Stampede Road Race Win

It is Stampede time in cow town and every year there is a road race in honour of the broo-ha-ha. After nationals this is supposed to be a bit of a break for me but you still have to keep the tools sharp. The funny thing is, I recall the last time I did this race I was chasing my but off to catch the last Albertan to wear the fuel colours. Unfortunately I was unable to catch Andrew Davidson on that day, but today was a little different.

With the Tour de Tonna coming up, my coach and I felt like I should use this as an opportunity to really push the engine and see what tweaking I can do in the next week. I rolled in the group for about 10 minute and then at the first good climb on the 23 km loop I attacked with Phil Abbott, we rolled with some good speed but the Alberta riders know what we are capable of so we don’t get too far before the group catches after a hard chase.

As we are caught we make a tight right and up another quick steep hill, and I keep the pace high over the next three rollers. After the hard chase this destroys the field and I come out with a selection of 7 other riders after only the first 11 km…I am feeling good at this point and I help drive the break hard for the next 10km to ensure the group will stick.

Now to work, I use every opportunity in the next 110 km to shave weight off the group. 3 laps to go its down to 6…2 laps and a well timed drive over the steep hill after the right hand and the group sheds 2 more… then driving it in the headwind on the back drops one more and we come to the bell lap. The legs still feel good but these guys have survived everything I have thrown out…I have a good sprint but I don’t want to run the risk and I attack on the hill where I first went away on the very first lap 100km earlier, bottom to top and don’t look back until I am over the crest…it works, I have the gap and the other two are stuck playing chicken long enough to let me drive it out of sight…I come through the last 20km with a few minutes insurance. I felt like I really dictated the pace of the race but these guys made me earn it. It looks good for Toona. I think it was good to get my first road win of the year, I came close in Belgium but it’s just not the same. So a week of tweaking what was lacking today and I hope I can have the legs to help lead the team to some great results at our last big stage race of the year.