Determination keeps Butch going

Butch Sublemente’s experience in the 7th Annual XTERRA Saipan Championships is a story that needs to be told and will even be part of racing lore for future generations.

For the second straight XTERRA Saipan, Sublemente suffered mechanical problems when the cable of his derailleur broke midway in the bike leg of the March 8 race.

The Glooay Mai Thai Spa employee did not finish the XTERRA last year dropping out in the bike leg when he had problems with his bicycle. This year, though he was determined to finish the race no matter what happens.

“I was going up at Navy Hill inside a private farm when the cable of my derailleur broke. I noticed that I had some problems with my bike when I shifted gears but the shifter won’t work,” said Sublemente, who told his story while at the finish line of the 19th Tagaman Triathlon last week.

“At first I got frustrated since it won’t change gears. But I never gave up, what I did was I pulled the cable manually since the shifter won’t work.”

Sublemente said that from Navy Hill to Kingfisher he shifted manually when going uphill and went freewheeling going down. At times, he would walk and push his bike because of his problem. “The gears won’t work so I would get off my bike and push.”

He said when he reached Santa Lourdes that was when he decided to look for a rope or anything that he can use to fix his broken derailleur. That is when he spotted an old garden hose.

“I was desperate and determined to finish the race. When I saw the garden hose, I said to myself, ‘This would do.’ I pulled the broken cable then tied it using the garden hose. I tied the other end at the saddle so I could use the large gears and I will just use the smaller ones in front,” said Sublemente, who also suffered the same problem last year.

Sublemente’s perseverance allowed him to finish his first individual XTERRA Saipan race, earning him third place honors in the 30-34 age group behind Japan’s Masato Samata and American Thomas Alcivar.

He finished the 1.5-kilometer swim, 30-km mountain bike, and 12-km trail run in four hours, five minutes, and six seconds just 1:45 behind Alcivar (4:03:19). Imagine if his derailleur did not break; maybe he could have won the division.

Sublemente said his bike was fine before the race. “I even rode the course and everything went well. Maybe it is because that you are pressured in the race you never noticed that you have been cranking up the shift gear hard, causing it to break.”

He said the same thing happened to three-time XTERRA Saipan champion and pro Jamie Whitmore and former Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation president Dirk Sharer in past XTERRA Saipan races.

Sublemente, who used to play basketball before shifting to triathlon, was a member of the CNMI National Triathlon Team that won the silver medal in the 6th Micronesian Games in 2006. He first competed in XTERRA Saipan in 2004 in a team then decided to do the whole thing individually last year.

He is not new in bike races since he was a former BMX champion when he was still in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, south of the Philippines. He started competing in BMX bike races when he was 12 and placed second in his first competition.

The following year, he won the title, beating veteran riders in the All-Palawan Championship. He tried triathlon with the help of Joshua Berger, who is his training partner and first sponsor.