Tripleshot Cycling

One Big Ride! 7,000 riders and 120 K. The start was great. We got there at 6 and lined up at the sub four hour line. They sent us off in waves, the giro folks first, the sub 3:30 group that included John Taylor, Alan C, Andrew, Geoff, Hugh, Brian (did I miss anyone?). Then Us! Simon, Louise, Gerry, Mike A, Dave S, Norm, John D (again who did I miss?). And off we went!

We got up to speed pretty quickly. In no time we were flying along and climbing up Taylor way. I was on the tail of Alex, a fellow who has rode with a few times on Saturdays. We went ripping along Taylor Way when Mike joined us. Later we caught up to Louise Simon and Gerry. The pace was pretty crazy. We finished the first 70 K in just under 2 hours in a pack of about 25 riders. Sometimes we would get into a pace line but that would fall apart really quickly in spite of Simon's urgings. I thought to my self at this point 3:40???!!!

Then we started to climb in ernest and I remembered, this is where the hills really begin! And they did! Lots of long steady climbs with each on wearing on my a little bit more than the last. I found my self ahead of Louise and Simon and Mike but at about the 90 K mark they came by. I was able to stick with Louise and Mike for a bit as we watched Simon slowly leave us behind. Then I saw Louise at the head of our little group trying to get things going. Then I saw Louise bridging up to the next group a few hundred yards ahead, a massive effort on her own and into a head wind. At about 105 K my calves start to cramp and I have to back off, loosing the group I was with. After a few K another group comes by and I latch on to them. They were not at all interested in forming any sort of organized pace line so I just hung on at the back for the last excruciatingly painful final 10 K! That was the toughest 10 K I have ever ridden! Coming around into the finish area was so great!

There was a huge crowd that I heard but hardly saw as I blindly pedalled to the finish line. I did manage to hear my family holler out "Go Dad!". The finish was so neat. I just backed of from the group I was with and cruised into the finish enjoying the sounds and dreading having to get off my bike and walk! I was really concerned about my calf muscles. Well, I need not have been. My hamstrings and IT bands on both legs started to cramp almost immediately after dismounting. The only way I could walk was hunched over in my cycling position! When my kids saw me they just laughed! They said I looked like a little old man! Well, I felt like it! After a couple trips to the medical tent and about 2 hours later I was able to walk upright again! What a relief!

What a ride! Would I do it again next year? Yes!! What would I do differently in training? Ride more 120 K hilly rides at 10 or 15% less than race intensity but with consistency throughout the ride, launching from one hill to the next.

Speaking of Louise, she finished 2nd in her age group!!!

I would also like to pass on my congratulations to everyone that took part in this epic ride! Way to go!

nice work bart! looking forward to other race reports, i'm doing this ride next year as well as the axel merckx!

Hey, you missed me!

I had a great ride. I was really worried that the hills in the second half would bust my back, but they didn't. I was hurting', but just keep pushing and finished in 4:05. I was hoping for under five hours, and wishing for 4 and a half, so I guess I did ok.

I think the timing was maybe a bit suspect as my friend Richard finished ahead of me, but his time on the website shows 22 seconds after me. It seemed they were having some technical issues at the finish line. How do the rest of you feel about the timing? I guess they should have hired Sylvan!

Thanks to Dave, Norm, and Richard for working with me in the first half. Dave and I were together for the longest, and helped me through some tough spots.

Awesome day. Perfect weather. 54-40 concert was ok, amazing dinner at Elements, and then today we (whole family) went downhilling at Whistler. Most expensive riding ever! But tons of fun.

Sweet weekend.

Eric

JT

All in all, the weekend was pretty awesome. It’s cool to have a TS gathering like that – it really felt like a big event, as there were mostly ten or twelve of us wherever we went. Started at registration, then on to a beer at the Lamplighter and dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and so on. It was great to just wander around in your shorts and tee shirt too.

Five of us rode in from the Accent Inn and got to the start at about 5:30. It was nice to leave the hotel wearing what you needed for the day and hot having to pack extra gear along. I think it was 15 degrees at 5:15 when we started riding. There was a debate about which corral to go into but we went with the first one since it was the sub 3 hour corral, but no one was going to do sub 3 hours so we figured that we would be okay.

The start was controlled this year, so they held us back until the bottom of Taylor Way, and I’m not sure if it was a benefit or not. There was such a big group at the front – maybe 100 to 200 – it spilled over to lanes that were outside the cones. I know that going up Taylor way I had spectators and cones on the left of me and the sidewalk on the right. The group didn’t stay between the cones but just filled the lanes available which was pretty dangerous a few times. You’d be riding along and cones would appear along a line in the middle of the pack. Then there were the guys who were riding in the oncoming lane across the Lion’s Gate Bridge. Kinda sketchy.

Last year I lost our group pretty much as soon as we hit the upper levels. If there’s a hole, someone will just jump in and fill it so I decided that I would go as hard as I needed to in order to stick with the group and that worked well. Alan, Brian, Hugh, Andrew and maybe one or two others managed to stick pretty close together with this big group until the Furry Creek hill. It was pretty fast – we were cooking along the Upper Levels and Andrew was looking to get ahead by shooting up the left (where they had signs saying “don’t ride up the left”). I heard Hugh say “take it easy, we’re going 43k/hr”. Pretty quick. There were way too many sketchy moments for my liking. Any time there was a turning lane or the road widened a bit, people would go wide to try to pass, then it would narrow again and they’d all dive back in and everyone would have to slam on their brakes – the smell of brake pads was really strong. So that went on pretty much to Britannia Beach where I started to drop back on the climbs. There was no way I could keep that pace up the whole way.

Brian and I were grinding up past Murrin Park when Barton goes by “Hey Fellas, How’s it going?” I wanted to say “How the F do you think it’s going” but what do you do when the guy’s just so darn happy to be climbing hills? Barton you’re a freak. Louise and Simon went by about the same time with kind words – always nice when you are tasting blood.

We caught up to Hugh again on the looong Alice Lake grind and the three of us kept at it for pretty much the rest of the way. After about 90 or 100 K Hugh and I both started to get brutal cramps. There was nothing you could do but back right off on the climbs and spin your way to the top. Too much pressure and I’d get a huge charley horse – hamstring, quad, muscles that I don’t know the name of – they weren’t selective, they seemed to be equal opportunity cramps, spreading the love as it were.

Brian stopped at the last aid station to fill a water bottle and Hugh and I kept pedalling. Brian hammers to catch up to us and kept on going since we were busy convincing ourselves that the best thing to do was to keep pedalling instead of stopping and totally locking up with cramps.

I got to the top of the last big grind just outside Function Junction and latched onto a small group for the downhill. Either the coke or the bit of rest and stretching seemed to do the trick and my cramps started to abate. I looked at my watch and realized that I was almost out of time if I wanted to get in under four hours, so I just went as hard as I could. I figured that I might lock up again but I didn’t want to finish at 4:01. It worked out okay in the end and I just caught Brian as we went under the finish banner.

I’m satisfied with my time as it’s a full half hour faster than last year and I wanted to be under four hours, but there is an element of “what if” that sticks with me. What if I didn’t cramp up so bad? How much quicker could I have been? Chris and I were talking about cramping – he was hit with them too – and his theory was that you’re much more tense in a race, so your muscles get more fatigued and react differently. I think there is some truth to that, but when I looked at my stats, I realized that my average heart rate was 20 bpm higher than a Saturday sufferfest, so I think that had more to do with it. And clearly, I am not suffering enough on Saturdays. Still, I think that is the hardest I’ve ever worked on a bike. It hurt so much for so long and that experience alone probably makes it worthwhile (though if you asked me yesterday I don’t think I would have said that).

There were some really stellar rides from Tripleshotters – John T was a beast with the fastest time. Andrew A had a huge day. Kevin had a great ride in the Giro. Mike A., Louise, Brian, Alan, Barton, Simon, Chris – all sub-four hours. Then there was Ritchie and Fairweather Mike who we passed on the highway riding down! You guys are animals! Mark Ford was fourth in his age group and was going out to ride 200K on Sunday.

Other things I noticed:

You spend a lot of time talking beforehand about how we could/should work as a team, but when that gun goes off it can all go south pretty quick. We actually did a pretty good job of working in small groups though.

Headwinds suck.

John T. beat Trevor Linden by one second – he’ll have that forever!

This is the second year that the results have been wonky and not available – it took 36 hours to get them this year. They need to fix that.

The finish line stuff was great this year with a band and beer garden and much better food than last year.

Alta Lake is warmer than Green Lake – I think the swim at the end of the ride was the best part of the whole weekend.

Thanks everyone for a great day.

Great reports everyone. Just so you can say you heard it here first, John Taylor, fuelled by a simmering year-long grudge against me, kicked my butt in this year's Gran Fondo.
He now gets to gloat for the next twelve months.

Team TripleShot finished 11th out of about 50 teams. A great showing for all.
Results available here:

http://rbcgranfondowhistler.com/sites/r ... esults.pdf

Alan wrote:Team TripleShot finished 11th out of about 50 teams. A great showing for all.
Results available here:

If John and Andrew - our two fastest finishers - had actually been registered on our team, we would likely have finished higher.

I have managed to extract some of the results below for TS and occasional TS riders

retired but i dont have all day missed John T and D Andrew Atwell, Richie Hughes and a few others pls add your results to the list

11 PLACE Tripleshot Cycling 3:49:41Simon Pearson Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 30-39 3:43:00

Alan Cassels Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 3:44:46
Chris Fraser Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 3:44:52
Louise Proulx GranFondo Female 50-59 3:47:51
Barton Bourassa Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 50-59 3:48:50
Michael Arensen Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 3:49:41
Geoffrey Wong Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 3:57:23
Brian Einarson Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 3:57:25
Eric Simonson Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 4:05:18
Richard Willcox GranFondo Male 40-49 4:05:40
Minda Richardson GranFondo Female 30-39 4:15:30
Norman Marcy GranFondo Male 50-59 4:22:34
Steve Barr GranFondo Male 50-59 4:26:54
Dave Spiers Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 4:24:34
Mark Ford GranFondo Male 70+ 4:54:19

Thanks to all for your support of each other on this epic event. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves

I still dont see ;th;e Giro Results how did Kevin fare in the big fight ??

The great weather made the event a lot more fun than last year. Instead of mylar space blankets, chocolate milk and shade were in great demand at the end. I managed to stay with the lead group (which was very big, maybe 40-50 bikes) for about 80 Km. Then, we (a group of about 12) kept that pack in sight for another 15-20 km. In fact, we were catching them ever so slowly. On one hill where they were really strung out, we got to within about 30 meters, but no one was able to bridge - amazing how easy it seems after the fact and how hard it is at the time.

Eventually I dropped out of my group, which was down to about eight when I lost them with about 10 km remaining. Some that got away hadn't done any work, but by that point it might have been because they couldn't. I always rotated to the front, but usually moved over right away.

Although I was happier with the result compared to last year, where I bonked with about 20 km to go, I didn't want to finish alone and that is what happened. And, like last year a group (probably another 30 bikes) caught and passed me with less than 5 km remaining. So, endurance is something to work on.

The time sheet indicates that I beat Trevor Linden by two seconds. Truth is, I never saw him, or anyone else at the finish line. Maybe the times have been corrected by considering when we crossed the start. I don't think he was really two seconds back because I was looking over my shoulder for Alan every few seconds!

Thanks to everyone else for making it a great group adventure. I agree with Geoff, swimming was a highlight. Alan, if this was 9 yr old soccer, we'd stop while it's 1, 1. But I have a feeling that's not going to happen.

Norm, I was 3:42:41. I was 3:38:15 according to the live-timing TV screens after the event, so some revisions have been made.

JT

wonger wrote:

Alan wrote:Team TripleShot finished 11th out of about 50 teams. A great showing for all.
Results available here:

If John and Andrew - our two fastest finishers - had actually been registered on our team, we would likely have finished higher.

And if my miserable time hadn't been included for the team average, we'd have done even better!

Seriously, though, while I enjoyed the overall event and the weekend, especially the good company of my fellow TSers, I must admit that Saturday was one of the hardest days on my bike in quite some time. My legs weren't feeling too good from the get go, so when my bike computer failed after the first 10 minutes, I think I ended up hammering a little harder than I'd intended (i.e. being unable to track my speed). The result was that I got dropped from most of the rest of the guys I started with not long after Taylor Way. Mike S and I teamed up and traded pulls for a bit, and managed to jump on a few passing "trains" for some extra juice. However we ended up getting separated at one of the early aid stations.

Round about the 80km aid station my left hip started going "click, click click" with each pedal stroke, so I figured I'd stop and try to stretch it out. No luck...so I continued on at a much reduced pace. The pain was bad enough that I was even thinking that I might not be able to finish when I was passed by a guy wearing a shirt that read "Pain is temporary. Quitting is forever". That did it.

I ended up having to stop at each aid station thereafter, plus a few additional stops to massage a crampy hamstring, but I made it. I only had my regular watch to go by, but I figure that my rolling time was about 4.5hrs, with about another 40 minutes of non-rolling time.

Thanks to Dave S, Hugh and Geoff for vehicle support, and to the rest of the TS team for waiting for me at the end!

John

I have added Andrew John T and John D at the bottom of the list.

Way to go everybody!!!

Did everyone manage to avoid crashes? I came terribly and frighteningly close a couple times but stayed upright, much to my dear wife's delight!!

Barton.

norman marcy wrote:I have managed to extract some of the results below for TS and occasional TS riders

retired but i dont have all day missed John T and D Andrew Atwell, Richie Hughes and a few others pls add your results to the list

11 PLACE Tripleshot Cycling 3:49:41Simon Pearson Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 30-39 3:43:00

Alan Cassels Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 3:44:46
Chris Fraser Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 3:44:52
Louise Proulx GranFondo Female 50-59 3:47:51 (Second in her age group)
Barton Bourassa Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 50-59 3:48:50
Michael Arensen Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 3:49:41
Geoffrey Wong Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 3:57:23
Brian Einarson Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 3:57:25
Eric Simonson Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 4:05:18
Richard Willcox GranFondo Male 40-49 4:05:40
Minda Richardson GranFondo Female 30-39 4:15:30
Norman Marcy GranFondo Male 50-59 4:22:34
Steve Barr GranFondo Male 50-59 4:26:54
Dave Spiers Tripleshot Cycling GranFondo Male 40-49 4:24:34
Mark Ford GranFondo Male 70+ 4:54:19
John Dower 5:08:09 (In pain! But it was temporary!)
John Taylor 3:42:41
Andrew Attwell 3:44:40




Thanks to all for your support of each other on this epic event. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves

Another finisher:

Hugh Hart 4:01:09

Next year anyone?

Some other random things that stood out for me:

- The sight of bicycles and spandex lined up back along Georgia as far as the eye could see at the start. Sweet! Um...the bikes, mainly.

- Passing a guy near Squamish on an old steel bike with downtube shifters who was carrying a pack of Export A smokes in the mesh pocket on his jersey! Who needs gels and caffeine when you have nicotine!

- Barrelling downhill at 70km/r while surrounded by people with no group-riding experience scares the livin' shit out of me.

- Dude at about 100km thrashing away on a full drum kit on the side of the road (something to think about next year Jeremy? )

- Remembering how much I absolutely hate Vancouver traffic.

- Norm yelling "Get a helmet!" at every helmet-less cyclist that we passed while crawling through Vancouver traffic on the way home. Given the slow speed that we maintained, he got to yell this four times at one particular hipster who was driving alongside us on his fixie.

- Dave S. can drive like a frickin' demon when need be! Seriously, should you need a wheel-man for your next bank job, or a guy to get you out of a potential kidnapping sitiation (i.e. suppose you were in a vehicle convoy under attack in, say, Kabul or Mogadishu), Dave's 'yer man. Hugh would make a pretty good back-up.

- John T knows wwwaaayyy too much about expensive cars. Alan and I notice car colours.

John

I competed in the Vancouver Whistler Giro Race on Saturday. I was fully prepared for the race. I trained, I had planned peak, I ate correctly for at least 2 months, borrowed Zedwheels.com race wheels from Brad (very very awesome wheels) studied the course, had a nutrition plan. The only part I screwed up a bit was the morning. I got up on time but had a brain fade on our departure time from North Vancouver to the race start. I wasn’t thinking they would close the bridge. Anyway, I got there with 10 minutes to spare but I was in a bad mind set to start.

I climbed over the fence at the start gate mid pact of the ~80 racers and was instantly among friendly people, which was comforting. A Pro City guy introduced himself and another guy in vintage grey, black and yellow TS gear said “nice kit!” You have to remember this is my first real race other than VCL. Last year I did the Gran Fondo and had major cramp issues and came in a time of 4:16. I was a bit nervous and should have given myself some positive energy time at the start.

Ten minutes later the 6:50AM and the starter let us go. It was all very mellow but still people pushing forward within the peloton, I think I slid back a few spots over the bridge with guys burning up the inside for no real reason. Then came Taylor Way, the pace quickened and I knew I needed to stay near the front. I made sure I was ready and on it. This was the first sort of ‘oh crap’ moment. 4 kms in and I was out of the saddle cranking it to stay mid pack! We turned onto upper levels highway and there seemed to be an all out sprint up front. I managed to bridge the first one with a few behind me but I never looked back how many. Long story short this happened 2 or three more times with 5 or 6 of us working together to get back on the back of the peloton. Which we did until the last time at 30 kms in or something and the same 4 guys cracked off the back again. We rode together all the way to Squamish with the main peloton in sight the whole time rotating pace line on the rivet to catch but…it never happened. In the end it came down to Ted Watson and myself riding together alternating in our own sad pain train TTT for 40kms until the 110 kms point to catch the peloton. I was strong on the hills he was a force on the downhill. It didn’t matter what gap I put on him on the hills he could come by me so I stayed close to help him. Turns out he was stronger than me anyway. At around 110 kms a train of quicker racers came though working together who had be stuck behind the women Giro riders. They looked fairly fresh and we jumped on the back with big smiles. 5 minutes later I was not smiling. I was digging as deep as I could but had nothing left. With everything cramping, even stuff I never felt before, I really dug deep. It really was the most suffering I have ever experienced.. sadly I couldn’t hold a wheel. ☹ I tried rule #5 http://www.velominati.com/blog/the-rules/ over an over but to no avail.

I sat up looking for a 4th wind…it came in the last 5 kms as the lead woman passed me back. She was on a break away and I couldn’t stay with her. Then the whole female peloton came by me. That was enough to give me some inspiration. I already had 10 minutes on them since they started 10 minutes before me but it was enough competition for me to get going again. I was then riding with the commissaire on the motor bike as he watch the women. He said I could not pass them back so I was to neutralize to the finish. Fine with me. It gave me a reason to ride calmly at their pace as they setup for the final 5kms tactics for $2000 second place prize. I came across the line likely looking pretty fresh and on my own. No signs of near death for the spectators ☺

Next year if I race it again I need at least 10 long intensity rides. I think the big difference is the intensity. At least 2 Tuesday A rides in a row, as in two full hours at race pace. My Giro results are unknown. I know the female time was ~3:53 and they started 10 minutes before me so it was likely 3:43 ish. I know I wasn’t last since I passed the Red Truck rabbits they sent out who cracked me early. But I have no idea how many other riders were ahead or behind me. Unfortunately, the website STILL doesn’t have the results posted. I have send a tame frustrated email. Seems they have timing issue again this year. Other than that, it was really well organized and a great event. Finally, Huge thanks to Dave and the rest of the TSC guys that let me cram in the back of the truck for the drive back to Vancouver. I had a STUPID plan to ride back the same day. Not sure I would have made it home.

Saturday's race started last year at the 90K mark. That was the point where I realized that I had gone out too hard, worked alone too much, burned way too many matches, and was in trouble. I limped across the line in 4:05, devastatingly close to my goal of a sub4, but also quite embarrassed with how poorly I had ridden. Coming across the finish line I had two goals for 2011, to crack 4 hours, and to not ride like a complete idiot.

This year was much better.

Thanks first of all to Lister's bike handling skills course. I may have waited a little late to do this, but it payed dividends. There wasn't a skill taught that I didn't use or think of at least once.

Another year under my chamois and I can handle the pack a little better. Last year I didn't know why people kept putting their hands like they were signalling to a team car. This year I managed to move my eyes off the wheel in front (yes Lister, I shouldn't have been looking there in the first place) and directed my attention skyward. I hadn't noticed the overpasses or the people cheering across the entire length. This year it was me with a hand off the bars waving back at them.

I tried, mostly in vain, to have people keep their pulls short. Why do guys get to the front of a 50 person peloton and then try to hang there for 2 mins as their pace slowly falls? Most didn't even get the hint when I pulled the line around them and would try to hop back on the front. I think that this will get better over the next few years and will see an improvement in the average times.

I worked with Alex and Barton for the first third of the race catching Mike A just north of Taylor Way. Louise was like a bad penny, making all of the early breaks and magically appearing in each successive group we tracked down. The hills outside of Brittania Beach are where the peloton really started to thin out. I got in a chase group of 7 and from that time on made sure that I was always near the front 15 riders of the group regardless of the extra effort that was required. All the action happened on the uphills and the Goldstream Heights rides had me ready for these rigours. You don't need to do those rides on a cross bike necessarily, but they are exactly the workout necessary to prepare for this race.

I caught up to a group that included Andrew, Alan, Chris, and possibly a few other baby blue shirts. Frankly by that point I could hardly see. Again I moved myself to the front intent on working hard for those behind. With 15K to go it became obvious that although the group up the road was within striking distance, no one had the will, or frankly the organization to give chase.

I fell back in the last km, deciding that I'd rather stay upright than hammer for a few extra seconds risking life and limb. I came around the final corner and was caught meters behind two guys who fell, the one on the inside not being able to stick his line. Weight back, arms locked, full on brakes, and a bit of swerving and I managed to stay clear.

I broke 4 hours, but more importantly I rode well. I worked for others, never missed a single chase, arrived with almost nothing left in the tank but didn't have the terrible cramping that plagued me for the last 20K in 2010. A huge thanks to Tripleshot, the albatross is gone...at least for a while.

Way to ride Simon! 3:43:00, just behind John T! I'd say that is substantially better than last year! Very cool Simon! And very glad to hear you finished upright and missed that crash. I bet you were thanking Lister as you pedalled to the finish.

Better late than never right? Here are some photos from the WGF.

This album contains TS photos only.
This album has others including the first male, the first female, and the women giro peloton.

Great pics deb

The Giro results are finally up this morning! It looks like I actually did a bit better than I thought. 3:40 and 41 st place out of ~90 is fine with me. Still would have been more fun riding in the peloton for more than 10 minutes.