Tripleshot Cycling

It was quiet a ride! Started out great! Got up Cypress in good time with Chris Marshall. Roared down with him and one other fellow. We caught the tail end of the Fondo group so there were about 3000 riders in front of us. The 3 of us sort of worked together. The other fellow liked to pull and felt we weren't going fast enough. Take it away! We picked up a few more Forte riders; easy enough to id with red and white socks we were given and asked to wear. The other guy bonked near Squamish. He asked me for salt tablets! I had none but gave him a handful on my homemade power bar. We lost him shortly after, and it was not because of the power bar!. Chris and I kept loosing our riding mates as they fell off. Some of them pulled on the front way to long and fell off the back. others just fell off!

things were going great! We passed a ridiculous number of people. The Medio people joined us at Squamish. A group of young folk, 12 to 18 years old or so and a couple ride leaders pulled in right beside us. There was maybe 20, 24 of the them, 2 up, well disciplined! Chris and I tucked in with them for quite a ways up the hills past Alice Lake and beyond. They were actually going quite quick! I backed off a bit, being a bit concerned with close to 40 k still to go and lots of climbing! Chris carried on.

I was ok. I joined up with a few other folks and rolled along nicely. With 25 K to go I had my first gentle cramp in my hamstrings. By 15 K to go, many sharp cramps! I stopped and filled my water bottle with my magic powder and their gatorade and drank half of it right away! By 10 K to go I was cramping so bad the cramps damn near jerked by foot out of its pedal! I had to stand a lot to try to easy the cramping as one muscle then the next in my upper legs went nuts! I almost stopped but willed myself to the finish line!

I had so much energy left but was just incapable of expending it in forward motion as I tried to deal with the pain of each successive cramp! I rode well the last few hundred metres to the finish line as Shannon cheered me on and I smiled bravely, fearing but also longing for the moment I could get off my bike!

I rolled into the corral after the finish and said to the first volunteer I saw, "I need help here Please!!". I stopped my bike. Two of them held me up while I tried to unclip. they layed my bike down so I could get off it. I could not reach down to undo my shoes! The volunteer had no idea how to open them as I stood there in pain as my leg muscles went nuts!!! Finally free of my shoes, one person undid my helmet, another took my bike and another helped me hobble to the medical tent. What a sight I must have been!

I made my way to the med tent. They were absolutely useless!! One medical person in there with one volunteer, maybe 16 years old, who had no idea what to do! I asked for electrolytes. They did not have any!!! None! In the whole finish area! I was amazed!!

I continued hobbling on my own and found Shannon and her sister. I was walking a bit straighter than 5 minutes earlier but still in pain. We continued to walk and things settled down about 15 minutes later. Phew!! I had been worried!

I had slept well, eaten well, hydrated with electrolytes for days before. I have no idea why the cramps hit and hit so damn hard! I must try to figure that out!

All in all, a great day!! It was an amazing ride. An absolutely beautiful and almost perfect day for weather. We did have a pretty good head wind at times that really hit us as we were climbing past Squamish but what the heck! It was so much fun. So cool. Such a great challenge. And I made Shannon's number one goal for me, I finished with out crashing!

So how did it go for the rest of you? Steve W, Chris M in the Forte; Kevin F, Mike D, Andrew A in the Giro; Mandy and Geoff in the Fondo? Anyone else? Really glad to see finishing times for everyone. There was a really nasty crash on one of the downhills toward Squamish. Riders down, smashed helmets, lots of blood! Not good so really glad to see everyone else finished.

Sounds like fun well done.

I did this ride for the first time this year. I signed up at the last minute and did the classic 120km route as I've only done one ride over 100km this year and the Cypress detour sounded like a bad idea. I started pretty close to the front of the ride with the intention of killing myself up taylor way and the upper levels highway and try to get in a good group that I could draft off all the way to Squamish. The plan worked and I rode all the way to Squamish in a huge group of about 50 riders all about at the same level. I would guess that it was probably the 3rd or 4th group on the road. I saw one guy just in front to the left of me go down pretty hard when he hit a pylon at the bottom as a descent, he took out the guys beside and behind me but I made it through OK.

I got into Squamish in 1:48:00 and was feeling pretty good about being able to break the 4 hour mark. But then going though Squamish I noticed I was having a hard time keeping up on the level ground and soon someone who was passing pointed out that it looked like my rear well was bent. I stopped and sure enough I had a good bend in my rear wheel and it was rubbing against the brake. I tried to open the brake but the rim was too bent. The nearest rest stop was about 10km away so I rode up the hill from Squamish to the rest stop at Alice Lake with my rear brake rubbing and being passed by a lot of people. Turned out I had broken a spoke somewhere along the way. The mechanic at the stop was able to put another spoke in and get it a little bit straighter but he had to open the brake all the way to get it spin without rubbing. The whole process took about 10 minutes and then I was back off on my way with only a front brake. Good thing I didn't need brakes anymore by that point

The ride was hard and a little bit of a blur between Alice Lake and Whistler, I do remember the head wind and trying not to be out front or on my own. I have to say the last 10km of the race between where you see the "Welcome to Whistler" sign and the finish line seemed like the longest 10km I have ever rode. All the big hills were behind me but every little roller seemed huge. At the finish line I took a closer look at my wheel and another spoke was broken, so I guess I'm thankful that I was able to finish the ride and didn't have to walk my bike or wait to be picked up by the broom wagon. Overall I finished in 4:17 and 237th place in the Fondo. Not bad for riding half the ride on a broken wheel.

We spent the rest of the weekend in the 30 degree sunshine in Whistler drinking beers, eating nachos and watching the crazy downhillers with the family. I definitely recommend this ride to people with families. I stayed with friends in Vancouver Friday night and sent the rest of the family up the whistler for the Friday night and then we all stayed Saturday up there. It worked out well.

We had an awesome weekend, and not a bad bike ride too. The last time I did this ride was the second year for the event and it's a bit different now. The start was at Brockton Oval rather than on Georgia St., no fencing to separate corrals so you could line up wherever you wanted. It felt like the ride was more spread out for the whole way, but that might have been because we started in the 4 hour corral rather than the 3 hour one. We never had that big group to hide in that Andrew got into, and that made a big difference. Regardless, it was pretty smooth going out of the city and all the way to Furry Creek. There were too many passengers and not enough people willing to take a pull though. I could tell that we were going to be hard pressed to get there in four hours.

We took a quick pee break at Britannia Beach, I downed a coke and a few oranges and we were off again. It was pretty much a steady effort from then on. About thirty of us lined up behind a guy with aero bars who took us right through Squamish at about 40K/hr, then blew up and disappeared. From there it was just a long grind up hill and into that brutal head wind. There was one guy - Charlie I found out later in the beer garden - who we worked with really well until he stopped to fill a bottle just before the descent to the salt sheds. Then there was another guy we connected with, so Mandy, myself and Trek guy in black swapped pulls the rest of the way with maybe 12 to 15 guys sucking our wheels the whole way. Every once in a while we'd go to the back and the pace would just plummet to 25 k/hr or less. It was pretty clear that everyone was getting tired but the wind really sucked the life out of anyone on the front. So we just continued the routine all the way home.

I was really pleased with my ride. I was worried that the time off the bike beforehand would hurt me but it was probably a big help. Same with skipping the weight room for the two weeks before. It felt great to be able to get the power down and keep it down over a sustained period of time, but mostly I was happy because I never knotted up with cramps. I got a few little ones but was able to work through them and keep the power on pretty successfully. Another wheel or two that was willing to work and we could have shaved a bunch of minutes off, but it felt great to be able to put it down on the day. I've been where Barton was and it's frustrating to know you've got more to give but just can't get it down. Barton, the only thing that works for me is Coca-Cola. Drink it early and let it do it's thing!

The official timing had us at 4:20 though my Garmin said 4:15, so who knows? I was looking at the results from the last time I did it - the first finisher in the Fondo that year was 3:19 and this year it was 3:36 so that gives you an indication of the effect of the wind this year.

Mandy and I rode the whole way together - I didn't have to cheat to keep up with her this time. She graciously let me pull for the last kilo then took me at the line to beat me by a second. She finished as 14th woman overall in the Fondo, 6th in her age group and 285 overall, another strong day for her.

Spent the rest of the weekend drinking lots of beer, lying in the sun, swimming in Green Lake and getting the VIP treatment from RBC. Now let's go race cross bikes!

A number of TSC-Procity folks did the ride including Kevin Ford, Mike Dawson, Matt Billighurst and myself. Matt had the ride of the day riding in the fondo in the lead pack and then breaking things up and riding off the front into the headwinds I gather after Squamish. He was out in the lead for a big chunk of the day. He crossed the line in 6th place overall, a time of about 3:42 or so, but was ranked 12th due to the quirks of WGF timing. The first 8 riders were Alta Classe riders. Amazing ride by Matt. The times were slower because of the headwind and because many of the riders were in the giro or the forte. I was in the giro but had my month old chain break on the Lions Gate bridge during the neutral start. Fortunately Velofix got me going about 10 mins later by Park Royal and I rode up steady with another giro rider in 3:55. Kevin had a strong day finishing 3:35 and Mike was in the second group until he punctured due to tacks on the road at the salt shed. They were out of tubes so repairs took a while, but he still had a decent finish. Perfect weather, great ride up to Whistler.

It was the worst of times it was the best of times. I have now done this ride 4 times 2010,2011, 2013 and 2014. 2012 and 2014 in the race category. Each time it has been the hardest ride I have done all year. I don't often get cramps but I have got them every WGF.

I was most prepared physically and mentally this year....( I thought ) out of the gate the pressure was on and I followed Andrew to the front of the pack over the sharp incline in Stanley park and up to the top third of the pack. We moved onto the bridge, I lost track of Andrew at the start of the bridge but moments later I saw the sparks coming off Andrew's dangling chain as it bounced off the cement just after leaving the bridge deck. "dude, that sucks!" I moved up to the top 20 or so heading up Taylor way and knew I'd be sliding back after that. I slid back through the back REALLY well. I was about 40th after the climb and pretty winded but OK. Next was getting up to the highway and that's when something physical or mental happened on my bike or my head. Basically, I felt a massive drag and thought I I had a major mechanical. It seemed so bad I stopped. I watched the Cat1-3 racers swoosh by. I check my bike and ....surprise! Nothing wrong. I started riding again, looking up the road only to see a 500 meter gap that I knew I had no chance of closing. I caught two or three others and a pack joined from behind. We rode together for 20kms with 5-10 of the group working the rest sitting on. I thought, I am not going to have another hard day and then get jumped by someone smart enough to sit on. It was a race after all. So I had staycation at the back of the pack for 80kms. Yes 80kms. At 100kms it was race time. I attacked at least five times consistently dropping a few folks each time. I led into the village and then had one guy pass me. He was an ex-cat1 MEC rider who I used as a lead out and then took him for the sprint. It was rewarding to at least turn the experience into a "how do I get the best result out of this" moment. Sadly had I not stopped I think I would have been 10 minutes up the road this year.But..maybe not. There is always next year! Congrats everyone on your rides.