Stampede Road Race

We had racers all over at different events this weekend. However, we did have two riders (David Pick and Darren Nielsen) out for the Masters Road Race. Here is the race report from David Pick:

Darren and I did the Stampede RR on the weekend. We were in the 40-49 category with 20 other riders. This was a hilly course: 4 loops of 25km.

The weather was great and the winds fairly calm for that area (around Madden). The pace was pretty quick right from the start and, unfortunately, Darren cramped up almost from the beginning. I managed to stick at the front of the peleton which was down to 10 guys by the end of the first lap. We stuck together until the start of the last lap when Gary Alexander picked up the pace and blew up the race. I could only stay with him for about 2-3 km (Gary is a former semi-pro racer, although he recently had back surgery). By then, almost everyone else was gone out the back.

I hooked up with a Calgary Cycle rider and we worked together to try to catch up with the 3 guys ahead. With 500m to go, I dropped the Calgary Cycle guy and caught the third man on the road and passed him with 200m to go to finish in third. Gary won the race by a wide margin (sandbagger!). That was a great result for me (unfortunately no points as this was a masters race). Darren struggled mightily but had to pull out after the third lap due to leg cramps.