Webcor
There are 56 entries for the tag
Webcor
AUGUST 29, 2010
Vacaville, CA - The Northern CA/Nevada Sr. District Criterium Championship was this Sunday in Vacaville. This race is also part of the California Cup series. Katheryn wanted to try to check "District Crit Champ" off her list before retiring, and I wanted a taste of race intensity before the Cyclocross season starts in a few weeks, so off we went. We were successful on both counts! Read Katheryn's Race Report...
AUGUST 22, 2010
Santa Cruz, CA - The annual road series here in NorCal, the CalCup is taking place for 3 weeks in late August/early Sept. This 7 race series is usually the final races of the season for a lot of riders, and while you won't get rich winning it, the bragging rights and coveted Velo Promo t-shirts always draw out good fields! Katheryn has been doing a lot of the races with the men's P/1/2 fields, but Lindsay represented Webcor...Read More...
AUGUST 21, 2010
While it is mostly just criteriums left in the US in August, the road season is still in full swing across the pond. Erinne and Joelle are based in Belgium for a month of racing with the Canadian National Team. Dave, our Webcor mechanic, is there with the Canadian team as well. Erinne continues the good form she showed in Cascade with her first top 10 placing in a European World Cup race. Read More...Erinne's Race Report to follow...
What if Phil and Paul commentated on our daily lives?
“She’s wearing the mask of pain!” “Shut your eyes, shut your mind to the pain!”
I am back in my embrace-adversity, pick-myself-up, and get-after-it mode. During 9th of the 10 stages of the Giro d’Italia Feminine, where I was supporting the USA National team in its epic attempt to win with Mara (Abbott), I found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time … again. OH. Could it really be? No. Yes. Really? Read More...
JULY 23-25, 2010
Bend, OR - The Cascade Lakes RR is one of the classic stages of Cascade, with the finish up to Mt. Bachelor Ski resort. It was another stage for the climbers and Erinne proved again that she is one of the top climbers of the North American peloton with a strong 3rd place finish. She also extended her 3rd place GC lead by another 30 sec. over 4th place Alison Powers. Read More...Stage 4 & 5 Race Reports included...
JULY 22, 2010
Stage 2 of the Cascade Classic is a 16 mile TT. The course is the same as the one for US nationals without the extra "lollipop" loop at the end. It is similar to the TT at Tour of the Gila - gradual uphill all the way out and fast downhill on the way back. Erinne had a breakthrough TT at Gila, placing 2nd there, so she and the team were hoping for another good ride here and she did not disappoint us! Read More about Erinne's TT win...
JULY 2, 2010 - Amber Neben went straight from Bend, OR to Italy for the Giro d'Italia Feminile to race with the US National team.
Here is her report for the first stage:
Muggia-Trieste - July 2, 2010 - The American team for the Giro is Mara, Shelley, and Sinead from PB2012. Carmen and Theresa from Colavita. Alison and Amanda from TIBCO, and me (Webcor!) Read More...
JULY 2, 2010 - While the rest of the team is recovering from a month long racing road trip, Ally, now based on the east coast, is racing the Fitchburg-Longso Classic in MA.
Ally, one of the teams' developing riders, finished off the Fitchburg-Longso classic in good form. Being based on the east coast, she took advantage of the nearby race to gain valuable experience and fitness for Cascade in 2 weeks. Read More...
JUNE 28, 2010 - The Candian contingent of the Webcor team, Erinne and Joelle, raced their national championship road race yesterday. It was a great day for the team - for the 3rd time, Erinne helped a Webcor teammate win the coveted Maple Leaf jersey!
Here is Erinne's Report:
This year the Canadian National Championships were held in Edmonton, Alberta which is a town up north and along a river valley. Therefore the course which we did... Read More of Erinne's Report...
JUNE 27, 2010 - Sunday was a busy day with Webcor riders competing in their national championships in 3 different countries! Andrea had the longest trip - all the way to Austria. It was a worthwhile one though as she came through with the big victory!
Here is her report:
Austrian Road Championships - Victory!!!
...about 2 "cancelled" nights, Austrian race organization, a clear lead and a narrow victory...Read More...
JUNE 25, 2010 - Bend, OR - The American contingent of the Webcor Cycling team is here in beautiful Bend, OR for the national championships. Yesterday was the time trial. Amber showed she is well on her way back to peak form after her injury by placing a strong 2nd place behind Evelyn Stevens of Columbia HTC. Mara Abbott was 3rd. Read Amber's Race Report...
JUNE 13, 2010 - Joelle Numainville (Webcor Builders) won the first edition of the Grand Prix Gatineau on Sunday in a crash-filled sprint. Numainville avoided the crash in the final 500 metres and held off late efforts by Jo Kiesanowski (TIBCO) and Modesta Vzesniauskaite (Colavita Baci) to win the UCI 1.1 race in her home province.
"Riders were going down beside me and behind me, but I was okay," explained Numainville. "It was a lot harder out there than we thought...Read More...
JUNE 7, 2010 - The Liberty Classic is the biggest 1-day race for women in the US... Webcor had a smaller, but nonetheless strong team of 5 riders. Joelle finished a strong 6th place out of a select group of 22 riders at the finish containing some of the world's best sprinters... The rest of the ream rode aggressively & Erinne made the only real break of the day, being off the front by up to about 1 minute for most of the 3rd lap. Read More...
May 31, 2010 - This weekend was the Robert Cameron Law Corporation Cycling Series. It consisted of three great races put on by local sponsors & the field was the best cyclists of BC... Friday night was the Trek Pro City Bear Mountain Hill Climb where we raced the clock up a grueling 3.3km & 10% hill. I think I set the women’s record with a time of 8:33 which would have placed me 8th in the men’s field behind local pros like Ryder Hesjedal and Rob Britton. Read More...
After Joe Martin, Katheryn headed straight to France to race the 10 day Tour de l'Aude with the US National team. This is probably the most prestigious international stage race for women - it is a women-only race that has been going on for something like 20 years & has the highest UCI ranking for a women's stage race. Basically the equivalent of the Tour de France for women. Katheryn took her first European stage win here yesterday and rocketed from 14th to 2nd on GC! Read More...
Submitted By: Karen Brems, WEBCOR Team Director on May 18, 2010
May 16, 2010-Sacramento, CA The men get a whole stage race for the Tour of California while the women unfortunately only got to race a 1-day criterium in downtown Sacramento, but at least we got something and the organizers (not the same organization that puts on the men's stage race) did a good job putting on a first year event. Read More Including Andrea's Report...
This was one close race! Katheryn went into the final stage 4.3 sec. behind Alison Powers. With time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds for the top 3 places in the stage, she had to either take time out of Alison or be 1st or 2nd on the stage without Alison being in the top 3. The Webcor team gave their all and Katheryn found her sprinting legs to take 2nd on the stage (winning the field sprint) but unfortunately for us, Alison took 3rd, giving her the win by 0.3 sec! Read More...
May 6, 2010 - Fayetteville, AR - The Webcor team came back down to sea level and a little less wind in Fayetteville, AR for the Joe Martin stage race. The team took our first NRC victory of the season with Katheryn winning the opening hillclimb TT. This was a long time coming as Katheryn placed 2nd to Alex Wrubleski (then riding for Colavita) by 1 sec. in 2007 and 2nd to Alison Powers by 2 sec. in 2009 on this same stage. Read More...
The Webcor team is in Silver City, NM for the 5 day Tour of the Gila. This is a tough race - probably the most climbing of any US stage race and also takes place above 6000 ft. elevation, which is hard for those coming from sea level. The team is Katheryn, Erinne, Andrea, Joelle and our 2 guest riders: Amy Dombroski who raced with Webcor in 2008-2009 and Angela McClure of the Webcor/Alto Velo Bridge team. Read More...
The RoadRunner Classic is a new race on the calander this year in Albuquerque, NM... Webcor sent a small, but strong team of Katheryn, Andrea and Erinne to support the race and also gain some time at altitude before Gila. The race is a omnium format, which means there are points awarded for finish order in each stage and the greatest points total wins, instead of the usual stage race format determined by time. Read More...
The Canadian Cycling Association (CCA) launched a new anti-doping program called "Race Clean OWN YOUR VICTORY" earlier this week. The program is athlete-driven & complements the "Roulez Gagnants au Naturel" program... "I choose to 'Race Clean' because I believe sport is the opportunity to challenge our bodies & perform at our full capacity through the aid of training, determination, discipline and passion," said Erinne Willock (Webcor Builders Women’s Pro Cycling). Read More...
The final race of the Cyclocross season for me was this Sunday at Fort Ord. Some would consider the weather we are now having "real" Cyclocross conditions! For those of us here in CA, it was the first real mud of the season. Being near the ocean, Fort Ord is typically very sandy. Even their mud is sandy, which is very different from the sticky, clay mud we have here. Cyclocross racers have many different categories for mud! Read More...
Sunday was the final of the Surf City Cyclocross Series in Aptos, CA. We all had a 3 week break from racing over the holidays and while I took advantage of some time off work to do some riding, I had not done anything close to race intensity since the last race! The CX season is definitely winding down and fields are getting smaller - I think the only people still racing in the US are those here in CA and those going to Worlds at the end of January! ... Read More
This week the town of Bend, OR hosted their 2nd national championships of the year with Cyclocross nationals for all ages: juniors, masters and elites... This week, temps hit minus 20 overnight, which was another record! We arrived Wed. late afternoon in time for a couple laps of the course before dark. It was about 15 degrees and most of the course was covered in snow. I now had 2 days to learn how to ride in snow! ... Read More
...Kerry decided to go about a foot to the left of the gap and bunny hop the curb. I was right on her wheel and thus could not really see the curb and was just expecting to ride though the gap. I didn't really have time to react when I saw her bunny hop and I hit the curb pretty hard with my front wheel. Luckily I was leaning back enough that I didn't endo, but it made for a pretty squirmy landing back on the loose, soft mulch. At first I thought I might have flatted... Read More...
This is a classic course and similar to the one that was used for the USGP of CX in 2005. It has a bit of everything: 200m pavement start/finish, some flat power sections, loose turning sections, small sand pit, 2 run-ups (one with a barrier at the bottom) a double barrier and a couple of very short climbs. The most treacherous part was a new for 2009: a deep, steep sandy descent right into the 2nd run-up that got more and more churned up as the day went on. ...Read More
Race # 5 of the Central Coast CX Series was at Manzanita Park in Prunedale. We raced race #1 here as well. I like this course - a little climbing, some sandy, technical turns, bumpy descent - a bit of everything. Finish is a gradual uphill pavement sprint of about 200-250m. Unusual for this race however was no dismounts at all. They removed the barrier before the run-up we had last time, making it rideable (although a bit of a grind!)... Read More
This was the famous Night Race at Sierra Point. As a racer and more of a "morning person", I am not a huge fan of racing at night, but I will admit it made a great spectator venue. They had construction lights set up around the course, so visibility was not really a problem in the race itself. Everywhere else was pretty cold and dark though – made it hard to find all your black clothes in the back of your car! ...Read More
...Just 2 dry creek bed crossings, 4 hairpins, a double barrier and the race was mine. All I had to do was not mess up. Then I messed up... The first hairpin around a big tree was a little loose and my front wheel washed out and I went down. ...Read More
Sunday was race #3 in the Surf City Series. Venue was the same as the Halloween race, but they changed the course a bit. Mainly they added more times off the bike, which is not so good for me! Besides the same finish line double barrier, there was a set of uphill double barriers, a short stair section, & then a kind of long run up. The tricky thing about the run up was that at the top of it was a short, bumpy downhill into a loose turn, & then the same steep but (barely) rideable uphill... More
We had a good sized women's Elite field of about 25 riders including no less than 3 "retired" pros who have competed CX at the World Cup and Worlds level: Kerry Barnholt, Carmen D'Aluisio and Gina Hall (making her first CX race appearance of the year). The rest of the usual top NorCal suspects were there as well. The course was pretty good for me: only 1 time off the bike per lap with a double barrier going around a turn only about 20m from the finish line. Read More...
... This was the first CX race I have done where I only used my small chain ring (a 34). There were just never any real power sections where you could get any speed - the few straight flat sections were on loose, bumpy sand and grass, and the descents all had short uphill turns at the bottom where you needed to low gears and did not want to risk dropping a chain with a front shift. Nobody else I knew used their big ring either. Read More...
... The descent was a really fun single track with shallow, banked turns that you could really fly down. Then there were 2 sets of tape zig-zag sections on dirt/grass fields and 2 barrier sections. Some of the turns were pretty loose and off camber, but compared to the other races I have done this year, I would say this one was probably the least technical. No run-ups! ... In general, if there was a course I could win on, this would be it! ... Read More
The race was at the Soquel High School course where I raced last year. Course is basically flat but with some steep little kickers up and down the sides of berms, some of which are loose and off camber. There was also a long section of power sucking turns and zig zags on bumpy grass. There is quite a long steep, loose run-up... Read More
Sunday was the first race in the Bay Area Super Prestige Cyclocross Series in McLaren Park in South San Francisco. The BASP series... is the most competitive of the NorCal CX race series. The series is 5 races and McLaren Park is probably the most demanding course. It definitely has the most climbing and also features the longest run-up of the series. What goes up must come down though, and in between the climbs and run-up are some very bumpy, single track technical descents... Read More
The Webcor women's team including Katheryn, Karen, Patt and new 2010 Webcor team member, Lindsay Myers will be helping to lead a TrekWomen Breast Cancer Awareness ride on Sat. Oct. 10 hosted by The Bicycle Outfitter. The ride leaves from The Bicycle Outfitter in Los Altos at 10 am. There are 10, 25 and 50 mile options (the 50 mile option is a "secret" - just sign up for the 25 mile route and there will be an extra mileage option).
Sign up at: https://event-manager.compete-at.com/Manager/event/home.do?eid=1494
and support a great cause and ride with some team members. There is also an outdoor...
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. 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. Read the race report...
Katheryn, Lauren and I are here in St. Louis for the Tour of Missouri Women's Series. There are 4 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. Read More...
As final preparation for the upcoming Tour of Missouri crits, Katheryn, Lauren Hecht and I loaded up the team Subaru and headed to Vacaville for the Northern CA 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. Read More...
With her win in the U23 National Championship MTB Race, Amy qualified a spot on the US team for the U23 Words MTB team in Australia. Here's her report:
I flew to Australia with a solid head on my shoulders, feeling confident in the training I had done in the preceding weeks & looking forward to good legs at a world class race. Little did I know that I should have been spending those weeks hucking myself off cliffs and preparing myself for a mix between downhill & trials... Read More
Katheryn finished off with a large gap of about 40 sec. and I found Karen's wheel for a lead-out on the last lap. I was late finding her wheel, but when she kicked we were first and second into the final 2 turns. I wasn't quite prepared for Karen's lead out and she gapped me a bit going through the turns. When we hit the front straight she had about a bike length on me and we had greatly gapped the rest of the field... Read More
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... Patterson Pass road race is one of the toughest races in NorCal... 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... Read More
As preparation for Cascade and Nationals, Rebecca raced the famous Mt. Evans Hill Climb in CO where climbing legends are made and won it handily!
Here is Rebecca's report: "The road that leads to the top of Mount Evans is the highest paved road in America going up above 14,000 ft. The race is a mass start that begins in Idaho Springs and from there goes steadily up for the next 27 miles to the top of the mountain while the air gets progressively thinner and thinner." Read More...
The final race of the US national championships was the individual time trial. The course was the Cascade TT course plus an extra loop at the end with some short, relatively steep hills coming just when one is tired. It was a long TT for nationals with the winning time of 50:35. Everyone had the previous days' road race in their legs as well. Webcor's Evelyn Stevens missed the title by 1.7 seconds! Read More...
Webcor was a small but committed team of 3 riders for the US National Road Race. We were up against Tibco's and ValuAct's team of 8, plus strong individual riders like our Cascade guest, Evelyn (who chose to race for her club for nationals as her swan song in their jersey), and Mara Abbott fresh from Europe.
We raced smart and ended up with a podium finish as well as the Under-23 national title! Read More...
Stevens, who is an amateur and was racing as a cat. 4 just 10 months ago, was thrilled to win the yellow jersey. “There were only six of us, but it felt like there were 25 Webcor riders out there,” she said. “I think we all gave it everything we had to keep me in the yellow jersey today. It was super hard. I couldn’t have won this without them, there’s no way. Each and every one of those riders gave everything they had ... We’re definitely a tired bunch.” Read Full Race Report...
For her final preparation for the Cascade Classic, Amy did the U23 National Mountain Bike Championships in her home state of CO. This is Amy's last year as a U23 (Under 23) rider, so she wants to win nationals in ALL the cycling disciplines (she already has the U23 CX title)!...
“Neck and neck the entire race, it was a truly exciting race to race, and also to watch. I am stoked to have won, but need to offer mad props to Chloe for her racing.”...
Read More
You don't want it to happen to you and you don't want to be the person behind somebody unclipping their pedals in a final sprint...
But before this happened, Erinne rocked from the beginning of the 135 km Canadian national road race. She attacked from the gun just before the hill, creating a gap that nobody could close on the hill. She worked it and got up to 50 sec., but the long descent after the gradual climbs meant that the little green power bullet had to go like 60 km/hr by herself...
Mankato, MN - June 13, 2009 - After 6 crashes and a flat in 2 days, the Webcor team showed what a never-say-die attitude can bring. We started Stage 5 with our top-placed GC rider Nikki in 25th place 1:37 down. Alex was 40th at 2:28.
138 km later, Webcor was in 2nd overall, and held the Best Young Rider, Queen of the Mountain and Most Aggressive Rider jerseys! For the first time in 2 years, Kristin Armstrong was put into difficulty on US soil and Webcor was the team to do it!
More...
Ina Tuetenburg from High Road has won this race twice before and is one of the best sprinters in the world right now and was definitely the pre-race favorite. She is also climbing better than ever before, so we knew she might also try to win from a break on the climb. This ended up being exactly what happened and unfortunately Webcor was not represented in the break. The bright spot however was Amy winning the Miji Reoch "Best Young Rider" award for the top finisher under age 23...
Monday was the start of the 4 day, 5 stage Grand Tour of Montreal. Most of the teams from the World Cup stay on to compete in this race. With 3 relatively flat road stages, a criterium and a very short time trial, this has become know as a sprinter's race to win, and all the European teams come with their top sprinters. It is a bit of a different peloton from the stage racing one we are more used to. The typical Montreal rain doesn't make things any easier! ...
While the California Webcor contingent was at Mt. Hamilton, Amy was racing the Iron Horse Classic in Colorado.
Here’s an excerpt from Amy's entertaining report of the first stage:
The road race had turned into a hillclimb time trial for me, so I went through a variety of different mental states, ranging from ‘this sucks! A $50 entry fee for a training ride?!’ to ‘Harden up, you can get yourself top 5 instead of lousy 6th!’ to ‘screw this I’m tired of pedaling’ to...
From Karen Brems, Team Manager: May 25, 2009 - San Jose, CA - The Mt. Hamilton Classic is one of the longest running races in the Bay Area. The first time I did this race was 17 years ago! It is an epic course that climbs the highest peak in the area: Mt. Hamilton at over 4000 ft. It always draws the best local climbers out... This was Katheryn's first time doing this race and she did it in style! ...
Fayetteville, AR - May 9, 2009 - Stage 3 of the Joe Martin Stage race was another day for the sprinters. The plan for Webcor was to try to get a breakaway off to sweep up the time bonuses and maybe move one of our riders up, or set up Gina for the sprint if it came to that to keep the other sprinters close behind Erinne and Katheryn from gaining any time bonuses.
The Webcor team had a successful finish to the Tour of the Gila – this was one of the hardest races the team has ever done in the US!
The 2nd stage of the Joe Martin Stage Race was a road race with a significant climb at the midway point. The Webcor team rode a great race, but did not quite get the win we hoped for. It was a good learning experience though!