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National Roller Cup

Live Blog: 24h Roller Montreal

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24h Roller Montreal

 

Sept. 2 and 3, 2012

Planet report

12:59 am Monday | Results posted

Il Peloton skated 198 laps in 24 hours, 4 minutes and 45 seconds. The team covered a total distance of 855.36 km (531.5 miles), smashing the event record of 813 km.

The team's average speed was an amazing 35.687 km/h (22 mph).

The 10-member team included one woman: former NROC champion Morgane Echardour of Mississuaga, Ontario.

The winning all-women's team was the Ekkip Les Poulettes sur Roulettes (Chicks on Wheels), lead by Julie Robert of Montreal. The team completed 157 laps for a total distance of 678 km (421 miles).

The top male solo skater was Philippe Coussy of Bourgogne, France. Coussy skated 140 laps, or 604.8 km (375.8 miles). That's roughly the distance between San Francisco and Los Angeles — in one day!

The top female solo skater was Karin Chamberlain of Somerville, Mass. Chamberlain skated 105 laps, or 453.6 km (282 miles), roughly the distance from Chicago to Saint Louis.

12:28 am Monday | Il Peloton by two

Il Peloton is the winner of the 2012 24h Roller Montreal team event. The Ottawa-based team won by two laps and set a course record "by many laps," says event organizer Simon Clement.

The Rockets d'Antoine Laoun finished second. Shift Racing was third.

11:25 am Monday | When big dogs lie

How did Il Peloton finally get away from the Rockets?

Patience, observation, and hard work.

The Il Peloton skaters watched and waited until the Rockets rotated some of their fastest skaters off the track to get some rest. Then Il Peloton attacked with the fastest skaters in their arsenal.

"They had a couple of their weaker guys on the track, and we took advantage of that," says Il Peloton's Peter Doucet.

The sleeping Rockets included Jerome Comptois-Urbain and Christopher Fiola. When they rotated into the paddocks, Il Peloton attacked with Steve Robillard, Mathieu Giroux (an Olympic gold medalist in team pursuit), Sergio Almeralla and Doucet.

"When we got a minute lead on them, we looked at each other and said, 'This is it. We've got to do it now,'" Doucet says

They kept pushing and lapped the Rockets, and then they did it again four hours later.

After that, the two teams started skating together again, as they had during the first 14 hours of the race.

"At this point, there's basically a truce being called," Doucet says. "Basically, we are not attacking each other." (Doucet also describes what happened on his blog.)

It appears that Il Peloton, with almost an hour to go, has already smashed the distance record for the 24h Roller. The team has skated 825 km. The record, set in 2010, is 813 km.

11:10 am Monday | One hour to go

During the night, first at about 2:30 am and then again about 8:30 am, Il Peloton lapped the Rockets, taking a two lap lead.

The Rockets tried bravely to catch up. But Il Peloton was unyeilding, and now, with just one hour to go, the two teams have called a "truce" and are skating together toward what will be — unless the truce is broken — an inevitable Il Peloton victory.

Shift Racing remains in third place. But is now 17 laps back. VRL is another lap back in fourth.

7:58 pm Sunday | First third

After nearly eight hours of skating, two teams, Rockets and Il Peloton, remain locked in a tight battle for the lead in the 24h Roller Montreal.

At one point, a couple of hours ago, the Rockets took a 90 second lead. But Il Peloton caught them.

Then Il Peloton took a 40 second lead, and the Rockets caught back up.

"The teams are pretty evenly matched and no one is relenting," Il Peloton's Peter Doucet told us.

Currently, the two teams are skating together, five laps ahead of Shift Racing with VRL another lap back.

Lots of strategy comes into play in a 24-hour relay, Doucet tells us. One thing you have to do is make sure you don't send out a slower skater against one of the opponent's faster skaters.

One of the fastest Rockets today has been 15-year-old Chistopher Fiola, who won both of the NROC marathons in Canada this year.

To keep him in check, Il Peloton has been sending out Sergio Almerella to skate with him.

"You always have to be on your guard," Doucet says. "If the other team sends out a strong skater, you have to be able to respond."

Il Peloton had a problem at one point when one of its members misplaced one of the team's timing chip. Each team gets two timing chips: one for the skater on the track, the other for the skater getting ready to take the handoff.

But team members couldn't locate the second chip at one point. And as a result, the skater on the track, Juan Diego Zuluaga, had to keep going for two more laps — usually skaters only do one at a time — before the team found the missing chip.

"I'm not sure he was too happy about that," Doucet says.

With the sun starting to set in Montreal, some off-duty skaters are eating while others are tyring to sleep.

The Il Peloton team is split into two squads of five skaters each. When one squad is on duty, the other is resting. "Hopefully, you get about three hours of sleep. But it's more about managing your energy, making sure you don't get fatigued too much."

3:22 pm Sunday | Three down, 21 to go

After three hours of skating, a battle has developed for first place with the Rockets d'Antoine Laoun just ahead of Il Peloton.

At last report from MyMaps Sports Timing, the current skater for the Rockets was less than a second ahead of the Il Peloton skater, and Shift Racing had fallen a lap behind.

The two top teams have completed 25 laps, or 108 kilometers.

The Rockets have posted the fastest lap speed so far: 40.378 km/h, or 25.1 mph.

1:16 pm Sunday | Upstream video link


Video streaming by Ustream

12:56 pm Sunday | Report from the racecourse

Alan Marcosson, a member of the Flying Fossils, just finished his first turn on the track.

How are things going?

"Well, the sun's shining and everyone is having a great time so far," said Marcosson, owner of Pyroapparel in Cleveland.

The Flying Fossils are a team of skaters 55 years old or older. "Most of us are over 60," said Marcosson.

The team competes in the 400-plus category. The category is for teams whose members have a combined age of at least 400 years.

Marcosson has been a member of the team for five of the last six years.

His first turn on the track was pretty much painless.

"I was fortunate. Just as I went out, a fast little girl came by, so I hoped on behind her, and then we stayed together and drafted each other. It was nice to have company."

12:39 pm Sunday | Peter Doucet's Pre-race video

12:14 pm Sunday | It begins

The start was delayed by seven minutes. But now they are off.

In all, the competition is made up of 62 teams, 27 solo skaters, 4 duo teams and 9 free agents (skaters in search of a team).

The object of the race is to skate as many laps around the racecourse as possible within 24 hours. One lap is 4.3 km.

The winning team is likely to skate more than 800 km; the winning solo skater, more than 500 km.

11:35 am Sunday | Scene

"Things are going great," Peter Doucet tells us with a half an hour to go before the start of the 24h Roller.

"It's slightly overcast. There's a lot of music. Team photos are going on right now. And there are tons of skaters."

Doucet, 30, is the webmaster of Speed Skate World and is skating on the powerful Il Peloton team in the 24-hour race.

The skaters are assembled at the Gilles Villeneuve F-1 Racetrack on Notre-Dame Island in Montreal’s Jean-Drapeau Park.

Planet preview of the 24h Roller Montreal

 

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