California Cup #1
Patterson Pass Road Race
August 13, 2005
Report by Karen Brems

This is probably the hardest course in the district between the climbs and the wind. It is the only race I know where you can get a good draft climbing at 6mph!! Webcor again had a relatively small team of Katheryn, Betina, Stefanie and myself. Carola Berger from Alto Velo was also in our race. Even at 7am when we arrived at the start, the windmills were spinning madly! I think the wind was actually worse than last year, but that was partially made up for by the lack of heat this year - the wind plus heat at this race usually gives you the feeling of riding inside a dryer!

We had a relatively small women's field - 20 riders or so with 4 PABs, 3 Touchstones, 2 Olympic Clubs and Webcor being the main teams. I saw a couple of women warming up on deep dish carbon wheels. I strongly advised them to switch them out before the start for their own safetly and others', which they did!

The first time up the climb was extrememly slow. I don't think we dropped more than one or 2 riders. After the descent and 2nd climb, Katheryn dropped her chain and could not get it back on without stopping. Stefanie and I both waited for her to bring her back. We caught back on the group at the beginning of the very fast flattish tailwind section by the time we got there, a group of 4 riders had broken away: Lisa Hunt (Olympic Club), Pat Ross (Touchstone), Julie (PAB) and Maria Monica (Left Coast). Betina was in the process of bridging up. Betina made it up to the break and they started pulling away with everyone except Maria working. With all the main teams represented and Maria, the only other strong solo rider in the break, Jane Despas took it upon herself to singlehandedly bring back the break by the time we finished the tailwind section.

2nd time up the main climb started slowly as well but about 1/3 of the way up, Katheryn made a light acceleration (ALL accelerations are slight on this climb!) and opened a gap and slowly started to drift away meter by meter. Jane and Maria did some pulling to try to bring her back. Eventually Berverly Harper tried to go after Katheryn and Betina covered her, followed later by Linda Jackson (PAB). This group of 3 was ahead of the pack most of the climb, but were absorbed by the top and Katheryn was still clear but well in sight.

Maria put in a good chase effort on the Flynn climb and over the top of that, Katheryn was caught, but the chase had dwindled the group to 4: Maria, Amber Rais (PAB), Stefanie and myself. With Katheryn we were now 3 Webcors in 5. I told Maria and Amber we would work if they would. Otherwise we would attack. We all started an efficiant rotation. Unbeknownst to us at the time, Betina was oh-so-close to staying with us on the climb, but was so focused on catching back on, that she rode right off the road! By the time she got back on, she was caught by 2 Touchstones who dragged her along, and then later by another chase group (several of whom dropped out after 2 laps!).

Our group of 5 worked together all the way up the main climb and down the descent. Maria unfortunately flatted at the top of the main climb. Katheryn then rolled off the front again at the bottom of the Flynn climb. With nothing but green around her, Amber had no choice but to drive the chase. THis climb is mostly tailwind and Amber drove hard. By the top, Katheryn was less than 200m ahead. Then after the descent, we saw Katheryn all of a sudden stop and get off her bike! We rolled by and she yelled at us to go on. With Amber (who also slowed down) on the front, we couldn't really afford to stop. We all 3 rode pretty slow for a while looking back to see if Katheryn was coming.

Amber was still in the lead and I was behind her, followed by Stefanie, but we had slowed so much that I shifted into my small ring. I think Amber may have heard that, because she suddenly attacked hard. She caught both Stefanie and I off guard and I had to work pretty hard to catch back up to her, and Stefanie was not on my wheel. Amber then decided that 1 Webcor was better than 2 and started driving the pace. After a while she pleaded with me to pull through, but I was hoping Stefanie could still catch back on. I also know that Amber is a good sprinter and my sprint is a lot better after 20 miles than it is after 69 miles, so I didn't want to take any chances when I had no reason to.

Stefanie was clearly making Amber nervous and she kept looking back for her. She must have seen her because she would usually accelerate after looking back. She also tried to attack me on every little rise. This went on all the way to the finish, where I outsprinted her at the line. Stefanie came in shortly after in 3rd. Maria fixed her own flat and came in 4th. Betina came in with Beverly and Linda Jackson, and outsprinted them for 5th. Katheryn had broken a spoke and had to hitch a ride back to the finish.

This race was the first of the Cal Cup series and unfortunately for Webcor, Katheryn got no points since she had to DNF. Also unfortunately, I am now leading the Cal Cup and was not planning to do all the races!

Return to Webcor Women's News