Merco Crit

32 mile Crit in Merced, CA today.  Active race.  Tracey said I raced a "smart" race - which is a huge compliment in my book.  My newest, biggest...I mean tiniest, fan was there too, Miss Rylee.

Ended up in a sprint finish.  I got sixth.

Unfortunately I was messing with my shifting the last 50 meters.....the rear derailleur wasn't staying on any particular cog, making it somewhat sketchy.

That is all for now.

San Jose Crit Video

Nice little video of the SJ Crit with commentary from the one and only, Hernandez.

(XP Multimedia does an amazing job with these videos. Mom and Dad really appreciate them too since they can't be here for every race - and the highlights are all that matter anyway. Hopefully XP Multimedia will be out there for a lot of the women's races this year - Thanks!)

San Jose Criterium - Fourth!!

Yay!

(1- Laura Van Gilder, 2- Gina Grain, 3-Brooke Miller, 4 - Me, 5-Tina Pic)

Thank you to Hutch, Tracey, Rylee, Rob, Claire and Kate for being Cari (9th!!)  and my support crew today! 

Congrats Hutch on two great races today!  You and Tracey were rockstars on the radio.

Congrats Hernandez on a superstar break-away and finish!

One more....

I saw Larry win, so I made my best attempt to do the same. 

Those are some tough footsteps to follow in; he sets the bar very very high.

Fun Footage

The Cherry Pie videos are killer. Here is this year's Women's Pro1/2/3 video. Its got a good little beat and some highlights:
http://www.deltavelo.com/09_race_videos/cherry_pie/cherry_pie_pro_women.html

I guess all you have to do is tell me that dessert is waiting for me at the finish line........

During our warm-up Niki said very seriously, "Just so you all know, Cherry Pie is my favorite kind of pie."

Going into the race, I felt a bit over my head: I was hoping for a sprint finish and Cari and Rachel were going to help deliver me to the line. To this end, I was asking multi-time track national champion, Cari Higgins, and multi-time downhill and XC champion as well as cyclo-cross goddess, Rachel Lloyd to work for me. Two incredibly gifted athletes with the highest accolades to put it all on the line for me. It was an honor that they had faith in me, but a little scary at the same time.

(The start: Cari, Rachel, Me, Niki - this looks like the moment when I found out that there was a "Most Un-inhibited rider award. My favorite award ever.)

Within the first lap or so, a break rolled off the front; I don't think it was a purposeful attack, it was more like the first corner after the downhill allowed gaps to open up easily. Rachel quickly responded and for the first few laps there was a 3 woman break. I just stayed calm and patrolled the front. Making sure nothing went up the road without me. I had a strong teammate in the break and it was still really early in the race. At 7 minutes, the break was caught, and a Sugar CRM countered. I followed. I know it was 7 minutes into the race because I was focusing on the last 30 minutes of the race - I didn't want to burn all my matches in the first portion.
We quickly had a gap, and I was happy to look back to see that there were four of us. Actually, someone kept saying, "There are four of us. Let's go. There are four of us." It was my teammate Rachel, up in the break with me (again). I knew I was safe. The break consisted of: Me, Sugar CRM, Touchstone, and Rachel.

Rachel worked the break like a champ, and attacked to get things rolling when we needed to pick up the pace. I knew it was early in the race for a break to go away, and more importantly stay away - but this was really the perfect scenario. Each of the bigger teams had representation in the break, except Tibco, who did a solo bridge at about 10 minutes to go. Rachel was great - she worked hard so I didn't have to; telling me to "Save it."

Cari was in the field single-handedly keeping things under control, which is a pretty amazing feat. She discouraged any attempts to drag the group back to us. Cari worked her butt off at the front of the field. A couple times after the hairpin I would see the field getting antsy and pushing the pace, and somehow Cari was able to mellow things back down for us, so we could carry on with the break.

With about 4 laps to go, we lost the Sugar CRM rider. Rachel decided she was going to attack yet again, and make the girls work for it. I had to just follow wheels. Rachel was strong enough to hold us off if "we" didn't chase, so I followed wheels. I also knew that if we weren't going fast enough, we would be swallowed up by the field as the final attempts were made to reel us back in. I was playing a bit of Russian Roulette, but that's bike racing. I also felt that if we were caught by the field, I would still have the legs for a good finish - so I did not panic.

Rachel's final attack was killer(although it got caught), it got our break moving again, and then it was me, Tibco and Touchstone for the final 2 laps. On 2 laps to go, the first corner after the downhill, Tibco was leading and swung a bit wide, and I got my front wheel caught on her quick release. That was a bit scary, but I stayed up right, which was key.

With one lap to go, Touchstone attacked on the finishing straight/hill, but I quickly responded. After the hairpin, we were all just looking at each other, "Who's going to go? If someone doesn't go, we might get caught." It wasn't going to be me. My thoughts, "Match Sprint Baby!!" (Not that I can do those, but I have been hanging out with a enough track sprinters that the thought actually went through my mind.)

The finishing lap, Tibco led it out, and the advice was coming through the earpiece "Watch Touchstone. She has a good jump." I knew she had a good jump and I knew she was really fresh as she hadn't been working in the break; her odds weren't great with 2 Proman in the break. So I was trying to keep my eye on her. I was second, Touchstone was behind me.
Final Sprint: I wanted to sprint up the right side, but I got my wheel overlapped with Tibco on the left and she kept pushing me left. I hesitated a lot, trying to get my wheel underneath her and around so I could go right, but then Touchstone jumped and had a big gap immediately. Too late - GO! (All while thinking, "I can't believe I just let her do that! I did NOT just lose this race because of that!") I reacted. Full steam ahead - closed the gap and found myself in front. I was a bit over-geared, but I WON!! WOOT WOOT!

(The finish)

Rachel was yelling from the bottom of the hill, as she could see the finish (she came in fourth) and then Cari won the bunch sprint after securing our break the entire race.

Oh man.....such a good feeling to have everyone out there, and to be able to deliver to such a great crowd.

Thank you so much to all the people who were pulling for Cari, Rachel and myself, and made today special for ProMan: Niki, Tim, Hutch, Tracey, Rylee, Lorraine, Beth, Gio, Pete, Larry, the Holloways, Kelly, the Winders, the Hellyer crowd and all of our ProMan fans.

Mhhhhmmmhhh DELICIOUS!

A great day of racing with incredible teammates.  Cari and Rachel worked so hard to help solidify a ProMan victory.ProMan went 1, 4, 5 in the P1/2/3 race.  Rachel was in the break and Cari had a killer sprint finish out of the pack:

Yesterday, I received a text from Gio and Pete saying: "Here's the deal: We will come to the race if you promise NOT to sit on the front the whole time."

My text response: "I want to get me a Cherry Pie!  I am going to do whatever it takes so we can all indulge.  Fair enough?"

Mission Accomplished. 

and the Cherry Pie was delicious.

A great kickoff for ProMan for the 2009 season!

Thank you to everyone for coming out and supporting us!  It was great to be able to deliver with such a huge fan club there pulling for us from the sidelines!

Some of the essential Proman supporters:

(Pete B. and me - Pete had some good pre-race day advice: "The Navy Seals don't sleep for 5 days and they do intense stuff......you don't really need to sleep."  Hahahahaha.  No but really, he had some great words of wisdom.)

(Lorraine and the "pups" - Gilo and Kona)

(Gio made it up.  I tried to convince him to race, but I am told that it would have been a true hillclimb for a trackie.)

I can't emphasize how incredible Cari and Rachel rode - truly selfless riding.

Thank you to our fans and all the voices in the crowd.  You gave me that extra "umph". 

More pictures and a race report to follow.

Shouting from the roof tops

Thank you Peter for adequately demonstrating how I feel about my new whip:

(courtesy of norcalcyclingnews)

I am still inordinately delighted.

This past weekend I put some good miles in with this gorgeous California weather; Sunday was a picture perfect day and I rode along the coast. Picture perfect day minus the pictures. I didn't bring my camera.

I was that young kangaroo with jammed-packed, overflowing pockets.

Exhibit A: An armwarmer fell out of my pocket on a significant climb only to find out at the top that I would only have one warm arm on the descent. Good thing I was riding with someone who picked it up for me. There was no room for a camera.