Race Results & Start Lists

Weekend racing wrap-up

Congratulations to the General Classification winners of Banff National Park Bike Fest 2008

• Rob Britton - Trek-Red Truck Racing Team by MOSAIC
• Julie Beveridge - Aaron's Women's Pro Cycling Team

A heartfelt thank you to all the teams and competitors for racing with us this weekend. We look forward to hosting you again next year!

UPDATE SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 4 pm:

Rain and cool headwinds couldn’t slow down an elite pack of cyclists from across Western Canada as they ended the first annual Banff National Park Bike Fest stage race Sunday morning with two thrilling road races.

Twenty-two women from the strongest two categories of cyclists invited to race this weekend for part of a $15,000 prize purse started out at 8 a.m. in a cool drizzle from the start on Beaver Avenue. But pedaling hard, they soon warmed up on the 13-kilometre circuit. First they gained speed on the flats of Beaver Ave. and Banff Ave. Then they made the long climb and speedy descent of the winding hills on Tunnel Mountain Dr., before turning onto the flats again of Buffalo St. and Beaver Ave.

After riding in a lead pack of eight for the first 3.5 laps, three cyclists – Julie Beveridge of Aaron’s Women’s Pro Cycling Team, Tara Whitten of Velocity Cycling Club, and Heather Kay of the Edmonton Road and Track Club – broke away from the main group at the start of the climb up Tunnel Mountain Dr. Exchanging the lead often, they opened a big gap.

But with 100 metres to go, Beveridge, who is a 19-year-old climbing specialist from Calgary on the Canadian national team, raced out from behind Whitten, a 27-year-old sprint specialist from Edmonton. Kay, a 33-year-old from Sherwood Park, followed, and the trio kept their positions right to the finish. Beveridge won the race in one hour, 32 minutes and five seconds. Kay was just two seconds behind.

“I don’t know how that happened,” said a humble Beveridge after the race. “(Whitten) has way more power than me.”

Combined with her Husky Individual Time Trial win on Saturday morning and a top-10 finish Saturday night at the criterium race, Beveridge won the overall stage race with a time of 2:46.08.02. Whitten was second overall in 2:46.30.41.

Just as the women ended their 52-kilometre race, the rain cleared as if on cue for the strong field of 82 men preparing to start the elite men’s road race. But the men would have to fight strong headwinds through much of their 104-kilometre race on the same course.

A lead group of eight racers broke away from the main pack midway through the race. They opened up a major gap, but not enough of one for Rob Britton, a 23-year-old from Victoria racing for Trek Red Truck Racing Team by MOSAIC, who won the time trial on Saturday morning. Britton made his break at the start of the first hill on Tunnel Mountain Dr. midway through the second-last lap.

With one lap to go, Britton had stretched his lead to 30 seconds. By the finish, Britton was a full minute ahead, winning with a time of 2:38.46.

“I was really tired from yesterday,” Britton said after the race. “Just about everywhere there were really strong headwinds. The only place to rest was on the uphills.” Tyler Trace, Britton’s 23-year-old teammate from Victoria, finished second.

Britton’s road race win, combined with his time trial win and a strong showing in the criterium on Saturday, earned him a convincing overall stage race win. His total time of 3:55.28.2 was almost two minutes faster than his closest competition. Cyrus Kangarloo, a 25-year-old from Calgary, finished second overall with a time of 3:57.18.4. His strong showing is like an early wedding present -- Kangarloo plans to get married next week in Penticton, B.C.

All weekend, racers gushed about how well-organized and fun the races were.

“These were the three most fun road races I’ve ever done,” said Scott Manktelow, an elite racer for the Rundle Mountain Cycling Club.

At the awards ceremony, John Stutz, the mayor of Banff, saluted the racers, volunteers and organizers with Banff Lake Louise Tourism for putting on such an exciting show this weekend.

“It’s an amazing event, and we look forward to having it for years and years to come.”

UPDATE JUNE 21, 11:45 pm:

Criterium was the strange new word buzzing around Banff Saturday evening.

That’s because the first annual Banff National Park Bike Fest continued with three of these timed races around a closed loop course on the edge of downtown Banff.

At 5 p.m. the fun started with a Little Crits race on Beaver Avenue that attracted 82 racers and a cheering crowd of a few hundred. Children as young as 15 months and as old as 13 raced in three categories (five and younger, 6-12, and 12-13) on everything from tricycles to bikes with training wheels, cruiser bikes with whitewalled tires, and a scooter.

At 5:30 p.m. it was the adults’ turn to dress silly in the Cruiser Crit. Fifty costumed men and women did three laps of the city-block course in a counter-clockwise direction starting on Beaver Ave., then turning left three times -- onto Moose St., Banff Ave., and Wolf St. Among the best costumes were a shirtless man in gold lame hot pants, high-heeled shoes, and hat; and a woman dressed as a nurse with a dummy patient on her handlebars.

But at 6 p.m., the action got serious. A field of 150 cyclists split into five categories and took to the 780-metre course in five successive races to vie for a share of $3,000 in prize money. And about 500 people lined the race course to watch.

After three races of cyclists in the lower-ranked categories finished their 30-minute races, it was the turn of 19 “elite” (Category 1 and 2) women to race for 40 minutes, plus three laps. Three women broke away early in the race, but near the end of the race the pack of trailing riders caught them.

In the final lap, Tara Whitten, a 27-year-old from Edmonton racing for Velocity Cycling Club, sprinted to the finish in 43 minutes and 17 seconds for the win and $400 in prize money.

“I had a lot more left in the tank than I thought,” she said afterward.

Two seconds behind her was Lisa Howard, a 27-year-old from Vancouver racing for Giant Bicycles Canada Team Whistler. Just behind Howard was her teammate, Laura Brown of Victoria, 21.

At 8:30 p.m., a field of 82 elite men ended the night with an electric race of 45-minutes, plus five laps. A pack of 10 riders broke away a third of the way into the high-speed race. By the end of the race, only six could stay away from the chasing pack of riders. But with two laps to go, Tim Heemskerk , a 32-year-old from Edmonton racing for United Cycle Racing, got a rousing cheer from the crowd when he broke away from the lead group. He held on to win by just two seconds in 49:54.

“I had to go at my maximum for the last two laps,” Heemskerk said after the race. “But the cheering helped.” Right behind Heemskerk was Tim Sherstobitoff, a 23-year-old racer from Kelowna, B.C. racing for Total Restoration Cycling Team.

After two of the three stages in Basnff National Park Bike Fest, Rob Britten of Trek-Red Truck Racing Team by MOSAIC hlds onto the leader's jersey in the mens' General Classification while Julie Beveridge of the Aaron's Women's Pro Cycling Team retains the women's leader's jersey.

UPDATE JUNE 21, 1:25 pm:

Official results for Saturday's
Individual Time Trial

• Elite Men (pdf 98.36 kB)
• Elite Women (pdf 89.52 kB)
• Master Men (pdf 89.64 kB)
• Master Women (pdf 88.35 kB)
• Category 2/3 (pdf 89.67 kB)
• Category 4 (pdf 90.35 kB)
• Category 5 (pdf 89.39 kB)

Some of the best cyclists from across Western Canada kicked off the first annual Banff National Park Bike Fest weekend of bicycle road racing on Saturday morning with the lung-burning 21-kilometre Husky Individual Time Trial through the iconic mountain town in the Canadian Rockies.

Starting at 8 a.m., every 30 seconds one of a field of 150 cyclists began pedalling the hilly course from Banff Avenue near downtown Banff north across an overpass of the TransCanada Highway up the steep hills of the Minnewanka Loop and back through a fast, twisty downhill. As an Alberta Bicycle Association sanctioned race, cyclists were split into five categories from the elite Category 1 racers down to the Category Five racers.

Despite suffering from the course’s high elevation at 1,383 metres above sea level, Rob Britton, a 23-year-old from Victoria racing for the Vancouver-based Trek Red Truck Racing Team by MOSAIC, edged out the “undisputed king of time trials in Alberta” to win the elite men’s category in 26 minutes and 44.1 seconds.

“I could taste blood the whole time,” Britton said just before accepting his winner’s medal. “I was hurting pretty bad.”

Just 5.6 seconds slower, 46-year-old Bruce Copeland of Edmonton, racing for Edmonton-based Juventus/River Valley Cycle Kona, finished second.

Julie Beveridge, a 19-year-old from Calgary racing for the California-based Aaron’s Women’s Pro Cycling Team, overcame a literal pain in the neck to win the women’s elite category handily with a time of 30:42.02. Ignoring the pain from a torn neck muscle she suffered two weeks ago in a crash at the Tour de Montreal, Beveridge pedaled hard enough to beat Tara Whitten, a 28-year-old from Edmonton racing for the Edmonton-based Velocity Cycling Club, by 24.04 seconds.

“It was actually lots of fun,” Beveridge said. “It was a really fast course and the roads were great.”

Britton and Beveridge each earned $400 for their win. Podium finishers in each of the five categories shared the rest of the $3,000 prize purse for the time trial. During this weekend’s Banff National Park Bike Fest, $15,000 in prize money will be split between the top finishers in the time trial, tonight’s criterium race and the road race on Sunday morning.