For the 2006 Women's latest news Click Here. 2005 A Working Vacation in Bermuda… Ends in Victory
The Webcor Builders Women's Cycling Team capped off a tremendous season with a GC victory in Bermuda! Karen Brems, with much help from her teammates, fought a ferocious battle in the last stage, a very technical criterium, to come up with the GC win. Congratulations to the whole team – what a great way to end a great season! See the Photos page for more shots. While half of the Webcor Women's team is racing for the US and Canada in Madrid at the World Championships, the other half is enjoying the final race of the Women's Prestige Series, the 4-stage Bermuda Grand Prix. The team consists of Karen Brems, new team member Amber Rais, Cat Malone, and Betina Hold. Karen repeated her victory of last year in Stage One, which is similar to her favorite local race – Cat's Hill. Read Karen's report for the thrilling details! Karen wins stage three and holds the lead in GC! September News from Abroad All three of the USA team members finished in the top 10 of the Word Championship Time Trial in Madrid on September 21. Webcor's Christine Thorburn came up short of her goals, but still took the number 8 spot. See the results and read Christine's report. Meanwhile, on the international scene, Erinne Willock is in Europe competing with the Canadian National Team in the four remaining World Cup races prior to the World Championships, which will be held September 21-25 in Madrid, Spain. Erinne finished 15th on the hard course in Wales (see results), and again captured 15th place on the hard course in Plouay, France (see results). These are excellent results as the European peloton is now fit and doing final preparations for Worlds. Also, many of the national teams are basing their World's team selections on these results, so there are many motivated women out there! Felicia Greer will join her Canadian teammates the week of the World's time trial. Katheryn Curi and Christine Thorburn are in Europe competing with the United States National Team in a 5-day stage race in France, the Tour Cycliste Feminin Ardeche Rhone-Alpes Sud. Then Katheryn will do the Giro della Toscana the week before the World's races, while Christine will (hopefully) be doing final preparations for the World's time trial on September 21st (team is not yet announced). Read Christine's reports from France.
Victory at the Cougar Mountain Classic
September 10 was the final NRC race of the season for the Webcor Women's team – the Cougar Mountain Classic on the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. Karen Brems attacked on the last climb and soloed in for the win. Read Karen's race report and see complete results. Now half the team is off to Bermuda in a week for the final of the Women's Prestige Series. The other half of the team is in Europe preparing for the World Championships, which will be held September 21-25 in Madrid, Spain.
California Cup Underway Katheryn Curi and Stefanie Graeter finished 1-2 in the University Road Race in Santa Cruz – the sixth race in the Cal Cup series. Read Betina's race report. In the San Ardo Road Race, fifth in the series, Betina Hold captures the bronze. Read Betina's race report. After two years of riding in support of her Webcor teammates, Betina Hold captures her first win in the Winters Road Race, the third race in the Cal Cup series. Read Betina's race report. In the second race of the series, Christine Thorburn crushed the competition by nearly three minutes in the 18-mile Esparto Time Trial. Karen Brems sprinted to another victory in the first of the 7-race California Cup Series. The Patterson Pass Road Race, with its hellacious climb and stiff winds, is said by some to be the hardest race in the district. Read Karen's race report for the gory details.
NorCal/Nevada District Road Race Championship The elite women's Northern California/Nevada district road race title has been in the "Webcor family" for the past two years with Felicia Greer winning last year and Christine Thorburn in 2003 (although in a Palo Alto Bicycles jersey!). This year, with Katheryn Curi still back east, Christine recovering from Altoona and preparing for track nationals, Felicia getting married the night before, and Cat Malone, Kim Boester, and Yukie Nakamura still on the injured list, Webcor fielded a relatively small team of Stefanie Graeter, Betina Hold, and Karen Brems. Karen demonstrated that she can still dominate the local scene by winning the title, thanks to a great leadout by teammate Betina. Read the details in Karen's race report.
Webcor Wraps up Women's Prestige Series Titles Webcor won the Women's Prestige Series individual GC (Christine Thorburn), young rider (Erinne Willock) and team GC titles at the Tour de Toona. See this great team photo. Tour de Toona Final 7.31.05 Alas, in the final stage, Genevieve Jeansen pulled ahead to win the overall by ONE second over Webcor's Christine Thorburn. This photo says it all. The team maintained their commanding lead, however, to win the overall team classification, helped by Erinne Willock's 5th place in GC. Other finishers include Stefanie Graeter in 23rd, Katheryn Curi in 37th, Felicia Greer in 38th, and Betina Hold in 48th place. Read Christine's final race report. 7.30.05 After Stage Six, another long hilly road race, the Webcor women are still in control of the yellow. Read Christine Thorburn's race report. 7.29.05 In Stage Five, the Webcor women successfully defended the yellow jersey going into a tough weekend with big climbs on Saturday and tight cornering on Sunday. Read Stefanie Greer's race report. 7.28.05 After Stage Four, Webcor retains its lead in the individual and team GC. Read Katheryn Curi's race report. Erinne Willock is climbing well and a threat for Saturday. 7.27.05 Christine Thorburn wins the long hilly Altoona Road Race and takes the overall leader's jersey away from T-Mobile! Read Christine's race report. Catherine Curi in the Stars and Stripes. 7.26.05 The Webcor women are now in central Pennsylvania racing the longest – and probably hardest – stage race in North America for the women. This is a 7-day, 7-stage race where the women race the same distances as the men for the same (maybe more this year?) prize money. This year's peloton is chocked full of the best women on the NRC circuit. There is even a French team here and a few riders from European teams racing as guests on US teams. It is also the 3rd in the 4-part Women's Prestige Series, which Webcor is leading as individual GC (Christine), young rider (Erinne), and as team. We are hoping to maintain these titles. It is also the last time this group will be together this season since San Fran has no women's race. Then several of us will be heading to Europe for the final prep before the World Championships in Madrid the last week of September. Oh, Canada! Webcor's three Canadians – Felicia Greer, Betina Hold, and Erinne Willock – had stellar rides on their way to two podium spots at their National Championships. Felicia placed third in the time trial, while Erinne placed second in the road race. See complete time trial results, road race results, and read the race reports. Two Webcor Riders Place in Top 10 at Cascade Classic The Webcor team of Katheryn Curi, Stefanie Graeter, Cat Malone, Kim Boester, and guest rider Amber Rais traveled to Bend, Oregon for the July 7-10 Cascade Cycling Classic. Despite being outnumbered by T-Mobile nearly two to one, Webcor placed Katheryn 4th in GC and Stefanie 6th. See complete results and read the race reports. Women Continue Their Winning Ways in Two Local Races The Webcor women came out in full force for their club's fun and challenging road race on June 25 – The 8th Annual Pescadero Coastal Classic. Stefanie Graeter and Felicia Greer finished hand-in-hand for 1st and 2nd. See complete results and read Stefanie's race report. Webcor's Curi Captures National Road Race Title! 6.22.05 Katheryn Curi soloed in to win the stars-and-stripes jersey, ahead of a small group containing all of the pre-race favorites, including teammate Christine Thorburn. Christine was 3rd in the group sprint, for 4th place overall, while Stefanie Graeter took 2nd again in the Under-23 age category. See complete results and more photos. Read Katheryn's race report.
USCF Championships - Bronze and Silver in the Time Trial for Webcor June 21 was the National Time Trial Championship in Salt Lake City. Both the men's and women's fields raced 35km on a rolling course on Antelope Island. Webcor put twp riders on the podium with Christine Thorburn taking 3rd in the Elite women's race behind Kristin Armstrong of T-Mobile and Amber Neben of Buitenpoort. Christine had a good ride but not good enough to win and was feeling some effects from the altitude. Stefanie Graeter had a great ride to take 2nd in the Under-23 women's category behind Rebecca Much of T-Mobile and ahead of last year's defending champ, Lauren Franges who was 3rd. See complete results. Nature Valley Grand Prix Stages 3, 4, 5 – Christine Thorburn holds onto the yellow jersey, while Erinne Willock wins the best young rider white jersey. It was a fabulous showing for the Webcor women, who are thought to be "just" climbers and were not favorites for this typically flatter stage race. They are all in great form for their respective nationals: US nats next week in Park City, UT, and Canadian nats the 2nd week of July. Read Christine's race report of stages 3-5. See complete Stage 3 results. See the final podium photo. Stage 2 – Mankato Road Race, 6.9.05 Stage 1 – Time Trial, 6.8.05 See complete Stage 1 results. Stage 1 photos:
Liberty Classic
June 5 was the Liberty Classic in downtown Philadelphia. This race is what the San Francisco Grand Prix was patterned after. They completely close off the downtown area and half a million fans line the streets. The men and women are on the course at the same time, meaning the women actually get their fair share of TV coverage and spectators. This is the richest 1-day women's race in the country, with the win worth $12K (the men's winner gets $40K). This year we had 200 women in the field from 27 teams from around the world! This was actually larger than the men's field that only had 150 riders or so. Webcor had a team of 7 riders: Christine Thorburn, Erinne Willock, Felicia Greer, Katheryn Curi, Stefanie Graeter, Cat Malone, and me (Karen Brems) managing from the saddle. Navagating through a field of 200 riders is a bit challenging and the first lap is always pretty nervous. The women do four laps of the course that includes the Manayunk wall: a steep, half mile climb, and two shorter climbs up to Strawberry Mansion and Lemon Hill. The climbs alone are not enough to split the field and the race traditionally comes down to a massive field sprint, won seven times by Petra Rossner. Petra finally retired this year (and is directing the Nurnberger team) so we knew there might be more possibilities for a breakaway if the right combination of teams got away. Webcor doesn't have a field sprinter, so we would be happier with any of us in a break with just about anyone else, than a field sprint. The plan was to race aggressively starting with the 3rd climb up the wall. There is also a QOM competition with points on Manayunk and Lemon Hill. Erinne won this last year, so we also wanted to support her in that. The first time up the wall, Judith Arndt of Nurnberger opened up a gap on about 10 riders in front of her near the top. There were three T-Mobile riders (Kristen Armstrong, Kimberly Baldwin, and Ina Tuetenburg), two Webcors (Christine and Erinne), Anette Buetler of Quark, Oenone Wood of Nurnberger, Lynn Gaggioli of Monex, Dostie Cowden of Colavita, and maybe one or two others. Katheryn, Mari Holden (T-Mobile), and I were all right behind Judith and had teammates up front, so we also sat up and spread out across the road. By the bottom of the descent, the front group was out of sight and nobody was organizing a chase. It was pretty early, but we had our two strongest riders up the road, so they rolled with it. Kimberly Baldwin was the main driver of the break. The break gained up to about 45-50 sec., but it soon became apparent that Nurnberger wasn't happy with only Oenone in the break, so they sent Madeline Lindberg and Olivia Gollan to the front. Quark was also not happy with their two strongest sprinters, Tina and Laura back in the field, so they started helping the chase. By the bottom of the wall, the break was in sight and Judith put in a hard effort on the climb and led a group of about 7-8 riders up to the break, including myself, Mari, Tina, Laura, and a few others. By Strawberry mansion, a lead group of about 17 riders had formed with a gap of about 20 sec. It was mostly the riders from the original break minus Dotsie who was dropped, and Annette, who flatted, and then the bridge group. Webcor had three riders (Christine, Erinne and I), Nurnberger had three (Oenone, Judith, and Regina Schleicher), T-Mobile had four (Kimberly, Mari, Kristen, and Ina), Quark had two (Tina Pic and Laura Van Guilder), Nobili Rubinetteri had three (Edita Pucinskaite, Joanne Keisanowski, and Sigrid Corneo). Lyne Gaggioli was there solo and Amy Moore from Victory Brewing, and maybe one or two others. Basically all the strongest teams had their strongest riders and sprinters in the group, so there wasn't a lot of incentive or horsepower in the pack to chase except from Colavita and Victory whose top sprinters, Gina Grain and Rochelle Gillmore, had missed the move. Kimberly Baldwin was still drivng the break. I asked Christine and Erinne how they were feeling and Christine felt good and Erinne felt bad – she had 17 stitches from her crash on Thursday in the Tour of Montreal and that seriously hampered her recovery from racing 15 days out of the past 3 1/2 weeks! I told Christine to sit on and Erinne and I went to the front to drive the break along with Kimberly, Mari, and Sigrid. All the others were sitting on as well except Edita who took a few token pulls. By the base of the 3rd time up Manayunk, we had about 1 min. on the field. Christine had now taken over QOM duty from Erinne and placed in or won all the sprints to wrap up that title. I was pretty much done (done for!) at this point and dropped off the group on Manayunk. Erinne and Mari came off a bit higher up the climb but were able to chase back onto the group on the descent. Erinne continued to work for another lap in the break. I recovered a bit until I was caught by the next goup of 50-60 riders which had Katheryn, Felicia, and Cat all riding strongly near the front. The gap to the break remained fairly constant at around 1 min for the rest of the race. Victory Brewing and Colavita were doing most of the chasing with a few token pulls from Subway. Erinne and Mari came out of the break for good the last time up Manayunk and were swept up by our chase group, but the rest of the break of 14 riders stayed together to the end. Christine won the QOM sprint on Lemon Hill, which is about 3km from the finish. She had a slight gap, but not enough to hold. Judith tried to go with about 2km to go and Christine tried to follow her and counter, but too many QOM sprints had taken their toll on her legs and she could not get a gap. In the final 500m, Kristen led out Ina and Tina led out Laura and it was Ina who took the win over Regina Schleigher and Laura.
In additional to her QOM title, Christine ended up 12th. She also won the two cash primes for $500 each on the start/finish line on the 2nd and 3rd lap! Cat, Felica, Katheryn, Erinne, and I were all in the group of 50 or so riders sprinting for 15th place. It was a pretty hairy sprint as usual for this race. I didn't have a whole lot left and I got my bars bumped and lost postition with about 300m to go. I ended up 41st, Cat 45th, Katheryn 50th, Felicia 56th and Erinne 60th. Stefanie unfortunately got caught behind a crash on the first lap and never made it back to the field. Photos from the Liberty Classic:
Next up for the team: 5 days in MN for the Nature Valley Grand Prix starting Wed. Le Tour du Grand Montreal, May 30-June 2 Read Christine's Grand Tour du Montreal race report. See CyclingNews full coverage of the Grand Tour of Montreal. Photos: World Cup in Montreal The Webcor women's team of Christine Thorburn, Stefanie Graeter, Erinne Willock, Betina Hold, Felicia Greer, and Katheryn Curi raced round seven of the women's World Cup in Montreal on Saturday, May 28. This is the only World Cup cycling race for men or women in North America. It is also the toughest course on the women's World Cup circuit with 12 trips up the steep 2km Mount Royale. Erinne will be sending out an inside view of the race in the next couple of days, but in short, the team rode extremely well against a star-studded international field and placed two riders in the top 10 with Erinne in 6th and Christine in 8th as the top American rider. The current World Cup leader and two-time World Road Champion, Susanne Ljungskog, came with her Buitenpoort-Flexpoint team and World Cup number two, Oeone Wood, was there with her extremely strong Nurnberger team including reigning World Champion Judith Arndt riding in a domestique role. Read Stefanie's World Cup race report.
Tour de L'Aude Stage Race Three women from the Webcor Cycling Team represented their respective countries at the May 12-22 Tour de l'Aude in southern France. Felicia Greer and Erinne Willock joined the Canadian team, while Katheryn Curi represented the United States. With the demise of the women's Tour Feminin, this 10-day international stage race has become pretty much the most prestigous international stage race for women on the calander. Felicia's support helped Lyne Bessette finish 4th and Erinne finish 9th (her first top 10 finish in a big international race). Katheryn helped teammate Kristen Armstrong finish 3rd. Read Erinne's race report.
Webcor Women Victorious in Two Local Races in May The weekend of May 7 and 8 was a busy one for the Webcor Women's team, as they captured two more wins in two popular San Francisco Bay Area races. Christine Thorburn and Karen Brems finished 1-2 in the Cat's Hill Criterium on Saturday, while Katheryn Curi won the hilly Berkeley Hills Road Race on Sunday. See the Cat's Hill Results.
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May Updates Christine Thorburn took 2nd in the Pan Am Championships Time Trial on April 25th in Mar del Plata, Argentina as a member of the US National Team. She followed up that great ride with stellar teamwork in the Pan Am Champs Road Race a few days later. US National teammate, Tina Mayolo-Pic, took the gold medal, capitalizing on the great sprint leadout that Christine kicked off. Our Christine hung tough to finish 6th even after her leadout work was complete. See Pan Am Championship Time Trial and Road Race Results. At the Apr 27-May 1 National Racing Calendar (NRC) Tour of the Gila in the mountains around Silver City, New Mexico, Katheryn Curi kicked off a great week for Webcor in Stage 1 with a personal-best NRC-Time-Trial 3rd place finish. She followed this up with strong riding through the rest of the week and finished 5th overall despite fighting a cold. In the Stage 4 Downtown Criterium, Cat Malone drove the pace in the breakaway and outsprinted her companions to chalk up another team win, and a first for Cat herself in an NRC event. Betina Hold made good on her gamble in an early breakaway to finish 3rd in the brutally tough final stage, the Gila Monster Road Race. This was Betina’s first ever NRC podium. And here she is rolling in! Read the team's Gila Diaries. See full Tour of the Gila results and photos! Upcoming races for the Webcor squad:
Also, the following Webcor riders have been selected to race with their respective national teams at these upcoming international calendar events:
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4.16.05 Sea Otter Final The final stage of the Sea Otter Classic was a
tough one: seven times up the "Barloy Wall," a steep 1km
climb used in the NorCal Districts road race and a final climb up
2.3-mile Barloy Canyon up to the Laguna Seca track. 84 miles of
hills and wind. Webcor likes tough courses though, so the team was
ready to go on the offensive to improve on Christine Thorburn's
3rd place on GC going into the stage. Christine started the day
11 sec. down on Tina (Quark) and 7 sec. down on Kristin. Time bonuses
alone would not be enough to take over the lead – she had
to make some time on Tina on the final climb. Going into the final climb up Barloy Canyon, Ina
had about 15-20 sec. on the three chasers and the field was 3-4
min. back. As the climb steepened, Christine attacked hard. Kristin
and Tina were able to grab her wheel right away though and then
Kristin countered and nobody could respond. Kristin caught and passed
Ina and got 30 sec. on Christine and Tina in lass than half a mile.
By the top of the climb, she had over a minute. Christine and Tina
chased hard and passed Ina, but Kristin's fresh legs were just too
much for them. Kristin won the stage and the overall with Tina in
2nd 1:27 back and Christine in 3rd at 1:29. Ina held onto 4th, Grace
held onto 5th and Felicia stayed in front of the field for 6th,
7:11 behind Kristin. Photo
of Felicia as the men's pack passes.
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| 4.15.05 Sea Otter Classic Day One Six members of the Webcor women's team are contesting the 3-stage Sea Otter Classic: Christine Thorburn, Erinne Willock, Betina Hold, Katheryn Curi, Felicia Greer, and Cat Malone. The Prologue was 1/2 a lap of the Laguna Seca Raceway. Unfortunately for Webcor, they chose the 2nd half of the lap, which starts at the top of the corkscrew and goes downhill to the finish. It was a 3-minute effort where descending and cornering skills were a premium. T-Mobile's Kristin Armstrong won in 3:04, followed by Ina Tuetenberg (T-Mobile) and Candice Blickem (Quark). Tina Pic was 4th after being penalized 1 sec. for false starting (she would have won otherwise). Webcor's Christine was 10th in 3:09, Felicia was 23rd in 3:16, Erinne was 34th in 3:19, Cat was 40th in 3:22, Betina was 50th in 3:25 and Katheryn was 53rd @3:26. Felicia and Christine inproved their times by about 10 and 15 sec. respectively over last year by not using their brakes this year!
Prologue results Photo of circuit
race action.
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| 4.3.05 Redlands Final
The pressure was definitely on going into the final
stage with the top 3 GC riders only 7 sec. apart and 13 sec. of
time bonuses up for grabs. I don't think there has ever been a Redlands
this close! Even 4th (Erinne Willock) and 5th (Kristin)
were less than a minute down! The sprint was hard enough that the top 6 riders:
Chrisitne and Erinne, Kimberly
and Kristen from T-Mobile, Anette and Lynn Gaggioli (Monex) got
a gap and kept it going. Lynn had the most to gain from the break
and did the bulk of the work. Webcor had 2 more riders in the top 10 with Erinne in 4th and Katheryn Curi in 7th. Felicia
Greer finished 19th after sacrificing her own race for
the team on Oak Glen. Another interesting note on Oak Glen was Cat
Malone, who, after riding on the front for the bulk of
the first 50 miles of the race, was dropped from the lead group
a bit before the start of the final climb. With about 4km to go,
she got a flat but the Webcor car and apparently all the neutral
support cars as well, were up with the front of the race. Another
team car who didn't have riders in the front went by and gave her
a spare tube. Cat had to fix the flat herself and finished just
40 seconds in front of the time cut!
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| 4.2.05 Webcor Women Still in Yellow at Redlands The Webcor Builders women's team all survived the
60-minute technical downtown criterium with the rubber side down
and successfully defended the leader's jersey for another day with
only one more stage remaining.
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| 4.1.05 Webcor
Women Still Leading Redlands
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| 3.31.05 News Flash: Webcor Women in Yellow at Redlands Webcor Builders' Christine Thorburn just won the prologue hillclimb TT at the Redlands Classic in gusting windy conditions. No official times yet, but she was about 4 sec. ahead of T-Mobile's Kristen Armstrong. Webcor's Erinne Willock was 5th and Felicia Greer was 10th. Katheryn Curi, Stefanie Graeter, and Cat Malone were also all in the top 30. Webcor, Quark and T-Mobile all have 2-3 riders
in the top 10, so it will be an exciting race. Tomorrow is the famous
Oak Glen stage ending on an 8-mile climb that is sure to shake up
GC a bit.
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| 3.20.05 Webcor Women Win San Dimas Stage Race
Stage 3 of the San Dimas Stage Race was a 55-minute
criterium with 2 10 sec. time bonus sprints plus a 20 sec. bonus
for the stage win. Erinne Willock had a 29 sec.
lead over 2nd place Kristin Armstrong in the GC (General Classification).
They were in a good position in that the pure sprinters were likely
to take the finish time bonuses and the intermediate bonuses were
not enough for anyone else to take over the lead. As long as the
field stayed together, Erinne's jersey was fairly secure. Complete Stage Three and GC results
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| 3.19.20 Webcor Women Winning San Dimas Stage Race The Webcor Builders Women's team has just finished
the 2nd stage of their first NRC stage race of the season, the 3
stage San Dimas Stage race in (big suprise) San Dimas, CA. The team
is Christine Thorburn, Erinne Willock,
Katheryn Curi (4 weeks post collarbone break!),
Betina Hold, Stefanie Graeter,
and Yukie Nakamura.
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| Webcor Builders Announces Women's Roster | |||||||||
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