If there's one nice thing about being an Elite, it's not getting up at the crack of dawn to race. Take professional bike races. They're scheduled to finish in time for the evening news . So even a 7 hour classic doesn't start until late morning. Compare and contrast to say, the B'town LC, where the start is at 6, so as to get you off the roads as soon as possible, which of course means yours truly is often up at 04:30 or earlier.
The ITU clock says women at 12:00 and men at 14:30 and whilst the TD may be at liberty to change things by five minutes here or there, moving the whole smash up by six hours isn't on the cards. So, whilst the race is hard work for everyone, at least you have the luxury of not getting up trop early for the pleasure.
In fact the TA had the relative lie-in of 06:30 and even had time to hit the breakfast buffet at the hotel, albeit the first person at the breakfast buffet, before reporting to race-site for 08:00.
Fat-loading at breakfast. Word of the day; oeufs au miroir
It was pretty slow to start for us, as the groupe d'age was still in full flow. It was interesting to see the low age-grouper turnout, which had many at TQ grumbling. This was by far the smallest TQ event the TA has ever seen, no bigger than a G'wood or a C'Smith, about 100. It made us feel better about our (TNS) own poor turnouts, when even a powerhouse like Quebec can't always get bodies on pontoons.
Seeing the groupe d'age racing allowed the ITU guys to get familiar with the course in action. We were able to see the swim-start (even though the age-group didn't dive off the pontoon), check out the dodgy turnarounds as they were taken at speed by the better age groupers, and make some race-day adjustment to the course as required; move this cone here, alter that tear-drop turnaround there, get some paint down. Nothing big.
Then the Elites started to turn up and the machine swung into action.
Pop-quiz: what is the TD's race-day job?
If you said everything, having seen us at provincial races, you'd be excused for saying so.
In fact, the truth is a little more mundane. If the TD has done their job right, then there is very little to do on race-day. You're available to put out fires, make big calls, run the very specific things peculiar to a high-level event such as an ITU Continental Cup and make sure the run-sheet is carried out. And if you've done your job right, and she had, there were very few fires to put out and consequently, very few big calls to make, 'cos she'd already anticipated them.
Here was something unseen. Many of the Elite athletes were way tall (big Jorden Bryden, we mean you), way taller than the bike-racks. While most of the women were OK, virtually none of the mens' bikes fitted in. It was like racking adults on KOS racks! So we ended up with a bunch of volunteers holding the bikes upright in the racks...
Yes, it looked like the start of the world's largest Team Time Trial!
Co-RD Marie-Jose (white shirt) helps with the TTT start!
That's not to say we are doing things wrong provincially. More like that there is a world of difference between a high-profile event where you have access to the site for days beforehand, and most provincial-level events where one often turns up at 06:00 only to have to totally transform an empty parking-lot into a race-site by 09:00, run the race and have it all torn down again by lunchtime
The race-day heavy lifting is done by the head ref!
As Assistant Technical Delegate (ATD), our role was even more amorphous. The book says we were to "assist the TD with her duties", so we looked over her shoulder a lot. We had to remind ourselves that we were supposed to review the false-start camera with her, rather than just get off the pontoon and into TZ. It also said our billet for the day was part of the ITU Technical Education program. We had a laugh at that, and Janice would conclude even the most inconsequential of statements with "consider yourself Technically Educated".
We remembered some of the ATDs we've worked for in the past, and tried to take pages out of their books (John Petrides, we're talking to you!). So we ended up being a bit of a super-domestique, filling in where needed. So we ended up doing bike check-in, swim-start, mount/dismount, a little bit of human run-pylon (check the video), finish line, a bit of our own Technical Educating and even helped to stage-manage (and we choose our words with care) the medal-ceremony. That latter one was a totally new one to us.
The TA had the best seat in the house. We were quite literally behind Kathy Tremblay on the pontoon and held the tape she broke two hours later. We saw all the mount/dismount action. Plus, as bike check-in, the sheer amount of bike-porn that flowed through our hands on Sunday afternoon was astounding. There was so much Dura Ace and Red, at some point one would check a bike "merely" specc'd with Ultegra and think "Ultegra? Man, what were you thinking, bringing a knife to a gun-fight?".
Here are some random photos from the event, mostly ours with a couple from Triathlon Quebec.
Scrim and zip-ties. Together with gas-station coffee the two indutible signs our summer has arrived!
Lining the athletes up for introduction onto the pontoon. Eventual winner Kathy Tremblay is the first in line, as the top-ranked female athlete.
Ready to go. Top tip - when they dive off the pontoon, it's several hundred kilos powering off one end of the pontoon. If you don't take a bracing stance, Newton's Third Law will have you in lake too!!
It's thirsty work, this triathlon business. Fortunately, the RD had us covered!
Closest we'll ever get to an ITU gold medal.
Now you don't
TD Janice Ryan doing a bit of MineSweeper during the bike. Only kidding, she was doing the awards protocol!
Finish chute
Race set-up was on Fete St Jean Bapiste, so we rocked Quebec socks in honour of our hosts
Vest, accreditation, two-way radio with curly, white earpiece! Add the Oakleys and we were the triathlon Secret Service!
So, next stop for the TA will be running the swim-start and finish-line, not to mention the bits in between, at Olympic Provincials at Guysborough on July 24th. We can't say anything about the upcoming standard of officiating on the bike-course this year, but we can promise you we're going to run the hell out of the medal ceremony!
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