The Triathlon 2012

Well, my winning strategy didn't work this year. A number of brave friends did all three events. I was the two time defending champ on the strength of being the only person to enter all three events in each of the years.

Enzo crushed us all on the bike. I was second at 27:50 (2:30 slower than last year). Willie kicked everyone's butt, including Sharon "Grinder" Yuen's, on the Grind. I did a PB on the Grind at 44:10 to finish second among those of us who did all three events. I was also second in the Guzzle event, overcoming a brain freeze to finish behind Willie.

Congratulations to Willie the overall champ. Enzo was right up there with him, but a mishap with the beer put him out of contention at the last minute.

A huge thanks to Dale for organizing and continuing the tradition, and to Vaibhav and Larry Arnett who rounded out those who competed in all three events. Also thanks to all the others who participated in one or more events. It was great to see the ICBC crowd again.

The new name for the event is the Grunt, Grind and Guzzle.

Ryder's Riding into History

Ryder Hesjedal is well placed to be the first Canadian to win a grand (three-week) cycling tour. With two days to go in the Giro d'Italia, he's in second place, 17 seconds behind the leader, Joaquim Rodríguez. Hesjedal actually finished 13 seconds ahead of Rodríguez in today's stage, which was a high mountain stage (they basically climbed Mt. Seymour, or worse, four times today over 196 kilometres). Tomorrow they have fewer climbs, but the finish is a 2,000 metre climb, double Mt. Seymour, and steeper.

Sunday's final stage is a time trial, and most observers say Hesjedal is a far better time trialler than the other leading contenders for victory. If today wasn't a fluke, and he has the legs to stay with Rodríguez tomorrow (Saturday) up the monster climb to the finish, all he has to do is stay on his bike on Sunday and he'll easily make up those 17 seconds, and make history in the process.

Go, Ryder, go. Even if you don't care about bicycle racing, now's a great chance to get on the bandwagon and cheer on a Canadian. And for those of us from Saskatchewan, how can we not cheer for a Ryder? (Groan.)

Fixing Bicycles, Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Ed Luciano at Mighty Riders, my favourite bike shop, has co-founded an awesome program to help people get back on their feet by learning to fix bikes. The program is called Cycle Back. CBC Radio One did an excellent piece on them yesterday morning. You can contribute by buying a bike from the program, or donating old bikes for them to fix. Take the bike to Our Community Bikes or Pedal Depot. You can also give cash, of course.

Mighty Riders is not only the best bicycle shop in the Vancouver area, but they have a heart!

Whinging of an Old Man

Now that I'm "between contracts", I'm getting out for rides on some of my old routes. Today I did the ride to Granville and 71st via UBC, which is just under 60 kms round trip (see my old post for a map). I used to do a lot of 2 hour rides. I'm doing the same rides 5 to 15 minutes slower than I used to. I shouldn't really be surprised, I guess, that I can't ride as fast at 53 as I could at 40, but it still hurts.

Whinging aside, it was a beautiful, sunny day, and not cold by my standards.