A real post, really!!!

Okay, no pictures to go with this post but here is my race report from today's Merco Road Race...

When I first joined Webcor back in 2005, all except one of the riders lived in the Bay Area, the exception was Felicia Greer (Gomez now) who lives in the Fresno area. As the team has grown and taken on an international presence, we have had riders from all over the country and world and this year we have 2 Canadians, 2 Australians and the other 3 Americans are from Boulder, CO, San Diego, CA and Chicago, IL. Unfortunately, I am the solo remaining Bay Area rider and this means things are a bit challenging for me at NorCal racing. There were two Bridge Team riders in the race - Lauren Hetch and Annie Malouin - and I did want to take this opportunity to help them out.

I lined up to the start of the Merco Road Race along with about 50 or so other racers and I knew that the teams to watch were Tibco (had about 7 riders), Columbia-High Road with 3, Colavita (~4 riders), and SugarCRM with maybe 5 (sorry for not knowing exact numbers!). We started out at a very pedestrian pace and about 1/3 of the way into the first lap, things started to get active with SugarCRM and Tibco riders attacking. I knew that no break would get away without a Columbia rider so I tried to keep an eye on Emilia, Ina and Kim (not necessarily an easy task). A bit later in the lap I found myself in a small break with Ina, Stacy Marple (Colavita), and Kat Carroll (Tibco). Unfortunately my legs were not feeling great and I was definitely suffering on the small rollers. Yet, the peloton did not like this mix of riders and we were quickly chased down.

Attacks continued through the start/finish line and on the back side of the course (at about km 57 - don't ask why I know this) I countered a series of attacks, hoping to draw out a few riders; no luck, I was on my own! Figuring that a few riders would probably try and bridge to me, I kept steady pressure on the pedals to not blow myself up too quickly. I was eventually joined by Lauren Tamayo (aka Franges) from Tibco, Ina, and Kelly Benjamin (Colavita). In a situation where I had teammates, this would not be a good break for me as all three of these women are very strong sprinters, yet considering my chances of a good result were much better out of a group of 4 than 50, and I rolled through with them.

We stayed off for several k before being chased down and reabsorbed by the hungry peloton. There was another series of attacks and a group of 6 riders got off. They gained a maximum of about 35", yet as with the other breaks, a few teams missed out and chased the escapees down. It was evident that the race would come down to a bunch kick and I did my best to help Lauren get up there for the finish yet my legs were a bit cooked and things got a bit dicey in the last 1k.

As I joked with Lauren Hecht, I had nose bleed seats for the finish and learned later that Ina won, followed by Brooke Miller (Tibco) and Laura Charameda (my coach!).

I am very much looking forward to Redlands when the Green Machine will be in full force.

-thanks for reading-