August 20/07 11:46 am - Rocky Mountain Haywood Report after Trans Rockies

Posted by Editoress on 08/20/07
 

Trans Rockies - Highs and Lows for Rocky Mountain Haywood
Courtesy Rocky Mountain Haywood

The Final Days..some Highs and Lows..

The end of the 5thTrans Rockies Challenge came after over 550 kms of gruelling wilderness trails. Trans Rockies is the sister event to the 10 year old journey across the Alps...The Trans Alp Challenge.

After a Day 6 which will go down as one of the most brutal days in TransRockies history, on the final day of 7, the riders were treated to a quick 48km run into beautiful Fernie to the celebrations finish line celebrations with the friends and family who were waiting there for them. The weather held on and the 2007 TransRockies Challenge will go down as having the finest weather since the race began.

The short and fast last stage of the TransRockies saw the Team United Cycles duo of Roddi Lega and Tim Heemskerk confirm their dominant overall victory with their sixth stage win in seven days. They gapped the second and third placed Team La Ruta/Pizza Hut and Team Rocky Mountain (Hadley and Green) in the last singletrack section and rolled across the line with a narrow 18 second victory on the day and a 26-minute win in the overall standings.

Congratulations to the young Rocky Mountain Team of Matt Hadley and Matt Green took third overall in the Trans Rockies Stage Race after 7 days of furious battle.

Three time TR Champion Andreas Hestler of Rocky Mountain Haywood, was teamed up with everyone's favorite Rocky Mountain Bicycles US sales rep, team rider, and all around good guy Kevin Calhoun from Vancouver. Coming off the Inaugural BC Bike Race just one month ago,Kevin and Andreas were feeling confident for a good finish in Trans Rockies.

These plans came to a halt when Kevin hit the ground hard in Stage 4 of the 7 stage race.

Kevin suffered a serious crash while crossing a waterbar. After an hour trailside while being aided by Dre, Kevin was airlifted the the Cranbrook Hospital where he was initially examined and then transferred to Invermere Hospital so that any spinal damage could be ruled out.

After 11 Hours being strapped to a backboard it was determined that Kevin had suffered stress fractures in five vertebrae, a broken shoulder blade and a separated shoulder.

Kevin was treated and released from the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery, but is understandably very sore and in a lot of pain.

Kevin's heart and team spirit really showed through as he was at the finish line of the next days stage to greet Dre as Andreas crossed the line in a make shift partnership with Rocky Mountain dealer and rider Brian Moore of Canmore. Andreas and Brian finished unofficially in third place during the last 3 days of the race.

Congratulations to the two Matts on a great ride and best wishes to Kevin for a full recovery.