TransRockies VII
Stage 7 Full of Surprises
News Release. Photos by By Dan Hudson courtesy TransRockies. / 19.08.2008
Jesse Jakomait of Sobe Cannondale, who came in 3rd with teammate Mike Garrigan in Stage 7 and 5th overall summed up the week by saying, "The first 20 minutes of the first day and the last 20 minutes of the last day were the toughest. It started with a bang and ended with a bang."
Jakomait said the top five Open Men's teams went pretty hard from the last control station to the finish in Fernie, which was evident at the finish line in the form of some surprising twists.
Multiple-time TransRockies winner in years past, Andreas Hestler and his first-time TR teammate Chris Sheppard crossed the finish line first, cheered on by crowds enthusiastic about a Canadian team coming in first, ahead of expected stage winners Marzio Deho and Johhny Cattaneo of Italy. Hestler said upon finishing that he was happy to get his teammate atop the podium at least once this week and that the plan that morning had been to attack early and stay ahead with the goal of crossing the line first.
"Shep attacked early and I went with him," Hestler said of the first punishing ascent in the lead group. "It hurt though. They all fought pretty hard."
"The Italians were dangling just behind us and then after about 10 to 12 kilometres while riding on the logging road we noticed all of a sudden they were gone."
Deho suffered a broken seat around the 10-kilometre mark but managed to hold it together for 70+ km by wrapping a tube around it. In the end, Deho and Cattaneo came in 5th for the last stage, but easily swept the overall Open Men's title with a time of 22:39:40 - 25 minutes ahead of 2nd place overall winners Kris Sneddon and Max Plaxton (CAN), who also came in 2nd place during Stage 7. Third place overall went to Marty Lazarski and Stefan Widmer (CAN), who came in 4th for Stage 7.
SleepMonsters
