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, and with Memorial Day falling earlier this year, it did not have the usual conflict with the Montreal World Cup and drew a good contingent from the top bay area teams like Tibco and ProMan, and also the New Zealand Jazz Apple squad who are based here for a short period. This was Katheryn's first time doing this race and she did it in style!
 
Here is Katheryn's Report:
 
Today was the classic point to point race, Mt Hamilton, a hilly 100k race that starts in San Jose and finishes in Livermore, CA. I was joined today by Karen and it was nice to see her racing with me rather than behind the wheel in a team car.

Mt. Hamilton is a challenging race as right from the gun the route takes racers up for 20 miles, with an average gradient of about 5 percent. The climb is broken up into 3 sections with two short descents giving us a bit of a respite before kicking up for the last 7 miles. After a very steep and technical plummet from the top, the road rolls through the valley, with another 3k climb coming at about 40ish miles into it. Riders then roll gradually downhill for the next 25, with the last 5k or so being the fastest.

The small peloton of 35 or so women seemed fine rolling out at a mellow pace and it was not until about 3/4 of way up the first climb that a Jazz Apple gal attacked with no response from the group. She stayed away for about 1k before being brought back just before we went down the first descent. Jazz Apple was again aggressive going up the second climb, and a few other riders briefly unhitched themselves from the group but again, we hit the descent all together.

Karen had instructed me to attack at the base of the final, longest climb, telling me I would see a sign that said 5 miles to the top, unfortunately it is actually 7, and I was a bit hesitant to attack with so much climbing, yet, I also knew that it would be to my advantage to put as much time on the group as possible. So, I atttacked hard on the left side (being mindful to not cross the yellow line) and drew out Ruth Corsett (Jazz Apple), Stacy Marple (Colavita), and Kat Carroll (Tibco). I kept the pressure on as long as I could before Ruth pulled through to keep the pace up. Stacy also rolled through a few times and Kat seemed to be at her limit and just hung 4th wheel. With about 2+ miles to go, I looked back and noticed there was a gap back to Stacy and Kat ,and I upped the tempo a bit more to dissuade them from trying to catch back on. Ruth again pulled though steadily and even managed to out kick me at the top for the KOM.

Having ridden the route before and being warned by numerous people and the officials, I knew that a lot could be lost on the descent down the backside and took it very cautiously (although on one tight corner I got target fixation and had to stop to correct myself, Ruth graciously waited for me to catch back on). We safely made it down to the valley floor and quickly went back to trading pulls.

I think we lucked out as we had a bit of a cross-tail wind and by the time we reached the second feed zone, had a gap of about 3'30". I was very grateful to make it over the last roller before the final descent (and also was greeted by Karl Elhert who had ridden backwards on the course) yet we were also faced with a quite brisk headwind. Thank goodness it was now all downhill.

I was very, very excited to see the 5km to go sign and soon saw the 1km to go as the road pitched down steeply. I did manage to have Ruth in front of me with 1km to go and at 200 meters, prepared myself for the sprint. Unfortunately 200m was more like 200 feet and the next thing I know I see the finish line right in front of me and do manage to put in a "sprint" to pip her at the line for the win!

Karen did a great job of staying steady on the climb and used her great bike handling and descending skills to reel in riders on the valley floor who out climbed her. The finish sprint got a bit crazy for her with riders from other categories getting in the way; she still managed to finish 4th overall, right behind Shelly Olds.

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Print | posted on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 2:02 PM