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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

HERE IS THE BIG NEWS !!

Sorry for the delay, I didn't want to announce anything until all our ducks were in a row with the ABA, Alberta Transportation, etc.

Stoney Trail Constructors (Lorie Holte) have agreed to completely suspend all work on the entire section of NE Stoney Trail for the weekend of Aug 22nd and 23rd !! This means that we have approximately 21km of completely finished double carriage way 5 lane highway for the ENTIRE WEEKEND. (This makes for 42km of closed highway)

I didn't want to let an opportunity like this get wasted, so we have decided to put on a 3 stage Stage Race, beginning with the Provincial ITT Championships on Sat. morning, then a wicked Criterium in the evening, then an amazing Road Race on Sunday.

Stoney Trail Constructors have said the highway will have its final coating of concrete and will be mostly painted and completely signed by the end of August. This means that we will be racing on completed highway!

The Provincial ITT Championships: This will be a 40km event with one hairpin at 20km (this will be an 8 lane u-turn, so hardly reason to slow down). Racers will have 5lanes in EACH direction to simply put their heads down and hammer. This will be a PB course and a true test of just how fast you can go for 40km. The only significant elevation change will be going over the 16th avenue interchange, which has about 10meters of vertical. This event will be part of the stage race or a racer can choose to race this individually. There will be a citizen class just like for Race the Ring, so even non-ABA members can come out and give this unique course a try.

The Metis Trail Criterium: This will be a completely unique opportunity to incorporate highways and interchanges into a Criterium. We have devised a course that utilizes the on and off ramps of the new Metis Trail / Stoney Trail interchange to make for a super exciting Criterium with slight elevation changes and a 5 lane highway sprint finish! This will be ultra spectator friendly and should be a safe and fun course. We are going to label this race 'The Equalizer' as we will give time bonus' for lap primes and finish so the non-ITT specialists are motivated to try and destroy the ITT guys and make back time.

The TdF style Road Race: Here is the super awesomeness. The road race will be approximately 130 - 160km for the Cat1/2s (successively shorter for each Cat down) and the peloton will enjoy the ability to race on the ENTIRE highway. There will be no center line rule. It will be as if Columbia-HTC just signed you and you are free to form a lead-out train or Saxo Bank just released you to go on a crazy break. We have a special great section that includes a trip around the 16th avenue fly-over interchange clover-leaf that will introduce several short steepish climbs on each 40km lap.

I am really excited to be announcing this and hope this club and all other clubs embrace this event as it should go down as one of the most unique opportunities for Albertan cyclists in a long time.

(We are giving the Prov. TTT Champs to Jasper)
(Thomas and I will have a detailed volunteer list up soon to sign up for)

Trev

10 comments:

mgodfrey said...

Trev, fantastic, that is going to be so much fun, what a unique event, big thanks to Lorie for his hand in this.

Michael

Brent T said...

WOW, sounds like its gonna be great, I am so in...

Matt Mackay said...

nice work Trev! this is gonna be sweet...

roblukacs said...

That is the coolest thing I have ever heard. Ever.

Thanks Trev, I can't wait!

Mark said...

I think I just lost it in my shorts ... no lie.

Trev, thanks for all your hardwork on this!

Darcy G said...

Super cool news. The only thing that can be done to increase the awesomeness is to actually have Columbia-HTC, Saxo Bank, Cervelo Test Team and Garmin here for the race...

Awesome work, Trev!

Tom K said...

Sounds fabulous Trev. Nicely done.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely amazing!

Going to be a one of a kind race that is spoken about through the ages.

Nothing can keep me from signing up for this!

Steve P said...

AWESOME! Good time of year as well - there seems to be far too few races in Aug.

Aimers said...

This is very cool, and I am actually off that weekend and can race finally! I am very pumped and cant wait to sign up.

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