Date: Sunday Aug 24, 2008
Location: Guysborough, NS
Distances : Try-a-tri / Sprint / Olympic
Registration : http://www.atlanticchip.ca/events/details.php?show=279
RACE PREVIEW in ‘responses’
Date: Sunday Aug 24, 2008
Location: Guysborough, NS
Distances : Try-a-tri / Sprint / Olympic
Registration : http://www.atlanticchip.ca/events/details.php?show=279
RACE PREVIEW in ‘responses’
Published with permission from the Triathlon Nova Scotia Turnaround
http://www.trins.ca
RACE PREVIEW
Where: Guysborough, NS
When: Sunday August 24, 2008
Olympic, Sprint, Try-A-Tri
The very mention of the name Guysborough can be enough to make strong men blanch, their knees quake and their lips quiver as they ask in a quavering voice for their mother and their wetsuit.
Sorry, that last should read ‘security blanket’ (same thing isn’t it?). For the second year in a row; thank the Tri-Gods, thank the vagaries of NSDOT, thank the bratwürst you ceremonially sacrificed in the back yard the other week (she says you burnt it but we know differently) but instead of climbing as you leave transition with little respite until, say, the run, the bike course remains smooth and flat all the way.
More later.
This is the eighth running of the Guysborough Triathlon, with the inaugural ’01 edition won by Carl Ripley and Theresa Chisholm, where are they now (Mark?)?
Since then it has become a late-season staple on many people’s calendars.
Race-day kit pick-up and registration is at the Jost building, behind the Rare Bird pub on the main street in Guysborough. The pub is also a good place to get dinner on Saturday night and, hey, they brew their own beer too.
It’s a deep water start for the swim off the boat ramp with the first race off at 09:00 Sunday. The water temperature here is historically on the low side. It can almost be guaranteed that, in the absence of a major tropical storm pushing loads of warm water our way, wetsuits will be allowed. It’s one triangular loop for the Sprints and T-A-T/Y and two for the Olympic. TZ is behind the pub and half-way up a cheeky little climb.
Grab your bike and finish off the climb before mounting. Turn right onto Rte#16 and head northwards toward Boylston. The road is freshly paved and the grades, such as they are, are gentle.
How gentle?
The TD last year rode the course on a fixed gear and only had to get out of the saddle once. Just like Bridgetown, this course is begging for someone to come up with 85# fixed and an attitude. This the closest there is to a “float” course in Nova Scotia, so make the most of it. You’ll head past the liquor commission (no stopping), then the provincial park. After 5km or so you’ll turn left off Rte 16 onto the Antigonish- Guysborough Rd, before the bridge, and parallel the river for a couple of rollers before the turn and then it’s head down and return the way you came. We heard a couple of remarks last year that this last section was a touch ‘Paris-Roubaix’.
Having been on cobbles and various assorted rough stuff over the years, including Cyclesmith’s Supa Kona Kup Psycho Cross which was violent enough to unscrew the TA’s headset, (but that might have just been the way you were racing it – Ed!) here at the TA we can’t say we concur with this analysis but we will agree that it does feel a tad more contoured after the previous four or five miles. Once for the Sprint, twice for the Olympics.
After T2, the run takes you on well maintained, rolling trails. As it’s off road, trail shoes may be more suitable than racing flats . Bring both and check it out on Saturday night. There’s a water table after a kilometre or so and after a mile there’s usually a shower rigged up across the trail, which is nice if its warm. For the first mile you can’t go wrong as long as there’s water on your left. The T-A-T/Y turn is a kilometre before the adult turn.
The latter is reached after a short, steep, wooded climb so if you see a turnaround but you haven’t climbed a short, steep, wooded climb, carry on! It’s an out-and back; Sprints once,
Olympics twice.
The event is under new management this year for it‘s eighth edition. New RD Ray Bates has renamed the event the Guysborough County Triathlon and is running it as a fund-raiser for the local hospital, meaning we can all have fun in the name of a good cause. We’re all racetested now and this is practically the last event of the season, so no excuses, come up and see just how fast this course is. If the course records don’t get hammered, I’ll be disappointed!
Don’t forget your 54, or 11 for that matter, and leave the granny at home.
Guysborough Past Winners
Olympic
2007:Suzanne Ferrier (2:25:32), Shannon Read, Emily MacDonald. Matthias Jaepel (2:02:26)†, Kharim Schliewinsky, Chris Milburn
2006: Julie Curwin (2:26:54), Chris Milburn (2:15:45)
2005 Julie Curwin (2:29:51). Matthias Jaepel (2:15:26), Chris Milburn, Geoff Bennett
2004: Shawna Murdock Moore (3:33:01), Beverly Richardson. Geoff Bennett (2:37:55), David Aradi,Sean Merret.
2003: Julie Curwin (2:21:40*), Elizabeth Seiffert, Marcia Migay. Clint Simmons (2:13:24*), Chris Milburn, David Kilpatrick.
2002: Cheryl Paulus (3:19:19), Richelle Leck, Coline MacEachern. Dan McDougal (2:40:25), Daivd Hamilton, Chris Bowen.
2001: Theresa Chisholm (2:39:27). Susanne Waghorn,Coline MacEachern. Carl Ripley (2:06:15), Ben Cotter, Gordon Kiley.
Sprint
2007: Emily Wood (1:10:44†), Brigitte L’Heureux, Angela Ripley. Shawn Mason (1:13:15), Kevin Walsh, Dan MacDougall
2006: Suzanne Ferrier (1:20:43), Janet Salo. Jason Lawton (1:07:37*), Mac Grant, Tony Walker
2005: Kathleen Gallagher (1:35:09), Tobi Barter, Tammy Anderson. Tony Walker (1:12:17), Mac Grant, Steve Gillett
2004: Carol Desabrais (1:32:12*), Caroline Marion, Tobi Barter. Tony Walker (1:14:53), Andrew Dacanay, Valery Marion.
2003: Jennifer Lawton (1:14:35†), Jill Beveridge, Dianne Chaisson. Andrew Dacanay (1:07:01†), Stephen Maclean, Dan McDougal.
2002: Rebeka Young (1:22:25), Angela Adams, Laura McKeigan. Jake Whalen (1:14:41), Craig Blake, Don Billard
Course records: * hilly, flat (Boylston) .