May 29/12 10:44 am - Team H&R Block has Two Wins

Posted by Editor on 05/29/12
 

Rob Britton Wins Enumclaw

Team H&R Block raced this past weekend at the Enumclaw Stage Race in Washington, USA. The race weekend wrapped up a weeklong team camp that resulted in the team riding together for a stage and the overall GC win by Rob Britton.

The first stage was a 10 kilometre ITT that saw a strong performance by Jordan Cheyne and Justin Kerr along, with a win by Rob, who took an 11 second lead. The next stage was a downtown Crit. The team rode at the front for the entire race in order to set a consistent tempo. The race had it’s challenges, with Kris having a flat tire and an unfortunate fall by Craig that resulted in him having to go and get some stitches post race. At the end, the yellow jersey left Rob’s shoulders with a five second deficit.

So, the team knew they needed to re-group for the final road stage. The goal was to ride hard from the start each time up the three kilometre climb in order to try and have a chance at regaining the title. In the end it came down to a group of about ten riders who made the final split that included Jordan and Rob. Coming into the last section of the race the leader crashed resulting in him losing time on Rob, while Rob road hard to the line. The result was a five second deficit for the race leader, that put the two into a tie that resulted in a dramatic finish being decided based on the ITT result for final GC placing, putting Rob back in yellow for the win.

Team camp had almost the entire team in attendance. The week included daily team rides, a win at the Tuesday Night’er, talks at Norco headquarters to learn all about the 2012 product and what the team will be testing for the 2013 line, as well as some fun moments that included an evening of go-carting and a few team BBQ’s.

The next focus for the team is the Victoria International Cycling Festival that consists of an ITT, BC Road Championships and a great downtown Bastion Square Crit.


Kris Dahl Wins Alberta Title

Pigeon Lake Road Race was this year's 2012 Alberta Provincial Road Race Championships course.  The team came out with the hopes of pulling on another White, Grey & Blue jersey as they have done in the past year.

The Team had three strong riders in attendance:  Kris Dahl, Aaron Schooler and Robin Baillie. The plan was to cover all the moves and not let the big guns go down the road without either Kris or Aaron with them.  Kris had some confidence after a strong sprint showing at the team camp the week before and, of course, everyone was extra motivated after the confirmation that Ryder won the Giro in the morning, so everyone was ready for a hard battle.

The course was rolling with strong winds throughout the day.  During the first couple of laps nothing really stuck until a move went clear with Kris, a couple ERTC riders and a Fiera Club rider.  At that time Aaron felt it was a good position for Kris, as he was by far the strongest sprinter in this group.

Back in the pack RMCC, who missed the move, started working on the front for their man of the day, Sean Crooks.  The race stayed like that until the last lap on the hardest climb of the day when the break was finally reeled in, and then attacks started flying.

There was a re-shuffle and again Kris and two other riders went down the road, including Jon Wood, who was a bit of a danger man from ERTC.  Kris played it cool, knowing and hoping that he'd still have something left for the sprint.  They still needed to ride hard though, as RCMM and Pedalhead led charge was really coming close to catching them right at the line.  Kris jumped out from behind Jon on the long slog climb to the finish to take the win for his first ever Provincial Championship Title.