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Vision. Passion. Creativity. Experience. Determination.

Team Updates Pigeon Lake Road Race Report

 

This past weekend the Alberta squad headed up to Pigeon Lake for the 15th annual Pigeon Lake Spring Classic. On tap was a new course and one of the largest fields for any Alberta event (60+ Cat 1-2 riders).

The 130km race course was slightly rolling and windswept, with five loops to be completed in addition to a 10km segment to and from the loop portion of the course. As this race was the last road qualifying event for Alberta’s Canada Summer Games Team, all the espoirs were keeping close tabs on one another throughout the race.

The race started off with a fairly subdued first lap,  the wind playing a major role and making everyone hurt in the crosswind sections. Gideon patrolled the front for what seemed like the entire first lap, ensuring nothing got away without one of our riders in the group. On the second lap, the whole peleton was guttered through the crosswind section and on the turn after an ERTC rider went solo with another rider soon bridging up. About two kilometers later, Mark and a Speed Theory rider bridged up to the ERTC rider. This group started working together and the gap started growing with very few teams in the pack wanting to chase. Half a lap later, Dustin and Robin bridged up with a group of four more riders and the break started to open up the gap. Back in the pack, a huge crash had occurred on the descent off a hill, sending Chris riding into the grassy ditch at 50km/h (luckily unhurt) and three others into the hospital. Zane got caught up in the crash as well and was unable to continue. Fortunately, Zane was relatively unhurt.

The break stayed away for the remaining 70km and in the end an ERTC rider (Paul Tichelaar-Olympic Triathlete) attacked with 1km to go, Robin put in a valiant effort and chased him solo to the line for second place. Mark took the sprint for third from the remainder of the breakaway and Dustin held on for 7th, taking the top espoir spot and securing his Canada Summer Games selection. Back in the pack, Chris used his new found track skills from the previous weekend, taking out the field sprint.

In the end, a good solid effort from the whole team, and another learning experience on racing together as a cohesive unit.