UBC Triathlon Club: 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: