Semester Wrap Up

With the race series ending and the semester coming to a close, the UBCTC held their year end party in a big way!

Andrew Wight, VP External for the UBC Triathlon Club has been working really hard on getting sponsorship and managed to get Ryders Eyewear to donate 8 PAIRS of sunglasses to the club to be given away to race series participants in a draw.

Thanks Ryders!

Matt, Celeste and Scott sporting their new swag!

In order to close off the semester fully, there was a little matter of the awards to be handed out.

The race for the Vincent Lavallee Cup was close and after a brief speech was handed out to Race Series Overall Winner Matt Reeve and Female Winner Lauren Sagadore.

What a nice Trophy

Having their names engraved for the first time on the Vincent Lavallee Cup, Lauren and Matt were very excited. Winston was as well, he just wanted to be near the trophy as can be seen in this next photo as well. Could this mean Winston has his eyes on it for next semester?

Nathaniel Showing up Late Posing with the Cup and his Trophy

With this event finished with, the Fall semester was finally finished and only exams stood in the way of our athletes and their home for the holidays.

What will next semester bring? Will Matt be able to defend? Will Nathaniel make up the necessary ground? Will one of the girls take over the title of series champion? Will Lauren be able to defend her title? Or will Claire and Victoria have something to say along with Melanie who boldly stated repeatedly for anyone who would listen that she "Was going to own the competition next semester"

Should be exciting!

Happy Holidays! And see you all in the new year for a full new series!

Event # 12 Underwater Distance Swim

Unfortunately we didn't get any photos of this event so I stole some appropriate ones off the internet.

With the weather forecast showing that it was going to be cold on the weekend, Nathaniel Janzen decided not to risk it and performed the underwater swim early the Thursday before the event. Uncharacteristically, Spazzz was also not going to make it to Sunday swim and therefore also competed early.

Nathaniel could frequently be heard toting that he planned on winning the underwater distance swim competition and in doing so, make his pool domination 4 for 4 (Aquathon, Team Relay, Swim Set, Distance Swim). A bold statement but could he back it up?

As Nathaniel and Lauren prepared for their attempt, the rest of the team continued swimming the set where Vincent Lavallee proved that he is more than just general good looks, but that he also has a sense of humor as he splashed Nathaniel on every flip turn he had the chance.

With that Lauren went first. Having never made it past the red line (halfway) in the pool she wanted to go further. With sheer determination she made it to the black line! 36 meters down the pool. Definitely a decent attempt to maintain her overall lead.

Next up was Nathaniel. Many swimmers stopped their set to spectate. Nathaniel had been practicing breathing techniques in class all week, and as a Human Kinetics major, knows a thing or two about the body (one would hope). He pushed off and was very slow going, looking very relaxed. As he reached the middle red line then the black line he passed Lauren and looked calm and relaxed, no signs of pain. Although he had been underwater nearly 40 seconds now, he showed no signs of weakness. Rumors had it he had planned on reaching the wall and giving one solid push and popping up. Well as he reached the wall he just kept on going. Eventually (and after Vincent took 4-5 breath to watch underwater), he surfaced at the red line near the lifeguard chair for an astounding 72 meters!

Upon completion Nathaniel was heard yelling:

"Now I am the ruler of all the ocean! The waves obey my every whim!"

Sure it was strange that he was quoting Ursula from The Little Mermaid, but he had just spent 90-100 seconds underwater, so we'll cut him some slack.

Sorry Lauren, no one was impressed with you anymore. Surely this will be the distance to beat on Sunday.

Sure enough as Sunday came around, people already had their doubts. All eyes were on Derek Westra-Luney and Matt Reeve. Derek because of his superior swimming skills, and Matt because his pride usually carries him to exceptional performances. Would his pride carry him through to the Victory?

Vincent Lavallee went first, with the goal only to beat Lauren he reached the black line, gave one strong pull and surfaced around 38-40 meters. Not bad he shrugged.

Rachel Schoeler had gone alongside Vincent finishing right around 41 meters. Now the current leader in the women's field.

Matt Reeve and Derek both went side by side, and impressively made it to the wall, however, neither decided to push off again for the added distance bonus. Surely Nathaniel's record would stand.

Now the interesting competition started. In the women's overall, Victoria Gilbert was 4 points back from Lauren. By beating her by 1 spot she would regain 3 points, but not the overall. She needed to beat Lauren by 2 positions, gaining 6 points in the process and the overall title. Unfortunately the gap between Lauren and Rachel (who was currently in first) wasn't just kids play.

Victoria pushed off, appearing to struggle a little bit, but with sheer determination managed to pull her way along. When she finally surfaced, the overall title was still unknown. Measurements were needed. In conclusion, it was decided that Victoria beat Lauren by merely a foot. In doing so was only able to capture second place on the day, but more importantly only 3 points from Lauren, allowing Lauren, our Spastic friend to retain the overall lead in the final competition for the Vincent Lavallee Cup!

Full Results (not exactly reliable for most):

Nathaniel	72
Matt	50
Derek	50
Rachel	45
Andrew	41
Vince	40
Victoria	37
Lauren	36
Scott	31
Winston	30
Claire	30
Kelsey	28
Derrick	25
Celeste	25

Event #11 Tire Change

As appears to be the trend these days, many UBCTC members awoke to a lovely rain for the Saturday bike ride. This in addition to midterms surely resulted in significantly fewer members coming out for the ride. A special note should be taken, that Jared Penner was NOT detered from riding, as he decided it was advisable to do a quick jaunt with another cycling club before meeting up with the UBCTC. Escape Velocity never knew what hit them. Really, they had no idea who he was.

The main draw on such a lovely morning was the promise of competition in the tire change event! Changing a fast flat can mean the difference between winning a race and even being in contention. As a result, we felt this was an important event for the Fall Classic Race Series.

In total 12 people showed up for the tire change. This is of course including Nathaniel who decided against riding because it was too cold.

In a surprising turn of events, the bravado before the event was quite high. Matt Reeve stating that Friday night while practicing he was capable of changing a tire in 1:18. This is impressive, the competition waited anxiously to see whether this was in fact true.

Due to space limitations and to increase the suspense, the competition was run 2-3 people at a time. With such bold declarations, Matt Reeve went first and Vincent Lavallee joined him. May it be noted that Vincent was phenomenally hung over muttering something about fireball, and the general consensus was that on this morning, he was in fact NOT a generally good looking guy. OUCH!

The start was counted down and Matt Reeve quickly got to work on his tire as Vincent fumbled to stand. 30 Seconds gone by and Matt already had the tire off and tube out. 1 Minute and he was already putting the new tube in. As the clock ticked by 1:15 he already was working on rolling his tire over the rim and by 1:27 the wheel was back on his bike!

Nathaniel Bowing down to Matt's superiority

Matt putting the finishing touches on his tire change

IMPRESSIVE!

At this point Vincent was still trying to find the stem of his tube, finishing far behind in 3:16.

Vincent fumbling with his bike

Next up was Winston Guo and Nathaniel Janzen. Both starting off strong, Nathaniel has shown that he came prepared for today as well. Finishing in 2:11 seconds with Winston not far behind in 2:44. Following this, Nathaniel could do no more than to bow down to Matt's supremacy.

Winston showing how it will be done

3rd to race was the girls. The most anticipated race of the day. With only a few points separating first and third. The overall female title was on the line. All three, Claire, Lauren Sagadore and Victoria Gilbert psyched themselves up and prepared for the change. Victoria showed the most skill getting the tire off, as Lauren proved to the rest why she got her nickname of Spazzzzzzzz as she broke a tire lever trying to pull the tire up. After a quick replacement of the lever (thats why you always carry 3) she was back in the game. Victoria held a strong lead while Claire and Spazzz were head to head.

Claire looking calm and relaxed. Lauren looking Spastic

Victoria struggled with the valve and decided that instead of dealing with it to simply take the 15 second penalty and finish the tire change. Finishing in 2:30 and being awarded a time of 2:45. Close behind Lauren and Claire fought it out for second place. As they placed their tire on the bikes it literally came down to who could flip the bike over fastest as Lauren Spazadore finished in 3:38 and Claire in 3:43

Claire and Victoria racing

With this move, Victoria edged ever closer to the women's title in the race series. Needing only a few more points to overtake Lauren. This could be accomplished if the last female, Celeste Pakstas finished the tire change between Lauren and Victoria. As Celeste started her tire change, things looked dire for Lauren. The clocked ticked by 2:30 and she was already getting the sidewall placed on her wheel. At 3:15 he tire was almost on, and snapping it over the last lip was all that remained. Lauren realizing the situation she was in became moderately vocal to say the least. As Celeste wrestled her bike to get the wheel back in place at 3:30 Lauren could be heard screaming profanities at the top of her lungs, further enforcing the nickname Spazzzzzz.

Video to follow

Perhaps it was just luck, or maybe Spazadores yelling was a distraction, but Celeste could no finish the tire change in time and ended up completing her change in 3:46. A close call for Lauren.

Scott rocking out without leg warmers

With all the big movers of the day done. It was time for a lovely wet ride out to Iona where Andrew Wight did his 10k time trial. In significantly less than ideal conditions, he toughed it out for a few critical points allowing him to edge out Derrick Lee in the overall to make the top 10.

Results:

Matt	1:27
Scott	1:55
Derrick	2:00
Flipper	2:11
Winston	2:44
Victoria	2:45
Vince	3:16
Lauren	3:38
Claire	3:43
Celeste	3:46
Andrew	4:05
Jared	4:06

Photos