Stampede Race

I was originally not going to race Stampede this year as this race is a Masters race with no points being offered..instead spend time with Marn and Seth.

But the week out, found out Cat 1,2,3 all race together. I did accomplish my goal and recieved the upgrade to cat 3 after the Banff races. So I thought why not, will be great experience racing with Cat 1,2 as my first race as a Cat 3.

Just as exciting was racing with Steve and Keith for the first time...instead of just pushing eachother around Banff roads all the time for giggles and frothing at the mouth..all sportng the RMMC gear as well.

Did not know what to expect with the pace and with my legs, would be only the 4th time all year riding 120 km's.

Pace was quite mellow first few laps with some bursts up the hills. I sure love this course, 5 laps on a wind affected hilly loop.

2 guys were off on lap 2 or 3, then steve and another steve simply "rolled away" at the top of a hill. I was sititng 8th or so and thought no biggy. But their gap gained distance with nobody doing anything about it.

This is where tactics came in, and with my lack of road knowledge I had no idea what was playing out. I pulled to the front to step up the pace to catch Steve and got "talked" to by a rider saying "I have a team mate up there and what was I doing"? There were 4 guys now out there, all different teams. As it turned out, the race was over for the rest of us...lame.

So 12 or so of us continued our own race. ST drove the pace after the 90 degree turn into cross wind on the 4th lap. He put in a few more attacks weeding out several people. I shit the bed being positioned behind the lead guy down and up a hill (lesson learnt in positioning)..shit as the train flew by us on the right side...sprint sprint to catch them..catch breath...wait another attack...sprint sprint.
With these efforts Zack and I came 20 feet off the back. We said to eachother "come on - 4 secs pulls to catch back up". Mad pulls by each of us brought us to 40 feet of them...nooo.....did not catch them before head wind section. 2 minutes into head wind section and Zack was done. By myself now, no problem, go hard by myself.

It was hard as I came through the feed zone at the end of lap 4 and saw multiple people in our race standing there now. I do understand their job was to push the pace to shed people (mission accomplished with me being dropped from group), but I don't understand howso many people DNF in road racing. I guess it is better to have a DNF place than a 20th ??

As I road by them by myself, it actually gave me more inspiration to go hard as possible in the final lap....that ended up being suffering at its finest. Plus I needed the km's for next week's 24 hrs race.

I ended up 11th, Keith 10th...congrats Steve on 4th place, well 3rd place after the guys DQ.

Looking back after, Keith and I said we should have said screw tactics and rode and caught up with Steve. Who knows what would have happended then?

Again, chalk it up as more lessons learnt on the road.

I was reading Dallas Morris' blog, he put a photo of the wheels he used which helped him win this race...mmmm I was thinking to have that gear.
I am happy with my results as I am riding a 9 year old Cannondale.

Colin did call me last week to inform me his boss has a $8,000 Time bike for $2,500 to me...used 4 times. Similar to Colin's deal he received from his boss' friend 2 months ago, a $10,000 bike for $3,000(used 3 times). These ridiculously wealthy guys buy these bikes and within a month they require next years model...good for average folk like me.
So I have a week to decide this purchase, 2 months mortgage or bike...but this is to good to pass up.

Marnie and I road the Canmore Nordic Center twice this week to scope the 24 hours course.

They have changed the course this year and added a tonne more single track - compared to last years fire road course,...and have added the Coal Chutes!!! Can't believe they are throwing that in...people are seriously going to get hurt there, daytime let alone at night.
But this new course is great for us locals as prime opportunity to gain time on competitors in the single track.

Can't wait to race on the mountain bike again, been a while!!!

I started my 1 month of Paternity Leave July 16th...what a beauty bluebird week it has been!!

Hope to have Seth with us on the podium!