September 29, 2011 – Huge thanks to all of you who made it out to the first stage of the Peak Centre Winter Racing Series! The first stage this series was the well established Original Time Trial. This stage is 22.53km in distance, with moderate grades and continuous climbs with a couple of short downhill recoveries. This course is all about sustained power with few places to find any recovery.

The overall win for this stage was taken once more  with an impressive  ride by Roger Lee, with a time of 38:42.4. Congratulations to you again Roger! However this week saw the return of another top rider from previous years, Tony Zackery. Tony came within 7 seconds of Roger’s time clocking 38:48.7, placing second this week . Third place went to Lee Ryan with a time of 39:43.0. Lee must have thought it was next week’s sprint race, as he put out a peak power of 755 watts. Save some for next week!

The Women’s top spot was taken in style by KJ Sadler, with a time of 42:16.0. Carolyn Hubbard fell victim to two flat tires in Saturday’s heat, but returned Monday evening to put in a time of 45:40.6, which was good enough for second place. The final spot on the podium was occupied by Karissa Rennie who took 3rd place!

For the full results listing, please click HERE.

The highlight of the week for me though was the massive sprint finish by Zack Mclaren. His father Bob put in a solid time on Saturday which gave Zack a benchmark for his race on Monday. Once he realized he had a chance of beating his dad’s time, he was straight out the saddle and putting down some crazy watts! That huge sprint finish was enough to earn Zack a 5.4 second victory over his dad. We need these two racing in the same heat for sure!

This week’s most improved riders (in terms of their average watts) were Karissa Rennie for the ladies, who upped her average by 16 watts, and Paul Mitchell who found the legs for a 33 watt rise. Good job guys!

Ottawa are still slacking (apparently they’re having nice weather) so fingers crossed they will be on board as of next week. The next stage is the first Rolling stage which is also the first race where sprint points will be available. Lets try and fill the heats guys, the Racing Series is the most fun you can have on an indoor trainer!