CANMORE – It’s in a cyclist’s best interest to be full of moxie when they’re attempting this two-day, three-race competition in Canmore.
Testing legs, lungs and heart, the 10th annual Rundle Mountain Cycling Club (RMCC) Road Festival took place on Saturday and Sunday (June 8-9), with the weekend’s top racer, Kelsey Duffield of Calgary, setting up shop on top of the podium, with a hat trick of gold medals in the highest level of women’s competition.
The speedy spinner won in what’s appropriately thought of as eight-minutes-of-pain, a torturous 2km uphill sprint on Silvertip Road, and in the endurance-testing 90km road race.
However, those calf-slicers came after the Peloton Racing rider kicked off the dominant pedalling in Saturday’s downtown crit, a 1.3km loop full of bends and turns, cruising to victory in the women’s 21km CAT 1/2/3 race that’s often an all-out drag race to the finish line.
One mistake in a looping crit race could result in serious road rash, but Duffield got eyes on the fast course ahead of time.
“I’m still a little bit cautious on the corners, and this course specifically, does have a lot of technical corners, for me, anyway,” said Duffield. “There were people I watched before the race to try and figure out which lines were the most efficient but it’s a really entertaining and fun course.”
MORE PHOTOS FROM RMCC ROAD FESTIVAL
As Duffield eased across the finish, over in the top-level men’s crit, it was a photo finish between Olympian Connor Howe of Canmore and Gavin Broadhead of Calgary.
Reaching up to 60km/h down the final stretch, the Manteo Racing teammates were separated by milliseconds at the line as Broadhead barely pulled ahead of the national champion speed skater.
“About halfway to go, everyone started coming up so I was trying to fight my way up and I actually had to jump on the curb in the backside to keep my speed,” said Howe. “I couldn’t quite get Gavin, but our team went one, two there.”
The men’s cat 1/2 crit race at the RMCC Road Festival in #Canmore. Finishing in first, second and third were Gavin Broadhead, Connor Howe and Fergus English. pic.twitter.com/KVQ7BW8yGk
— Jordan Small (@jordiesmall) June 8, 2024
The top of the podium didn’t elude Howe for long, though, as he claimed gold in Sunday’s 105km road race.
RMCC’s Larix Hallett was another local winner in the challenging road race. In the final moments, the teen had more gas left in the tank and out-sprinted Joel Worman in the 75km CAT 4 race coming up into the hilly road of the Canmore Nordic Centre.
“I was kind of feeling a little tired on that last hill, but I knew I was almost there so I went all out,” said Hallett.
Hallet also finished second in the uphill, which he used words like “pain” and “torture for everyone” when describing the unrelenting vertical monster.
As tough as the local races were, the pair of podiums likely have given the Canmore racer enough points to move up to CAT 3.
Upgrading to a higher category is an annual goal normally set by younger riders frequently finding themselves on the podium such as Hallett or his RMCC teammate Kahlen Anderson.
Anderson, who’s representing Alberta at the road nationals in Quebec later this month, had a triple podium at the RMCC Road Festival, which is enough to bump her up to CAT 3.
However, the multi-sport athlete is going to need to recharge her battery before the races in Saint-Georges. In the lead pack, Anderson’s nitro button was out-of-order in the final seconds of Sunday’s 60km race.
“The hills were pretty brutal and I didn’t feel great the whole way, but I just tried to stick with the pack ... but then my legs kind of got cooked in the final sprint,” she said.
Some key results for local and/or RMCC riders over the weekend included a triple gold medal performance from Kalea Giesler in U15 girls’ action.
In the crit and uphill, taking first place in U17 boys was Quinten Macklem. RMCC’s Thomas Rilett also won gold in the CAT 3 men’s uphill.
Banff’s Finn Borstmayer finished fifth in the men’s CAT 1/2 crit and ninth in the road race.
For full results, click here.
