If you're restricting the choice to Canada, I would have to think Penticton is high on the list.

Awesome choice,...I've been in Penticton a few times, and LOVE it. In speaking with J.Blake and others who have lived there,...the riding is out of this world with a ton of choices and huge climbs. Smart.

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http://www.bikeforest.com/scott

Penticton???? huh???

NO way the BEST place in Canada for triathlon has GOT to be OTTAWA!!!! HUGE tri community...check out www.trirudy.com and get on that mailing list. This year they are sending more people to Kona than any other region in the world. I used to live there and I miss it. There is awesome riding inthe Gats..the Gats are like an adult theme park for triathletes...just 15 min from downtown you can swim outdoors, ride, trail run, ski...and there is a TON of people there who are supportive and do tris...great pools, facilities...and plus super fast cool STers Rick Hellard and Dev are from there and live and train and support others there....

OTTAWA has got to be the place! Ottawa is the tri centre of Canada for sure. Also they now have an Ironman distance race in Sept, along with various distance races loacally through out the year....and where else can you do a WINTER tri? skate/ski/run????

Hey Scott....

Heather and I have been spending time in Vernon training. The riding between Vernon/Kamloops/Salmon Arm/Sicamous is much better than most people realize. Loads of quiet nicely paved country roads.

There is only the one pool. 25m. Not a bad facility, but you can only swim at certain hours.

Open water: Kalamalka lake is incredible. OK lake is available too. Shuswap is a 1.5 hour drive if you want.

Temps are just as good as the south of the valley, with just slightly more rain.

X-C skiing: 20km from downtown Vernon is Sovereign Lakes world class facility... or go another 2k at your at Silverstar for downill.

Ottawa:
- high humidity
- BRUTAL winters...

I loved living there, except for these two things.

"Ottawa:
- high humidity
- BRUTAL winters... . "



. . . . perfect training enviroment for sending more people( 17) to the Ironman World Championship than any other city in the world. What's that they say? - "What does not kill you, makes you stronger."

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Scott,

Having lived in Vernon for quite some time I would agree that it is a great place to live and train but I would certainly give Penticton the nod anyway. Longer training season, better OW, more riding options, and likely more training partners. If you are into xc skiing, Vernon is among the best in Canada but there is also high alt. skiing at Apex.

p.s. I believe I went to OD school with your sister Tracey.

Syncro,

You went to Vernon to train and didn't call myself or solymosi? Man, that's cold.

robert

So far it's Ontario vs Alberta vs BC. Ottawa sounds compelling with the seemingly supportive tri community. Calgary sadly lacks much for open water swimming unless you have an in at one of the private lakes in the area. Part of how you'd rank the places is dependent on your values. Heck, if you don't mind running on a treadmill, doing most of your rides on your computrainer and installing and endless pool in your house KAMSACK SASK could be the place to move to (a nice place will run you less than 100 G) - - that being said however My vote for best training city... would be the Fraser Valley of SW BC. Having been here for 4 years now, I found you can:

1) Open swim mid April to early October and when the water's too cold you can check out the T/R/Sat Master's swim at the local (Mission) pool for under 5 dollars.

2) Bike year round, since there is rarely snow here the roads don't get hammered with salt and gravel that will cause early-season punctures. Yeah there's rain but it's better than 3 hours on the computrainer.

3) Run... well you can do that outside too.

4) Coffee - a reasonable selection of java joints to be had =-)

anyone else??

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

I like Penticton... but at times.. at little too.. redneck? Vernon just seems more class....

I'm likely going to end up living in Vernon next summer... we'll hook up! First.. a little trip to OZ is in order...

Question.. does anyone ride thier road bikes the full length of Trinity Valley Road? I went up from the Lumby side and it turned into nice hard packed dirt road.. looked ridable... but I turned around. Was thinking you could do the Vernon-Lumby-trinity-enderby-vernon loop?

I'm heading back out East for a trip next summer... maybe I'll check it out again. My buddy keeps trying to get me to move to Brockville...

This is true. Ottawa. The Gats is awesome for riding.

[reply]Penticton???? huh???

NO way the BEST place in Canada for triathlon has GOT to be OTTAWA!!!! HUGE tri community...check out [url "http://www.trirudy.com"]www.trirudy.com[/url] and get on that mailing list. This year they are sending more people to Kona than any other region in the world. I used to live there and I miss it. There is awesome riding inthe Gats..the Gats are like an adult theme park for triathletes...just 15 min from downtown you can swim outdoors, ride, trail run, ski...and there is a TON of people there who are supportive and do tris...great pools, facilities...and plus super fast cool STers Rick Hellard and Dev are from there and live and train and support others there....

OTTAWA has got to be the place! Ottawa is the tri centre of Canada for sure. Also they now have an Ironman distance race in Sept, along with various distance races loacally through out the year....and where else can you do a WINTER tri? skate/ski/run????[/reply]

Penticton...

well I went to IMC once, and for the life of me could not understand the big deal, and why everyone is so crazy to do it. I must have really missed something? But I decided after IMC2003 Id never ever go back, and now a zillion people want to get in....???? I didnt think IMC was anything that great, in fact I wasn't all that impressed, and I feel that just by saying this I may be somehow barred from any IM , anywhere, ever, as everyone seems to say this is the best besides Kona and I may have been blasphemous in saying this. Oh well, I didnt like it. There were more pawn shops PSI than in Vegas, I thought that weird I could not figure it out. Definitely not a place Id like to live, or even visit again.

anyway, so maybe Im not the best judge of western canada..but ..Ottawa...humid? what? I also used to live in London, Ont. Now that place was humid.

I agree. Penticton.... great place to train, not the best to LIVE.

I think most IMC athletes should visit Penticton outside of race week... the race fever tends to blind people a bit.

Very cool that you went to school with my sis -- I was training in Salmon Arm for a couple weeks (joined the tri club for a few workouts) two winters ago. I was super impressed by Salmon Arm too,...but didn't get a feel for the biking as it was too cold then. I love the fact that it's on a big lake. But am I crazy for not being driven by need for open water swimming???? I don't know,...perhaps I'm addicted to chlorine...or feel comforted when it's embeded in my skin.

Calgary's great, as they have 2 great 50m pools - with a National Swim Centre. Driving to lakes for swims,...not a big fan.

As far as Ottawa's huge tri community,...not a big seller for me (but I can see how it would be a BIG draw for a lot of people). Perhaps I need a little LESS emphasis on socialization -- group rides and runs aren't my thang. Call me a loner.

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http://www.bikeforest.com/scott

y'all said, "Definitely not a place Id like to live, or even visit again. " Coming from Ottawa, the 30 M by 10 M picture of Stockwell Day welcoming you to his riding probably scared the HELL out of you =-) If you ever come into Pent. from # 97 heading N into town (from Oliver) you can stop at a viewpoint that traces the name Penticton. Translated from the native Salish folk there it roughly means "a place to stay forever" - this take on the area from folks who were around even before Tom Demerly first posted on ST. What's not to like about a place that has plus 30 temps for three months of the year, 2 beaches, wineries, well I guess there's more to life than that... but.

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

". . . . perfect training enviroment for sending more people( 17) to the Ironman World Championship than any other city in the world. What's that they say? - "What does not kill you, makes you stronger."


Any thought that being a city of people employed by the government relates to enough people with money to go? ...just kidding,...

mostly.

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http://www.bikeforest.com/scott

Another thing that might attract people to vote for Calgary is this fella (2005 Ironman Canada's top agegrouper)

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http://www.bikeforest.com/scott

Scott,

I'd look at both Vernon and Kamloops. Both awesome for training summer and winter, as I'm sure you're aware, and both very centrally located. We're in Kamloops now and it's a 2 hour drive to Penticton and 3 1/2 to Vancouver. I'd say the riding in Kamloops is better than anywhere and the pool is awesome with 2 new running tracks in the complex. An outdoor 400m and indoor 200m!

I'm sure there's room for another chiropractor, if you're planning on working too!

Greg.

Well to be honest , I can see alot of the benefits that you are speaking of but if your speaking on a global perspective , I would have to disagree.

I would rank the number 1 City as a venue where you can:

- Safely cycle outdoors with rolling terrain , headwinds the occasional long climb , 365 days a year.

- Run in comfortable (10-25C ) temperatures.

- Swim outdoors all year around and have easy access to ocean and lake swims.

I would say the coast of North East Australia: ie: Brisbane , Cairns , Gold Coast.

My thoughts only :)

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"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream" - Les Brown
"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment" - Jim Rohn

I have to weigh in in favour of Victoria. Its an obvious choice for National Road and Tri training centres. Can't beat the weather (we get much less rain than the lower mainland), nor the availability of quality, low-traffic roads for year-round cycling. Awesome network of trails for running, cross-riding or xc mountain biking. 35 minute ride from anywhere and you are out of the city with endless kilometres in front of you. Scenic, deceivingly hilly and we get wind too. Plenty of near-by pools for 50m swimming, great open water in the summer.

While we do get a couple or three months of miserable grey weather, if you got what it takes (k, that is a plug for the film), you get out on your bike anyway. Plethora of superstud triathletes live and train here. We might not produce the highest volume of uber talented age-groupers, but those same guys (like the one in the picture above) come here for winter training camps.

As far as coffee goes: we have Cafe Fantastico, you don't, 'nuff said.

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No body plans to fail...
ostomyathlete.com

I have a feeling that my wife and I will be settling somewhere in the Okanagan -- seems like a lot of STers are in agreement that it's a great place to be. Jonnyo was telling me how he would just pick and eat peaches along the way during his long runs in Penticton (of course from trees where the owners offered free pickings). I thought that was very cool. And where else can you buy road side/fresh peaches and apriots for 25cents/lbs?

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http://www.bikeforest.com/scott

why do you want to leave calgary? I'm in kingston right now doing grad work, but if I do a PhD I was thinking calgary cause the university has great funding and the weather is alot better than kingston - most sunny days in canada!!... having also spent time at the NTC I also love vic, but the university for grad work is so-so..

[reply]". . . . perfect training enviroment for sending more people( 17) to the Ironman World Championship than any other city in the world. What's that they say? - "What does not kill you, makes you stronger."


Any thought that being a city of people employed by the government relates to enough people with money to go? ...just kidding,...

mostly.[/reply]

I would say that since Ottawa is a Gov't city, they prob have lots of free time to kill and at least 6 weeks vacations. The rest of the country is hard at work.

Just kiddding... not

I would have to say Victoria has the quietest roads for a city, and less red necks (except Langford) but lots of 80 year olds behind the wheel, but we usually pass them on the bike. [reply]

Don't let the sunny days fool you. When the sun starts to drop, it gets cold... fast. Most summer nights you can't wear shorts. BOO.

Calgary gets an average of 5 days over 30C each year. 5. That sucks. Anywhere in the Okanagon, it's probably closer to 45.