![\"Frank](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/cbc.ca\/14451b3b7715c5f9458cfd5dd03f5e3a.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nGael Rayes-Dominguez was competing in his first full Ironman Triathlon in Ottawa on Sunday, when his bike seat suddenly “exploded.”<\/p>\n
He had just finished the swimming portion of the race and was roughly 30 kilometres into the 180-kilometre bike ride when the saddle seemed to crumble beneath him.<\/p>\n
“At that point I was like ‘I might actually not finish,'” recalled Rayes-Dominguez. “That was a little heartbreaking.”<\/p>\n
The athlete figured there wasn’t much he could do. The next aid station a couple of kilometres away and walking that far in his bike shoes seemed impossible.<\/p>\n
That’s when two local cyclists, Frank Hamel and Eddie Palco, stepped in to save his race and get him across the finish line.<\/p>\n
‘This would not be approved by a bike shop’<\/p>\n
The pair had been cycling along the canal, tracking a few friends on the race app, when they noticed a distressed Rayes-Dominguez being tended to by an Ironman volunteer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cyclists quickly realized the competitor’s bike was out of commission.<\/p>\n
“As we rode past I turned to Eddie and I said, ‘I’ve got tools, I’ve got spare tubes,'” Hamel explained in an interview with CBC’s Ottawa Morning. “If it’s mechanical maybe we can help them out.”<\/p>\n
LISTEN | How two Ottawa cyclists saved a local racer’s Ironman:<\/p>\n
When the men arrived, they found one of the two bolts that held the bike seat in place was gone. Without it the seat wouldn’t stay secure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“You can’t really do another 150 kilometers without a functioning saddle,” said Hamel.<\/p>\n
But, all hope was not lost. The Ironman volunteer went out to find the missing bolt and instead came back with an abandoned bike toolkit.<\/p>\n
Inside was a spare inner tube and Hamel realized he could take the metal valve stem from the innertube and “MacGyver” it into a makeshift bolt.<\/p>\n
Then he used the rubber part of the tube as a bungee cord to strap the saddle onto the bike frame.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Submitted by Frank Hamel)<\/p>\n
“I’m terrible with bike repairs,” said Hamel. “This would not be approved by a bike shop. It’s a pretty gross bodge for sure.”<\/p>\n
The repair was good enough for For Rayes-Dominguez and he set off again.<\/p>\n
‘I owe my race to them’<\/p>\n
Even with a fixed bike, he knew his race was far from over. Also, because the repairs took about 30 minutes, he worried about making the cut-off time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, as soon as he hit the 140-kilometre mark, Rayes-Dominguez said he knew he could finish.<\/p>\n
He ended the bike leg with 15 minutes to spare and was later cheered on by his friends while crossing the finish line after the running portion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hamel and Palco, who had been tracking the rest of his race on the app, were happy to see him finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He later on reached out on Instagram and told us that the seat was surprisingly solid, so it was a non-issue after that,” said Hamel. “It was good to help him along the way. We were proud of that for sure.”<\/p>\n
Rayes-Dominguez said he’s grateful to Hamel and Palco for helping him find a way to keep going.<\/p>\n
“They’re awesome. [I] literally could not have finished without them,” he said. “I owe my race to them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gael Rayes-Dominguez was competing in his first full Ironman Triathlon in Ottawa on Sunday, when his bike seat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[50582,50581,50584,50585,50580,6727,61,50583],"class_list":["post-156858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-bike-seat","tag-bike-shop","tag-eddie-palco","tag-finish-line","tag-frank-hamel","tag-ironman-triathlon","tag-ottawa","tag-rayes-dominguez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}