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

Event #10 Run Relay

With such a tight battle for the overall, making the teams was a VERY stressful task. We wouldn't want someone getting an unfair advantage in the relay resulting in some type of physical harm being done towards Vincent Lavallee for making the teams, potentially damaging his generally good looks.

As a result, high school level math was required to compute the most balanced teams possible. With that done, everything was ready to go!

But wait... As the teams were being organized a surprise guest made an appearance as latecomer Kory Seder required a spot on a team. Fortunately for Kory, the teams had a minor inbalance prior to his arrival, and the acceptance of his entry into the race made the numbers work out significantly better.

This move did not come without consequence though. Kory's arrival made him the 19th participant. Damn prime number. Vincent took the bullet for this one and challenged the teams to a race. He would run the entire relay solo (3X900m followed by 3X500m).

On a dark and rainy night, the 6 teams of 3 lined up and prepared for competition.

As the gun went off Andrew Wight was quick to take the lead, running the first 900 meters in sub 2:50. YIKES! Followed closely by Kory and Liam Harrap. With the handoff the second round of runners took off.

Our unaccompanied hero Vincent pulled through in 4th, hoping to hold on. With the second wave of runners starting, Vincent regained his stride and managed to claw his way back to the top. Reaching the completion of the second lap close behind 1st place in second. As he started heckling Derrick Lee, he realized his legs were no longer nearly as fresh as someone's who has yet to run as Derrick started to slowly pull away. This crushing blow was only magnified as Vincent heard the quick pace of footsteps behind as some of the big guns, Matt Reeve, Winston Guo and Nathaniel Janzen blow by.

Intense handoff

Matt Reeve was seen running through the entire field from 7th into 1st over 1 lap running it in under 2:45. Vincent Lavallee Running in 3:20 laps was definitely feeling the pain in his legs.

As the set of 500m laps began, Vincent thought his chances may improve as his competition may have blown up on their first laps. But as it turns out, they were refreshed after a few minutes rest and ready to sprint. Vincent found himself in a world of trouble as he raced Kim Seder through the middle lap of the 500m. Despite Vince's best efforts, Kim managed to hold him off through the lap for her handoff to Victoria who took it home.

The 500m proved to be the downfall of our underdog hero. 500 meters is simply too fast for the waning Lavallee. Claire made short work of Vincent as she blew by him on her run of 500m.

Vincent being criticized for heels striking

In the end, our President Vincent Lavallee was not able to bring home the victory. His competition was simply too strong for him. This however, he will take as an accomplishment. Being run coach this must simply be a reflection of his coaching skills.

Andrew Wight, showing the effort

In the end the winning team of Rachel Schoeler, Lara Russel and Matt Reeve completed the 4.2km Course in a record setting 14:46, averaging 3:30.9 minutes/km. Pretty fast! Second place team, finished just 10 seconds back, meaning they ran each lap less than 2 seconds slower. Pretty fast group!

Team 1: 14:46

Rachel Schoeler

Lara Russel

Matt Reeve

Team 2: 14:56

Annie Mauer

Andrew Wight

Derrick Lee

Team 3: 15:01

Kelsey Foote

Greta Raymant

Nathaniel Janzen

Team 4 15:06

Celeste Pakstas

Winston Guo

Jesse Chao

Team 5: 15:18

Lauren Sagadore

Claire

Kory Seder

Solo: 15:31

Vincent Lavallee

Team 6: 15:38

Victoria Gilbert

Kim Seder

Liam Harrap

Special acknowledgment must be given to Scott Chris who although did not race, took times and photos for the group.

Event #9 Swim Test Set

On a lazy Sunday morning, the University of British Columbia Aquatic center saw 17 triathletes dip their toes in the pool in preparation for event number 9; the 500m swim set.

To everyones surprise dominant swimmer Nathaniel Janzen was nowhere to be found. Has he given up the chase against Matt Reeve. This could equate to a critical 15 point swing if Nathaniel decides to make up the event.

Ironically, in our first swim with the new tent in place, the sun decided to come out from hiding. There are many mixed emotions towards if the tent is a good of bad thing. Time will tell. The main impact it had for the swim test set was that the pace clock was no longer visible, would this affect the racers? Probably not, but you never know.

Looking over the group, Winston Guo surely must have been seen excited by the turnout. Having voiced his concerns over lost ground in the swim set, seeing that many of the middle range swimmers were not present, this bode well for him.

With the table set, Ivan called the start and the race was on. Leaving on 15 second intervals to prevent drafting, the fastest swimmers of each lane went first, followed by the rest.

There were many strategies, Vincent Lavallee*, followed Rachel Schoeler by 15 seconds where he decided to try and bridge the gap by sprinting the first 100m with the hope of getting into her slipstream, however, he had no luck in such matters as she quickly pulled away leaving him tired and without shelter. This technique may have been more successful in other lanes, but this narrator is unaware if that is so.

By the end of the grueling swim, Alex Lush was a clear winner in a time of 7:00 flat with Rachel finishing in second in a time of 7:20 and Vincent in 3rd in 7:25.

This is the first time in the University of British Columbia Triathlon Club history that the women take the win, and not only that but take second place on the podium as well!

With that done, the race came down to the further lanes to see where the division of rank would come. Matt Reeve who was worried of his hold on first overall maintained a solid showing finishing in 3rd male just behind Scott Chris distancing himself from Winston, but where was Nathaniel?

In the women's race Spazzzzzzzzz or infrequently known as Lauren was capable of holding off her main rivals in the overall to regain her place atop the women's field.

Following the event, speculation of where Nathaniel was started to leak out. The predominant vote was that on his bike ride in to campus he got cold and decided to bus home. But confirmation was still needed for this.

In a follow up, Nathaniel Janzen, Andrew Wight and Kendra Swain did the swim on the following Tuesday, setting two new course records! Kendra set the women's record in a time of 6:31 and Nathaniel, in a time that would have lapped Vincent set a time of 6:11. Those will be two times that may stand the test of time on the record board.

Congrats to all who showed up. And shame on Nathaniel for sleeping in.

Results:

Alex Lush	7:00
Rachel Schoeler	7:20
Vincent Lavallee	7:25
Scott Chris	7:39
Heather Enns	7:45
Matt Reeve	7:47
Spazadore	7:49
Celeste Paskstas	7:53
Kelsey Foote	9:00
Claire	9:30
Winston Guo	9:41
Victoria Gilbert	9:41
Derrick Lee	10:00
Eddie Wu	10:20
Debbie Poon	10:55
Jesse Chao	11:20
Yan Liu	12:20

Nathaniel Janzen	6:11
Kendra Swain	6:31
Andrew Wight	8:30

*Generally good looking guy

Brick Workout Event #8

Oh my I'm behind on updating the blog. Nearly 10 days out of the Brick/Swim set and I'm just getting to it now. Shameful!

There have been many speculations as to why I haven't updated in so long. The leading hypothesis can be heard in this re-enactment of a discussion overhead in the triathlon club office earlier this week.


Make sure your sound is on.




The accuracy of this video is incredible. The space aged office, Nathaniel and Matt wearing spandex, Vince being... Well you know.


No doubt in my mind that this happened.


However, it saddens me to admit this is not why the blog was so delayed. In all truth, its because I've been so busy with lab work. Mixed in with a visit from my mom and I'm just getting around to it now.


But rest assured, I remember all the important parts.


As one of our smaller events, the brick workout only had 14 people show up for the legendary ride on that cold wet morning. The conditions dampened the hopes (hahahaha) of those who had counted on drafting the entire bike course, however, this courageous bunch wasn't going to be deterred by the weather.

Nathaniel Janzen ready to take on the rain

An oversight, due to the weather, the official timer (and security guard for bikes) did not show up. This left the club with somewhat of a conundrum. Fortunately the graceful leader opted out of participating in order to watch over the bikes. Who knew that along with being a generally good looking guy, he was also so giving.


Due to weather conditions, the duathlon turned into a brick workout as the team opted out of doing the first running leg.


Quickly on the bike, a small trio of Barry Claman, Derrick Lee and Kory Seder took off the front. They worked hard and managed to open a gap on the rest. At the turn around Kory missed the turn only to venture another 700m down the road (Correction, Barry turned too early and everyone else followed. Kory is the only one who did the correct course). At this point Barry was able to distance himself from Derrick and came in to transition with a solid cushion of time.


Following this leading trio was the main pack of men, with Nathaniel, Winston and Scott all following not too far behind.


In the girls race, it was a little more of individual efforts as Kim Seder biked away from the group finishing the bike course with a demanding lead heading into the run. A little ways back the main pack arrived led by Victoria Gilbert with Lauren Spazadore and Celeste Pakstas just behind.

Kim Seder Leading the women's race

Female Peloton coming in to transition

Barry rounded out the finish in an impressive 21:31 with Kory having an adjusted time (due to the detour) 30 seconds back.

Barry Claman Coming in to finish

Nathaniel with a strong run, was able to break away from the pack and rounded out the podium in third.


In the girls race, Kim led from the gun finishing the run nearly a minute ahead of second place, where Victoria was able to break open the pack and lead Celeste to the line by just over a minute.

Woman's chase pack

Winston looking freakishly happy despite the weather

Derrick's finish

In a controversial turn of events, 4 members of the UBCTC partook in the brick the following Wednesday with the aid of Spazadore timing. The weather forecast was terrible, rain and cold, and therefore it was agreed that these conditions were fair to be similar. However, as lucky twist of events, Wednesday turned out to be a beautiful day. A little windy but otherwise amazing conditions. Since this was clearly no longer a fair battle, a new scoring system was put in place. Individuals racing an event after the original event has taken place, DO NOT GET PARTICIPATION POINTS. With that, we felt the advantage was neutralized, because although conditions were better. This would result in a net 13 point loss at the end of the series.

Quartet of make up session

That being said, a different tactic was employed by the men on this fateful Wednesday. Matt Reeve, Vincent Lavallee and Andrew Wight decided to work as a team rather than trying to break one another on the bike. Doing so result in the fastest bike split of the week by over a minute. As the hit the run, Matt pulled away and won in a new course record of 20:34 with Vincent 7 seconds behind.


Claire also took part in the make up session of the brick workout. However due to some navigational issues her time had to be doctored, her time works out to 26:16 but please don't ask me how I came up with that. There is a lot of hand waiving involved.


Full Results

Matt Reeve	20:34
Vincent Lavallee	20:41
Barry Claman	21:31
Kory Seder	22:03
Nathaniel Janzen	22:27
Derrick Lee	22:53
Winston Guo	23:12
Scott Chris	23:22
Andrew Wight	23:37
Kim Seder	24:47
Victoria Gilbert	25:20
Ceilidh Curis	25:38
Jesse Chao	26:08
Claire	26:16
Celeste Pakstas	26:44
Lauren Spazadore	27:02
Kelsey Foote	29:50

Photos

Event #7, 5K Run TT Race Report

5K RUN TT

On a day that looked dry and crisp, the Gods decided this wasn't to be the case for the 5k Run time trial as only 15 minutes before practice started, the skies opened up and unleashed a storm!

Despite the horrible weather 26 athletes participated making it the second largest event thus far.

The team ventured East towards Acadia Blvd where the 5.5 lap run would take place. The general atmosphere was much more relaxed than last week at the mile, as jokes of eating Red Burrito and Subway where passing through the air. Andrew Wight was even going to far as to blame Safeway and Halloween candy until he called himself out on the lame for using classic Vincent Lavallee excuses.

Group shot during warmup, with Team Seder prominently in the front

After a rather short warmup due to the cold weather the 26 athletes were off! After a rather"quick" start by an overexcited Claire, Barry Claman, 2 time defending UBCTC event champion quickly took over the lead never to relinquish it. After being out-kicked in the dying meters of the Mile last week, Claire was not going to let this happen again as she distanced herself by 90 seconds over her competition by the finish line, edging out any ideas of a quick finishing sprint getting by her.

Victoria Gilbert finished in second with Rachel Schoeler just over 15 seconds back taking third.

With this strong finish, Claire moves up in the standings to be tied with Flipper Janzen for second.

On the men's side, behind Barry, Vincent Lavallee led out the charging group. Giving short 100m surges to break apart the group, Vincent managed to drop all the chasers but one, Matt Reeve. Then it became a race within a race, with Vincent and Matt Dueling and Winstorm, Flipper and Liam HARRAP close behind.

With 1 lap to go, Vincent gave one final powerful surge on the long backstreach uphill to finally snap the elastic that was holding Matt, and managed to distance himself 10-15 meters coming into the finishing stretch. Behind these two, a true race unfolded as Winstorm managed to open a gap on Liam and Flipper, Flipper managed to hold off Liam HARRAP in the sprint for the line.

Flipper sporting conflicting clothing, some running flats and a tuque

This was not the only sprint finish, as behind this group a minute or two down was the race between Evan Cheng and Matt Robinson with Cheng edging the win at the line.

On a hugely successful night for all, there were multiple personal best achieved:

Matt Reeve, Winston Guo, Andrew Wight, Nathaniel Flipper Janzen, Scott Chris along with many others (tell me and I'll put your name up) despite in being rumored a long course.

Image showing Dark/Wet/Cold conditions racers faced

Comparing the three GPS wearers, Winstorm and team Seder, the average distance covered was measured at 5.13km. However after all the votes are in, no corrected times will be given for the time trial. Although the GPS watches give readings of 5.1+ km, the arguments were made that everyone was running wide and with the leaves/wet ground etc. it was just lack of tight cornering that resulted in the long distance. Also, you don't want to have to justify your result in the future if ever someone asks.

To remedy this situation, many UBCTC members are rumored to be running another 5k TT but this time on the track. No questions there (other than how many laps have been done). Hopefully the previous three weeks of racing won't hurt too much, and the athletes will still have the juice in their legs for a good run. Any company will be encouraged and welcome, an e-mail will be sent out with some warning as to when.

In a post race interview with series leader Matt Reeve, he was asked about his thoughts on the race:

"Well, I've been pretty confident in my running after the uphill time trial and the mile race. I knew that I had the form for a good performance, maybe even a PB. I decided to go out strong. Immediately I saw Vincent take over the lead of our chase pack and figured that I would simply hold him and then when he started to fade I would take over and run in for the win. Well who would have thought Vince had it in him. I mean, we all know he's a decent runner and a generally good looking guy, but the kick he put out at 1km to go was just a little too much today. I have to be happy with the 3rd."

Results:

Barry Claman	17:10
Vincent Lavallee	18:08
Matt Reeve	18:17
Winstorm Guo	18:35
Nathaniel Janzen	18:43
Liam Harrap	18:44
Andrew Wight	19:04
Scott Chris	19:36
Kory Seder	20:02
Evan Cheng	20:32
Matt Robinson	20:32
Ceilidh Curtis	21:46
Derrick Lee	22:18
Jesse Chao	22:26
Fabian Jankovic	22:41
Claire	20:28
Victoria Gilbert	21:58
Rachel Schoeler	22:16
Alana Schick	22:32
Melanie Thompson	22:45
Kimberly Seder	23:05
Lauren Sagadore	23:28
Annie Mauer	24:17
Kelsey Foote	24:34
Celeste Pakstas	24:35
Debbie Poon	32:30

Event #7, 5K Run TT

Tonight starts the second half or the University of British Columbia Triathlon Clubs Fall Classic Series. As one of the longer events, the 5k run TT could shake things up in the overall standings for in this event, endurance and not speed is what is required.

We will leave the track out of it this week and run a more traditional road race, heading a few blocks east into the endowment neighborhood of Acadia. This 5.5 lap run course is fast paced, but not without its challenges. With 4 90* turns a lap and a short hill, athletes will have to pace themselves to prevent a collapse.

Will Barry Claman be able to make it 3/3 and run his goal of sub 17 minutes? Course record is held by Jaime Orellana Tamez at 17:05 last year (in a full tracksuit for some reason). And on the women's side, who will take the running top honors, will it be Victoria or Claire? Or will there be a new dark horse who wins this race?

Be ready and warmed up by 6:10PM to find out!

Iona Bike Time Trial Event #6

After a very hyped up and exciting Mile Race last Wednesday, it was nice to have a more mellow race in the form of the flat bike TT out at Iona on Saturday. Once again weather proved to be our friend and on a crisp but sunny morning, 25 riders made the trip out to try their luck on the course.

In a competition where technology has been a factor (such as racing spikes and flats in the mile), the bike TT showed a whole new level of racing gear. The most over the top coming from former and current UBCTC Presidents and generally good looking guys Barry Claman and Vincent Lavallee who raced in skinsuits, TT helmets, Race wheels and Time Trial bikes. Pressure was high for these two because showing up like that and not performing well would simply be embarrassing.

Barry and Vince pulling all the stops

After shuffling everyone into position for the start, Matt Reeve counted everyone down and the race was underway.

Racers lined up for the start

Vincent Lavallee about to start

Barry about to start

The racers had nearly perfect conditions, with very little wind the flags were barely moving, this being uncharacteristic for Iona were winds have been known to gust up to 60+kph.

After a series of running events, the cyclist were ready to get their turn. In the men's division, it was no surprise that Barry Claman quickly closed his 30 second gap on Vincent and was charging to his second victory of the UBCTC Fall Classic Series being the only athlete to break the 40kph barrier. The surprise of the day however came from Kory Seder. Kory who has put together some very respectable times in the running events was an unknown on the bike having missed the uphill time trial. Kory thundered home to an impressive second place finish who despite not having race wheels/skinsuit/teardrop helmet was just over 30 seconds back of Barry followed closely by Vincent in 3rd.

The more interesting race probably took place mid pack though. That is the race for the overall title. Matt Reeve cracked the top 5 finishing just over a minute back of the lead, in doing so grabbing some all so important points over Nathaniel and Winston who chase in 2nd and 3rd overall.

In a post race interview with Barry when asked how he felt about this, his second victory in the UBCTC Fall Classic series he said that he was humbled by the achievement, however, that despite his expectations, he would have been disappointed without the victory.

"Showing up with all the aero equipment and not winning would have been an embarrassment, and what would that make me, I would have been like Vince."

On the woman's side, the race for the overall is even tighter. Coming into this event, Claire Haddock, Victoria Gilbert and Lauren Spazadore, the top 3 women were only 11 points apart. A spread which could easily be made up with a good ride.

With Spazadore having to leave early, she raced the TT before everyone else arrived, setting the benchmark time of 18:47 for the rest of her competitors along with prefacing the conditions for everyone.

The women's race was a lot closer than the mens, where the top 8 women were finished just over a minute apart, which can only be said for the top 4 men.

Kim Seder, part of the Seder powerhouse duo brought home the victory in a time of 18:23. Only 8 seconds back was second place finisher Marina Heaton who edged out Celeste Pakstas in third by 6 seconds. Once again the women's field show the men what it means to be competitive.

Marina Heaton (green) and Kim Seder (blue bike) preparing to start

Kim Seder coming to the line

Powerhouse couple Kim and Kory Seder took near top honors on the day with a 1st and 2nd, edging out other leading couple Flipper Janzen and Scott Chris in the points race on this day. In response to this, Scott blamed Nathaniel for not pushing hard enough. Upon inspection Nathaniel had a spiderweb on his bike which was not destroyed during the race. Scott's argument being that Nathaniel wasn't pushing hard enough, all the while Nathaniel rebutted that spiderweb is the strongest known fiber and that it acted like a parachute slowing him down to which people compared this weak excuse to one of Vince's.

After this event, halfway through, the women's race is closer than ever with the top 3 ladies only 5 points apart, with the top honors being shared between Claire Haddock and Lauren Spazadore.

In the men's race, Matt Reeve conceded some points, however, his lead grew over his primary rivals Flipper Janzen and Winstorm. Can he maintain this momentum over the next 6 events? We will see as he starts the second half tomorrow night with the 5k run TT. Hopefully this time Matt won't disappoint his fans and forget to wear the cape for this could be his last event wearing it.

Barry Claman	14:59
Kory Seder	15:37
Vincent Lavallee	15:47
Derek Westra-Luney	16:05
Matt Reeve	16:10
Derrick Lee	16:24
Fabian Jankovic	17:30
Winstorm Guo	17:32
Scott Chris	17:35
Jared Penner	17:45
Tiger Ye	18:07
Nathaniel Janzen	18:17
Carson Cheyne	18:20
Mike Penner	18:21
Kimberly Seder	18:23
Marina Heaton	18:31
Celeste Pakstas	18:37
Lauren Sagadore	18:47
Dwayne da Silva	18:50
Victoria Gilbert	18:58
Greta Raymant	19:02
Claire Haddock	19:06
Kendra Rudibega Swain	19:29
Kelsey Foote	20:53
Kaylee Robertson	21:11

For full event photos, click here.

Correction Time

Hey, so after our undisputable results from the uphill time trial, the executive decision making council convened and it turns out that we messed up Claire Haddock's time. As a result, instead of running a 3:5X as we previously had her down for, she ran a 3:43 to take the victory on the day.

Sorry Claire, sometimes we aren't too smart at math.

Photo a little blurry from mile, sorry!

Mile Showdown

The Mile. Amongst the most grueling physical activities ever designed by man. On Wednesday October 21st, 2009 the UBCTC will be running a Mile on the UBC Track.

There is much speculation as to how it will unfold. Will it be a predictive victory, or will a dark horse prevail?

Already the taunting has begun. No matter how much is said, it will all be decided out on the track.

To commemorate this awesome of evenings, a social gathering will be had at the Gallery after the event where stories can be told to describe the pure athleticism that was seen that night.

Show up at 5:30 to prepare your warm up for the event at 6PM.

To elevate the excitement around the mile, I present to you the Miracle Mile, run not 20 kilometers from where we will be running 55 years ago.

Swim Relay Results!

With the swim relay approaching, the chattering between competitors increased. Who would reign the victor? Many questioned Matt Reeves capabilities to hold the golden cape in a quest for the Vincent Lavallee Cup.

One anonymous athlete, lets call her Lauren... No wait, forget that, we will call her Miss Sagadore was overhead taunting Reeve by saying his new hardware would be such a hinderance that he would sink to the bottom of the pool, face first. To this, his only rebuttal was to remind this Miss Sagadore of a game of cribbage from the night before, were victory was easily achieved, as it would similarly be on the morning of the race.

Being a swim competition, the dynamic of the day was very different from the uphill time trial, Nathaniel "Flipper" Janzen was by far the favorite team leader for the relays. Upon the announcement of the teams, an observant fan claims to have seen a single solitary tear matched with a silent fist pump from Andrew Wight as he heard he was paired with Flipper. Would this team be too much to beat?

Flipper and Andrew paired with Celeste Pakstas and Melanie Van Soeren were up to the challenge of being the "team to beat".

Not to be outdone, Rachel Schoeler, along with newcomers Heather Enns, Kyowon Kim and Claire Haddock toed up to the line next to lane number 1.

Lauren Sagadore after a late and rather difficult night filled with loss at cribbage would not be silenced on the far side of the pool. Together with Carsen Cheyne, Annie Mauer and Jesse Chao, their lane easily provided the most smack talk despite the fact that 3 members of the relay were mostly silent during the events.

As would be expected, local favorite and generally good looking guy Vincent Lavallee was obviously already laying down excuses of feeling light headed. He slept through his alarm and had to rush to the pool having to pass on breakfast. His team of Scott Chris (the man with two first names), Derrick Lee and Jason Chang did not heed to Vincent's excuses and prepared for the fierce battle at hand.

Vincent Lavallee with excuse #37: My beard slowed my down

Finally and surely not least, Alex Lush and her team of Bandits, including Golden Cape Wearer Matt Reeve finish up the list of teams. Paired with Winston Guo (lacking his trusty Harmin the Garmin), and Lara Russel, they would try to distance themselves atop the leader board.

Winston showing how to perform his patented streamline

In a classic countdown fashion, Ivan started the racing. Scott Chris reaching the wall first in a decisive manner tagged the wall for Derrick to follow. After 2 swimmers it appeared as though leader Matt Reeve was in danger of losing his title to Flipper Janzen whose team was in the lead. That was until Reeve pulled himself up from 4th overall into 2nd with some fierce swimming. Legend has it, that Matt Reeve did not even breathe, instead he just side swam all the while smiling towards his competitors with his new headware. Defying any of them to make fun of him.

Matt Reeve moving up the ranks... in the pool.

After much more smack talk from Vincent Lavallee on the blocks, Rachel Schoeler declared:

"Your slow, I caught up to you by the wall, we flipped together and I beat you back"

Vincent Diving in

Followed by Rachel

Into the second round of 100's, the athletes were getting tired. By this point lane number one was adequately titled for Flipper Janzen along with Melanie, Andrew and Celeste were far in the lead. Many spectators in fact mentioned that Flipper really had no affect on the outcome of today, his team carried his weight as he struggled through the water, fortunately with enough buffer from his teammates to seize the victory.

Flipper cruising in to victory

Former teammate Andrew Wight upon winning his first UBCTC Fall Classic Series event could be seen once again performing a fist pump, however this time, it was not silent.

Andrew Wight (left) holding back tears

In a post race interview Andrew could be seen crying tears of joy while Melanie van Soeren described the days events.

"This was really a great effort by everyone in lane 1 today. Well except Nathaniel, we think all the Flipper names have gotten to his head. We really needed to make up a lot of time for him, otherwise I don't think we would have won."

After Sundays events there was a big mixup in the overall. The results from the day can be seen below.

1st

Nathaniel Janzen

Celeste Pakstas

Andrew Wight

Melanie Van Soeren

2nd

Alex Lush

Matt Reeve

Winston Guo

Lara Russel

3rd

Rachel Schoeler

Heather Enns

Kyowon Kim

Clara Haddock

4th

Vincent Lavallee

Scott Chris

Derrick Lee

Jason Chang

5th

Lauren Sagadore

Carson Cheyne

Annie Mauer

Jesse Chao

The Look of Champions: Flipper, Andrew, Celeste, Melanie

With this we see the closest the Fall Classic has ever been for the female leader with Lauren Sagadore and Melanie van Soeren tied for first place.

In the overall title Matt Reeve managed to stretch out his lead on all the competitors but Nathaniel, however he managed to retain the overall title. This is what he had to say about it.

"Well you know, there was a lot of smack talk coming into this event, some people were making fun of my braces and they just really thought they could beat me. But I knew in the end I just had to pull out all the stops and take it home. Although I didn't come out on top, I still have the overall points lead and I'm happy with that. "

Golden Cape Wearer: Matt REEVE

A special mention must be made to Scott Chris for hand stitching the Golden Cape. An Icon of the UBCTC Fall Classic Series