Tour de Bloc 2006-2007 #2: Coyote Rock Gym

Again, Jodi and the team at Coyote Rock Gym did an amazing job for the Ottawa leg of the Tour de Bloc. The set up and the quality was amazing and, personally, I loved the idea of having a judge for each problem. It made the whole day much smoother and made me take breaks between each tries. I am sure glad that they are hosting the Canadian finals. That guarantees good quality, and that’s great news!

One caveat, the final problems were really tough. So hard that only two (out of four) of the Women’s problems were finished and similarly for the Men’s problems. It was very entertaining to watch them try so hard, but quite anticlimactic since nobody finished the last problem of the competition (for the men)… The problems at the finals in May should be a little easier, which will be interesting to see.

Men’s Open Results

On the Men’s side, apart from Rene who finished first again, things changed a lot. Mainly because a couple of very strong climbers, who weren’t there in Laval, showed up for this competition (Simon, Andre, and Jonathan).

1. Rene Cousineau
2. Simon Villeneuve
3. Jonathan Audy
4. Dave Zoltan
5. Andre Cheuk
6. Ayo Supeju
7. Thibault Varin
8. Sebastien Lazure

Women’s Open Results

For the Women’s finals, the same three first stayed at the top of the pack, but Bonnie made her way up to fourth.

1. Eva Pepin-Helie
2. Erin Ford
3. Cathy Laflamme
4. Bonnie de Bruijn
5. Nicole Ko
6. Lisa Lajoie

This time, I did much better than previously. I placed 16th out of 33 participants with 1740 points. I can’t wait for the next competition in Quebec on December 9th. It should be quite fun!

Quick facts about the Coyote competition: 118 participants (33 Women and 85 Men) organized into 6 categories. Women’s Open had 20 participants, experienced had 11 and 2 beginners. As for the men’s categories: 45 (Open), 33 (Experienced), and 7 (Beginners).

Tour de Bloc 2006-2007 #1: Action Directe

As always, the Tour de Bloc competition at Action Directe was a lot of fun, and the quality of the climbers was really impressive. Among with the regular faces, many new comers made their way to the finals. On both sides, the competition was much harder and making the finals was a totally new game for those used to make it easily. Some very strong climbers didn’t even make it to the final round. This made the event all the more impressive.

On the men’s side, a couple of very strong guys from Quebec were there, and the Toronto team was especially impressive (See Ayo in the picture!). As for the women, the usual crew was there (with some missing… Nicole where were you? Ha ha.), but another girl from Quebec made quite an impression with the crowd.

The next competition, on Saturday Nov. 18th, in Ottawa promises to be very, very interesting and exciting. I cannot wait to see who will make it to the finals and who won’t. Here are the final results in a nutshell with the points from the qualification round in square brackets (Notice the change in order):

Men’s Open Results

1. Rene Cousineau [6490]
2. Dave Voltan [5605]
3. Ayo Sopegu [4760]
4. Jeff Beaulieu [5290]
5. Varin Thibault [5190]
6. Yves Gravelle [4700]
7. Gary Posey [5200]
8. Sebastien Lazure [5065]

Women’s Open Results

1. Eva Pepin-Helie [3950]
2. Erin Ford [3830]
3. Cathy Laflamme [3520]
4. Catherine Brunet [3805]
5. Lisa Lajoie [3400]
6. Bonnie de Bruijn [3630]

For the record, I placed 29th out of 31 the participants (in the experienced category) with 2140 points. I will definitively do much better next time, when my fingers are fully recovered from injury (hopefully!)… Don’t forget to go visit the official photos on Frank’s website.

Quick facts about the Action Directe competition: 131 participants (40 Women and 91 Men) organized into 6 categories. Women’s Open had 22 participants, experienced had 12 and 6 beginners. As for the men’s categories: 41 (Open), 31 (Experienced), and 19 (Beginners).