Date: Sunday Aug 3, 2008
Location: Bridgetown, NS
Distances : Try-a-tri / Sprint / Olympic / 1/2 Ironman (Long Course)
Registration : http://www.atlanticchip.ca/events/details.php?show=272
Notes :
- traditionally, this has been the most popular race for BTC members
- if you are looking to car pool, post a note on the YAHOO list
RACE PREVIEW in ‘responses’
RACE PREVIEW – Bridgetown – Regional Triathlon Championships
reprinted with permission from Triathlon Nova Scotia
http://www.trins.ca
from the ‘Turnaround’ Volune 3, Issue 12
Where: Jubilee Park, Bridgetown
When: 3rd August
Distances; Long-course, Olympic, Sprint, Tri-A-Tri/Youth Race
Start: 06:30 (LC) 08:00 (O)
Others: River swim with current
The Bridgetown Triathlon runs this weekend organized by Jason Lawton. Fellow Junior team coach, Jennifer, will be at Summerside with the Juniors for the Canada Games preview event. The weekend sees a full triathlon schedule that includes a Kids of Steel on Saturday 2nd and on Sunday a Tri-A-Tri, Sprint and Olympic distances as well as the only long course in NS .
As with previous years the race is based out of Jubilee Park in Bridgetown. Parking can be found at the Save Easy and town hall parking lots.
There is no parking at Jubilee park and please don’t park on Rte 1 by the park entrance as that’s where the bike comes out! The LC race briefing will be on Saturday evening at 18:00 to ensure the event can kick off on time twelve hours later. The other events will be briefed at 08:00 on Sunday at Jubilee Park
The swim is in the Annapolis River. The water gets warm so don’t be surprised if wetsuits are ruled out, it has been known at this event (all backhanders regarding wetsuit eligibility may be sent to the usual address; the first one has already been received). All the swim courses are single loops starting at the boat ramp and going progressively further downstream; the sprint turns at the road bridge, the Olympic at the rail bridge and the longcourse somewhere near Middleton. Only kidding, just past the rail bridge The Annapolis River is tidal and this means the current will be either with you or against you on the way out. Or possibly both. Be warned!
You leave the river at the boat ramp and a short run brings you into a grassy transition. Grab your bike, run out of transition and get on by the small roundabout. Climb a short hill, no-where near as bad as the hill at Port Hood two weeks ago and you’re at Rte 1 where you’ll turn left and head west for a relatively flat bike. The Tri-A-Tri turn s some 7 kms up the road, the Sprint and Olympic after 10km, at the top of a short hill. The long-course guys turn after 21 km at Annapolis Royal. Sprint and Tri-A-Tri are single loops, long-course and Olympic are two lops. As you turn right off Rte 1 back to transition you come back to the roundabout; stay to the right if you’re finishing and stay left to go out for another lap.
Once you dismount you run to the back of transition; it’s a grassy run so you should be OK. Rack your bike and head out on the run. Like the bike, the run is also a fairly flat affair. The run has gone back to the format of a couple of years ago and is a single out-and-back for all distances except the LC, who will have to something twice. The run course can be quite exposed so if it is hot take some water, a hat and the factor 40.
We’d love to try and predict the Regional Championship race but we won’t; no this isn’t some kind of volunteering industrial action (all out brothers) but more a function that no-one has entered. The TA spoke to a few people about this trend, you know registering twenty minutes before the start and all that and we were told ‘we wanted to wait and see’ Wait and see what? It will still be the Atlantic Regional Championships on Friday.
Oh well, before we go back to our crochet we can have a look at the other events. We see last years LC winner and LC record holder Chris MacKenzie is back to try for a repeat victory. We see others using this event as a last tune up for Ironman Canada; Dan Bodden and Andy Osburn.
There are some NB and ON names on the start sheet that are a mystery to us, but that will only make the day more interesting. Finally, it is always good to hear a bit of good-natured trash-talk and we see it has started early this year, on the Atlantic Chip website, no less. Greenwood RD and successful LC duathlete Denis Choquette registered as “The Shark” , prompting Mark Campbell to register as “The Shark Eater”. The officials may yet have their work cut out for them.
The Sprint will be wide open. Our our Juniors walked off with most of the hardware last year, but they’ll all be in Summerside. We see many entries already from the Bridgewater Tri Club, who we understand have been getting coaching from former Elite triathlete and 2004 NS Provincial Champion Colin Edwards.
We also see Laura Lee MacLarnon down for some short course action, having just finished IM Lake Placid
The Try-A-Tri is also the Nova Scotia Youth Championships and even though that start sheet is looking sparse now too, we expect a good show from that field too.
New this year, Bridgetown is offering primes for the fast swim, bike and run. It’s quite simple; post the fastest time in the discipline and take home cash. Simple. There’ll be a draw at the pre-event pasta dinner to decide which event (S,O,LC) gets which prime (S,B,R). The pasta dinner will be at the curling club, as last year, and we hear the awards will be there too. – Remember, the end of the triathlon season is in sight; there are only three more triathlons in Nova Scotia this year after this weekend. So don’t let this one go!
Past Winners
2007
Long Course: Rhonda Cooke 5:16:24, Chris MacKenzie 4:29:42*
Olympic: Rayleen Hill 2:27:37, Kurt Stevenson 2:09:54
Sprint: Emily Wood 1:13:11*. Taylor Doucette 1:06:39
TAT/Y Rebecca Haworth 49:13, Sam Corkum 46:07*
2006
Long Course: Martha Stevens 5:15:11*, Jarret Hann 4:40:11
Olympic: Suzanne Ferrier 2:34:39, Matthias Jaepel 2:14:22
Sprint: Ann Rowan Legg 1:17:06. Mac Grant 1:08:00
TAT/Y Emily Wood 45:48*, David MacKenzie 51:40
2005
Olympic: Martha Stevens 2:34:31. Chris McKenzie 2:15:27
Sprint: Caroline Whitby 1:17:40. Taylor Doucette 1:11:40
2004
Olympic: Suzanne Ferrier 2:38:08. Matthias Jaepel, 2:13:33
Sprint: Jaqui O’Donovan. Valery Marion 1:10:24
2003
Olympic. Julie Curwin 2:18:41*. Andrew Mac Donald 2:09:00*
Sprint: Kerry Copeland 1:10:45. Clint Simmons 1:04:27
2002
Sprint: Julie Curwin 1:09:25*. Jeff O’Connell 1:03:59*
*-Course Record
Caveat. This race preview comes with the usual rejoinder that it is not intended to replace the pre-race briefing. All athletes are encouraged to attend the pre-race briefing to find out final conditions, course-changes and ground-rules.