The Consecration of Dan LeBlanc

A true sprint, in a well executed 1'000m piece, demands metaphysical connotations.

And so the numbers are on the table. Virginia's 8 man roster comes in 4th on the men's point competition and 5th on efficiency. My best team performance ever in the event. Lots of new stories for the club lore, a grill dinner at the airbnb, off center starting platforms, no crabs, no warnings, and a couple of medals summarize a very successful and fun trip.

Maillot Jaune: We are the sort of people that engage in these shenanigans so of course I computed the individual contributions to our 127 club points. Dan LeBlanc, with a performance for the ages, made a 24.5 point team contribution. This was accomplished in only 5 events for an eye popping 4.9 points per event average. This is so impressive, it couldn't be achieved by entering 8+ only (the easiest avenue), as winning an 8+ only contributes 3.5 points per rower. Dan did it the hard way, relying exclusively in small sculling boats, otherwise known as murderer's row. I have computed individual team award contributions since 2017, and I had never seen anyone deliver more than 20, even during the 2019 championship in Grand Rapids that allowed unlimited entries and included some participants with 9 events. Anyway, as summarized in the participant/event table below, Dan takes the maillot jaune as our most valuable rower by a sizeable margin:

Sculler	Points Contributed	Events	Points Per Event
LeBlanc	24.5	5	4.9
Pohlmeier	19.5	6	3.3
Chilmaid	17.5	6	2.9
Bosshard	15.5	5	3.1
Kilgo	14	5	2.8
Alexander	13.5	6	2.3
Barth	12	7	1.7
Nino de Rivera	10.5	4	2.6
Total	127	19	6.7

Prix a la Combativite: Prior to Sunday, when I ended my participation in the championship I expected to award our Men's Open C 2x of Kilgo/Alexander this most important distinction. Their race against a stacked deck with some notable US masters rowers was textbook strategic execution and guts. Against a field that included multiple HOCR champions and former National Team members Craig and Chuck almost got themselves into medal position with a finish that left them fully depleted and truly maximized the boat's speed potential given technical and physiological conditions that day. A true display of courage and poise.

But then on Sunday the French American from Michigan awakening ghosts from that glorious August of 1944 when Leclerc's "2e DB" arrived triumphant in Paris, mounted an assault on the last 250m that saw him overtake two boats for the Championship. The announcer even was ready to award the race to San Diego when Dan overtook. Follow the link below on 1h35 minutes to witness greatness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VptnML79Y8&t=5694s

At the dock, Dan said he did it for his wife, who told him to keep rowing and win lots of medals. Like marechal de France Leclerc de Hauteclocque, a King among men.