GO CANADA!

With only a few days left until the Olympic Triathlon Team heads to Beijing, there's no better way to send them off in style than to let them know you'll be cheering for them.  All of the athletes have a blog or website that you can visit to keep up to date on their adventures, and to send a message of support:

WOMEN'S TEAM
Lauren Groves
Kathy Tremblay
Carolyn Murray

MEN'S TEAM
Simon Whitfield
Paul Tichelaar
Colin Jenkins

As added incentive, and because I know you all love competition, let's make this a contest. Your job is to send all six athletes a message/comment of support between now and Thursday Aug. 14th.  For every comment you leave, I'll enter your name in a hat, and I'll draw one winner.  The winner of our little contest will get to attend the OAT Training Days at the PTC in Guelph for FREE for the 2008-2009 season.  Here are the rules:

1) Eligible training day athletes must be between 12-20years old by Dec. 31, 2009

2) Contest runs from Sun Aug 10th to Thurs Aug 14th at 11:59pm EST

3) You will get a point per comment (max 1 per olympic athlete blog).  Every point means your name in the hat; for example 6 points means we put 6 pieces of paper in the hat with your name on it, giving you a better chance to win.

4) You must leave your name (ie. John Smith, J. Smith, John S.) with the comment so I can confirm your comment.

5) You will get your name in the hat for each athlete you send a message to, but you will not get added credit for multiple messages to the same athlete. 

6) Parents, siblings and friends can also leave a comment on behalf of an eligible athlete (ie. Sue Smith for John Smith), to add to the point total.  For example, if mom, dad and little brother also leave a message for Colin Jenkins, that's three extra points, and three more chances to win the contest.

NOTES:

The men's team all have blogs, while the women's team have websites where you can leave a comment and/or send an e-mail.  If you have to send an e-mail, just cc me on the message to earn your point.

Our funding has changed for the upcoming year, and it doesn't look like we'll be able to offer the training days for FREE for targeted athletes, so this would be a great way to keep attending the training days free of charge for another year. 

Let the Games, and the Contest, begin.

QUEST FOR GOLD CRITERIA POSTED

The 2008-2009 Quest for Gold criteria are now posted on the OAT website.

LOOKING FOR A NEW BIKE?

From Scott Curry's blog.

EVEN SPLIT

As a kid, Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit were two of my favourite movies. Maybe I just really liked Burt Reynolds, but I think it was the cars and trucks, and the idea of a road trip. Since those days when The Dukes of Hazard and Knight Rider ruled Friday night TV (generally known as "pre-history" to the junior crowd), I've been on more than a few road trips. Naturally, when the opportunity presented itself to attend a Jr Series race in PEI, my first thought was "I wonder how long it would take to drive there?"  

So I rented a van, packed it to the gills with 6 teenagers and their gear, and with the help of some generous parents (thank-you Ken Madsen and the Donald family!), we struck out for the open road.   The first stop was Ottawa to pick up Ian Donald, and then a full day of driving from Ottawa to Summerside, PEI.  Four thousand kilometers later (longer than the drive from Toronto to Victoria, if I recall correctly), we're back.  We saw a lot of gas stations, rest stops and Subways along the way, but no moose. I raised some eyebrows at the rental company when I returned the van 2300+ kms over the daily allowance, but in the end it went smoothly. For the record, the drive from Ottawa to Summerside took 12:57:56, and the return trip took 12:57:55....technically a negative split, but we'll call it even. If Sean had been able to hold on a little longer, we would have posted a better return time - there were multiple rest stops in the last few hours of the trip - definite time killers. 

We're home now for a few days before leaving next week for Nationals in Kelowna.  We'll be flying for that one.

I've posted some pics from the Summerside race here. Congrats to all athletes and coaches. 

I looked everywhere for a 'bridge out' sign, but I just couldn't find one.

SUMMERSIDE UPDATE

Results are already up here. Quick notes: steady rain prior to women's race, 18 degrees, overcast and windy for both races, with roads drying through the day. Women started at 9:30am, men at 10:30am; 1 loop swim, 3 loop bike, 5 loop run. Some great tough racing by many athletes. In the womens' race, a lead pack of ~6 athletes came into T2 together, with a footrace to determine the podium. In the mens' race, the lead pack of 4 athletes came into T2 with a ~35 sec lead, and Ian Donald ran up from the second group to finish in 3rd. 

TOP 5

WOMEN
1. Sarah-Anne Brault (MB)
2. Rachael Edwards (SK)
3. Christine Ridenour (BC)
4. Dorelle Hinton (ON)
5. Rebecca Staynor (BC)

MEN
1. Jeff Phillips (BC)
2. Matt Sharpe (BC)
3. Ian Donald (ON)
4. Connor Hammond (ON)
5. Aaron Thomas (BC)

Crashes:

Domi Jamnicky touched a wheel in front of her and crashed - she has some road rash, but she's fine and in good spirits. Travis Goron had a flat on his front wheel causing him to crash - he has minor scrapes, but no major road rash. John Rasmussen slipped in T1, falling onto his back, bruising his low back on his bike pedal. He recovered to finish the race, but his injury definitely hindered his running. All Ontario athletes are safe and in one piece. There were a few other crashes, but from what I hear, no serious injuries.

REUNION TOUR

National level races are always a great opportunity to connect with some of the great coaches and athletes from across the country. Since I missed the Pinawa and Gatineau junior races, I was really looking forward to this race for the chance to see everyone (and to listen to Angela "state the facts" for the entire 13hr drive).  We've split the athletes into two big groups ("The Western Provinces" and "Ontario") for training sessions. Coaches Patrick Kelly (BC), Gary Pallett (MB) and RossAnn Edwards (SK) are the Western coaches, and Greg Kealey and I are supporting the Ontario crew.  Today at the pool, the western athletes were leaving while we were arriving.  Barb Sharpe took this great picture (below) of most of the athletes, complete with a classic PEI house in the background.  Between the junior mens' and women's races, there are 56 athletes competing on Sunday.

I also ran into the BC Junior boys in the parking lot, for the first time since Brampton Jr Nationals last year. The warm welcome I received from JP, Sharpie, Lowell and Aaron looked a lot like the treatment the Masked Marauder dished out to coach PK on the pool deck.  I've gotta' get me one of those Mexican wrestling masks......

ROAD TRIP

We arrived last night Summerside, PEI after a 13hr drive from Ottawa, complete with a van full of gear, 6 teenagers, and lots of help.  Thanks to Peggy Reid and Ken Madsen for helping us get some of the bikes to PEI, and thanks to Vlad Jamnicky for the extra bungie cords.  A huge thanks to Anne and Mike Donald for the homestay (they fed and housed all 5 juniors), the Jack Lallane juicer experience, the cooler full of food, and the cargo carrier for the roof!  I think I'll include a stop at the Donald house for all future road trips.

We race Sunday, in the 3rd Junior Series race of the year.  This is also the test event for the 2009 Canada Games, so athletes from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Martimes are all here to get a preview of the course.  Today we'll do 3 short aerobic workouts (S/B/R) just to work out the kinks from travel, and tomorrow we'll do some activation (ie. short & fast) to be ready for racing on Sunday.

Not to be outdone, Adrian and Tom will be racing in Owen Sound on Monday, and James will race the Windsor Tri a week later, in the final races before Kelowna.