I'll give points for the first 6 in sport.

Sport - 1st place 12 points, 2nd place 10 points, ...., 6th place 2 points.

Get your picks in before the weekend.

ADRÉNALINE
BMO Groupe financier
Cascades Grand Masters
Cobra
Dragon Beasts
Paddle Demons
RBC Comets
Robin Boat
The Merge
Verdun Adrenaline
Wongs DBC Slayers

True Rankings will take:
1. Dragon Beasts
2. Verdun Adrenaline
3. BMO Groupe financier
4. Wongs DBC Slayers
5. Cobra
6. ADRÉNALINE

Glorious!!!
This one will be tougher as I'm not as familar with the teams out east. Gotta do the research first. I know I could easily look this up, but will lachine be similar to pickering in that there will be 200, 500, and 2K races each for points? PD, your point system is it based on 500m races only our overall results?

Brucie

Lachine is 200m knockout races. The Quebec Cup is all distances.

This one is pretty easy for the top 2

1) beasts
2) Verdun
3) BMO
4) Merge
5) Wongs

Yup! Pickering was based on the 500m final. Lachine is a 200m knockout - I think 4 boats go at a time. So the top 4 in A, and next 2 in B (sport).

Schedule can be found here:
http://www.22dragons.com/

PD

P.S. Next week is lots of fun, the Island and Ottawa.

I'll kick things off:
1. Dragon Beasts
2. Verdun Adrenaline
3. BMO Groupe financier
4. Cobra
5. Wongs DBC Slayers
6. Adrenaline

Because there are fewer boats, instead of losing 1/10 of your points for each place you are off, lets make it 1/4.

Dragon Beasts
Verdun
Wongs
Cascades
BMO
Cobra

I have absolutely no idea, so these are just guesses:

Dragon Beasts
Verdun
BMO
Wongs
Cascades
Cobra

My picks would be:
Dragon Beasts
Verdun
BMO
ADRENALINE
Wongs
As for the rest who knows - can't see Cascade up there with competition at this level

Merge? Cobra? Those two are new to me. Anybody care to share any background info?

Somebody throw me a bone. If my picks are dead last again I'll have to start using a new name!

Is Team Cobra 3R?

Simpleton -

I believe Robin Boat and Cobra are both 3R teams. No idea about Merge however.

And here is a helpful hint for you - don't bet against the Beasts

OK my picks -

1) Dragon Beasts
2) Verdun
3) BMO
4) Wongs
5) Cobra
6) Adrenaline

1. Dragon Beasts - These guys must really love Quebec (or the flights must be cheap). The field is too small to be worth the flight IMO.
2. Verdun - Finally, after all these years. Verdun is now the Quebec team to beat. This probably coincided with the departure of the guy who kept saying it a few years ago when it was not the case.
3. Wong's Dragonslayers - One down year is enough for Matt Robert.
4. BMO Groupe Financier - Very close. But not everything "is possible"
5. 3R Cobra - "Cooooooobra" (Think GI-Joe villian voice)
6. ADRÉNALINE - Who are you again?

Looking forward to the island....

Dragon Beasts
Verdun
BMO Groupe financier
Cascades Grand Masters
Wongs
Cobra
Robin Boat
Paddle Demons
The Merge
RBC Comets
ADRÉNALINE

1) Beasts
2) Verdun
3) Wongs
4) BMO
5) 3R
6) Adrenaline

1) Beasts
2) Verdun
3) Wongs
4) BMO
5) 3R
6) Adrenaline

Results

A final

1) Beasts
2) Verdun
3) BMO
4) The Merge, which is Telus (or whatever they were called last year) and Hyperactifs

B final

1) Wongs Slayers
2) Cascades Grand Masters
3) ADRENALINE, the Royal Victoria Hospital team
4) Cobras (which is the 3R team)

The Dragon Beasts won both the Men's and Mixed Championships using a mixed crew. They seem to be able to change speeds at will. They also were drinking quickly after the last race and opened and closed the after party.

Verdun was also impressive having the fastest time in the first round.

Wongs didn't make the A round - a disappointment.

How close was Verdun to the Beasts? Any times?

What does men's race using a mixed crew mean - did the Beasts combine with men from another crew?

Wasn't there but pretty sure the poster was saying they won the open division with their mixed (8 girls min.) team.

Just looking at the Beasts site and guess I'm wrong.

I was there and the Beasts raced with their mixed crew - 8 women in the boat.

Hi All

The Lachine results are now available at www.22dragons.com

Thanks to all for coming out and taking part. Special thanks to Mother Nature who had us all scared leading up to Saturday but who cooperated beautifully in the end.

And of course, thanks also to Albert and Beasts for making the trip. Your race hard/party hard reputation is solidly in check.

We had a great time at the knockout, I talk about it on the Beast Blog so I won't here. Just thanks to all.

I keep hearing that racing is different at quebec events. What's different^

Albert talks about it in the Beast Blog. He seems to be saying that Quebec events are very well run and professional. What I want to know is - given that the Beasts passed up Ottawa this year for Lachine - does that mean that Ottawa isn't as well run?

Ottawa is well run, but different.

The Quebec events are definitely more simplistic. Ottawa is a huge show, but doesn't pay attention to the racer. Quebec is focused more on the racer.

Ottawa does a better job of paying attention to racers than the other major festivals of similar size. It's not a sport regatta, but over the past four years they've shown a willingness to listen and adapt.

Albert and the Beats are looking for pure sport racing, which you're never going to get at a 190 team event.

Ottawa still ignores some really basic principles, like making allowances for athletes who race in the mixed and women's divisions. If you're back to back - you're screwed.

Hey Matt, where did the Lachine results disappear to?

Would it be possible to throw them back up - I missed getting a copy for the rankings.

PD

Thanks! Got em.

PD

PD, check out this work in progress

www.lbdq.ca

you're the inspiration

Matt

Matt, very nice. kind of want to do more quebec races now that you've got a system like that setup.
Brucie

Pretty cool Matt! You guys really have your act together over there and word is getting out about your top knotch "sport" festivals.

The race league is a great way to encourage teams to come out to lots of festivals and get competative. Any prizes for the winning teams? The league also might be a good platform for pulling in a sponsor - supply a prize, get your name attached to the league.

Best of luck!

This is simply awesome.

Hi PD

The buy-in for all festivals was that they give up one 2009 entry to their event. This means that there will be 10 prizes on the line for overall winners. Sponsors are suddenly taking notice as well so their may be more.

One of the events likes the idea so much that they may throw in free accommodation and transport to their more remote location.

The idea is not only to sell sport racing, but to provide a venue for those sport crews that are not quite 'elite' but train hard by creating a division 2. Division 2 would also be a place for community teams to step into the sport racing arena without getting blown away by the big guys. As the league evolves certain festivals will become designated for certain divisions.

The lowest division, division 4, or the local amateur division, will rank all crews by a time standard. Once local crews see their name on a provincial list, even if imperfect, the hope is they'll take an interest in meeting up with the crews around them from other festivals.

Who knows, maybe we'll have a champions league in Canada or NA someday.

Matt