Tour of Vic

[barton bourassa]

What a ride! What a day! All those long miles, some on my own, in the ran, really paid off! By my watch I finished just under 4:20. I ended up riding with Brent, Brian, Gabe and Dave. Sure glad Brian was around cause my crank came off 2 k into the Munn Rd climb! Brian was right there with a wrench. Brent turned around and wait for the repair then the 3 of us head off on our own. We had been with a pack of about 30 maybe 40. They were long gone but Brian said don't worry we'll catch them and so we did! We caught the pack and then some at Wallace and West Saanich. We stayed with them till Wain and Brent and Gab and I managed to hang on for a while longer. We were flying along past Mattick's when a car decided to make a sharp and quick right turn right in front of us! The poor race marshall at that corner had no idea what to do. The look of fear on her face match that of the fear on ours as we hit the brakes hard! Other than that, I experienced no scary incidents. We flew down Cordova Bay and started the climb up to Mt. Doug Parkway. I was passing folks on the inside, letting them know I was there of course! when my crank came of for the second time! Sadly no Brian around to help as I watched helplessly as my group continued up the hill! Yelling mechanical would have been futile! Fortunately, the Garmin vehicle came by a minute later. I held up my crank in the air, the passenger jumped out with the correct wrench in hand and had me back on the road in 30 seconds.

For the next 15 k I was on my own and hurting! Finally a couple guys went by and joined them then 10 or so more came by near the golf course on Beach. I just tucked in and hung on! I found the biggest guy and stayed there. All the way down Dallas and thru Belleville I kept repeating Focus, Hold your line, Do not overlap wheels, Stay aware! I was just bagged as I have not been in a long, long time! As the rest of the group started their sprint to the finish, I just kept pedalling and telling myself to stay upright! Now is not the time to fall! I made it across the line with immense relief!

It was a great ride and a great day. I want to congratulate everyone of us that made it out this morning. This was a challenging ride!

[gab]

Results are posted:http://racedaytiming.ca/raceday-results

Great ride today! 15 minutes before the start, I realized I left my water bottles at home, but managed to make it there and back with two minutes to spare.

Great to see so many tripleshotters out there. Managed to get into a big group until the highlands--big thanks to Dave for pulling me through the hills. Then I was lucky enough to hop on with the Pro City group, which was awesome. Eventually got blow off the group in Sidney when I pulled a bone head move trying to close a gap and got caught out in the wind--mental note, don't be a hero, stay in the pack.

I was able to get in the odd smaller group here and there, but not for long--so it was mostly a time trial from Sidney to the finish. It was really great to have all the volunteers and people watching providing motivation, makes a huge difference.

At the end of the day, I was able to knock off over 22 minutes on last year's time, so I was super stoked. Congrats to everyone who came out today!

[Stéphane Tran]

Looks like Brent and Roland made it into the TC (4th photo):

http://www.timescolonist.com/Photo+gall ... story.html

[barton bourassa]

My apologize the Brett and Brent. I mistakenly referred to Brent. It was Brett Schofield that I rode with or rather that helped drag me along! So it is Brett in the photo!

[Curran]

It was a great day for us ~5hr TS riders too. Managed to find Geoff & Dave just off of Munns and we stuck together till the end. Much easier and more fun in a paceline than hanging out alone!

[Roland]

Any word on Simon? I heard he took a tumble around the 70km mark.

[AndreaR]

I saw Simon at the finish line - smiling despite blood all over his hands and knee! He also wrecked his brand new shorts, but luckily it didn't seem to be anything more serious than that.

[katew]

Wrecked his new shorts?!?! ZOMG.

But, seriously, to more important things:

How's the bike?

[DavidB]

He's good. The shorts looked reparable, so crisis averted.

[debh]

I'm sure you will hear from Simon shortly. No major bike damage (at least on a cursory check), but some pretty significant road rash, a tetanus shot, and definitely damaged brand new kit!

[Plawless]

I had a great day! I waffled on this ride right uop until Saturday morning. I am SUPER glad I did it. My goal was to hammer as hard as I could to stay with the front to Munn's and then see who was around me at the top. It was a hard climb up the lagoon to say with the leaders and I backed off a bit up Munn's and it worked great. I descended with Andrew (who it must be said is a ferocious decender!!!) and we got a pack of 6 together to rotate catching the next pack who then were the second group on the road. about 16 of us rolled all the way home then but were a little slack from Sidney. If we worked together I think we would have caught the leaders but I wasnt working so.... Troy was an absolute beast tho!

I even got a new name in the results "Peter Lancer" - awesome!

Plus Strava records it with a Suffer Score of 202 "extreme" with 102 points in the red - Nice!!

[beegull]

My apologize the Brett and Brent. I mistakenly referred to Brent. It was Brett Schofield that I rode with or rather that helped drag me along! So it is Brett in the photo!

Like Peter, I also underwent a name-change for the Tour de Victoria. Outside of the Tour, people call me Brent, but during the ride I am Brett (perhaps in honour of Bret, the time-traveling t-shirt-wearing retro-Fred from the planet Tridork).

[Vanessa]

I was behind Simon when he crashed when we were leaving the feed station in Brentwood and the guy bounced back up and onto the bike before I even had time to register what had just happened. Not only that, but he immediately proceeds to assemble a pack out of thin air AND THEN takes the front for what he said was 15 minutes but I swear was like half an hour. As if that wasn’t enough, when I started to hit the wall at around 110 k Simon stuck with me and managed to talk me through to the finish (Its just like a Friday morning… just get to coffee!!... though in this case, “coffee” was the beer garden).

Definitely qualified for Hero status. Thanks a million Simon, really appreciated all your help!!

[John D]

I even got a new name in the results "Peter Lancer" - awesome!

I guess that explains why Mike didn't recognize you as we passed you going the other way down Wallace. That, and the fact that you guys were flying!

[spearson]

The rumours of my death have been slightly exaggerated. Last Tuesday I just managed to keep the bike up at the velodrome and avoided what would have been a spectacular bail. At the TdV I descended only moments before the crash at Lindholm. The Cycling gods were getting closer and certainly skin would have to be shed to appease them. Just after the Brentwood aid station I took a corner badly and bailed. My debt to the Gods is paid up for a few years.

As marathoners know, the first few minutes after aid stations are the most likely for ankle sprains. You broke your rhythm to grab a cup which means it will take a bit to settle back into that effortless pace. As any triathlete will tell you (if you ever SPEAK to a triathlete), the first 800m out of transition are toughest as new muscles are being recruited. I went down less than 500m from the aid station, too worried about keeping the group together and finding other legs to work with than with where I was going. The bike is ok, though it will need new handlebar tape.

When I knew I was going down, I thought only of keeping my hands on the bars and finding meat. I took the brunt of the fall on my quad. My knuckles are a little bit busted up and I was certainly grateful for the helmet which saved me from a blow to the temple.

Getting back on the bike I could feel my body was full of adrenaline and my hands were a bit shaky. I didn't feel that I was safe to be in the group as my bike control, and I would imagine decision making, was a little bit impaired. I took to the front of the pack determined to drive the pace until my body settled down. After 20 minutes I finally regained some composure and I pulled off the front.

Best moments of the day – watching Vanessa cruise past 10 guys in the final kicker of Munn Rd, flying along Dallas Rd as fast as a B2 ride but after 120K, watching Deb pull new rider Jamie through the finish line of her first event, and sampling the post-ride beer garden.

2013...

[Paul C.]

Good to hear everyone is generally ok. Will our C group Quarterback be out for Caleb this wednesday? Thats you Simon! The QB can always call the plays from the sidelines..come for coffee Tuesday or Farm Team Wed a.m. i. Now will we see Vanessa Wed nite in the Highlands? We hope so. pc

[wonger]

http://www.facebook.com/CVVmagazineFP

[wonger]

Lots of great photos of Tripleshotters climbing Ash Road at this link...

http://www.facebook.com/ACyclistsLife/photos

[John D]

Lots of great photos of Tripleshotters climbing Ash Road at this link...

Including these two who don't seem to have official TdV numbers for some reason. Hmm....

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... =3&theater

[Lister Farrar]

Lots of great photos of Tripleshotters climbing Ash Road at this link...

http://www.facebook.com/ACyclistsLife/photos

Look, he has two cranks in that one!