Uphill Bike & Race Series Final Results

Since the beginning of humankind, we have dreamt of escaping the confines of our local gravity well, of taking flight and exploring the stars. Da Vinci studied the flight of birds to inspire his designs of flying machines, but it was bike mechanics, not polymaths, who first took us to the skies.

And so it was with this in mind that on November 22nd, a group of triathletes released their trusty two-wheeled steeds and set off up the Spanish Banks hill in an attempt to join the ranks of Amelia Earhart, Lance Armstrong, and Icarus.

Eric "Eponymous" Zhao had been sitting out the race series up until this point, opting instead to time the events. But this time he figured, What the hey, he needed to bike up the hill anyway to time the finish, why not just giv'er and put in a time worthy of immortalizing in the annals of UBCTC? So he did. He generously gave himself and 10-second deduction for starting the timer and putting the timer in/taking it out of his backpack.

Melissa "Natural Killah" Jung was next up the hill. She didn't seem too enthused about having nobody to chase. Lions don't run for no reason. But we convinced her that if lions had access to high-caloric foods as easily as we did, they would be at great risk for cardiovascular conditions. That spurred her to do the race.

Emily "Kind-of-a-big-deal" Rankin was next, channeling all the rage built up over years of teaching schoolchildren and designing beautiful buildings into a roid-rage-worthy performance.

On the men's side, rumours emerged that the rivalry between Chris and Flo has escalated to such a point that Kanye and 50 Cent could not help but take notice. Ever the gentlemen, the two waited until the team had left on their staggered starts before ripping into each other with caustic one-liners and trash talk that could fill 50 Great Pacific Garbage Patches. Keep an eye on these two next semester!

And that concludes the Fall 2015 UBC Triathlon Club Race Series! Thanks everyone for participating. If you couldn't run/swim/bike with us this term, you'll have another opportunity next semester. Don't worry too much about winning -- as Winston "Blue Steel" Guo always says, it's not about the Race Series points, it's about the style points.

Fall 2015 UBC Triathlon Club Race Series Final Results.

Blog writer takes a break, oh yeah some guys ran a mile too

Well, here we are, a rather two weeks late post and you can certainly put the entire blame on this, ehem, guest blog writer. But without giving away the jewels of the true winner of the series, let’s recap the mile and flash back in time! And timely of course, throw the guest blogger under the bus while we're at it, since there seem to be a lot of anticipation for this recap.

Source: http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/OBAMA%20UNDER%20THE%20BUS_31802#img9

This year marked the 2^nd anniversary on the modernized mile at the Acadian blocks running establishment. Rumours are apparently the conventional 400m track have been scientifically proven to be too repetitive and boring for triathletes. As a result of diligent action by the execs, Sixteen hundred metres (and maybe 9ish more) of extreme cardio had to be moved to wider, straighter, harder pavement surface (AKA triathlon-friendly) to give a greater challenge for the athletes and draw more blog readers to this recap.

Source: https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/g/go_the_extra_mile.asp

To add to the excitement, a bonus incentive for more highly coveted race series points was up for the taking, but only if you had the guts and fine fashion sense to wear anything denim. In retrospect, it seems last year everyone but the eventual event winners wore denim. Denim stocks took a plunge this year as top winners weren’t classing the denim wear…anymore. Even Katy Perry's daisy dukes Californian girls are no match to inspire the fashion sense into this world class field. Only your designated blogger and official fabulous timer, Eric, wore denim as he wasn’t even competing but was obligated to keep his sponsors happy and make a celebrity appearance.

The Acadia mile consists of a gruelling 1200m loop and straight into a 400ish m loop. Or best described as 5 right turns. But of course if you don’t do the pre-race warmup, you might confuse the course and take an early right turn. Race marshals had to kindly direct, yours truly, back onto the proper course as there was no ice cream aid stations as originally promised.   

Ben wins the polka dot jersey, and obtains some valuable TV time for his big sponsors. Potential denim donors, be on the lookout. He blistered up the first hill of the mile before the first right turn at 3:20 per km pace. Realizing his job was done, and there were no more swimming legs in the race series, Ben being the swimmer decided to jump into the ocean to do a late night swim before eventually coasting into the finish for the mile to preserve his king of the mountain status.

Florian uses his efficient German-engineering skills to keep the yellow jersey for another day. As overall leader coming into this second last event of the series, he will need to give a last ditch effort to clinch victory. He signed up for the half marathon race by accident, and may not finish the race series.

Reza finished among the leaders and offered some insightful commentary of the course at the half way point. He said something along the lines, “this is insane, not sure I signed up for this”. Martin calmly fills him in that the second half is actually the harder part. Not sure what to do, Reza pushed himself to great lengths and podiumed.

Not that it matters, the ladies competition was decided before the race started. Previous ladies champion Jen, decided to DQ herself for very sportswomanlike conduct. Free hugs and excessive high fives will not be tolerated at this world class big competition in the Acadian blocks. Sarah took the official win and secured the 1000 points.

Painfully-noticeably absent in this race is silent assassin Keith. Will he be back to strike again at the uphill TT or head straight to some BC town called Fernie for a 8 months boot camp? 

Source: https://www.andertoons.com/work/cartoon/4027/i-appreciate-you-going-extra-mile-ted-but-now-youre-mile-away

 

 

 

December Sponsor of the Month: West Point Multisport!

West Point Multisport was born out or our Original West Point Cycles store at 3771 West 10th Ave. West Point Cycles wanted to expand their business to include Triathlon while including a fit studio for bicycle fitting. The original location just was not large enough to do this properly so we added West Point Multisport across the street.

West Point Multisport has been open for 5 years now and we have worked hard to provide parts and services for triathletes of all levels. The Multisport store offers rentals and sales of Wet suits and sells clothing, swim wear, swim accessories and Nutrition for Triathletes specifically.

In May 2015 West Point Multisport added an ASSOS pro shop to the space which has added value to all of our customers’. The Multisport store is now the only place in British Columbia to provide a full ASSOS shopping experience.  This has not taken away from our dedication to Triathlon it has simply added more options for all cyclists.

The Multisport store currently sponsors both the UBC Triathlon Club as well as the UBC Road Cycling Club. We hope that this sponsorship helps students continue to participate in both Triathlon and Cycling events while studying at the University.

The West Point Multisport store at West 10th and Alma.