July 28 Road Race Results

We were incredibly lucky with the weather this past Wednesday. Dark clouds, rain and lightning were present in the area of the race but blue sky and sunshine were over the route and the riders stayed dry. It was a challenging course with a few hills and a fairly strong wind.


Thanks again to Darlene for volunteering.

Road Race July 28

The race starts at 6:30 PM at the north end of the Road to Nepal near Red Deer Lakes school. Park at the large lot at the intersection of Highway 22x and Highway 22. It is 11 km from here to the start of the race. There is limited parking at the school.

The finish line is at the observatory on Highway 22 near the parking lot.

We will be starting everyone at the same time. The course is approximately 40km. I could use a couple of volunteers to help out with this event.

Mark

Wed night July 21st results.

We had a good turnout for the team time trial tonight. The teams were picked from the order people arrived to sign in and it looks like it was mostly evenly matched with some close times, five seconds separated the first and second team in the A/B category and also a close race in the C group. Shawna got launched off the front for some reason and came in 30 seconds ahead of her team. We created a special category for Lachlan and he won easily. I think the course was OK. We managed to avoid any unruly golfers and the local wildlife was scared to come out. Thanks to the 4 volunteers - Darlene, Lev, Simon F and ??, sorry I forgot your name. A new feature of the WNS is the intermediate timing (watching too much TdF I guess). I was able to see most teams returning from the golf course road except the C teams were all bunched I think.

A road race is coming next week then back to Speed Theory for something entirely different the following week.

Team	Place	Intermediate Time	Final Time
AB1 Trev Williams Andrew Paul Dale Hildebrand	1	11:16	25:00
AB2 Marilyn Taylor Steve Pickett	3	12:05	27:05
AB3 Rick Courtney Rob Walsh Carlos Bonilla	2	11:18	25:05
C1 Willy VanSevenant Shawna Donaldson Mark Perry	3		30:55
C2 Carl Lepointe Karl Bergman Patrick Brick	2		29:00
C3 Andy Hill Brad Barron	1		28:43
Solo (late) Lachlan Holmes		10:30	24:14

Speed Theory is presenting the fun this week... (UPDATE)

Next Wednesday we will do a 3 or 4 up TTT. Harley, Simon and I tested the course on Saturday and it will make you suffer. Nothing like a few good hills when you are trying to hang on to your team. If enough people show up we will do a four person team with the third person's time counting but otherwise a three person team.

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THIS JUST IN FROM ANDY:

I noticed that the race is being run close to my office. If people want to park at my office. This may make people in the area happier because cars won’t be parked along the side of the road.

My company:

Rocky Mountain Aircraft

129 MacLaurin Drive

Springbank Airport

It is the first building on the left just after you turn into the airport. The name is on the front of the building with several orange aircraft parked on the south side. Parking is on the north side of the building.

Andy Hill

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To get there, go towards Springbank airport but turn north a mile or two before the airport on Range Road 32, aka Springbank Heights Road. About a km up you will see a new development on the left called Aventerra Estates. There's lots of parking there, that's also the start and finish.

View WNS July 21 in a larger map
I will need a few volunteers to run this safely, please leave a comment if you can volunteer. Bring any bike you like, because of the hills a road bike might work best. Try to be there for a 6:30 PM start.

Who has the Crankmasters stopwatches? I'll need them for the race.

Stampede Special Recap ...

Our 11 contestants lined up under warm, sunny skies. Even the
mosquitoes kept their distance and seemed to forgo their evening snack
to allow the time honoured tradition of Wednesday night racing by
unusually dressed homo sapiens.

The profile meant there was some early climbing portions served within
1Km and again at 4km the biggest chunk of about 3+km, however, the crest
was at 8.5 km and you lost elevation but undulation was served
continuously until a final 50+m of elevation gain on a roller at less
than 2km to the finish.

We were able to watch the odd thunderstorm cell skirting Calgary to the
North as the riders rolled, climbed and hammered with purpose under
cloudless skies and the odd patches of tractor tire mud spat out onto
our pristine asphalt ribbon at around the 12 KM mark. As our TT ribbon
cut through prime farm land we had to expect the odd rural nuance in
typical fashion just minutes before the riders were due to hammer
through at 50KM. However, the flavour of rural road racing was easily
consumed and all racer's kept the goal in sight or as soon as it
appeared at 17.6km, stopwatch & clip board in hand, as we waited for the
unmistakable roar of carbon disk or perhaps an inspired Eddy impersonator.

Split between Eddy style and Aero, actually 6 Aero and 5 EM ....but for
one of our rider's with only aero bars but no disc wheel seemed to
be....well not Eddy enough!

However, nothing blocked the progress of Paul Rosenberg riding Aero
style with the fastest overall time of 26:57 for the 17.6km jaunt. The
Eddy's were trying to make a point that sometimes a more traditional
approach
can produce equally impressive horsepower. Antoine Gendre proved this by
getting the fastest Eddy time of 28:11 and second overall on the night.
Shawna Donaldson, our lone female rider, who proved that you can still
retain
the right to be called "one of the boys" (tongue firmly in cheek) by
turning up and pushing a competitive time and your limits over any
terrain that is thrown down for you.

The finish was on a slight downhill grade off of a small roller and
meant the racer's had the challenge of powering at high cadence so to
not fall into the trap of letting the terrain offer a respite in the
last 150 meters (Yeah right!).

Many thanks to the racer's and the helping hands at the start line and
finish line. I apologize for not remembering the name of the young lady
giving us a useful third set of hands at the start and finish.


Jeff Bell. & Willy VanSevenant

Something new ...

... from our friends at the Highwood Cycling Club. Mr. Vansevenant has graciously lent a hand to hold this weeks time trial at Aldersyde, south of town near Okotoks. We'll go at our typical 6:30pm on Wednesday the 14th. Participants should park on the side roads near the start line just east where highway 2 meets highway 7 just before you get to Aldersyde. The route goes out east towards Gladys along 547 for a good 15 km to the finish. After which, you get a nice easy ride back to the start. In a novel twist, we are running two categories, the first being Merckx, and the second full on (legal) TT gear. Your choice. Give er hard.

I'm guessing a few volunteers would be most approciated and we've put in an order for some decent weather.

What goes up ...

... must come home dragging their tongues, missing lung tissue and with thrashed legs. Pretty much sums up the race last night. Stellar, and I mean stellar night for racing in Kananaskis. A stunner of an evening left riders chuffed (Queen's english).
Starting in Bragg Creek, rider followed their fortunes due west into the evening before turning around and picking up the pieces on the way back. The C group had a lively 38km route that brought them a portion of the way up the big climb (we'll call this a cat 3 climb just to sound cool and Toury). B's went to the summit (we'll call this a cat 1 climb)for 43km and the A's went up and over, decending to the end of the road before turning back up again (HC climb for sure) to make it to 51km.
The C's were the first home with almost the entire goup storming in together. Clarence "Mr. Savvy" timed it right and took the honours with the rest of the goup drafting David Morgantini who hung on for a well deserved second ahead of Mike Harrington. Super job to all.
The B's we're a little more spread out as the climbing took a toll on a few of the guys. In the end, Mike Waldhuber (very zippy finish) brought it home in style over Andrew Paul (stormin' lik Katrina) and Karel Bergmann who has moved up from the C's.
The A's were a show that played out in multiple acts over a variety of terrain. Trev Williams turned on the human gruber assist and rode it in alone and in style. Less clear was who was going to win the spring for second, but in the eyes of the judging panel harley Borlee nipped Lockie Holmes by a few microns.

Great night, great road, and I am greatly thankful to Carley Goetting for coming all the way out to volunteer and help the whole thing work. Next week we have Highwood pitching in and running a TT for us out near Aldersyde (Okotoksish area). Details to follow.
I have also updated the overall standing for the second series which will conclude with next weeks TT. Some people did drift around categories a little as I have tried to make it competitive across the board. This is a bit difficult as there are so many different formats and some people cross categories for certain races (which I encourage). Let me know if there is a real big concern but otherwise I hope you enjoy the competition.

A bit of a climber's special ...

... this Wednesday the 7th at 6:30 just outside of Bragg Creek. We'll meet where Range Road 51 and Highway 66 meet just west of 22. This is on the back way out of Bragg Creek near the Provincial Park. People can park in Bragg Creek, at the school on 22, or at the Provincial Park and enjoy a nice easy warmup out to the meeting spot.


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From the meeting spot we'll race westward into the majesty of the mountains and up and down a few hills and all that. We'll arrange turnarounds and race lengths when we get an idea of who is coming out but there will be multiple options so everybody will be able to race. The courses will go straight out and back along 66.


View Larger Map

There is one issue with the course that I do need to mention and that is the 'Texas Gates' that are found near the start and the end of the course. I believe there are two heading each way. Now I rode them with no problems on the weekend and I think the soluntion is for everyone to just take their time and neutralize the racing over them. There are also some significant but not insurmountable hills along the way but I want everyone to spread out and take it easy on the descents.

It is a scenic and beautiful course so I am hoping to get a couple of volunteers for the evening to handle the turnarounds. It is a short job, you get to see the race, and a great way to help out.

Maximum Merckxicus ...

... That's what I'm talking about. Merckx TT into a strong and unrelenting wind. pretty excellent night with a challenging headwind out that tested rider's ability to stay in the drops, get narrow, and keep the head down. A little army of Cancellara's out there storming around solo.

Dallas cracked out the cross bike and showed the way convincingly but not too far behind several battles played out with Carlos and Cody givin 'er for thre rest of the podium.

Thanks to Mark Perry and Cesar Martin for volunteering and keeping the riders from dropping into Cochrane for ice cream or missing the turn at 262 and riding to Sundre. Good luck to everyone racing this weekend, keep the rubber side down and make the west proud.