A Lead- out from a Mystery Rider

On a Sunday afternoon, just east of Edmonton, a number of us had gathered on a country road ready to race. I was in the lowest of three categories because I was coming off a spring with a less-than- desirable amount of hours in my legs. Before the group of about 30 rolled off, we milled around and introduced ourselves to each other. I got talking to this guy named Alex. As with any race, I started feeling out the competition with general questions. How long have you been biking? Where did you get your bike? How was your spring training? And of course the big one, have you done this race before? Alex played it cool and kept his answers low key. I thought, “Wow this guy is in this group? Man, look at the size of his calves.” My goal was to try and keep with him as he seemed like he knew what he was doing.

The race followed a 55-km square loop. Everyone worked together. Some of the less-than- experienced people learned about drafting and pacing. Throughout the race, Alex was there giving out pointers. I thought this guy was pretty cool and really got everyone into a groove. It wasn’t until the fourth and final lap that things got going. Ten guys who were holding back decided to ramp things up. As the paced increased and a paceline formed, guys started to drop off until there were five of us left. With a few kilometres left, Alex pulled up beside me and asked quietly, “Hey Shaun, what’s your breakout like?” I replied, “I will probably blow up.” Alex, with a grin on his face said, “Great, I’ll be your lead- out man.” Alex pulled in front of me, tapped his left butt cheek and took off. The numbers on my heart-rate monitor scared the heck out of me. I hit the last corner, 400 m to the finish, at 48 km/ h. I went wide trying to stay on Alex’s wheel and hit some gravel wash. Then my left calf seized leaving me in pain. I unclipped and finished the race pedalling with one leg to the finish line. I still managed fourth.

I was extremely happy with the race. Two years ago, I weighed 310 lb. and now I had a respectable fourth-place finish. I wanted to thank Alex for helping me out. Unfortunately, he had taken off. I didn’t see him until I was reviewing an older edition of your magazine ( June/ July 2011, ‘Alex Stieda: 25 Years Later’). It then hit me: I had Alex Stieda as my lead-out man and I didn’t even know who he was. This was later confirmed when I was told by some cycling friends that Alex had in fact been in that particular race.

So Alex, if you are reading this letter, thank you very much for giving me the race of my life. Maybe at next year’s race, I can say thank you properly by finishing without blowing up.