Tripleshot Cycling

This race was another big learning experience. A race with three stages, but with points instead of time, with 100 points to the winner of each stage, and then fewer as you went down the rankings. It's all explained in the race bible, which is here. Go ahead, read it. I'll wait.

Tripleshot had a fantastic turnout this weekend, with Duncan, Chris, Brenna, Taylor and myself (David) from the junior program, with Lister, Al, Stéphane and Jim racing masters, and Rachel, Sophie, Ethan, Lochie, and sage from the u15 group.

Time Trial
The race started with a 16k time trial on a brutal course. It was 2 laps of an 8k out and back circuit. The first two and a half k's being slightly uphill, then dropping DownDownDown for about 1.3k to the turnaround, and then back the other way. And then that, but all over again.

I got put behind a number of people that I knew I was faster than, and so I was chasing them all. I went pretty quickly, managing to limit my losses to 46 seconds behind the fastest guy, good enough for fourth place in the TT, and 70 points to the leaders 100.

After that, we all decamped to Nymph falls for "Ice baths" which consisted of trying to get out of the near 30 degree heat by swimming. It worked in spectacular fashion, and cooled down and refreshed, he headed off for the evenings Royston Criterium.

Crit (Kinda)
It was a 1.5km loop with open(!) Roads, centreline rules, and only two corners that needed concentration. Almost felt like a VCL race, but flatter, and faster. Because of the narrow roads, the pack had to slow considerably going into the corners, so The back yo-yo'ed a ton out of the corners. I managed to get a good start, and stuck to the front third of the pack. Our race was 30 minutes+5 laps, and about 15 minuted in they rang the bell for a prime. I went for it about 700m to go, got clear, and then saw Steve Lund from VAC go rocketing by, just as I spun out my junior gears. So, it's not my fault if I couldn't accelerate, right? It's the gearing, not me. You're nodding at your computer screen in agreement. Good.

Anyways, I got robbed of what I had previously thought of as *my* prime, and Sat up to settle into the group, but then got forced into the back third, and Got dropped when I couldn't stay with the acceleration for the second prime. Also, I was starting to realize that I hadn't drunk enough water in the past few hours, and had cavalierly chucked my bottle to the side at the start line. Not my smartest move. I ended up in a group of about five people who had also been dropped, and were just mashing all over the road. I thought to myself, "what would Lister do?", and realized what we needed was organization. We ended up getting a nice group going, until people got rested from not doing as much work, and then they could go faster, and I got dropped from that group. I ended up with the rather dubious award of last not lapped, and proceeded to plunge down the standings.

All I know for the rest is that Stéphane and Taylor took first and second in the crit, but somebody else might have to clarify what went on there.

Road Race
After waking up at 6:30 to pack up the campsites, we drove over to the starting area to look at the standings, and saw that Taylor was in third. At that point, we realized that He just might be able to win the overall, and That's what we decided to shoot for. We decided to pull out the tactics from the Friday rides, and we agreed to mark the two riders ahead of Taylor, and send groups of riders up the road. I managed the first part, and spent the first five or six km's Sitting on the wheel of one of the contenders, and then I only really managed to pull off half of the breaks and chases drill. My mark moved up the pack, and I was stuck on the other side of the pack. I then chose to attack. And then the pack chased me down nearly instantly. It was rather depressing. But, if at first you don't succeed, try again. And try again I did. And again. And again. And again. In the first 35km, I managed to spend more time off the front of the group than in the pack.

At that point, the pack started to get a little fed-up with chasing me down, and so I started to find a partner. And then we attacked. And then I found a new partner after we got caught. And then we attacked. And so on. I ended up being informed later rather tersely by one of the masters that I had gone off the front no less than 16 times in the first three laps.

That does take more out of you than one might expect, and so when Lister cramped, I passed him a Gatorade bottle going into the last of four laps, I then proceeded to get dropped, bonk and nearly crash with 15k to go, and ended up death marching the whole way to the finish line. I crossed the line and had a bit of a Colin Jenkins moment, as it turned out that Taylor had won the road race, and consequently the overall. You'll have to ask someone who was within the pack to tell you what happened though.


There are a few HUGE thank-you's that have to go out there. The first is to the organizers of the race, for, well, making a race for us to come race. The parents who drove us up, fed us, cheered and all that helpful stuff. To Lister for being our master tactician. To the club for your incredibly generous support of out junior program.

~David

That was a great event. Definitely recommended. Kudos to the organizers who I think did a great job.


Crit: HOT. Like Africa hot. Seemed ok when we were moving but as soon as you stopped, it was hot. Almost 40 at the start so a big group but the pace and the small climb at the start whittled the group down fairly quickly. Stephane attacked about 10 minutes while the rest of us tried to control the pack, chasing down breaks and being a general nuisance to any organized chase. Stephane stayed away for the duration. Taylor bridged late in the race and they took first and second respectively.

RR: Prior to the race, Taylor and Stephane 3rd and 4th overall behind Derek Tripp and Bill Yearwood, so we made sure to mark those 2 and cover any breaks that went up the road. David was a madman, attacking constantly, ensuring that we could sit in while others took up the chase. Stephane threw in a well timed attack in the middle of lap 4 and Taylor bridged up soon after. Stephane was eventually caught by a couple of chasers and finished 4th. Taylor stayed away and got the win.

Those results got Taylor and Stephane 1st and 2nd overall in B

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This event was a great success for Tripleshot and has to be one of the high points of my cycling "career" so far.
Everyone who came up to Courtenay (not just the riders, but the parents and supporters too) for this 3-race event contributed in some way to an outstanding weekend of cameraderie, racing and general good times. Kudos to Comox Valley Cycling Club who did a great job of organising this race series which included U17, C, B and A categories and even somehow incorporated the Masters series too.
Al, my room-mate and nutritionist for the weekend, persuaded me to do the Saturday morning ITT in spite of a total lack of TT gear, equipment or experience. Taylor and the juniors put up some respectable times, and as for us older guys, well, we put up some older guy times.
The crit was at 5pm, but any hope for some relief from the blazing heat dried up like a worm on a hot sidewalk as soon as we arrived at the course. Our plan was to ride for Taylor and attack the field early and often to wear the other teams down. I attempted one such attack and actually opened up a 15 second gap which seemed to be staying steady as the race went on, so I just kept going hard. Taylor eventually bridged up to me, and with 2 laps to go I felt confident that it would be a 1-2 TS finish. With about 1/2 a lap to go I told Taylor to go for the win as I was pretty cooked. However, it was a bit Hinault-esque as I changed my mind about 20 seconds later and sprinted for the win, nipping Taylor right at the line. My post-race emotions were a peculiar mix of disbelief, elation and guilt but was glad that the GC was still in reach for Taylor.

The Sunday "B" road race was a 70+ km course with about 35 riders. It required a fair bit of strategizing as Taylor was shooting for 1st overall, but Bill Yearwood and Derek Tripp were ahead of him in the GC and we figured that we would have to neutralize them and try and spring Taylor for the win.
This race saw a total team effort: there was always one or more TS rider attacking, pace-setting or chasing a break. It was awesome. David deserves particular credit for his relentless attacking. Oh, and I can't forget Mike Lawless who was on the front for massive stretches, chasing breaks and bossing the pace. I attacked late in the race to force a chase, hoping that Taylor would break away for the win just as I got caught. I was just about to ease up a bit when who bridges up to me but Taylor himself. We worked together to try and maintain a gap and with about 2 or 3 kms to go, I told Taylor I was done and to go for it (I meant it this time!). 2 other riders caught me soon after, but Taylor was too far gone to be caught and got the solo victory - and overall GC win - I knew he wanted. I finished 4th with Duncan (who had been controlling another chase group) right behind me in 5th. Al had the presence of mind to finish ahead of Bill and Derek to ensure they would have fewer points in the GC. The team came across the line in various states of exhaustion, each having played their part in the victory. Finally, just when I thought the weekend couldn't get any better, when I got home I discovered that my daughter had learnt to ride a bike over the weekend!

Great reports guys.

edit: Just to add to Badger's, err, Stephane's report of the crit, he did an awesome ride hanging out there so close we could almost touch him. But it worked, with us jumping with every chase that went. Taylor timed his jump with 2 to go beautifully, just before a narrow corner when I was on the front. He went by me, I did the corner a little slower than I really had to, and he was gone.
(Love the Hinault comparison Stephane .)

Some other good stuff:

results:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... scmc#gid=4

Nice quiet roads. Even with part of the road race on the Inland Island highway, and one lane only for each race I never felt crowded by cars.

U15 were well represented: Sophie and Rachel (going into grade 9), both 13/14, and Lachlan, Ethan and Sage at 11/12 (going into grade 7).

Sophie's just getting over a knee injury that Barb is working her magic on, so did just one lap of the two laps in the third race, but raced well in the other two. Rachel lasted longer but got bumped into the ditch (her cross skills showed tho; she didn't fall!) and lost the group. It was a tough category with these five up against 15,16 year old boys, and multi-year VAC racers. But they were not intimidated (at least that they showed), and the more experienced four showed they 'get it', organizing their groups and working pace lines to chase.

Ethan and Lockie had the Central school team for training and skills first, but Locke's friend Sage had just started with TWO rides only before the race, was game to go and raced well, even though he had never done a group ride . He has been to the free ride park and done a road ride to the velodrome and done all of one of Kurt Innes's sessions, so considerable bike skills. Every time I saw him he was just giving it everything. Whether racing or pine cone fights at the campground.

Nice weather meant swimming holes were a top priority after races. Can recommend Nymph Falls, and the bridge on Duncan Bay Main for beautiful shallow pools in rivers and easy access. Had one moment of excitement when Lockie got tumbled in a pool at the bottom of a salmon ladder (the falls were 18" high, but with significant flow). Fortunately Bernie Pauly, Joanna were watching, and a local guy and David were close by and grabbed him before he went round too many times. "All I could see was white."

Lockie was already known as Lazarus by his parents for crashing and scraping his face on the velodrome last week, then coming back to ride the Tuesday after. He'll need to be called something like Cat Boy if he keeps going through his lives. (Funny thing is, Lockie is not a reckless kid at all, very competent physically, and follows instructions.)

And probably best of all was seeing all the riders enjoying each others company and working together. Hard to know if Taylor could have broken away from strong masters like Bill Yearwood and Derek Tripp alone (they were significantly faster than Taylor in the TT 1+ minutes), but the softening up by the rest of the team had to help, and then taking sprint place points capped it. Even better was that was the plan.

Jim crashed in the road race, in the last lap, in the same category as Brenna. She was the second last junior woman of 8 starters left in the B pack, but stopped to check he was ok. He had wanted her to continue, but I think it was kinda nice. I had cramped, recovered and was chasing on, and caught them as Jim was getting back on. So we had a nice 40 kph 18 km TTT, where Brenna just might have done stronger pulls than her hurting dad. I think Brenna ties for the Tripleshot Spirit award with David who pulled Lockie out of his washing machine swim.

Add a salmon bbq in the campground, a fire, great race stories, and it was really fun. Put it on your calendar for next year.

Thank you's:
Comox Valley CC for a fun event. And focusing on juniors but having a good race for masters too.
Bernie and Catherine who shopped for salmon for the group, and Jim who cooked it.
Una who loaned her bike and shoes to Sage while she trained for BC Games javelin next weekend.
The Pauly's who drove Lockie, and provided a tent for the three boys.
All the parents and families who came and cooked, drove, cheered, and handed water bottles (Bernie especially who had never done this before. Feeling very proud she got a bottle to Ethan.)
Sages parents who sent up chocolate chip cookies.
Al, Stephane, Duncan, David, Glen, Mike, Jim, Eric, Brenna, and Doug, who worked for Taylor in the road race.
Joanna for doing all the food for our family so I could coach and ride in the races to help out.

Great reports and fantastic results. Let's try to keep this team work things going for the rest of the summer - it seems to be working. Not to take anything away from Taylor's individual success - Indeed, there's nothing like a winner to inspire team work!

JT

awesome!! congrats to everyone.