Calgary...Per Velo

School is still off the charts and in response to viewer demand for more video content I will deliver.
In this latest visit to the video vault I am proud to present a short that I created to showcase some of the finer points of Calgary's core and the beauty of exploring these areas by bicycle. After returning from Belgium in 2005 I was burnt out and bored and found new challenge in discovering Calgary again after many weeks away from home.
Grab your townie and lets hit the streets for an urban expedition.

Cabin Fever

It's too cold for most anything outdoors. As a result I spent 6 hours on the rollers in three days this weekend watching peasant vision and heating the icebox from the bottom up. I booked a two week stint in Victoria for Dec 25th - Jan 8th to rack up some huge base miles and get '07 rolling officially. As it turns out Victoria is getting record snowfall, but then again any snowfall is a new record in that ever spring paradise.
School is off the charts hectic these days. 4 papers and 3 presentations in the next 9 days and all I want to do is spent 6 hours a day on my bike. When that time comes it is going to be a beautiful thing.

The Kermesse

In this third installment of what is becoming the pdotproductions mini film fest I take you back to the roots of my film making. "The Kermesse" was produced in 2005 on my first trip to Belgium. This was my first film and represents the discovery of the video capabilities of my camera and what a simple Windows program can do for editing. As a result this production is somewhat unrefined and lacks quality in a many aspects, but I hope you can still enjoy it.
"The Kermesse" is an exploration of the roots of Belgian bicycle racing. The race I documented takes place on a Wednesday evening in a tiny village in the Flemish countryside. This race is part of a racing series known as the VWF, or Flemish Bicycle Federation. The closest comparison to Canadian racing would be a cross between Cat 1/2 ABA racing and a midweek series. This racing league is independent of the UCI in terms of licensing and attracts riders of all levels in its various categories. From April to October these riders race between 2-3 times per week and by the end of the season many have competed in over 80 races. Ex professional cyclists, young career types, factory workers and students alike come together to cultivate the true spirit of competitive cycling. Witnessing the the complete infusion of cycling into the Belgian way of life is a beautiful thing, and this type of racing represents the link of the common man to the glories of the famed cobbled classics.
This film follows the drama of the "A" group race which proves to be intensely competitive. Watch for characteristic Belgian aggressive tactics and a blistering pace from start to finish.

Winter Wonderland

The weather has changed again and my world is a clean, crisp white. A couple of weeks ago, after the last snowfall, I rewarded myself for a hard week at school with a dash along the Douglas Fir Trail and a film making session. Check out "Winter Wonderland" to see the result. This clip has been in the sidebar for a while now, but here it is officially. Relax, turn up the bass and enjoy.


Winter Wonderland on Vimeo

King of the Mountains

Last night at Ceili's BK's family was presented with this jersey signed by hundreds of local cyclists who attended the memorial ride on Sunday. BK will forever be the "King of the Mountains".

Brian Kullman Memorial Ride

The Synergy Racing Team remember their teammate.

Yesterday I took part in a memorial ride from the Cadence Coffee in Bowness to BK's house in Inglewood. Well over one hundred riders from a multitude of teams and cycling backgrounds took over an entire lane of Memorial Dr to honor one of the local cycling communities strongest personalities. Along the entire route local media covered the event and Calgary's citizens showed their support by waving and honking. It was an incredible sight to see so many turn out to remember BK. This event succeeded in showing the true spirit of the tight knit Calgary cycling community in remembering an individual who was a friend to all and gave so much to the growth and prosperity of the sport in this corner of Alberta. Upon arriving at BK's house a moment of silence was held in his honor and brief stories of happy BK memories by some of his closest friends were shared. Several members of his immediate family were present at the event and expressed great appreciation for the efforts of the cycling community in this difficult time.
Prior to the commencement of the ride all of the riders signed a Tour de France "King of the Mountains" to be given to the family as a lasting token of appreciation for what BK has done in many of our lives.
This evening I will be attending a wake in BK's honour. It is time to celebrate the incredible memories BK has left us with.

Over one hundred riders turned up at Cadence to show their support.

Brian Kullman Memorial Ride

Calling all ABA riders in Edmonton, Calgary and surrounding area. This Sunday November 19th, since the weather looks to co-operate, we will be hosting a memorial ride for Brian Kullman. I'm sure all of you have received the previous email from Andy and understand this tragic loss. We will be meeting at Cadence Café in Bowness(6407 Bowness Rd) at 12pm and leaving at 12:30pm. We will ride from Cadence to Brian's home in Inglewood where we will have a short remembrance service. The route we will ride(for the late people) will be Bowness Road to Memorial Drive. Memorial to the Z00 Rd NE(zoo bridge) and then east on 9th Ave. We will be contacting the media about this ride so that the public can see how much he had touched the cycling community. We will also be encouraging recreational riders to join us. Please come out and show your support.

I will be attending and encourage you to do the same.

A Tragic End

It was with great sadness that I read the police bulletin this afternoon which confirmed that BK is no longer with us. It was the ending I had prayed so intensely we would not see. I will miss Brian deeply. In the past 6 years I have known him as a team mate, training partner and competitor but mostly as an incredible friend. He never failed to offer support and helped me immensely on many fronts. He challenged me to excel, supported me even when I was half way around the world. He was dedicated to his work, his friends and to cycling, spreading his love of the sport to all he encountered. His ability to bring humor and life everywhere he went will never be matched. Life won't be the same without him.
I can't imagine the pain his family is suffering and wish them peace in this difficult time. God Bless you BK.

Latest Developments 16/11/06

-----------------------------------------------------------------
CITYBEAT - CITY OF CALGARY PRESS RELEASE
-----------------------------------------------------------------

The Calgary Police Service Major Crimes Section has laid a
second degree murder charge in relation to the Brian Wayne
KULLMAN homicide investigation.

At approximately 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday November 15, 2006, a
suspect was arrested at the Calgary International Airport.

Bill James PAPPAS, 35, of Calgary, was taken into custody
hours before he was to board a flight to Europe.

In the early morning hours of Thursday, November 16, 2006,
PAPPAS was charged with one count of second degree murder, as
well as arson, possession of stolen property under $5000,
uttering a forged document and fraud under $5000.

Mr. Kullman was last seen by friends and family on the
evening of Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

On Wednesday, November 8, 2006, at 7:40 p.m., the Calgary
Police Service and the Calgary Fire Department responded to
reports of a house fire at the home of Brian Kullman. The
circumstances surrounding the fire caused the Joint Forces
Arson Unit to investigate.

On the evening of Thursday, November 9, 2006, the Arson Unit
discovered further suspicious circumstances which caused the
Calgary Police Service Violent Crime Team 1 (Homicide Unit)
to assist in the investigation.

On the morning of Friday, November 10, 2006, a missing person
investigation was initiated to locate Brian Kullman, as well
as his 2003 Mercedes Benz C240 vehicle. That afternoon, the
RCMP responded to the discovery of a body found near the side
of highway 66 in Kananaskis Country. The body was later
identified as that of Mr. Kullman.

The 2003 Mercedes Benz C240 vehicle belonging to Mr. Kullman
was located in southeast Calgary in the early morning of
Saturday, November 11, 2006. This vehicle is currently being
examined by the Calgary Police Service Forensic Crimes Scenes
Unit.

Investigators would like to thank those members of the public
who came forward with information as to Brian Kullman’s last
known activities.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
       CITYBEAT - CITY OF CALGARY PRESS RELEASE
-----------------------------------------------------------------

The Calgary Police Service has identified the body found in
Kananaskis Country, Friday, November 10, 2006, as Brian Wayne
KULLMAN, 39, of Calgary.

Mr. KULLMAN went missing from his southeast Calgary residence
the evening of Tuesday, November 7, 2006. His car, a silver
2003 Mercedes Benz C240 station wagon, was also missing.

Early Saturday morning, November 11, 2006, Mr. KULLMAN's car
was located in southeast Calgary. This vehicle is currently
being examined by the Calgary Police Service Forensic Crimes
Scenes Unit.

The investigation into the death of Mr. KULLMAN continues.
Anyone who had any dealings with Mr. KULLMAN up to the time
of his disappearance is asked to call the Calgary Police
Service Violent Crimes Team 1 at 206-8721, the Calgary Police
Service at 266-1234 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS
(8477).

Missing

Update 14/11/06: Calgary Herald , Police Bullitin

No concrete developments have been made in locating my missing friend Brian Kullman. His car has been found , but there is still no sign of BK. This situation with Brian being missing has been really difficult to deal with. The worst part of it is not knowing where he is or what is really going on. I have tried to piece things together in my mind and make sense of the situation, but it all seems so unreal. I want to believe that all of the events that have happened as of late are all a strange coincidence and unrelated. I want to believe that Brian is ok and that we will be seeing him again soon.
Until Brian is found I will not be posting anything on top of this post. Keep praying for Brian's safe return.

Update: Sunday's article From Calgary Herald ,(Nov 11/06)New Police Bulletin

It has come to my attention that a potentially serious situation has developed regarding the apparent disappearance of a good friend of mine, Mr. Brian Kullman. This comes as a shock to me and is very concerning. If you have any info please follow the instructions below.



CITYBEAT - CITY OF CALGARY PRESS RELEASE

The Calgary Police Service is seeking public assistance in
locating a missing Calgary man.

Brian Wayne KULLMAN, 39, of Calgary went missing from his
southeast Calgary residence at approximately 10 p.m.,
Tuesday, November 7, 2006. Mr. KULLMAN's car is also missing.

KULLMAN is described as a Caucasian male, 6'2", 154 lbs. with
brown eyes, brown hair and a medium build.

Mr. KULLMAN's car is a silver, 2003 Mercedes Benz C240
station wagon. Plate # EJT 768.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Mr. KULLMAN is
asked to contact police immediately at 540-2858 or 266-1234,
or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

Openface Delights

I have previously commented on the joys of the open face sandwich. The advantages are many, but with the sandwiches in question the most obvious asset it the incredible beauty of the dish. The far left sandwich is comprised of liver pate as the main feature, on a bed of lettuce, garnished with cherry tomatoes, fried mushrooms and parsley. The sandwich in the middle is highlighted by a traditional pork roll sausage (with pepper), again on a bed of lettuce and finished off with red onion, tomatoes and parsley. Finally on the far right we have a red sausage sandwich. These sandwiches came fresh from the Danish Canadian Club, which is reflected most strongly in the very typical thin dark rye bread and such toppings as the red sausage.

Aftermath

Today's temperature was an incredible 14 degrees by late afternoon. I took the opportunity to bring my half dead cross bike back to life after the weekend's misadventures. The bike was almost unrecognizable when I brought it out into the late autumn sun.

Free Cross

With the competitive season finally coming to a close it is time to turn to alternative activities to feed the need to be alive. As much as I will be trying to stay away from bicycles in the next few weeks to ensure I am fresh and excited about riding when the time comes, there is one form of riding I am sure I will engage in in the coming weeks. My good friend Alex has been in the business of putting suspension and disc brakes to shame on city trails for the past few winters and summers alike. Although I am sure it is not an entirely unique concept, our own brand of off season cross has been adapted to our unique environment not to mention climate here in Calgary. Trails come back to life from the drops on rigid bikes with 700c wheels. In the spirit of the ever squealing canti and as the first of many video installments to come I present "Free Cross". Alex and I originally created this little clip last fall with the idea of creating a full length cross documentary eventually. Here is the original trailer and despite the advertised release of the full feature we never got further than what you are about to witness.



Free Cross on Vimeo

Happy Birthday!

An important anniversary has come and gone, Pdotproductions is one year old!
With all of the action of the past month it completely slipped me by. Pdotproductions started as a simple way to keep in touch with friends at home and abroad, to take the place of email updates that never seemed to get written. Now the blog has evolved into a hobby of mine, helping me to convey and share what I am up to, my ideas etc. Through the tools of statistical analysis I am happy to announce that p-productions.blogspot.com has readers in almost twenty countries around the world. Readership spans 5 continents and includes regular readers in Canada, the United States, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, France, Brazil, Portugal, Australia and India to name a few. It has been exciting to see interest in the blog grow and with the aim of growing further and providing even better content for faithful viewers the home base for pdotproductions has converted to a high speed connection. Thats right folks, if you were not aware this blog has been updated almost exclusively on a 40 kps dial up connection since its humble beginnings, which limited the content greatly. With the new capabilities available, look for new and exciting mediums to enter Pdot's world and yours!

The Source

Want to see cross and other cycling update from the source? Belgian Sporza has you covered. If you have other free sources for recent cross video content drop a comment.

Alberta Provincial Cross Championships

Hurtin
Photo: Reid Cummings

Rough day, a very rough day.

Deadgoat put on an incredibly good race and the racing was as fast as ever. Due to the rapid temperature increase of today and the snow of the past week the course was extremely slick and rocketed the technically superior to the front of the group. Needless to say I rocked the back of the bunch today, and wasn't to pleased to do so. I think I probably hit the turf at least 10 times today, but I am sure everyone had there fair share of down time. All in all it was a lesson in balance and grit and despite finishing I don't care to extrapolate. Tim rode an incredible race, reports suggest he was at another level today compared to races past, and took the win by a very clear margin. The other story of the day was Bunnin making the top end of the bunch for the second race in a row. Mike B came back from a disappointing start to the season to end the day in 4th I believe, setting him up nicely for a strong nationals campaign next weekend in Nanaimo, BC.
Its been a good run this season. An enjoyable cross season with plenty of highs and lows. The racing was very competitive and stimulating making it all very enjoyable. I won't be heading off to the nats, but I would like to wish all who are best of luck. Time to focus on school and rest the mind of bicycle racing for a few weeks.
My apologizes for the apparent harshness of a bit my previous post. I am in fact not bitter at all, just trying to sum up some of the challenges of this season. A reader reacted and prompted me to review it. If you haven't been following along this season you won't have understood several of the comments made (why I came back to Canada early, how that whole plan didn't pan out at all, the countless road trips which led to other frustrations etc.), so to make it more presentable to the masses I changed it. It was a season to remember and I learned a great deal about what life can be like. The plan is to make racing more enjoyable, thus the planned change for next season.

2007 is in the works....

I have no doubt I will be returning to continental Europe to practice my trade of choice in 07. I plan to ditch the NA scene for the entire season and focus on a land where you can race daily and race hard, a land free of Symmetrics and riders too scared to challenge the black and yellow, a land free of multiple transcontinental flights per year, a land were you can race at the shoulders of giants on a daily basis, a land I have grown to love.
Tino is hard at work putting together a bigger and better squad for next season and according to preliminary reports from Belge things are looking good for "De Per" in the roster.
For a sneak peak at big things to come HERE is the launch pad for riding with the big kids again in 07. Rumor has it he is bringing some new talent to the team along with some significant sponsors above and beyond last year's High 5 outfit. Exciting times as always in the world of P.

Up For Air

I am back, at least for now. Before I dive into another round of complex time management and trademark task juggling efficient here is an explanation for my spaced out cranium as of late.
I have finally made it passed the first hump that is the looming of end of term. Although there is still about one month of classes left the pace is quickening past the trot of Semptember and light gallop of early October to a furious stampede.
In addition to piling assignments, labs, midterms and projects I was confronted with the task of organizing a cross race which I am sure most of you are well aware. This project was originally entrusted to me on the terms that I would simply be responsible for course design and some volunteer coordination. Hours of phone calls, emailing, paperwork, rides to numerous courses, map sketching and sleeplessness later the race happened relatively smoothly. The only complaint is the turn of the weather, but personally I feel that brought out the cream of Alberta's talented cycling crop and highlighted the personal strengths of my enlisted volunteers.
On Tuesday evening Purdy, Bayly and I held a little driveway powwow emptying the ABA van of two races worth of course marking supplies and organizing them for the grand finale of Alberta cross to take place this weekend. It was the end of one of the biggest projects I have ever undertaken and a welcome end at that.
The other side of my recent stresses has come from academic circles. In the course of 15 hours between yesterday evening and ten this morning I worked a shift at the Oval, finished a lab assignment, slept for 5.5 hours, wrote a Exercise Physiology lab quiz, did a VO2 max test in running shoes on a Monark and did a complex in lab assignment. The VO2 max test was garbage. Despite high tuition and the supposed strength of the Uof C's knes department testing took place on a Monark cycle ergometer with a broken seat. I brought my shoes and pedals to try to make the test somewhat valuable but had to resort to some shallow toe clips and hockey tap to improve my pedalling efficiently. To say the least my VO2 isn't as high as I had expected it to be, but I now have a greater appreciation for the importance of proper equipment fit and related procedure in a testing environment. The people in exercise physiology give us a hard time about dotting our V's, but won't admit that testing under the described conditions is next to worthless, what quality education. On that note my lab assignment is going to be fun to mark with all of the sweat droplets and shaky handwriting as I had to start it within 5 minutes of coming of the bike from the test. They didn't even have any water for the subjects....
I can tell I am still a bit out of it so I will leave it at that. Look for better content in the near future.