, later the same day.
Shake off the winter blues for 130 (approx) kilometres. We’ll ride from Aro Valley, out to Whitemans Valley, across to and over Moonshine Road, through Whitby, then back to the city via Johnsonville and Ohariu Valley. I’m guessing that few of us have done any distance work over winter, so I’m sure that the pace won’t be too hot for anyone.
Meet at Aro Valley Fish and Chip shop at 9:30am, whatever the weather. There are 2 cafes in the immediate vicinity for pre-ride espressos and snacks.
And beers afterwards, obviously
@brett
“Hutt Volk”? Nice. I see what you did there…
@piwakaka, @G’phant, others – it would be great if you could make it.
@Bianchi Denti
We’ll get this on the Cogal calendar today. Gianni does those and I missed your email so didn’t get it over to you. Brett should also have been able to put the Cogal writeup in himself, but he was probably too busy making girls feel uncomfortable down the local pub.
Gianni will need some add’l info from you per the top of this Cogals page where it outlines what we need – including a route, etc.
Cheers.
The London cogal looked to have been a real Rule #9 day. I couldn’t attend as it was the weekend after I’d returned from a 4 day jaunt to Tuscany sans VMH to take part in l’Eroica – a celebration of cycling around the Strade Bianchi. It was a fantastic, eventful trip. If anyone wants to see my write up, with a handful of photos, let me know at davidlhill(dot)uk (at) gmail (dot) com
If anyone has contemplated this event, but is maybe put off by the logistics – don’t be! All the effort required to get you to the start line (the effort includes potential negotiations with the VMH who may or may not share your love, transporting your bike and the gear) is repaid in spades.
David
@davidlhill
That sounds awesome but rather than emailing a write up to anyone who’s interested this sounds like an ideal subject for a guest article. I’m looking forward to reading it already.
@Chris
I’ll second that as my vintage rebuild has that in it’s future sights. Filled out the pre entry for L’eroica Britannia next summer. Fingers crossed I get an entry.
Apologies for the delay in sorting chaps. Here’s a link to some snaps from the Scottish CX Cogal of some weeks back.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/88612068@N03/sets/72157636809557274/
@JohnB nice one coach.
Eroica Britannia has been signed up for, and I appear to be in the first 500 so June next year will see a reprise.
I can’t see it being done with the same Italian flair, but here’s hoping. For example, there was a limit of 5000 riders for l’Eroica. Unless you were female, in which case you had a place regardless of numbers. And I believe if you were over 65 you got a place.
Did food stops consist of water, bananas and energy gels? Er, no. Chianti, sausages, hams, cakes, Chianti again, breads with dipping olive oils, cheeses, and did I mention Chianti?
I’ll see if Frank is interested in my scribblings!
David
@JohnB
Ooh – pictures of me upright on a mountain bike.
That was a Fantastic day out.
@davidlhill
Did you just do that? How did you discover you appear to be in the first 500? Sounds like good news as I signed up must be at least a week back. My understanding is that the UK will be 2,000 riders.
@frank sounds like we need a woolen V_Gear in a suitable retro font / style.
My understanding of the food situation is that it will be Meat Pies with gravy, Pork Pies, Wensleydale cheese, Bakewell tarts and Beer.
@davidhill re the drinks……
THORNBRIDGE BREWERY – PROUD TO SPONSOR L’EROICA BRITANNIA
Simon Webster, Thornbridge Director and Co-Founder, is excited about partnering with L’Eroica Britannia – ‘it reflects so much of what we see ourselves to be at Thornbridge – passionate about what we do, excited about breaking new ground whilst paying respect to our heritage’. ‘Being based in the Peak District inspires us every day and we know that those that visit the area for L’Eroica will be blown away by the outstanding beauty of the area.’
Look for the Seattle Summer Cogal (STV) on 7/12/14. Article and description pending with @gianni.
@eightzero
Yeah! This is planning ahead. This is making things happen. Can’t wait to see it.
@PeakInTwoYears
You and Mrs Peaks are gonna dig it. Close to you. Start/End at a brewery. Gran Fondo distance. Not huge verticle. Epic. Lots of Epic.
@davidlhill
I’ve just tracked the route near as I can from their map. The full route looks like having around 3,500 metres of climbing. Nice. I think…….though I’ve also noticed something I did not know before – that there is a hill in England that is a bit about 25 km long.
Teocalli,
I received an email from the organisers saying I was one of the first 500 to apply and that I’d get a reduced fee as and when the registration opens.
Cheers,
David
3500m climbing – wow! Sure you haven’t missed out some disused rail tunnels through the hills?!