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 in the women's race at the University RR. This is probably one of the hardest races here in NorCal with a short, hilly curcuit repeated many times with little or no recovery.
Here is Lindsay's Report:
University Road Race is one of the long running Northern California classics. The 3 mile hilly circuit rolls around the Santa Cruz University campus. It is more or less half up and half down with the finish being half way up the hill. It is a tough 14 lap course. This race usually draws several of the local superstars and this year was no exception with two Tibco riders (Megan Garnier and Devon Haskell) and two Peanut Butter 2012 riders (Shelley Olds and Olivia Dillon). I was excited for this race because I felt like my climbing legs were coming along and I was looking forward to that hill...again...and again.
The first lap was pretty mellow, but on lap number two, Shelley attacked half way up the climb and Megan (Tibco) was able to go with her. By the time I got around their teammates, who were on the front blocking, they already had a good gap. I put in a huge effort to bring them back and when I finally did, we were back to the hill again where Shelley did a repeat of the last lap, but this time Devon went with her. I was barely hanging on at this point after bringing them back (I actually got dropped and had to chase back on). The “chase” group had shrunk due to attrition, or basically a field split—from the 30 or so starters there were eight of us left behind the break of two. I didn't think it would be conducive to try to bridge to the two front riders because I knew I would be chased down by Olivia and Megan. Nobody seemed too interested in helping to chase the break, and the couple times I attacked, I didn't get too far before being chased down by Olivia and the rest of the dwindling bunch.
At two laps to go, Olivia and I clearly had the same idea and we both attacked about half way up the climb. Megan, Olivia and I were now by ourselves...this was good, I knew I could out-climb at least one of them on the last lap and finish up not too bad. On the last lap, I set a good tempo up the climb and towards the top, Olivia had been dropped and it was just Megan and I. We worked well together the last lap, until the bottom of the climb going into the finish. I attacked at the bottom because Megan has more of a sprint than I do, so I figured might as well try something. I had a gap from her until about half way up, she caught me and kept going...which left me 4th place, a T-shirt and $5. It was a good day of racing, a tough and fun course, and good racing.
Thanks for reading!
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