Tripleshot Cycling

well, all I can say is that the folks in baby blue & pink argyle did us proud. Jen and Carly were 3rd in the female tandem (having stared down serious world class competition and getting the job done) race. And ROLAND RABIEN hit the second step of the podium earning himself a silver medal and a pretty clear future in paracycling........

I will leave it to the riders to give the details but from my perspective (driving a car in the race caravan - which was totally cool!) they really really made us proud.

Way to go TSC

From Canadian Cyclist:

http://www.canadiancyclist.com/dailynews.php?id=19503

Wow, way to go guys!!

The baby blues look pretty sweet amongst all those dark blue fleurs-de-lis jerseys.

Thanks for going all the way over there, obviously trying your guts out and reprezenting to the max.

Podium photos:

Well done all. Very cool to see Tripleshot competing with the traditional powerhouse of Cdn cycling, Quebec.

Road race report:

14 laps of a 5 km course for a total of 71km. 60 meters climbing per lap, as well as 8 90° corners plus a chicane. This was a tough, technical course; and it was hot and windy.

They started the mens tandems, womens tandems and c4/c5 cyclists together even though the racers were being scored separately. And the mens tandems were doing more laps.

From the start, I glued myself to the wheel of the strongest tandem. My plan was to hang on as long as I could, and hopefully they'd pull me to victory. My plan lasted about 3 laps when I exploded on the steepest section of the hill. I looked around, expecting to get dropped, but it was just the mens tandems, me & one other cyclist, Mark Breton.

Mark dropped off the tandems as well. I'm pretty sure he could have stuck with them. We played cat & mouse for about half a lap until Peter's car pulled up next to us and the race official in the passenger seat started yelling at us to quit fooling around and start racing. So Mark started racing and dropped me on the next hill. Damn, 10 laps to go solo.

The race was more 'pro' than the $50 Peter won a few weeks ago. There was a race motor bike with a photographer, another one yelling the splits to me in both English and French. Peter was driving in the following caravan. Katie was running the feed zone. Refilling bottles for Jen, Carly, Peter King and I. As well she was timing the gaps, phoning Peter, who would then relay the gaps to me. It was a pretty pro operation.

A few laps later the mens tandems came around to lap me and I jumped on their wheel to get a tow around the windy section of the course. Apparently this was a no-no and the marshals car pulled up next to me and waved me off. I saw Jen and Carly a few times, and they offered me a tow as well, but I couldn't take it. Apparently you need to be on the same lap to work together.

With about 5 laps to go, Peter pulled up next to me to let me know that Eric, in 3rd place, was taking huge chunks of time out of me. 20 or 30 seconds a lap and the gap was coming down quickly. I put the hammer down and was relieved to hear that the gap was back over a minute once I crested the hill. Little did I know he had stopped to switch a flat and once it was fixed, the gap started coming down again.

On the final lap, they started pulling the vehicles out of the gap between Eric and I. I knew that meant he was close. It also meant no more updates from Peter. On the last climb to the finish I could see him behind me, no more than 500 meters back. I knew it was too much ground for him to close in just a few km, so pushed on to finish second.

Turns out it wasn't Eric behind me, but the mens tandem coming around to finish as well as some womens tandems. Eric was still over a minute behind.

I raced as well as I could have, I don't think the top step of the podium was an option no matter what I did. Maybe next year?

I need to thank Katie, Peter and the club for all the support in getting me to Nationals.

The start, too many Fleur-de-lis.


Mark & I with Peter following in the Red PT Cruiser


The BC Crew (missing Doug Sims)

And here is the hardware:

Little known fact: Roland chose to wear women's footwear on the podium.


And of course, no race report is complete these days without a proper Tripleshot Victory Salute:

I had best put in my two cents sooner than later!

As you can see from the photos, the Quebec team was out in droves and dominated the podium for many of the categories on both Saturday and Sunday.

All the other tandems were from Quebec, and the other 2 female tandems were strong with very experienced pilots. One tandem is already on the national team while the other has a stoker that is a para-nordic skier who competed in Vancouver 2010, and a recruited pilot of Lyne Bassete. Some tough competition.

The start of the race was interesting with everyone going together and the “man-dems” definitely drove the pace. Needless to say, we worked hard going downhill and then fell off the pack with the first climb. There was 1.5km of climb over the 5km loop. Carly and I managed to finish off 11 of the 14 laps for a total off 55km. Definitely a technical course with some sharp corners, and a few with a steep downhill leading into them. Top quality for Quebec!

A huge thank you to Katie for doing a fantastic job in the feedzone! I found the heat to be difficult, and was thankful to have water to drink and dump over my head to try to stay cool. Everything was really smooth for handling 4 riders and everyone being new to handing off. Thankfully we were heading home before the actual heat wave came this week!

Thanks to everyone for their support in getting Carly and I to Nationals this year! It was good to see some riders out there to represent BC! And in honour of TripleShot, we took a podium photo with all of us doing the moose salute!