This past weekend on the AB side of the border was incredible! Lots of great racing, and lots of great results!
The Alberta crew made it down to Saskatoon for the annual Bike on Broadway stage race which features three stages over the Victoria Day long weekend.
The first stage is an 8km, mostly tail wind time trial out from downtown Saskatoon along the Saskatchewan River. The roads are pretty beat up but none the less, this was lots of fun! Aaron managed a 3rd place (about 15 sec. off the winner), Mar Mack 4th, seconds behind Aaron and Robin banging out a solid TT a few more seconds back. All were within shooting distance of the top 7 and the prize purse.
Road Race: 120km, out and back twice.
Stringing things out in the road race
The team wanted to come out gunning for the win and also keep as many guys in the top 7 as possible. Nothing too significant went down the road thanks to very strong rides by Robin and Pete who kept things together and patrolled the front. Dustin managed to get in a pretty long break down the road with another rider and stayed away for at least 20kms! Nothing stuck and a bunch sprint was in the cards. Thanks to a stellar lead out by Robin and Chris, Mar Mack was able to sprint for the win!
Crit: 1 Hour, Downtown Saskatoon
Coming into the final stage HRBK had almost all of the guys within striking distance of the overall and Mark only 3 seconds off of the GC lead. With lots of bonus seconds up for grabs, this was the opportunity the team needed. With the intent to drop the GC #1 man by making the race fast off the bat, most got to the front and drilled it for the first 5 laps. The pace never really chilled out because of all the attacking and counter attacking! The first time anything significant happened was when the second time prime came up and Chris jumped to the front with Mark on his wheel and gave him the greatest lead out! Mark managed to gap a tailing Dan Wood of ERTC by 2 or 3 bike lengths by the finish line to snag the crucial 5 seconds and leap into the virtual GC lead! As the very important 3 laps to go came, Dustin was off the front with a couple local Sask boys, and with 2 laps to go they were still quite a ways ahea. Jon Wood of ERTC set a furious pace on the front working for his bigger brother in the sprint. With 1 lap remaining, Aaron jumped on the front with Mar Mack on his wheel and gav'er everything to close that gap and string it out. As the break was setting up for the sprint, Aaron and Mark came barreling past them on the last corner. Dustin managed to jump onto the train as Aaron peeled off after the last corner, leaving Dustin and Mark to battle it out for the sprint win (Mark edged out Dustin). A 1-2-3 for the crit and a 1, 3 in the GC overall!
Mark 1st, Dustin 2nd, Aaron 3rd
Great race, amazing results! Podium sweep in Saskatoon!
Next AB race: The local classic: Pigeon Lake Road Race.
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