August 12, 2016 (Transylvania, Romania) – Cycling team LowestRates.com made an excellent showing during today’s first stage at the Tour de Szeklerland. The stage was run on fast 184 km course, having a 4 km climb with a 5% average, 30km from the finish.

From the start, team LowestRates.com placed themselves in the action. “Our objective was to be very aggressive and fight for a spot at the front of the peloton and the guys executed the plan to perfection” commented the team’s sports director Frederick Gates.

Around the 30 km mark, Edward Greene of team LowestRates.com broke away from the main peloton with 10 other riders, and took a lead of almost a minute on the peloton of 105 riders. Unfortunately, the 11 escapees were reeled back 30 minutes later. American, Brett Wachtendorf of team LowestRates.com was ready for a counter attack and quickly formed a new group of a dozen riders. ‘Brett was in the ‘breakaway of the day’, his group could very well of finished the race without being caught. Unfortunately, they were caught after more than 80 kilometers on the loose’ added team LowestRates.com sports director.

The Gatineau team ran into a bit of bad luck right from the start when both Cameron McPhaden and Tyler D’Arcy suffered tie punctures a few minutes apart. ‘This couldn’t have happened at a worse time, the race speed was in excess of 50km/hr and the two were at the front of the peloton when they had to stop for a wheel change. It takes a lot of energy to rejoin the race at that speed.

Ottawa native, McPhaden, finally managed to rejoin the peloton after about 30 min of chasing. Unfortunately, new Gatineau resident Tyler D’Arcy raced finished after 60 km. ‘Tyler was very misfortunate and will not be allowed to start tomorrow’s stage. He was very disappointed after the race. He is young, full of potential and will have another shot in the near future’ commented sports director Frederick Gates

At the finish line it was Finland’s, Matti Manninen of team Bliz-Merida who took the stage victory in 3:59:53. Top result for of team LowestRates.com was Cameron McPhaden who finished 4 min. 43 sec. behind for a 34th place finish. He was followed 40 sec later by team mates Brett Wachtendorf in 70th place and Edward Greene in 74th place. Gatineau native and fellow team member Isaac Leblanc finished in 100th place a mere 10 min 21 sec behind the winner.

Team founder and sports director Frederick Gates expressed his satisfaction with these first stage results. ‘We were part of the action and we proved we deserve a place in the peloton. We had an active presence during the whole of this stage and that was our objective. We certainly wanted better results on paper but we take away a lot of positives from today to use tomorrow.’

The challenges are still be there for the second day of this event for the Gatineau based team. The athletes will follow a course of 161 km and climbs totalling more than 2328 meters with the finish line at the end of a long 3 km. climb.