TransRockies 2008 Day 3
August 12, 2008
Nipika Time Trial
49 km/1514 climbing
Last night at awards we got the scoop on how this time trial was going to take place. Starts at the TransRockies are usually separated into 3 start blocks. The first start block holds in general the first 60 teams on overall standings, the second start block the next seventy, and the third holds the rest of the field.
The second start block went out first thing in the morning at 0900 hrs, starting with the fastest team in the block and finishing with the slowest. Each team went out at 30 second intervals. This was followed at 1030 hrs with start block 3 following the same pattern. A break then ensued until start block 1 went starting at 1300 hr. Intervals were 1 minute for this block. Our start time was 1332 hr as we were in 32nd position overall after our Day 1 result.
I have to admit that I found this day sort of cool. I had not competed in a time trial until the prologue in this years Cape Epic. That race lasted about 50 minutes; our expectation was that this one would take about two and a half hours. Interestingly, since our cabin was on the start/finish line we got to watch the whole thing under the comfort our blankets. The course went out of Nipika on a large loop to the north. It then came back through the start/finish area and did a loop to the south. At 2.5 hrs into the race, not even the first teams had completed the first loop, so Trevor and I were quickly revising our expectations.
We were discussing our strategy at about noon, when the owners of the Nipika resort came up and asked if we were ready for our day to get significantly worse. A few minutes earlier my 12 year old son Blake had headed out to ride his bike around Nipika’s skills park and apparently had immediately fell off an A frame and landed on his out stretched hand against a cut off stump. Crash against stump equals fully displaced radius and ulna fracture right arm.
Thankfully, the TR travels with a fully equipped medical team and they quickly had an IV started and with the help of some drugs had it splinted. The fracture needed to be set, and I thought that there was a good possibility that it might need open reduction and internal fixation. What to do? Race, or go to the hospital? Blake is one tough dude, and it was decided that we would race, and that my wife and eldest daughter would make a sprint to the Banff hospital.
Off they went, and shortly after off we went. What a wicked course; lots of technical single track interspersed with rolling fire roads! It did take far longer than initially expected. By the time we came through Nipika after the first loop in 2 hours and 20 minutes, we had passed two teams and had been passed ourselves by one. Another team was passed as we rode through Nipika, and then we really put the hammer down. Our second loop was one of the fastest of the day and in the end we finished 5th in our division and 28th overall. Trevor and I were both pretty trashed. On the course today, it was pretty clear that many teams were pretty shattered after yesterdays off course extravaganzas. We were both pretty worried that our time to blow up was soon to come. Tomorrow, the next day, the day after that, eventually in these races you will pay the price for every expenditure of energy.
Once the race was over, and we had had a chance to recover, I began to worry a great deal about Blake. Nipika truly is in the middle of no where and despite attempts to call my wife on the owners’ satellite phone; I could not contact her. We were about to try again when out of the window of the cabin who should appear but Blake with his arm in a cast. Thank god for Alberta medical care. Blake had been in and out of the hospital in less than two hours without an operation and was now back in Nipika, seemingly no worse for the wear and tear except for a plaster cast.
What a day! Tomorrow is another tough one finishing with 60 km of road riding into Whiteswan Lake.
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