May 15, 2008 – After a long 24km/15mile neutral start the race was on at Stage 1, Russellville-Hector, 177.47km/110.92 miles, under cloudy skies, cool temperatures and substantial humidity. It was not long before attacks began on the large rolling hills approaching a difficult climb at 64km/40 miles. Team RACE Pro were under instruction to not miss any breakaway in the early going. The team did well following important and challenging attacks.

On the tough climb at 64km/40 miles Team Type 1 set a hard tempo splitting the peloton leaving only 30 riders in the front group. Keeping pace for Team RACE Pro (TRP) was Mark Walters, Dan Timmerman and Dustin MacBurnie. Team Type 1 sustained the rhythm for a period to ensure the time gap was established and then let up.

Attacks from the front began immediately with Walters opening up the race again. After lots of action the first split of the 30-man group put Dustin MacBurnie in front with eight others racers. Walters managed to bridge up with four riders increasing TRP’s chances. Then a monster effort came from Dan Timmerman as he soled across a 20-second gap to complete a strong 20-man lead group.

Timmerman made contact with the leaders and without hesitation counter-attacked the leaders and formed a new 3-man break with Valeriy Kobzarenko of Type 1 and Eric Boily of Team Volkswagen. The trio cruised into a maximum lead of 1 min 30 sec lead over the next 32km/20 miles and eventually the gap stabilized at 1 min.

With 16km/10 miles to go the leaders were being challenged as Team Toshiba and Jelly Belly shared the work of the chasers. At 5km to go the gap was 30 sec – the breakaway was caught at 1km to go. Just before the junction of the chase group Glen Chadwick of Type 1 (two stage wins Tour de Beauce 2007) attacked hard at the 1km sign on the final hill and made a good break off the front.

Chadwick held off the group just barely in the surge to the line in front of Menzies (Health Net) and Aldape (Team-Type 1). MacBurnie made an excellent sprint finishing 4th with Walters barely a wheel behind in 6th. A fabulous stage for Team Race Pro with MacBurnie, Walters and Timmerman riding smart and strong.

Results

1. Glen Chadwick (Team Type 1) 04:42:13.00
2. Karl Menzies (Health Net/Maxxis) 04:42:18.00
3. Moises Aldape (Team Type 1) 04:42:23.00
4. Dustin MacBurnie (Team RACE Pro) 04:42:28.06
5. Clayton Barrows (Rite Aid pb Shebell & Shebell)
6. Mark Walters (Team RACE Pro)
7. Predrag Prokic (TOSHIBA-Santo Presented By Her)
8. Fabio Florey Calabria (Act AL Team Type 1)
9. Christian Helmig (Metro Volkswagen/FCS Cycling)
10. Nick Reistad (Jelly Belly Pro Cycling Team)
25. Dan R. Clay Timmerman (Team RACE Pro) 04:42:28.06

47. Kevin “Buck” MILLER (Team RACE Pro) 04:52:17.80
58. Mark Batty (Team RACE Pro) 04:52:17.80
65. Adam Thuss (Team RACE Pro) 04:52:17.80
67. Keir Plaice (Team RACE Pro) 04:52:17.80
73. Andrew Hunt (Team RACE Pro) 04:52:17.80
74. Eric Robertson (Team RACE Pro) 04:52:17.80
75. Mark Pozniak (Team RACE Pro) 04:52:17.80