Link to each race report from the list below or just scroll down to browse:

September 26 UCI World Championship Road Race

In what everyone has named the hardest World Championship road course in at least the last decade, Webcor's Erinne Willock rode to a phenomenal 7th place in the Elite Women's Road Race in Mendrisio, Switzerland. More than 120 women started the race and only 56 finished, with Erinne ending up in the very select group of 15 riders contesting the medals on the final lap. This was a career best placing at Worlds for Erinne.

See these photos from PedalMag.com:
Erinne 1
Erinne 2

And from CanadianCyclist.com:
Willock pushes over the top of the climb
Zilute beats Arndt and Willock in the sprint for fifth
Willock pushes over the top of the climb
Erinne Willock
Joelle Numainville will be going to Webcor next season

Here is Erinne's report:

Friday night at 4am in our little lake front hotel in Switzerland, Tara and I were woken to our window shutters slamming open and shut in the pouring rain and wind. After a week of nice sunny weather we weren’t happy. Mendrisio was supposed to be a sunny micro climate and this didn’t hold up. But we went back to bed hoping for better weather by the race start time at 9am. But at 9am it was still raining, maybe just not as hard.

Oh well, we’re Canadian and I actually have a history of having good races in the rain. The course was nine laps of 13.8km for a total of 124.2km. Two climbs each lap (18 total), the first being shorter and steeper and the second being a little more gradual but longer and the top only 2km from the finish. The descent was technical and there was barely any recovery anywhere. It was said to be one of the hardest Worlds courses in history and I’m not sure about history but I know from experience that it was the hardest course in the past seven years since I’ve been attending the World Champs.

There were 127 starters and Canada had six including myself, Tara Whitten, Joelle Numainville, Heather Logan, Julie Beveridge, and Alison Testroete. Team synergy was good but we knew we had a long, hard, and wet day ahead of ourselves. The race started with major chaos of course and there were crashes immediately. Unfortunately our Webcor teammate Alex Rhodes was doing flips in the first 500m, but she’s ok. After that there were still many crashes everywhere and probably every lap. I soon figured that staying upright was going to be a major part of the race. Sometimes in a race you can float to the back of the field when there’s no action happening, but there was none of this on Saturday. The pace was too fast to risk being at the back and I was being cautious and staying out of trouble up near the front. Tara and Joelle also did a great job staying in good position and keeping an eye on me. If I ran into any trouble (like a mechanical or crash) I knew I had those two right by me to help.

The first half of the race was active with attacks by Ina Teutenberg of Germany and the Americans were keeping the pace really fast. The roads were wet and caused the group to be single file and break apart a bit on the descent. The second half of the race, the Italians started to be very aggressive along with the other key countries like Great Britain, Germany, USA, Switzerland, and the Aussies. I was trying to be conservative and stay up with the leaders. I found the first and steeper climb to be much harder for me and I felt a lot more comfortable on the second climb. At one point, I think on lap six, Tara did a great effort to help me back onto the lead group after I had gotten gapped because of bad positioning and a bad climb. On lap eight Noemi Cantele (Italy) got away solo while the big teams were chasing her back. On the first climb of the last lap we caught Cantele and then her teammate and eventual winner Tatiana Guderzo countered and also broke away solo. Kristin Armstrong, Marianne Vos, and Cantele broke away over the crest of that same hill and my group of 11 riders was strung out and regrouped on the descent to form the chase.

When we hit the final climb there were many attacks but nobody seemed to have anything left in order to get any sort of gap. The climb ended about 2.5km from the finish line and people were still attacking. After looking around at the people in my group I knew Diana Zilute was the strongest sprinter and that she had a teammate left to help her with a lead out. That was the wheel I wanted. But at the moment there were still attacks and at one point when I felt a lull I did an attack which got caught at the 1km to go banner. I looked over to my left and saw Diana being lead out by her teammate Edita Pucinskaite. I was able to swing over to them and fought for her wheel. Wow, I actually got Diana Zilute’s wheel with about 900m to go. I knew I just had to keep that wheel and I’d get a good position. So when the sprint happened I thought Diana would go to the right of Edita, but at the end Judith Ardnt was coming up on the right so Diana sprinted to the left of Edita which surprised me and Ardnt stole Diana’s wheel from me. But then Arndt was trying to pull around Zilute and I jumped back on Zilute cause I knew I wasn’t going around either of them and I wanted to be on the fastest wheel so that I didn’t get swarmed by anyone else. Fortunately people were tired and the sprint was fast enough that things stayed strung out and I held onto third which was actually a 7th overall.

Up ahead Tatiana held onto her solo win while Vos, Cantele, and Armstrong finished 19 seconds back and in that order. My group was 1:07 minutes back. Tara Whitten was Canada’s only other finisher in 40th place. Only 56 riders of the 127 finished.

I’m incredibly happy with my result and want to thank my coach Houshang Amiri for all his help this year, Webcor Builders Cycling Team for their support, Team Canada, and of course all my family and friends!!!

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September 7 Tour of Missouri Women's Series #4

Here is Karen's report:

Directeur Sportif Karen Brems finally gets to enjoy some good racing at the end of the season (photo courtesy of Lauren Hecht).

The final race on the Tour of Missouri Women's Series (aka Gateway Cup) was in downtown St. Louis on the same finishing circuit that the men's Tour of Missouri raced on later in the afternoon. This was the main race of the series with almost five times the prize money as in the other three races. There was also a large Expo area and a bigger crowd of spectators (although the crowds were actually pretty good for all our races).

The race was an extra 5 minutes longer than the other three: 50 minutes plus five laps. Course was a similar wide, relatively flat 1-mile square like the other courses. It was a slight uphill, headwind finish stretch. I think everyone's legs were a bit sore as we got on the neutral CycleOps trainers for the final time – I know mine were! Even though crits are short, four days in a row of them adds up!

The race was fast from the gun, but I did not feel that I was quite at my limit like on the first night. As usual, there was a constant swarm up the sides of the wide roads, so position was constantly changing. There were lots of attacks – LipSmackers and ValuAct were the most aggressive – but Tibco and Colavita were bringing everything back. Lauren, Katheryn, and I just tried to stay out of trouble and not too far from the front. Katheryn got a call-up and led the first lap and made a few other appearances at the front, and got her name announced several times by Dave Towle.

About 35 minutes into the race, a $50 prime was announced. I considered going for it if I could get in position without a huge effort. A LipSmackers rider took off with a lap to go. After about half a lap, a group of six or so riders took off after her, and I tagged on the back of that group on Laura Van Guilder's wheel. We caught LipSmackers with about 200m to go and nobody seemed to be starting to sprint, so I took off from the back of that group (we had a slight gap of the field behind) and took the prime. As I was trying to recover from the sprint, I looked back and saw at least a 200m gap back to the field. I knew my chances of staying away alone for another 20 minutes were probably slim to none, but I couldn't just sit up either… So I just set off at a hard, but sustainable pace, and my gap started to grow. Since I was no threat in the omnium, I figured Tibco and Colavita would let me go for a while and maybe someone would bridge up to me. Or maybe I could stay out long enough to get another prime. At the very least, I got the Webcor jersey out front for a while and Dave was announcing my name every lap and the crowds were cheering me on even if my legs were a little lacking! Jack Seehafer (Team Type One Manager) was on the sidelines (after having raced the men's race himself!) and told me my gap was about 15 seconds after two laps. By three laps it was down to 9-10 seconds though, and as I went through the start-finish, Dave announced a pack prime and I knew my effort was doomed. I was caught on the next lap and then just tried to sit in and recover as much as possible for the next 10 minutes to get ready for the finish.

With one lap to go, there was still really no team leadout in control, and it was a constant swarm looking for good wheels moving up and avoiding getting stuck behind riders getting swarmed. I somehow found myself on Kelly Benjamin's wheel with half a lap to go and moving up. In the sprint, I made it up the the "2nd row" and finished 6th. My goal had been a top 10, and it was only some of the top sprinters in the country ahead of me, so I was satisfied with my effort and it was fun to be a real part of the race for a change. Now it is on to Cyclocross!

Overall, this was a very well organized race and we are all hoping it will lead to a real stage race for the women next year!

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September 5 Tour of Missouri Women's Series #2

Day 2 of the THF Realty Gateway Cup was another flat, 4-corner crit. Lauren Hecht got race report writing duty today.

Here is Lauren's report:

Welcome to Midwestern weather! We were a little worried at 5 am this morning when we were awakened by the sounds of booming thunder (ok, so I had ear plugs in and missed the entire thing, but I hear it was scary). It was coming down pretty hard through breakfast and up until about lunch time when it miraculously cleared up and the roads dried just in time for us to head over to the course. After a short adventure along the way (misinterpretation of directions), we made it to the race course to find out things were a little late. We loaded up onto neutral CycleOps trainers and enjoyed the end of the men’s race before us.

As we lined up, the sky darkened a bit. We got through call-ups and the state representative of the 65th district shot the gun. Just as she did that I felt a rain drop on my forehead. Uh oh. (Luckily we made it through the entire hour with a very light shower).

I moved around quite a bit in the field trying to keep my eye out for Katheryn and Karen. Attacks started to fly from the very beginning, including a few early ones from Katheryn, but like yesterday nothing seemed to stick. I took some direction from Katheryn on wheels to follow and was always watching and learning from how my two teammates rode.

My goal for today was to go for a prime. The first one came quickly so I let that one go without trying, but started preparing for the next couple. The third one I tried getting into position but was unable to maintain the position I gained on the last stretch. The final $100 prime was the one I really tried to go for. Kori Seehafer (Team Type 1) was off the front solo and had been for about two laps. On the second stretch things started to slow down so I attacked up the right side of the road coming hot into corner two, thinking if I caught Kori I might be able to ride it in. I quickly realized, however, that LipSmacker was right on my tail so I eased up and was counter-attacked. I couldn’t match the attack and lost my position for the sprint (only to find out later that it was a field prime and that catching Kori was unnecessary). Live and learn.

We all finished in the group, with Karen taking a strong 11th place. It was a good day of racing with some of the top female racers in the country. I look forward to the next two days of racing.

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September 4 Tour of Missouri Women's Series #1

Katheryn Mattis, Lauren Hecht, and I (Karen Brems) are here in St. Louis for the Tour of Missouri Women's Series. There are four criteriums in the St. Louis area. The organizers invited all the top women's teams to attend and are really trying to get some increased exposure for the women's event.

The first race was a night crit at 8:30pm. This is not usually my favorite time to race, but there is a good atmosphere at night crits – lots of spectators and they did a fairly good job of lighting the course. It was also a very simple course: 4-corner square about 1 mile around with very wide roads and metal barriers all around the course to keep errant (or drunk!) spectators off. CycleOps also had a nice tent set up full of trainers for anyone to use, which was really nice since it was dark when we were warming up and they had other category races on the course.

The 45-minunte + 5 lap race was very fast from the gun and never really slowed. It was easy to move up on the sides because the roads were so wide, but the flip side of that was that it was hard to hold position because there was a constant swarm up the sides. Colavita had the largest team with seven riders and they were constantly on the attack or covering the many Tibco attacks. With a small team, Webcor had to pick our battles. Katheryn, Lauren, and I all covered a few moves and were in some very short-lived breaks, but it became pretty clear after a while that nothing was really going anywhere. Kat Carroll was off solo for a few laps as was Kori Seehafer, but in the end, the whole field was together.

I saw the lap card showing minutes counting up a few times, but in the dark, I never saw the lap cards in the last five laps. Dave Towle announced five laps to go and two to go, so I counted down from there, but it turned out that he was off by a lap and the sprint came a lap earlier than I expected. Other riders were confused as well. It probably didn't make much difference in my placing – I was just trying to follow Colavita riders moving up and avoid getting swarmed too much, but I was too far back and didn't have the legs to really contest the sprint. Tibco started their leadout with about 2 laps to go, which was pretty early for only havng 4 riders, but they prevailed in the end and Brooke Miller (Tibco) won. I think Laura Van Guilder (Mellow Mushroom) and Kelly Benjamin (Colavita) finished 2nd and 3rd. I was somewhere around 15th or 16th (money went to 20 places). Katheryn and Lauren were also in the main group somewhere.

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September 2 World Mountain Bike Championships

With her win in the U23 National Championship Mountain Bike Race, Amy qualified for a spot on the US team for the U23 Words MTB team in Australia. Mountain Biking is the only cycling event to have a U23 women's event.

Here is Amy's Report:

I flew to Australia with a solid head on my shoulders, feeling confident in the training I had done in the preceding weeks and looking forward to good legs at a world class race. Little did my coach, Ben, and I know that I should have been spending those weeks hucking myself off cliffs and preparing myself for a mix between downhill and trials racing. I left the US on Thursday August 27 and arrived in the capital of Australia, Canberra, on the morning of Saturday the 29th. A crew of us rode to the venue, as it was about 8k from our hotel. Keen to check out the course, we ignored the threatening clouds which came back to nip us with pelting hail! Beyond being stung from hail, frozen from numbing wind, I was also flabbergasted by the first 3k of the course. I kept desperately looking at Marc (Gullickson, the cross-country coach) with hope that he would say "oops, we're on the downhill course!"

The course began with a fun little twisty-turny single track climb, with dirt I would compare to riding in CO or CA…dry and ventilated, but tacky so you could rail it. This dropped you out onto a fire-road climb which looked ideal for passing before dropping back into single track. The second single track section looked yummy, as it had some rocks and maneuvering sections, but it was stuff I could handle no problem. And it was straight up, lung bursting, just giving er' to get the pedals turned over; appropriately named Cardiac Climb. For the first few minutes I was licking my chops. Then it all went downhill...literally, into Cadaver Corner. When the climb topped out, you immediately went rocketing into this slick boulder field descent. If your butt wasn't back, you'd go over the bars.

Look closely at this photo to see what I mean.

From this drop it started a mellow pitch of a climb which switch-backed a bunch and was plagued with big boulders where weight distribution was key. It's this fine tuned movement of picking the weight up off the front wheel then quickly moving forward and kicking the back wheel up…supposed to be fine tuned but mine was roughly hacked. I tried and tried to make this section flawless because with my legs feeling climby, I thought this could be a section to excel on. Unfortunately I never linked the whole section together, just bits and pieces, and a whole lot of most-excellent cyclocross mounts and dismounts. Finally I had a brief two seconds to take a deep breath before more internal whimpering (see photo).

Next was the "Hammerhead," and I think I would rather come face to face with a hammerhead shark than come to face this drop again. It was an infestation of medium sized boulders, all placed inconveniently enough, serving as the lead-out to two vertical granite rock roll-ins. And the B-line didn't hold much more optimism for me. I hammered my head on this section, literally and figuratively. I crashed enough times to know what not to do, but actually nailed it a few times (the B-line that is…I never bucked up enough to go cliff jumping). Eventually this section became fun in a drugged sort of way. It challenged me so much that I kept wanting to try it again and again, because each time it would be a tad bit better. By race day, I had the "cautious" B-line down pretty well. At this juncture, we're only a third of the way through the course! Good news is, it gets fun from here. The nightmare stuff is out of the way. Shortly after Hammerhead, there was another triple rock drop which was mellower. It took some time to actually attempt it, but it was tons faster than the B-line, and gave me the opportunity to go head over teacup a few times too. From here the course turned into a mock-luge for the majority. A wicked fast banked descent, into some fun whoopty-doos, into a dual slalom type track that gave the opportunity for you to go head-to-head and try for a pass. This dropped you into a field where the tech and feed zone was. Then a 600m fire-road section into twisting single track on that grippy dirt. From here it was all about rhythm from berm to berm and jump to jump, bringing you back down to the event village for the 6k of fun to begin again.

I've raced cyclocross at an international level, so I know what a fast start is, and this I was definitely expecting. Unfortunately call-up was based on UCI points, which I was at the bottom of the totem pole on. But the field was only 35-deep, and sitting 4th row really ain't that shabby. For the start there was a fire-road extension to allow a drawn out fight before entering the single track. This fire road seemed to be narrower on race day. I was darting back and forth to sneak up the sides, but always found myself brushing the fence or getting washed and pinched out. The roadie and 'cross rider in me kept looking for those gaps to squeeze into up the middle, but mtb bars are so wide! I moved up a bit but still entered the single track around 20th or further back. Cardiac Climb was wicked bogged down and people were basically track standing so I decided to dismount and jog it, which allowed me to pass a couple, especially as people were flailing like wet noodles through Cadaver Corner. All that technical death-like stuff was a cluster on this first lap so I even ran down the A-line of Hammerhead, again moving in front of people who refused to step out of their pedals. Finally the field spread out and we weren't nipping at each others wheels too bad. Chloe (Forsman, the other US rider) and I were together for a bit until the second time on Cadaver when she left me wrestling with my own bike.

It quickly became a game of the emerging-gutsier-Amy versus the cookie-monster-Amy. In the final lap there was a sizable gap in front of and behind me, so it was all about keeping the power on the pedals and riding the technical stuff as smooth as crunchy peanut butter. In the end I finished 18th, about 10 minutes back of newly crowned Polish World Champion, Aleksandra Dawidowicz. Although my legs are battered and various shades of black and blue and pink, although my bike looks as though it careened off a rapidly moving truck, although the course will continue to haunt me, although I am still in disbelief and utterly humbled by the technical abilities of everyone who congregated in Stromlo Forest Park for the 2009 World Championships, I am still in one piece and had a great many laughs with athletes from all sorts of disciplines – downhill, trials, 4x, and cross-country. I walk away knowing I have a lot of work to do, but I look forward to building on the improvements I made in the short amount of time I dabbled on this course.

Link to results.

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August 30, 2009 Vacaville Gran Prix

As final preparation for the upcoming Tour of Missouri crits, Katheryn Mattis, Lauren Hecht, and I (Karen Brems) loaded up the team Subaru and headed to Vacaville for the Northern California district criterium championships (also part of the Cal Cup). This is actually a race I had never done before, but I had heard it was a fun course. Not your average four corner crit, but almost more like a circuit race with a 1.1 mile loop including a "large overpass-sized" hill, some tight turns, a chicane at about 150m from the finish and thousands of bots dots in all the places you wanted to be. Karl Ehlert and Dan and Andi Smith from SportVelo came out to support and cheer for us and Dan volunteered to be the voice in the radio.

The field was not huge – maybe 25-30 women or so, but it included Kim Anderson of Team Columbia High Road and recent winner of the women's Route de France, as well as Stacy Marple from Colavita. We knew Kim would attack, it was just a matter of when, and Katheryn was assigned guard duty. Lauren was to watch Stacey and be our sprinter if the field stayed together.

I decided to practice my CX start and got the hole shot to the first turn off the line. I led for about half a lap and then Starla Teddergreen (Sugar CRM) attacked up the hill. She was caught relatively quickly and Katheryn attacked the next time up the hill. There were some more attacks and counters and it was pretty fast for a while (at least it seemed that way to me!) with Katheryn, Kim, Stacy, and I all marking each other. After a few laps, Katheryn was in a small group that got caught and there was a bit of a lull. Lauren attacked hard on the back straight and nobody reacted right away and she got about a 10-second gap. Katheryn and I patrolled the front, but I tried to make sure that one of us was always behind Kim. Jerika Hutchinson (Tibco) attacked to bridge to Lauren and we let her go, thinking Lauren would like some company. Jerika got about halfway up to Lauren and another rider joined her, but they never quite caught Lauren and she was off solo for about two laps. As she got caught, the pack kind of mushroomed and I was on the curb, surrounded by the pack with no real access to the front. Kim chose this perfect time to launch an attack into the hairpin turn. Katheryn was also momentarily boxed, but attacked after the turn to try to bridge. Stacy of course followed Katheryn.

Over the hill, Kim had maybe 10 seconds on Katheryn and Stacy and they had about the same gap on the pack, and both groups were pulling away. Katheryn and Stacy held the gap to Kim at 10-15 seconds for quite a while and both groups disappeared from sight of the pack. Eventually Kim started pulling away and won by over a minute. Stacy outsprinted Katheryn for the bear jersey (Kim is not in our district) and they were well ahead of the field.

Meanwhile, there were still people trying to chase and bridge from the field and I pretty much just stayed 2nd to 5th wheel the rest of the race, but without the three pros, the pace definitely slowed a bit. The main excitement was when a spectator walked out in front of the field in a turn! The first three riders went right as he froze in his tracks and I went left just before he started to back up into my line. There was a lot of screaming and elevated heart rates, but luckily nobody went down or hit the spectator!

With two laps to go, I started to look around for Lauren and planted myself on Starla's wheel as I knew she was one of the best sprinters in the field. Shortly thereafter, I heard the universal call in the radio: "Lauren get in position!!!". Same sentence, same timing. Different voice, different name. Sometimes it works though. About two turns before the hill on the final lap, I see green out of the corner of my eye and hear Lauren say "I'm on." The group kind of surges up the hill and since it is a cross tailwind, I stay in the front row with access to the front in case anyone attacks, but on the downwind side, slightly behind the rider on my right. Over the top, I see Lauren all the way on the left side of the pack so I move over to the left and she slots in behind me down the hill as I ramp up the speed.

From the top of the hill to the finish is .5 miles (I measured before the race) which is a bit long for a 1 person leadout, but with two turns and a chicane before the finish, I didn't want to get caught up in traffic. We swoop through the 2nd to last turn and hit the headwind back straight. I am going pretty much all out by this point and look under my arm and see Lauren still on my wheel and we have a gap on the rest of the field. Cool! The final turn is slightly uphill into a cross headwind and still about 350m from the line. I take it as fast as I dare to try to keep my momentum up, and as I ramp back up to speed out of it, I am just hoping I can keep going to near the chicane and Lauren will start sprinting around me fairly soon. Then I hear Lauren yelling "Go, go, go!!!" and I see empty space under my arm. I take a glance back and see a pretty big gap to Lauren and a bigger gap to the field. I try to accelerate with what little I have left (not much!) and the finish line seems an eternity away, but I do make it there before the rest of the field for 4th.

Overall a good race and and the strongest rider won!

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August 16 Yankee Clipper/ Kenda Cup Mountain Bike Short Track

Amy continued her fun in the dirt by racing the Short Track event at Windham as well. She finished just behind Mary McConnelog, US Mountain Bike Olympian.

Here is Amy's report:

After going to the whip for about two hours in the cross country on Saturday, Sunday brought more throttling excitement with the short track race. Short track is a 20-minute all-out effort on a short circuit. The style is similar to that of cyclocross. This being my first short track race, I really didn't know what to expect; I just figured it would be similar to cross. The course started up the same start climb as the cross country, this time of about 500m before taking a hard downhill U-turn onto a rough descent. If you carried your speed well down that, you could carry it up a little rise and onto a fast straigh-away. The course then dove back down into a fast U-turn and back up a tough pitch before turning left onto a 200m finishing flat. Each lap lasted about 1m30.

At the fire of a shot gun we were sprinting off as if the gun were aimed at us. Up the climb, banging bars, a mean scramble to make the selection. By the end of the first lap the 25-woman field was reduced to about 10. By the third lap I was sitting in 8th place on Mary M's wheel with no one behind me. Willow went to the front and drove it hard because all her teammate Heather needed was a top-5 to ensure her win of the overall. Eventually Mary opened a gap to the 6 and I noticed the gap too late. The 6-woman speed train took off for the remainder of the race. For a while Mary and I traded pulls, hoping to claw our way back on, but with no avail.

A wicked strong climber, Mary would consistently pull away from me on the climbs which I would just about reel back in before we embarked on the 500m again. She put a few seconds into me about half way through the race which would come down then go back up for the remainder of the race. The final 10 minutes were painful because it was just me, myself, and I staring at Mary-my-carrot and not gaining any distance…just pedaling hard, breathing hard, and hurting hard.

It was a solid first short track with an 8th place, and a little reminder of the work I have ahead of me before the great season of cyclocross!

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August 15 Yankee Clipper/Kenda Cup Mountain Bike Cross Country

With her national title at in the U23 Mountain bike event, Amy earned herself a trip to Australia to represent the United States at the World Championships U23 mountain bike race. This is the only cycling event for Under 23 women in the World Championships. She has been testing her legs against some of the top mountain bike pros in some local events as preparation.

Here is Amy's report:

With the Webcor season all wrapped up, with the energy to keep plugging away, with the fact that it's blueberry season in VT, and missing my dad, I decided to fly home to VT for the week. It just so happened that the same week there was a Pro XCT Mountain bike race going on just four hours away, in Windham, NY. So I booked a ticket on the darned United airlines who charge $175 to bring a bike. But I tactfully packed my itty-bitty mountain bike into an inconspicuous cardboard box, and wrote "Fragile: Artwork" on the sides. I was able to get in a few awesome rides around home base before trekking to NY.

The course at Windham will host a World Cup next season, so lotsof riders came out to get an idea of the course. The laps were fairly short – about 20 minutes each. It starts with a somewhat gradual gravel climb of 1k or so before turning right into the woods for a brief stint. Shoots you back onto a steeper but shorter climb, titled Alpe D'huez …creative). Then it levels out for 500m before dropping you into dark and rooty woods, where you can't even see your front tire. A little scary to come mach-schnell into pitch black! Once your eyes finally adjust, you're straining up a bi*ch of a pitch and back into the open, over a long bridge, before another gut-wrenching gravel climb that leads to more climbing – this time on single track leading back into the woods. And so it goes like this, in and out of the woods. It was brutally hot and humid, so it was a relief to duck into the woods, but every time I exited into the scorching sun I thought I was going to melt.

Five laps were on tap, and we began with a little start lap to prevent the riders from getting too bottle-necked into the single track. I got off to a great start, on the wheel of Katerina Nash. Hanging in the top five for that first time up "Alpe D'huez," I was pretty happy with my positioning, considering the feeling of my legs. I had this feeling once or twice before, and it feels like there is helium in my legs. I feel as though my legs are dislocated from the rest of my body… I could push them to infinite levels without them hurting, but it's as if I have no control over how hard I push. Very strange. So with this feeling I rode the first lap attached to Lea Davison's (who I grew up with in VT) wheel. But the second time up the start hill everything fell apart, and my legs transformed from helium into lead. Talk about fighting the elements…

By the third lap I was begging for a coke, which I had meant to save for the final lap. I knew I had to drink, but it just wasn't happening. I kept forgetting and suffering more and more. Soon Pua passed me and that deflated me even more. I tried to hold her wheel on the climb so I could follow her line through the technical stuff, but my legs seemed to have one pace. Eventually on the 4th lap, another girl came past and, while I couldn't hold her wheel either, she became a pacing carrot for the final bit of the race. Otherwise I would have kept rocketing backwards! I picked up my pace on the 4th lap, really hoping to real the girl back in, but it wasn't in the cards. I was utterly exhausted when I finally crossed the finish line in 10th place and very very very thirsty. The heat and humidity had zapped me.

See this post-race CyclingDirt interview with Amy .

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August 9 Patterson Pass Road Race

After a very short break, Katheryn is back to racing the local Northern CA classic Cal Cup races. She had her first win in the Patterson Pass road race.

Here is Katheryn's report:

After taking some down time following two good weeks of racing up in Bend, OR, I decided it was time to pin a number on my back and see what was left in the tank for racing. Fortunately, despite the season being over for racing with the team, I have the ability to do some great races here in Northern California that are part of a month-long race series – Cal Cup. I chose to skip the first one, a 35k TT, because it was two hours (one way), hardly worth the trip in my opinion.

So today, I set the alarm for an ungodly hour – 4:45am!, and loaded up the car with four bikes, one husband and two friends. The drive started in the dark, but a beautiful sunrise greeted us as we crossed the bay and headed to Livermore, CA for the Patterson Pass road race. We arrived early enough to secure decent parking, close enough to the portapotties, good proximity to the registration and start line, and close to the road as the dirt parking lot was riddled with goatheads (see goatheads.com for more information; and you thought you were only getting a race report, not a botany lesson). As the P1/2 guys had the first start at 8:00 and mine was not until 8:35, I had ample time to get ready and spin the legs around.

The REAL summit (photo courtesy of www.steephill.tv).

Patterson Pass road race is one of the toughest races in NorCal. It is set on a ~38k loop that has very little flat in it. The Tour of California has used the climb, from both directions, for each of its runnings. The climb begins within in the first 5k and stairsteps up for about 3k, with a lovely false summit that leaves your jaw dropped to your top tube as you look up and see where the top is and that there is a lot of distance and climbing between you and the real summit (click on photo at left). A fun and fast descent gives the legs a bit of a rest before taking a right turn and the road kicks up again. There is a short climb that sucks all the strength out of the body as it kicks up the last 25m but that is the last climb for until you come towards the end of the circuit. Otherwise, it is downhill or false flat downhill.

One thing a rider is very aware of when doing this race is the windmills that dot the landscape; yes, it does get windy! Fortunately today was calmer than in previous years I have done it.

Since Patterson is one of the tougher races in NorCal, just a handful of women lined up for the start. We had a mellow roll out after receiving our race instructions (no crossing the yellow line, although there were many miles of no yellow line, hmm…), and no one seemed ready to push the pace. I soon got antsy and when we went though the feedzone (about 5k into the race) I went to the front and began to set steady tempo. I could hear and sense people on my wheel and whenever the pitch of the road increased, I increased the pressure. When I hit the false summit, I looked back and had about a 50m gap on a very small chase group. I put my head down and took a bit of a breather on a slight descent before the climb to the top. I was grateful for the long downhill as I began to have a non-welcome revisit of my breakfast.

I continued to keep the pressure on for the rest of the first lap and going up the long climb the second time. As the lead motor hung back with the chase group, I had no idea what my gap on the chase group was. Unfortunately, the heat that is indicative of the East Bay/Central Valley began to ramp up as the liquid in my bottles decreased. I began to wish for the ability to raise my hand and drop back to the follow car to get some nice cold water and mix. No luck, I didn't even have a neutral support wheel car following me. I started the last of three laps feeling a bit parched and heavy in the legs. To make matters worse, the feedzone was a bit of a ghost town and the neutral feeders were out of water. Seriously! Really, no water!!! Fortunately, I continued up the feedzone and begged for water from the few remaining supporters and found some very generous guy to give me a COLD bottle of water. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I also managed to beg a bottle from a guy coming down the hill. Again, thank you!

To say that the last time up the long climb was painful would be an understatement. Thoughts of turning around and cruising back to the car passed through my head every odd peddle stroke and I was doing the paper boy up the final kicker. My stomach was in knots and my legs felt horrible. I was so happy to hit the top and knew that the worst was over.

Fortunately, just as the descent leveled out, the women's follow moto came up to me and said he would go back and get a time check. I did my best to keep focused on my legs going around in circles and not pedal squares. In a few k, I heard a moto coming up from behind and instead of the one following us, it was the P1/2 men's and soon a group of three guys (one being James), went flying by me. I did not even have enough energy to cheer him on. I was in survival mode at this point. Eventually the moto did return and informed me there was a group of four chasing at over three minutes back but one of the riders was cramping and falling off the group.

I hit the gradual descent and was greeted with a nice headwind, nothing big but at this point, it felt like riding in a high speed wind tunnel. Another group of guys passed me and as tempting as it was to hop in the group and get a free ride in, I pulled off to the side and kept out of their draft. The moto came up one more time, with about 7k left and told me I now had over four minutes. Now I just had to not ride myself off the road in my state of delirium.

Fortunately, the last 5+k provided me with a tail/cross tail wind and I crossed the finish line never so happy to be finished with a race. Wins are always nice and as I have not won this race before, I can now add it to my list. Thanks for reading.

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Link to earlier reports