Coach Mike and I get so pumped up for the arrival of Wednesday
evening results from the past week of the winter race series. Race #5
(Plateau's and Climbs) had CBC athletes posting top scores in comparison
to all the other ride facilities who are taking place. Congrats to
Dwayne Kress who's super powers put him 2nd overall and to Rua Reid who
finished 3rd amongst all the female riders. We've also gotta say that
its tonnes of fun watching the regular 6pm crew of Larry Klein, John
Cameron, Stew Kerr, Mark Sutherland and Greg Pitt ride each week, we
think they are in it for the beers that follow the hard work :)
Here
is Peak Performance's re-cap of the week. We'll see how CBC riders
stacked up this week in the King of the Mountains stage.
Stage
5 marked the first and only Plateaus and Climbs course for the Winter
Series racing. The course featured a series of steep climbs followed
with prolonged sections of flats that offered very little opportunity
for recovery. However riders were rewarded with a few downhill rest
periods, and these were well deserved after negotiating the steepest
gradients of the series so far. Before we get into the results, we have
added a new feature to our website so you guys can check out the course
profiles before you race. Follow the link below and click “Read More”
under the ‘Winter Racing Series’. The course profiles are available by
clicking on the Stage Descriptions.
http://www.peakcentrevancouver.ca/burnaby/burnaby-classes-clinics/
Onto
the racing, and again what a week it was. In Men’s A, Peak Ottawa
superstar Alexandre Gagnon shredded the tough course this week,
averaging over 300 watts while being one of the lighter guys in the
competition. Alex separated himself from the rest by almost a minute,
finishing in a time of 34:18.5. Second and third place was more of a
battle between Squamish and Minnesota. With less than four seconds to
separate the two riders, it was Dwayne Kress from Challenge by Choice
Squamish that got the better of Sam Janicki from Tri-Fitness Minnesota,
as they finished in 35:10.6 and 35:14.0 respectively. Seven of the Men’s
A riders were separated by less than a minute this week, showing how
competitive and variable the points can be from week to week. Alexandre
further extends his overall lead by a margin of 17 points over Sam
Janicki, with Peak Vancouver’s Roger Lee maintaining a closely contested
third spot.
Women’s A showed just how strong they are
again this week, with the top three ladies putting in times that would
score them big points in Men’s B! The battle for the top continues as
this week it was Kelly Knowles from Peak Ottawa nudging herself to the
win over Peak Vancouver’s Alison Wood. The times were close, but Kelly
found the legs to go seven seconds faster than Alison finishing in
38:19.4. The fierce battle between Kelly and Alison continues as
Kelly’s win puts her back at the top of the GC standings, only one point
ahead of Alison. Finding podium form once again was Challenge by Choice
Squamish rider Rua Reid, who took third place and is really starting to
impress. Rua went sub 39 minutes as well as the rest of the podium,
finishing in 38:55.5.
Following on from Rua’s great
performance was fellow Challenge by Choice Squamish rider Renee
Brickner. Renee was the one to beat in the Women’s B race this week,
winning the stage and taking 20 points in the GC standings. Renee’s
finish time was 41:02.3. Coming in second this week, and doing Peak
Vancouver proud was Grace Menning. Grace managed to hold off last week’s
winner Emily Flynn as she rode to a time of 42:06.1. A further 15
seconds behind was Peak Ottawa rider Emily Flynn, who scores another
podium for the season with a time of 42:21.1. Emily maintains her 10
point lead at the top of the Woman’s B overall standings, whilst Grace
Menning jumps into the second spot, only two points from Peak
Burlington’s hot shot Melanie Shields who lies in third.
The
rest of Men’s B did indeed step it up as requested, and the rider who
took the biggest leap was SBR Coaching Wisconsin rider Bill Martin. It
is rumored that Bill took a rest day prior to the race this week, and
his tactics paid off as he took the stage win in style, finishing in a
time of 37:04.1. This was enough to earn him a 20 second gap over last
week’s winner Shawn McCleery from Peak Ottawa. Shawn did himself
justice coming in second place in 31:24.7. Close on Shawn’s wheel was
Peak Vancouver’s John Forsyth, a previous stage winner himself. John
took well to the tough course and finished a mere six seconds behind
second place, with a time of 37:30.6. In the overall standings all three
podium riders are only separated by 10 points! Shawn McCleery retains
the top for another week, six points ahead of John Forsyth, who is
another four points in front of Peak Vancouver’s Alex Willis. Alex did
manage to win some accolades with this week’s Golden Bucket award – nice
to see you duffer buddy!
Here is the link with the
full results of the stage:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhXrz7isgo7NdDg2LWZrNS01dmlwMTZocE9vR3MxQXc&hl=en_US#gid=1
