Tuesday 24 June 2014
2014 Tour de Waterloo Full Video
The finish gets FAST in the last 5 minutes
Video shot and published by Darren Johnston
Monday 23 June 2014
Tour De Waterloo Post Race Report
The 2014 Tour De Waterloo Adventure Guide 76km race served as the first every cycling race for 3/4 members who attended.
Through all of the mishaps of the day, I think it was a very good first racing experience for everyone involved. The team experienced nearly every possible outcome in a cycling event and we each felt the triumphs and disappointments of our fellow teammates situations. As it was Andrew's, David's and Marcel's first competitive race, we had just planned for them to stick with the peloton as long as they could, minimize the risky moves and get a feel of what it is like to race in a large group.
In the first 10km after the neutral start the pace was pretty high, in the mid 40 range. This was where a bit of misfortune overtook our team. After one of the first climbs, David dropped his chain and upon fixing it put his head down and powered back towards the peloton. While he was pushing to catch he didn't see the signs on the road and missed a turn, continuing on nearly 20km out of the way. After a 40km round trip detour, David finished 160th overall, 15th in the 20-29 AG and with a 58' 30" gap.
Soon after we lost David, on the next decent a recreational 46km rider from the earlier wave had a mechanical and stopped at the side of the road but not off it completely. With 2 other riders helping to resolve the puncture, that group took up a good section of the riding road. In a slinky-like effect, the peloton veered to the left to avoid them but unluckily Andrew was in the wrong place in the line at the wrong time and collided with the mechanical group. He went over the handlebars but luckily nothing worse than a bit of road rash and a banged up bike. It definitely needs a tuning, but it was good enough to get him across the line 60km later with a respectable time all things considered. Andrew finished in 90th overall, 12th in the 20-29 AG and with a 28' 40" gap.
About half way through the race the peloton really picked up the pace for about 15km but it was enough to split the pack and thin the herd a little bit. Marcel just happened to be in the rear of the peloton when this happened, and got stuck behind the split, not being able to catch back into the front group. He rolled in 43rd overall, 5th in the 20-29 AG and with a gap of 5' 33". After the 15km surge by the peloton, the group slowed down until about 10km to go.
The final lead up to the line consisted of a left turn onto a 2000m straight on very rough road, a right turn for another 1km and then another left before a 600m downhill straightaway to the line. The team knew this after a recon the day before so we had a plan in mind. The road was rough on the 2000m straight but it was a little smoother towards the yellow center markers so we wanted that to be our line. After a wide right hand turn we wanted to get into a position about 15-20 spots back from the leader before heading into the final downhill on King St. after the last left hand turn. Tyler stuck with the bunch during the race and followed the plan exactly up until this point. He tucked going down the hill jumping wheel to wheel gaining ground on the leader. In the final 300m opened up to a 6th place finish overall out of over 200 riders, 1st in the 20-29 AG and finishing s.t. about 6 feet back from the winner. Unfortunately, prize money went to top 5 overall... so close.
By the end of the race, we had experienced the trials of victory, the feeling of not having the legs to stay with the group on the day, the frustration of a mechanical/crash, as well as every racers worst nightmare of going off course. It was a good lesson in the realities of a bike race. Things go wrong and you have to know how to deal with them.
Many of the downfalls of the day were due in part to lack of racing experience. Better instinct, more alert bike handling, positioning in the pack, heads up riding, and knowing how to wisely move through the bunch would have avoided some of the issues we ran into. We will learn to tone and develop our racing strategies over the next few weeks in preparation for the Tour De Terra Cotta on August 4th. We will develop our racing instincts, techniques and tactics so that we hopefully won't run into any of these problems again.
At the end of the day the whole team had a great time. It was a good learning experience and we will only be more prepared for future events. For their first race, they overcame the barriers they faced and finished the race. It would have been just as easy to hop in the car and drive in.
I would like to thank all of our sponsors for contributing to our first competition. I would like to thank the guys over at 3Sixty5 Cycling for their support during the race. We were able to use both a Legacy and FAT wheelset for our riders. Andrew and David said they were stiff, fast and responsive. If any else, they certainly helped the boys make it to the finish after their respective incidents and they looked damn fine while doing so! I would also like to thank Eagle Partners Financial Solutions, Advanced Opticians and Allan MacDonald of TD Bank for their very generous sponsorships of On Your Left Cycling. None of this would be possible without our amazing sponsors. Congrats Lads and here's to many more!
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| Start line Selfie |
In the first 10km after the neutral start the pace was pretty high, in the mid 40 range. This was where a bit of misfortune overtook our team. After one of the first climbs, David dropped his chain and upon fixing it put his head down and powered back towards the peloton. While he was pushing to catch he didn't see the signs on the road and missed a turn, continuing on nearly 20km out of the way. After a 40km round trip detour, David finished 160th overall, 15th in the 20-29 AG and with a 58' 30" gap.
Soon after we lost David, on the next decent a recreational 46km rider from the earlier wave had a mechanical and stopped at the side of the road but not off it completely. With 2 other riders helping to resolve the puncture, that group took up a good section of the riding road. In a slinky-like effect, the peloton veered to the left to avoid them but unluckily Andrew was in the wrong place in the line at the wrong time and collided with the mechanical group. He went over the handlebars but luckily nothing worse than a bit of road rash and a banged up bike. It definitely needs a tuning, but it was good enough to get him across the line 60km later with a respectable time all things considered. Andrew finished in 90th overall, 12th in the 20-29 AG and with a 28' 40" gap.
About half way through the race the peloton really picked up the pace for about 15km but it was enough to split the pack and thin the herd a little bit. Marcel just happened to be in the rear of the peloton when this happened, and got stuck behind the split, not being able to catch back into the front group. He rolled in 43rd overall, 5th in the 20-29 AG and with a gap of 5' 33". After the 15km surge by the peloton, the group slowed down until about 10km to go.
The final lead up to the line consisted of a left turn onto a 2000m straight on very rough road, a right turn for another 1km and then another left before a 600m downhill straightaway to the line. The team knew this after a recon the day before so we had a plan in mind. The road was rough on the 2000m straight but it was a little smoother towards the yellow center markers so we wanted that to be our line. After a wide right hand turn we wanted to get into a position about 15-20 spots back from the leader before heading into the final downhill on King St. after the last left hand turn. Tyler stuck with the bunch during the race and followed the plan exactly up until this point. He tucked going down the hill jumping wheel to wheel gaining ground on the leader. In the final 300m opened up to a 6th place finish overall out of over 200 riders, 1st in the 20-29 AG and finishing s.t. about 6 feet back from the winner. Unfortunately, prize money went to top 5 overall... so close.
By the end of the race, we had experienced the trials of victory, the feeling of not having the legs to stay with the group on the day, the frustration of a mechanical/crash, as well as every racers worst nightmare of going off course. It was a good lesson in the realities of a bike race. Things go wrong and you have to know how to deal with them.
Many of the downfalls of the day were due in part to lack of racing experience. Better instinct, more alert bike handling, positioning in the pack, heads up riding, and knowing how to wisely move through the bunch would have avoided some of the issues we ran into. We will learn to tone and develop our racing strategies over the next few weeks in preparation for the Tour De Terra Cotta on August 4th. We will develop our racing instincts, techniques and tactics so that we hopefully won't run into any of these problems again.
At the end of the day the whole team had a great time. It was a good learning experience and we will only be more prepared for future events. For their first race, they overcame the barriers they faced and finished the race. It would have been just as easy to hop in the car and drive in.
I would like to thank all of our sponsors for contributing to our first competition. I would like to thank the guys over at 3Sixty5 Cycling for their support during the race. We were able to use both a Legacy and FAT wheelset for our riders. Andrew and David said they were stiff, fast and responsive. If any else, they certainly helped the boys make it to the finish after their respective incidents and they looked damn fine while doing so! I would also like to thank Eagle Partners Financial Solutions, Advanced Opticians and Allan MacDonald of TD Bank for their very generous sponsorships of On Your Left Cycling. None of this would be possible without our amazing sponsors. Congrats Lads and here's to many more!
We even spotted the now "retro" 50M Legacy wheels during the post race festivities ;)
Welland Half Iron Post Race Report
On Saturday June 14, my dad and his friend were supposed to do a TBN (Toronto Bike Network) supported bike ride from Stoney Creek, Hamilton to Niagara Falls. They were going to sleep over on Saturday night and ride home on Sunday. This worked out well for me because it meant that I could just crash in their hotel room, and make a short drive to Welland in the morning for the Welland Half. As it turned out, my dad caught a bad case of strep throat and couldn't ride, but decided to drive down anyway to make use of the hotel. In all of the confusion of preparing for the overnight stay and the uncertainty of him riding it became a very hectic couple of days.
The Welland bike ride is always great. It is flat, fast and the wind never seems to be a bother. I finished the 90K bike in 2:35:53; another personal best split with an average of 34.6. I felt like I could have gone faster on the bike based of my perceived effort alone, but while monitoring my power decided I should maybe back off a little and maintain my current pace. This yielded an average power output of 190, just under what I had planned to do.
The run I was really nervous about. I had no watch and no indication (aside from the km markers) of my time or pace. I started off the run slow (I think) and as I felt better, started to speed up and to my surprise never stopped. I felt strong the whole way through and finished the run in 1:42:26... yet again, another personal best split. My 21.1K split was even faster than my first half-marathon time as a stand alone road race! I feel like racing without my watch turned out to be to my benefit. Instead of pushing myself out of T2 to reach my pace as soon as possible, I let myself naturally settle into my rhythm and run my own race. A seasoned Ironman veteran said it to me before the race: the run is really all about pain management and personal drive. No matter how well you train, the run all comes down to how bad you want it, how smart you race and how well you listen to your body.
What started out to be a disaster of a weekend turned out to be my best race to date. Through all of the challenges I put on myself by forgetting all of my stuff, I remained focused and set on my goal. I beat my time from last year by over 40 minutes, and set a half-iron PB by over 30 minutes. It was a good father's day present to my dad. He comes out to every one of my races to support me and yell bits of advice and encouragement when he sees me on the course. It felt good to be able to put out a performance like I did as a way to thank him for his patience and sacrifice.
I think it was a lack of racing experience for the year (since it was my first race this season), as well as the confusion but I ended up forgetting my GPS watch, my eload nutrition, my water bottles and my helmet back home in Mississauga! YIKES! To make things worse, I realized all of this at 3:00 p.m. and had to rush around Niagara trying to scavenge what I could around town. $90 later I managed to pick up everything except my GPS watch, which I was uncertain about racing without. I had never raced without my GPS watch and was scared and unsure of how the day would turn out. I convinced myself that this little hiccup wouldn't phase me and that I would still keep my head in the game.
The gun went off and I ended up throwing down my fastest 2K swim with 35:14.... Strange considering I had been in the pool twice all summer. I felt good coming off of the swim and half way through the bike, realized it was going to be a special day.
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| Not sure why the photog decided to take pictures of my derp face but it makes for some funny photos :p |
The run I was really nervous about. I had no watch and no indication (aside from the km markers) of my time or pace. I started off the run slow (I think) and as I felt better, started to speed up and to my surprise never stopped. I felt strong the whole way through and finished the run in 1:42:26... yet again, another personal best split. My 21.1K split was even faster than my first half-marathon time as a stand alone road race! I feel like racing without my watch turned out to be to my benefit. Instead of pushing myself out of T2 to reach my pace as soon as possible, I let myself naturally settle into my rhythm and run my own race. A seasoned Ironman veteran said it to me before the race: the run is really all about pain management and personal drive. No matter how well you train, the run all comes down to how bad you want it, how smart you race and how well you listen to your body.
Those tan lines though...
I came into the finish in a time of 5:03:55, 62nd overall and 4th in the 20-24 AG. I was just under 5 minutes short of a medal. I think if I cut down on my transition times (mine were over 8 minutes combined) I could have made it. However, I think my slower transitions allowed me to collect myself, feed myself and mentally prepare myself for the next discipline. Again, this may also have been a lack of racing experience this year.
Turns out my final Wildman sprint was all for naught.
The race organizers mistook the length of the run course by 750m
so the real finish was 3 minutes behind me at this point but again, makes for a good picture
What started out to be a disaster of a weekend turned out to be my best race to date. Through all of the challenges I put on myself by forgetting all of my stuff, I remained focused and set on my goal. I beat my time from last year by over 40 minutes, and set a half-iron PB by over 30 minutes. It was a good father's day present to my dad. He comes out to every one of my races to support me and yell bits of advice and encouragement when he sees me on the course. It felt good to be able to put out a performance like I did as a way to thank him for his patience and sacrifice.
... and so it begins
My name is Tyler Chuang and at the beginning of 2014, I decided to create my own cycling team. We are "On Your Left Cycling", or OYL for short.
First off, a little background information on myself. I was born and raised in Mississauga, Ontario and currently attend the University of Waterloo in the Kinesiology program. I started cycling at around 12 years of age, at first just around the neighbourhood on my Canadian Tire bike with my best bud. In high school, I joined the swimming and XC/Track team and found some small successes there. At the end of grade 10, I learned about this strange sport called the triathlon. I figured I could swim, I loved to cycle and I was a pretty decent runner so to me it only made sense to give it a go. My very first race was the MSC Toronto Island Give-It-A-Tri where I placed 18th/415 overall and 2nd/10 in the under-19 AG. I felt that I did pretty good and from then on decided to make triathlon my main sport. Fast forward nearly 4 years and I am currently in preparation for my first full ironman.
I started the OYL cycling team because as a sort of late entrant into the world of competitive cycling, I found it really tough to find the resources and knowledge that I needed to be successful. I started the cycling team to promote cycling among local youth and to give newcomers an easy method of introduction into this sport that typically has high barriers of entry. It can be really intimidating to jump right in and it is a sink or swim scenario. For years I found that my cycling never got any better no matter how hard I trained. As soon as I was given the tools and the means to better myself, the results seemed exponential. I want to play a part in helping U23 athletes reach their potential but most of all have fun!
Have a look around the blog & if you are interested in being a part of this club or have any questions please drop us a line at:
ride4oyl@gmail.com
*Me on the left, I'm obviously not Mr. Simon Whitfield, unfortunately...
First off, a little background information on myself. I was born and raised in Mississauga, Ontario and currently attend the University of Waterloo in the Kinesiology program. I started cycling at around 12 years of age, at first just around the neighbourhood on my Canadian Tire bike with my best bud. In high school, I joined the swimming and XC/Track team and found some small successes there. At the end of grade 10, I learned about this strange sport called the triathlon. I figured I could swim, I loved to cycle and I was a pretty decent runner so to me it only made sense to give it a go. My very first race was the MSC Toronto Island Give-It-A-Tri where I placed 18th/415 overall and 2nd/10 in the under-19 AG. I felt that I did pretty good and from then on decided to make triathlon my main sport. Fast forward nearly 4 years and I am currently in preparation for my first full ironman.
I started the OYL cycling team because as a sort of late entrant into the world of competitive cycling, I found it really tough to find the resources and knowledge that I needed to be successful. I started the cycling team to promote cycling among local youth and to give newcomers an easy method of introduction into this sport that typically has high barriers of entry. It can be really intimidating to jump right in and it is a sink or swim scenario. For years I found that my cycling never got any better no matter how hard I trained. As soon as I was given the tools and the means to better myself, the results seemed exponential. I want to play a part in helping U23 athletes reach their potential but most of all have fun!
Have a look around the blog & if you are interested in being a part of this club or have any questions please drop us a line at:
ride4oyl@gmail.com
*Me on the left, I'm obviously not Mr. Simon Whitfield, unfortunately...
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