And the saga continues...

So we finally got official word on the fate of Les Taureaux. After 2 months of trying to solve the problem of not having enough players, the team has folded. Apparently, none of the players from La Baie were willing to switch, and as a result, our team can no longer continue. Our players, if they choose, can go play for the teams in Chicoutimi. This whole situation has been stressing me and Chris out for the past few weeks, in addition to pissing us off greatly. It's really frustrating to me the way everything turned out: the president of the league, who is also the coach of the Chicoutimi teams, did basically nothing to help us out, despite the obvious flaw in the organization of the league. It's difficult to relate all the details without boring you to tears, but suffice to say, I have come to the conclusion that he is either lazy, selfish or malicious, since this situation benefits no one except him. I'm inclined to say the first, because it requires the least effort on his part, but who knows. Chicoutimi will be the recipient of several excellent players, which they will no doubt benefit from, and our less talented players will likely become minimum play players, despite all their hard work and effort. And that's if the Chicoutimi teams are willing to take the team to incorporate these new players into their system before the first game on Sunday. I suspect our players will be rather low on the depth chart and will see minimal playing time. However, we did stay to watch the La Baie practice tonight, and I must say, even our kids noticed how inefficiently their time was wasted and how disorganized everyone was. And our two most"challenged" players looked fantastic against their disorganized mess. Hopefully, this all works out for the kids, but it's certainly left a sour taste in our mouths. We'll see how Chris deals with this outcome, since there is now a huge void in his life.
Tonight was also my second ride with Les Gazelles. Unfortunately, it was rainy and cold and it was not pleasant to ride in. Over the weekend, I bought some gloves to keep my hands warm during spring rides. I didn't want to spend $45 for "cycling" gloves and since it's no longer winter, it's difficult to find regular gloves, so I ended up settling on baseball gloves (like the kind you wear at bat). Big mistake. They did absolutely nothing to keep my hands warm or dry. My feet were also completely frozen by the end of the ride, as my bike shoes are not at all waterproof. I did put some toewarmers in them, but the effect was not noticeable. On Saturday, I noticed that people had fancy shoe covers to help block the wind, etc. On Saturday, I thought they were stupid. Now, I think they're genius and I will likely invest in a basic model shortly. I'm also going to look into a good cycling jacket to wear during the rain, since I don't have anything that keeps the water out. We did the same route as we did on Saturday (from Costco out to the first hill in the park and back), but we only did one lap, as everyone was frozen and soaked by the end. My bike computer was not working because of the rain, but I estimated that it took about an hour to do ~24km. When I came home, Chris laughed at me because I was completely covered in mud, head to toe. I'm glad I wenttonight; I considered not going, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. I think if I invest in some appropriate gear, rain riding might not be so bad. I'm looking forward to our Saturday ride, especially since we should have our Gazelles gear then!