Rubuliak family never stops competing
Parents and 3 sons are competitive cyclists, with kids taking up speed skating
Special to The Okanagan Weekend
The Rubuliaks are a very busy bunch. Mom Jenni, dad Chris and sons Levi, Noah and Jacob all compete in cycling races and the boys also compete in speed skating in the winter months.
Although they do very well at speed skating, cycling seems to be their strong suit. They compete in road racing and cyclocross.
Chris is a coach for the Red Devils Cycling Academy, which was started a few years ago by Axel Merckx.
Axel, as you may know, is a professional bike racer from Belgium who — after a very successful career — retired in Kelowna. He is now well known for his work to help develop young riders through the Axel Merckx Youth Development Foundation and his Hagens Berman Axion team, a high-performance under-23 pro cycling team.
Merckx’s resume for developing young talent — 18 of his former development riders are now racing in the Pro Tour ranks — is unparalleled in professional cycling.
The Red Devils Cycling Team is one of the top youth teams in Canada and Jacob, along with another Kelowna rider Conor Martin, are members of this 20-man team.
Chris and Jacob both competed at the Canadian National Cyclocross Championships. Chris placed 30th in the 76-man 45-54 age group and Jacob was fifth in the under-19 men’s field.
The family recently were in Victoria for the B.C. Cyclocross Championships. They had great results! Jenni was third in F40-49 (she was first in 2017), Jacob took second in the U19 men, Noah was first in U15 men and Levi was third in U13 men. What a family!
I look forward to seeing their speed-skating results this winter.
Another Kelowna family in the same vein is the Haaheim family. I plan to tell you more about them in a future column.
RUNNING
Kelowna Running Club member David Guss continues to show that he is one of the top age-class runners in Canada.
Guss competed in the 8K masters race at the recent Canadian Cross-Country Championships. He finished second in the M55-59 class, a mere 12 seconds behind the winner. His great run helped B.C. to a second place in the Master’s team competition. He was also named as the top age-graded runner at the meet.
My old running friend Chris Greenway just returned from a holiday in Arizona. While there, he entered the Turkey Trot 10K race in Phoenix and won the M65-69 age class with an excellent 51:13 clocking!
The Kelowna Running Club (KRC) held their 20th annual Pub to Pub relay on Nov. 18. This great fun event was started by the late Woody Cross, who we all miss very much. The relay consists of six legs, and the runner must finish a glass of beer at the end of his or her leg before the next team member can start. Most teams dress in costumes, and many of them go all out in their designs.
As usual, the run was sold out weeks before the event.
The following is from the KRC Facebook page: “Exciting news!! The Kelowna Running Club with be heading to Yakima for the Yakima River Canyon Marathon and Half on March 30, 2019. A training plan has been put together for both the half and the full marathon. Training officially starts Dec. 8! To help members prepare for this race, there will be an organized long run every Saturday at 8:30 a.m. The distance and route will be posted each week on our Facebook page and in the weekly email. This training group is welcome to anyone wanting to keep the momentum going over the winter. You are not obligated to sign up for the race in Yakima! Come out, meet some new runners and enjoy the encouragement and enthusiasm of group training!”
For more information about the race, here’s a link: databarevents.com/yakimarivercanyon.
TRIATHLON
Penticton pro triathlete Jen Annett was in Arizona recently, competing in the Arizona Ironman. Annett continues to have a terrific season. She finished third in the women’s pro division in a time of eight hours, 51 minutes! Annett broke her own Ironman record for the bike portion and also had an excellent run. Her marathon time was 3:07, which is very fast after a 3.8K swim and a 180K cycle. The swim portion is her weak point, as she was six to 10 minutes behind the lead swimmers, but made up an amazing amount of ground in the rest of the race.
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
Except for Silver Star and Sovereign Lake, it looks like a late start for our local ski trails.
Nordic is sort of open, but they are recommending that members just walk or snowshoe the trails as there is a lot of dirt and gravel showing. Telemark is still waiting for more snow before they can open.
Fortunately our up-and-coming racers were able to get some training at Sovereign Lakes ski trails. For the 11th year, Adam Elliot — the head coach at Telemark Nordic — has led the Teck Regional Snow Camp there. There were two camps held. The first was for athletes from 12 to 18 and the second for athletes 8 to 12.