Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Point Series Begins


The Fall classic has officially begun, with a near record 33 participants competing in the uphill bike time trial. The top three performances by both men and women all came from club members who are very familiar with this particular hill and have placed well in the event before. Over a dozen new members took part, making their debut in the point series. The best performance by a new member was Joel, with an impressive 4:38. He finished 10 seconds ahead of Eddy who vows to make up the difference during the aquathon, an event for which Eddy has focused all of his training over the past few weeks. He even got a VO2 and lactate test done specifically to see what threshold he should be at for the three laps of the SUB following the swim portion of the aquathon. Everyone knows you must wear a hat for V02 tests.

Sherwood wanted to save his tired little legs for a cyclo-cross race the next day, so he did not allow me the chance to out climb him (we both finished in 4:20 last semester). He was however, enormously useful as the starter and timer. Rumor has it he will be making an attempt at breaking Barry’s record later this week, on fresh legs. Since Sherwood has never run a step in his life nor been seen in a swimsuit since high school gym class; he is not too worried about any participation points that he might miss for doing the event late.

Sherwood training on a much shorter hill. Vince's best Tour de France spectator impression.

It wasn’t the warmest morning, so keeping warm at the start was essential. Matt explained the benefits of quick, high intensity warm-ups before such short events. Fabian took his message to heart, riding all the way to the Tolmie hill for a trial run. It is still undecided whether his Tolmie repeats did more to tire him out or warm him up.

Kim and Kory had some of the fastest times of the day (5:09, first woman) and 4:24 (third men’s). Their good performances are almost certainly due to the fact that they wisely chose to opt out of the “warm up ride” on SW marine drive beforehand that really only served to chill most of the riders even further. Since the uphill time trial last February took place on a day where the high reached about -3, there was really no real reason to complain.

Barry was 5 seconds away from his own course record, and a time that would have earned him an extra 25 points under the new rules for the Fall classic. This is likely because he did all of training rides in the flatter areas of Vancouver and he forgot his lucky red helmet. (see below)

On both the men’s and women’s sides, it is still rather too early to say anyone has a significant lead in the race series. Matt and Barry are the only two men to ever win the race series, and finished first and second place in this event, just 12 seconds apart. Only one second separated Kim and Claire, the top two on the women’s side. With the new scoring system for the point series it’s hard to get a significant lead on another competitor in the shorter events. After the 10k time trial on Iona Road it should be a lot easier to see the separation between the leaders in the point series.
So find whoever may be just above you in the standings and let a little air out of their tires while they aren’t watching or loosen a few spokes if you can.


Barry 4:03:00
Matt 4:15:00
Kory 4:26:00
Dylan 4:33:00
Derrick 4:34:00
John 4:35:00
Fabian 4:37:00
Joel 4:38:00
Eddy 4:48:00
Jesse 4:50:00
Kevin 5:01:00
Daniel 5:03:00
Winston5:06:00
Johnson 5:08:00
Kim 5:09:00
Claire 5:10:00
Gaelan 5:11:00
Kellen 5:25:00
Victoria5:26:00
Nathan 5:40:00
Jen B 5:42:00
Annie 5:53:00
Naiely 5:53:01
Sam 5:55:00
Jorge 6:02:00
Rachel 6:07:00
Erika 6:12:00
Sherry 6:15:00
Liz 6:29:00
Kyuwon 6:29:01
Adrianna7:20:00
Jasmine 7:40:00
Karin 5:58

No comments: