Northern California/Nevada Elite Womens Road Race Championships
August 6, 2005
Report by Karen Brems

The Sr. women's district RR has been in the "Webcor family" for the past 2 years with Felicia winning last year and Christine in 2003 (although in a PAB jersey!). This year, with Katheryn still back east, Christine recovering from Altoona and preparing for track nationals, Felicia getting married the night before and Cat, Kim and Yukie still on the injured list, we fielded a relatively small team of Stefanie, Betina and myself. In bike racing though, quality counts over quantity :).

Course was the same as last year at Ft. Ord. Main difficulies are wind, slow road surfaces and the 800m or so "Barloy Wall". which we climbed 4 times. In the past, breaks that stick have always gotten away on the wall. Given that we were only 3, the plan was to be relatively conservative the first part of the race with Batina and I covering early breaks if necessary and for Stefanie to launch a major attack the 3rd trip up Barloy and again on the last lap is she was still with a group.

We started with about 30 riders or so, including most of the top NorCal road racers. Stefanie and Betina were both still feeling some effects of 7 days of very hard racing in Altoona only 6 days ago. My fitness isn't the best, but at least I was relatively fresh! PAB and Touchstone had the largest teams of 5 and 4 riders respectively.

The first lap was done at a basically conversational pace. After the first climb up the wall, Touchstone started making a few attacks. I covered most of them, but they were never really sustained. 2nd time up the wall, Penny Avril (Touchstone) launched at the bottom. I got on her wheel and thought to myself that if she held that pace all the way up, I was going to be in trouble! She didn't though and kind of blew 2/3 of the way up. Over the top we slowed down so much I almost had to stop pedalling! This gave lots of people who got dropped a change to catch back on. I think there were a few more Touchstone attacks on the rollers over the top, but I don't remember exactly.

On the next climb up Henneken Ranch, Pat Ross (Touchstone) kind of rolled off the front. Over the top, her teammate, Beverly Harper attacked to bridge up to her. They had a small gap at the top, but I figured we could catch them on the descent. I went to the front and had almost caught them by the bottom, but I watched them go through the tight right turn onto Eucalyptus faster than I thought possible. Sure enough, I rounded the turn and saw both of them on the ground. I think it was a slow motion fall though as they were soon up and back into the field.

The next main attack was from Amber Rais (PAB) going up the short, steep Parker Flats climb. By the top we had a group of 6-8 riders. Both Betina and I were there for Webcor, plus a McGuire rider, Jane Despas and a couple of others. I'm actually not sure who all was there because several were sitting on. A lot of people don't want to work with me and nobody seems to want to work if there is more than 1 Webcor rider, but they weren't doing a lot to better their odds with us either...Our group eventually got caught sometime after the turnatound.

Going up the rollers on Eucalyptus, Linda Jackson attacked and got a good gap. Nobody reacted for a while, but finally Touchstone went to the front on the descent heading towards Barloy, which was perfect for us to set up Stef's 3rd lap attack.

Stefanie did attack on Barloy, but I think her Altoona legs were talking back and a group of about 8 were able to follow, including Betina and I, Penny, Jane, Amber, Maria Monica and maybe 1-2 others. Someone else took over the pacemaking from Stefanie - Penny, I think. Over the top we had a thin line and I looked back and saw some Webcor green back in the line, so I went to the front to keep the pace high. Maria and Amber also pulled through as well as Betina. The organization wasn't there though. I could see Helene Drumm chasing about 200m back, so I tried to get people to work but Penny said she wouldn't work because Stefanie wasn't and pretty soon we had too much dead weight to go anywhere. I was happy to work, but I was also not afraid of a field sprint, so I wasn't going to tow a bunch of people around.

The group swelled back up to maybe 15 or so by the feed zone. On the Henneken descent, I went to the front again, and by the time I turned onto Eucalyptus, I had a gap and kept rolling. Amber and the McGuire rider came up to me and we started rotating. In a short while, Jane and Stella Carey (Kelly Bikes) came up. With some coaxing, I finally got everyone to pull through and we had quite an efficient group. We stayed away almost all the way to the Parker flat cut-off but Touchstone had missed the move and eventually brought us back. Stefanie tried a counter attack, but the field was right on her.

At this point it seemed everyone was ready to take their chances on the final Barloy climb. Linda set us all up nicely by leading the descent down Eucalyptus and through the turn. I expected the climbers to make a final bid for victory, but not that much happened. Stefanie tried to go, but didn't really get anywhere. Then Betina took over with a hard tempo at the front. At the top we had maybe 12 or so riders and it was time for "Plan B" which was for me to try to win in a sprint. Helene Drumm then made a really good attack on the first roller after the top. Stefanie brought her back. Betina, Maria and some others kept the pace up on the descnt and through the chicane but going along the straightaway before the church, we slowed way down. Stefanie saw an opportunity and attacked. She didn't get a huge gap, but the important thing was that Helene was the one who made the effort to bring her back. The 2 riders I was most concerned about for the sprint were Helene and Amber.

Going up the little bump before the feed zone climb, Maria made a strong attack. Betina was right on her and I followed Betina. Maria led up the feed zone climb but was starting to fade. I looked back and saw the 3 of us had a 15-20m gap on the group so I told Betina to take over and keep the pace high. I originally planned to sprint out of the corner, which the sign said was 200m, but it was a "Bob Leibold 200" which was really more like 300. Betina took me through the turn and we hit a wall of headwind so I had to ask her for a bit more, which she did. After 50-100m she started to fade, so I went. The finish line seemed to take forever to reach, but I won by a good 15-20m. I'm not exactly sure what happened behind me, but Amber came from the group to take 2nd and Maria held on for 3rd. Betina was 7th and Stef was somewhere in the group. Webcor saved the district title for another year!

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