JULY 23, 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.
Here is Erinne's Report:
Friday was the 4th Stage of the Cascade Classic and on the schedule was the Cascade Lakes Road Race of 71 miles. I was sitting in 3rd overall and Katheryn was 9th. The team was looking good and strong and ready for an epic day in the saddle.
The race started with a blistering pace from the gun as we immediately raced up the first 3mile climb. Attacks were launched and Katheryn nicely got into one that got away until the crest of the hill that was only brought back by Mara. So within 3 miles of the race, the field was split and about 25 girls were in the front group. As we hit the long descent more attacks kept coming and shortly 5 riders got away which included Anne Samplonius and Lauren Hall (Vera Bradley), Andrea Dvorak (Colavita), Megan Guarnier (Tibco) and Kathryn Donovan. Unfortunately we missed the break as did the Peanut Butter team. Therefore, Katheryn immediately tried to bridge and then once the next group caught us from behind, Joelle put in a massive effort to also attempt a bridge, as did Ally and Andrea. Unfortunately, all their efforts did not allow them to bridge but we were gaining on the break and were very close to catching them.
This is unfortunately when a little chaos occurred and our fabulous mechanic Dave was put to work! Right up at the front of the field a crash happened so suddenly that nobody really knows what happened, but without any time to react there were a dozen riders on the ground, including myself and Katheryn. Katheryn hit her head hard and was seeing stars. Much as she was disappointed, the race doctors would not allow her back into the race. I went down with impact and this morning I'm almost wishing for road rash instead. I hit my hip hard and I'm feeling some good whip-lash, but other than a little ache I'm fine. After the crash, I had to change to the team spare bike, and Lindsey, Joelle and Ally did a fabulous job of chasing me back onto the field. With so many riders going down, including GC contenders, the field slowed down and allowed all the crashed riders to catch back on.
Once back to the field the break away had gained a few minutes and we initially put Ally in to work with the Peanut Butter team. Then Lindsey also went to work as the gap grew to 4 minutes and 
our podium GC place was being threatened. Both girls did a great effort of rolling through almost all day.
By the base of the final and very decisive climb of the day up to Mt. Bachelor. The field was closing in on the break away and the field was together. The climb starts out with the steepest part and Kristen Sanders of Colavita started setting pace for her teammate Cheatley. My legs were feeling good and I knew I wanted to try and stretch my legs and see if I could hang with Mara Abbott and Cath Cheatley up the climb. Therefore, I attacked up the left and only Mara and Cath could follow. They both launched a couple more attacks until finally Mara broke Cath and I. Mara solo to the win while Cath and I stay away to finish 2nd and 3rd in the stage. I stayed in 3rd overall while Mara and Cath stayed in 1st and 2nd. I was happy to have a good climb on the day and to the finish all the great work that the team had done all day.
Erinne Attacking the Climb
Erinne on the Final Climb:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/07/news/raymond-kreder-wins-stage-3-at-cascade-classic-rory-sutherland-holds-lead_131199/attachment/womens-chase
The Stage Podium:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/07/news/raymond-kreder-wins-stage-3-at-cascade-classic-rory-sutherland-holds-lead_131199/attachment/womens-podium-4
Stage 4: Cascade Classic - Webcor’s Joelle Numainville Places 2nd in Crit; Erinne Willcock Remains 3rd in GC
JULY 24, 2010
Here is Karen’s Report:
Bend, OR - Saturday evening was the Cascade criterium in downtown Bend. This stage is always a big crowd pleaser and has an established place in the Bend community. The course is the same as the nationals crit - a long, thin rectangle. It is not really a good course for a breakaway since the straightaways are so long, but we knew people would still try! With 2 mountaintop finishes, the time gaps on GC are pretty good. Erinne went into the stage pretty securely in 3rd, about 45 sec. behind Cath Cheatley in 2nd and 2 1/2 min ahead of Alison Powers in 4th.
We knew who we had to keep in check as far as GC threats, but the main goal of the stage was to try to set up Joelle for the win. The team did a great job of covering all the threatening attacks and staying safe an
d near the front. There are no crits in Europe, but Andrea has finally learned how to race a good old American criterium! She was very active at the front all evening. Lindsay is also finding her form again and chased back several threatening moves. Joelle was able to patiently conserve for the final laps. Erinne got on the front with 1 lap to go and then the speedy Tibco train took over with Joelle tucked right in behind them where she needed to be (and where a lot of the field wanted to be!). A Close Finish
Brooke Miller started the sprint early, but in a tactical twist, it was her Tibco teammate, Jo Kaesenowski who came around for the win. Joelle was thrown off for an instant and while she felt she had the legs to win, the slight hesitation meant she could not quite come around Jo, but still took a strong 2nd place for Webcor's 3rd podium appearance in as many days.
Joelle at the Podium
Stage 5; Final Stage: Cascade Classic - Webcor’s Erinne Takes 3rd Place Overall GC…Webcor’s Season Final
JULY 25, 2010
Bend, OR - The final stage of the Cascade Classic is the Awbrey Butte circuit race. This is always a hard stage and for a change, the women's start was 1pm instead of the usual morning slot, so we got the full force of the heat that is coming to Bend! This was also the final race of the 2010 season where the whole Webcor team and staff is together (except our injured riders, Amber and Gina) so we wanted to make it count! From here, many of our riders head over to Europe with their respective national teams to do some races in preparation for World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
Here is Andrea's Report:
5th and Last Stage of Cascade =)
…and Webcor’s Season’s Final =(
Three laps on the course of the US-national championships at up to 100° made this “only” 50 mile stage with “only” short hills (compared to the other stages in Cascade) a real hard stage!
As the podium in GC was pretty much set after the first 5 days of racing with our Erinne sitting in 3rd with a comfortable time-gap to place 4; our plan was – of course besides keeping Erinne on the podium or even moving her up – going for a stage win. I was especially looking forward to this stage as I felt my form coming up during this stage race after losing lots of time on day 1 (which I eventually wanted to use as an advantage for going in a non-GC-threatening-breakaway).
So I found myself in several breakaways, from which two lasted quite a while; I found myself in a promising move already in the first lap with seven other riders from different teams. Unfortunately, the break included a tibco-rider sitting in 2nd place in the sprint-jersey-competition which meant that Vera-Bradley, the team of Carla Swart in the green jersey, tried everything to chase the break down before the intermediate sprint in lap 2.
The other break, which seemed to be a good one, was shortly after we got caught the first time. There were five of us – all from different teams, no Top-GC-rider…so seemed to be perfect. We stayed out there for a while before Canadian Tara Whitten attacked from our breakaway. Noone reacted immediately, which allowed her a gap that finally was enough for the stage win. Our rest of the breakaway was caught by the peloton, which accidently thought they'd caught all of us and didn't really know that Tara was still out there! (No race radios!).
All our team finished up in the first big group (great job to all) and Erinne kept her 3rd in GC (great race for her). We missed the stage win but tried everything and I think we can be satisfied of how we raced in our last big race as the WEBCOR – Team 2010.
Personally I want to say that it’s really sad, that our season here is over this early. I would have loved to leave the US and Webcor with a stage-win, but for that I eventually would have needed some more races and chances. However, I really enjoyed racing with WEBCOR and racing in the US and I am thankful that I got this chance for my comeback and found my joy in cycling {and slowly also my shape ;-)} again. Thanks to WEBCOR, Karen, Dave, Jeremy, all my teammates and all our sponsors for making me “live the American dream!"
Photos (shown): Jonathan Devich/Epic Pictures
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