Tour de France Pool 2010 Results!

As the tour has now ended. I am left with a significant lack of sleep and a feeling of emptiness only the Vuelta can begin to alleviate. The Tour is filled with so much excitement and just like that it is over.

I am pleased to say that I don't think I had a single stage ruined by spoilers giving away the results! I guess that what you get from waking up at 5:30-6:00AM every morning to watch!

Onto the Pool!

The PRIZE:

Bragging Rights.

Spoils of Victory - The winner will also receive a soon to be prestigious (and highly sought after) custom "TdF Pool 2010 Winner" image to display on blogs or websites - if you don't have a blog you can print it and put it on your refrigerator. Your friends will all be jealous!

Since I am not very good at photoshop. It will be last years image with some shotty altering to say 2010!

Also, local prize. We will go to All you can eat Sushi at BC Sushi sometime and winner gets paid for by the rest of the attendees. If I am the only person who shows up with the winner, well then it could also be a romantic date.

Without further ado...

The Questions

1. Lance is getting old, he just announced his retirement will be official after this years Tour. Predict Lance Armstrong's final placing in this year's two individual TTs. Add the numbers together. What is the sum? (ex: finished 1st and 3rd = 4)

(1 point)

A. 2-5

B. 6-9

C. 10-14

D. 15-20

E. 20+

2. Will Lance end up ahead of Frank Schleck in the GC? (1 point)

A. Ahead

B. Behind

3. How many stages will Cavendish win? (1 point)

A. 0-1

B. 2-3

C. 4-5

D. +5

4. What will the winning individuals avg speed be in the Individual time trial Stage 19 in km/h?

(ITT Stage details are HERE)

Fabian Cancellara 51.2kph!

-Within 1 km/h = 5 points

-Within 2 km/h = 3 points

-Within 3 km/h = 2 points

-Within 4 km/h = 1 point

-off by >4 km/h = deduct a point

5. Who will win the polka dot jersey for King of the Mountains? (1 point)

Anthony Charteau, who would have guessed?

6. How many riders will be banned, fired for suspicion, or otherwise ejected due to doping related issues? (1 point)

Only during the race are riders counted (July 4th to Finish in Paris)

A. 0-2

B. 2-4

C. 4-6

D. 6+

7. Which team will finish the tour with the most riders? (1 point)

ASTANA

CAISSE D’EPARGNE FDJ

LIQUIGAS - DOIMO

TEAM RADIOSHACK

BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM

8. What will the average speed bein km/h for Stage 17 finishing on the Col du Tourmalet.

Andy Schleck 34.4kph

-within 1 km/h = 5 points

-within 3 km/h = 3 points

-within 4 km/h = 1 point

-off by 4+ = deduct a point

9. What will the margin of victory be in the GC? (The margin in minutes and seconds between winner and runner-up.)

(1 point)

A. 0-1 minute

B. 1:01 - 2:10

C. 2:11 - 3:20

D. 3:21 - 4:30

E. 4:30 - 5:40

F. 5:41 +

10. Who will win the GC? (1 point)

ALBERTADOR!

11. Who will win the Green Jersey? (1 point)

ALE-JET

12. Which OLN broadcaster will win the competition they have each year to predict winners? (1 point)

A. Paul Sherwen

B. Craig Hummer

C. Phil Ligget

D. Bob Roll

13. Will it rain during any of the TTs? There are 2... (1 point)

A. YES

B. NO

14. Who will end up being the team leader for Saxo Bank? (1 point)

A) Frank Schleck

B) Andy Schleck

15. What is the second longest stage of this year's tour? (1 point)

Stage 1 or day 2

16) Will Fabian Cancellara ride away from the competition again for a stage victory. (1 point)

No

17) Will Jens Voigt bring the pain? (1 point)

Can Vince lick his elbow?

18) How many useless full day escapes will Sylvain Chavanel from Quick Step be involved in?

... 0 This wasn't even an option. What a Tour for Chavanel!

A) 1

B) 2

C) 3

D) 4

E) 5+

How did you do?

BAM!

Dave Stephens	15
Jared Penner	15
Winston Guo	13
Melanie van Soeren	11
Nick Gottfried	11
Matt Reeve	11
Barry Claman	9
Sherwood Plant	8
Lauren Sagadore	6

Since I and the others don't want to pay for Sushi for 2 people, the award will be shared! Half off All you can eat Sushi! I'll make a facebook event to organize.

Thanks for playing everyone and I hope you enjoyed the Tour.

Next Challenge

What have I gotten myself into?

This will be my 2nd attempt at a marathon, there are quite a few members of the Tri club doing this race, so it should be pretty fun.

I'm not even going to pretend that I don't have goals already set out, last time I didn't train enough, and tried to go for 3 hours. Well this time I guess I will need to get my act together.

Guess its time to start running again...

Surviving the Triple Crown

There is no doubt that the biggest challenge on Saturday is going to be the HEAT! With the forecast being for 28-30*C (humidex 33-35*C), while this isn't too scary for the rest of Canada, I know a lot of people in Vancouver are sweating figurative and literal bullets at the potential of a hot day in the saddle. When the thermometer passes 20*C that is usually considered "hot".

1) Heat: The first tip for surviving the Triple Crown battling the heat. Hydration will be key. We have 4 planned stops en route: Horseshoe Bay (36km), Cypress (60km), Seymour (111/139km). I would expect everyone to try and go through 2 bottles between each of these stations. If you are concerned that this is not enough, bring a 3rd bottle and keep it in the back pocket of your bike jersey. This will sound ridiculous, going through 11L of liquid in a day, but believe me, it won't be hard to get through it.

As a little pre-emptive strike, freezing your first bottles isn't a bad idea either.

2) Sun protection: The sun will be out and we will probably have a clear blue day. Sunscreen on your ears and face is a smart ideal. A tan looks great, but a big red nose isn't exactly sexy.

3) Nutrition. In addition to hydration, this is going to be a 180km ride. Burning a conservative 600 calories an hour, be prepared to be hungry. Everyone should have a plan for a minimum of 2000 calories to be consumed during the ride. It will be next to impossible to carry all of this, so bring money to buy food from a bakery or gas station. In addition to this, carb load. That isn't just for races. So starting today, you should be upping the carb intake to make sure all your fuelling needs are met.

4) Endurance: The last is more just common sense. This is going to be a really long ride, anyone thinking of hammering up the first climb is going to get taught a lesson come the end of the day. Pace yourself and don't be shy if you need to sit on someones wheel.

Triple Crown: Saturday July 10th 2010

Leave at 8AM from Team Office at UBC outside the SUB.

Race Reports!

Boy! So BUSY! What has been preventing me from writing my blog? Is it too much time writing my Thesis that I am fed up with typing? Unfortunately no. But on that note, I have started writing and have a group of pages started. Hopefully more to be written in the days to come.

Back to business. I didn't write a race report for Shawnigan or Victoria, because, well quite frankly, they didn't go all that well.

In a nutshel: Shawnigan, coldest race I have ever done, feet frozen the entire time I was on the bike and until 5k into the run. Had a decent considering the amount of training I have done swim and bike. Came off bike in 8th and decided to quit the run because my ankle wasn't doing great. Smartest race decision of the day. Also my first DNF. Shoot. On the plus side I did get to run in with Mel since she was just finishing up the Olympic race as I quit the half.

Hey, its Mel! And who is that good looking guy behind her? I swear I'm just watching my footing, I did have a sprained ankle after all.

On to Victoria. Quick and simple; Painful. I woke up Friday before the race with the start of a cold, and it just kept getting worse. By Sunday, I was congested and coughing and had a sore throat. This cold was bad enough that I actually took Monday-Tuesday off from work (Making them my 3rd and 4th sick day in 3 years).

Knowing that with zero training since Shawnigan, and a week of drinking at home that this wasn't going to be a great race, I had a fairly relaxed attitude towards it. When we were late leaving Sunday morning and only showed up to the race 30 minutes before the gun, No problem! When they called 1 minute to go before the start and I still hadn't started putting my wetsuit on, no problem! The cannon went off and I quickly got a very stressed spectator to zip up the suit and off I went. The swim as expected, not great. I had to manage my way through 400 people to get up to my pace. The bike, ouch. Just had nothing. Was 14 minutes slower than last year on the bike. Was coughing up a lung. The run, stopped and sat in transition to put on my ankle brace while my friends heckled me, and then started the slow jog. Mel training for a marathon ran the second lap with me, it went something like this:

Vince km 11: Mel, you set the pace, I don't want to go at a speed that is too fast for you since I am just jogging this for training

km 14: Vince realizes he is actually slowing down Mel and not the other way around.

km 15: Vince has to walk for a minute while Mel is forced to wait.

Despite how grumpy I was, it was nice to have company on the run.

Finished the race in 5:02. Slowest Half Iron in the books, but finished which I guess was my best result of the year...

I got over the cold and managed to get a few training sessions in, physio once or twice, and then before I knew it, Vancouver!

I'll put a little more details here. Had a great morning. Race site nice and early, got in the water for a warm up. It was a beach start which I have only ever done twice (Vancouver past two years). There was a false start, this made everyone take a few steps run and then stop and come back. In doing so, I went from 1-2nd row to 4th. Not ideal since despite my being a slow swimmer this year, I am still decent and shouldn't start behind too many people.

Moments after the false start

This was by far the roughest swim I have ever done. I was getting pummelled. The water was wavy and people were thrashing. I got to the first buoy and someone walloped me in the face. Nice! After 300m it started to spread out and despite swallowing half the pacific, I had a great time. At 600m I noticed that Amy Kirkham was right next to me and I decided to keep her at my side for the rest of the swim, I knew she was going to work hard, and it was nice not to focus solely on chasing people down.

Getting punched by a girl in the swim

Onto the bike, I felt terrible. I always do for the first 20-30k. After 1.5 laps (of 4) I started getting into a groove and was working well. I lost 80 seconds on Amy by 40k and managed to catch up that 80 seconds by 80k and we rode into transition more or less together. She had an awesome race finishing 3rd overall in the Women's pro field. My bike splits were nice and even. Fastest lap 34.6kph and slowest lap 34.48kph. Not too bad. There was a girls relay team from the club who very modestly stated that they were going to pass all the guys doing the Half. I would be lying if I said this hadn't kicked my ass in gear when I saw Kim closing down on me after the first lap of the bike.

Getting to the run I decided that I wasn't going to hammer. Amy caught up to me by 1k and was really moving (running is her strength). Normally I would have tried to stay with her, but with circumstances this year that just wasn't in the cards. Trying to avoid what happened in Victoria, I kept it controlled but mainly just focused on not twisting my ankle and getting in enough nutrient. Finished the run in a respectable 4:41 pace, for a half iron time of 4:42:##.

This was a really fun race because we had lots of teammates from UBC at it. The whole time I was running I rarely went 5 minutes without seeing someone I knew who was cheering me on. Especially the group of girls who had raced earlier in the morning who were all at the finish line. A guy I was running with made a remark that I sped up each time we went by.

The positive note of the day. I am able to run again. My ankle didn't feel great, but gave me no real problems, so after 10 weeks of nothing, I am finally able to try and rebuild again. I have 5 weeks until Sooke, and lets hope I can bring that 4:41/km pace down closer to 4.

If I had more energy I would mentioned everyone who raced. There were a lot of UBCTC first timers, and a lot of new PB's. So I will just group you all together and congratulate everyone at once on making it an awesome day!

Also, check out 5:10 into THIS video!!!

Hope this wasn't too boring. And maybe now that I am caught up. I'll post more. And if not, I'll blame it on my Thesis!

Greg Lemond

Boy Greg Lemond is a jerk sometimes. He really can't get over the fact that Lance Armstrong was better than him:

Greg Lemond Prediction of Lance in the upcoming Tour de France:

"My Lance Armstrong prediction? Either he will not start or he will pull out just before the race enters France. I have a feeling that the world of cycling is about to change for the better."

Tour de France starts tomorrow!!!