Women’s USA Crits Finals Las Vegas

Jenn McRae (Advil-Chapstick)
photo by Ken Conley

“Every Thursday night in my hometown of Austin, I have a race course just like this to train on. Today felt like routine, like it was Thursday night. I was just out there doing my thing. Colivita had a counter and then Cheerwine, and then I countered that. It was really good timing and good luck. I was actually so motivated because I’ve been third season long. This is the spectacle here….being in Las Vegas. I couldn’t be happier. Las Vegas rocks.  It’s like what you hear that everyone is here to have a good time. When we rolled out today I thought I am so grateful doing what I do.”

“The teams did not have quite the depth. There were teams like Colivita and Cheerwine but were actually missing the Brooke powerhouse of Tibco. We usually have Tibco to throw down the muscle when we need it. That’s where more opportunities came up. When they came back that was the opportunity for me to go. People were staring to get tired. I saw nine to go and really thought it was a good time. No one was really cutting any seconds into me so I thought maybe this gap will stick. It kinda works on you a little bit when you are consistent but then you are the bridesmaid all season. It feels so good to win.”

McRae wins in a solo break
 photo by Ken Conley

“It is not my last year of racing. I am not really sure what is next. Advil is not sticking with it. This is another reason to come to Vegas….to talk to some sponsors for the following year.”

Hilton Clarke (Toyota-United)
 photo by Ken Conley

“It feels amazing,” stated Clarke. ”Tonight was a really sketchy course and I have the best cornerer in the business with Ivan Stevic and he just looked after me the whole race and the word of the night was composure. I just really, in the last three laps, had to keep my composure, it was just crazy out there. So just in the corners, every time, I just gave  a bit of  distance, I really made sure I had that last corner though, everyone else I think on every corner could outcorner me  but that last corner, I kept waiting for it and I kept watching it, going through it and knowing I could do it in that last corner.”

“When they fired that gun I got to the first corner in third place and a guy crashed in front of me so I never went further back than about tenth position the whole race just it was too hard to move up and I had two guys just looking after me the whole race, I never had to do a thing, I just had to finish it off.”

“I’m looking for a job, I’m riding as hard as I can, I’m not finishing my season until I’ve got a job so it’s not the best thing for US cycling but all I can do is try and win races to get myself a job. It’s really disheartening that this brilliant team is going and I really feel for all my teammates because there’s not one guy on my team that’s got a job, so we are all looking for a job.  I’m going to keep racing,  if I have  a black jersey on  I’ll keep on racing around until I get myself a team. I’m going to do the Sun Tour, keep racing until I get a job.”

Men’s podium
 photo by Ken Conley

“You know, it’s a long season, it’s a lot of races, I don’t win all that often but I’m in the top ten or in the top twenty in every race that I do and that’s what a series like this [USA Crits] is all about, I was there every weekend,” commented Myerson. ”You could go back in the results and look at all the little places where I… you know after leading out Barlevav in Harlem, I stopped to put my hands up instead of  pedaling ten more feet, I lost five places and that would have won the whole thing for me. It’s little things like that but you can’t manage every point in detail. This course, it has to be one of my favorite criterium in the country, it’s really the coolest parking criterium I’ll ever do. The course is perfect for me, it rides like a cyclocross race, I never left the top fifteen guys all day long, it feels like play out there, I had a really good time in this race, I had good legs. ”

Elite Women
 
1 Jen McRae (Team Advil-ChapStick)                    1.04.25
2 Tina Pic (Colavita/Sutter Home)                        0.31
3 Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine Cycling)                      
4 Martina Patella (ValueAct Capital Cycling Team)           
5 Samantha Schneider (Colavita/Sutter Home)                 
6 Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine Cycling)                        
7 Sabrina Savage (Veloforma)                                
8 Jennifer Wilson (Vanderkitten Racing)                     
9 Christina Smith (LoneStarWorks.com)                       
10 Tiffany Pezzulo (Park City Iron Man)                     
11 Beatriz Rodriguez (SC Velo)                              
12 Katie Compton (Spike Shooter)                            
13 Taitt Sato (ValueAct Capital Cycling Team)               
14 Meredith Miller (Aaron’s Pro Cycling Team)               
15 Lauren Franges (Team Tibco)                              
16 Melissa Sanborn (Vanderkitten Racing)                    
17 Kacey Manderfield (Verducci/Breakaway Racing)            
18 Kendall Ryan (Major Motion Junior Development)           
19 Melodie Metzger (Vanderkitten Racing)                    
20 Carrie Cash-Wootten (Team Revolution)                    
21 Shontell Gauthier (Colavita/Sutter Home)                 
22 Liza Rachetto (TEAM TIBCO)                               
23 Elizabeth Morse-Hill (Hub Racing)                        
24 Alicia Boland (Banning’s Bikes- Ducati)                  
25 Nicky Wangsgard (Colavita/Sutter Home)                   
26 Yukie Nakamura (Team Kenda Tire)                         
27 Shannon Koch (Metro Volkswagen Cycling Team)             
28 Jessie Maclean (Verducci/Breakaway Racing)               
29 Leigh Valletti (Vanderkitten Racing)                     
30 Liz Hatch (Vanderkitten Racing)                       0.44
31 Allyson Brandt (Cheerwine Cycling)                    0.49
32 Hilary Crowley (Banning’s Bikes, Ducati Women’s)      1.00

In the women’s race, Katie Compton (Spike Shooter ), Katerina  Nash (Luna Chix Racing Team) and Georgia Gould (Luna Chix Racing Team ) broke away from the field early. Compton stayed in control and took advantage of Gould’s mid-race mishap to keep the Luna riders separate. Compton then powered away from the Nash in the final sprint.

Katie Compton (Spike Shooter)

“Katie is definitely the strongest rider in the field,” commented Nash. ”I decided to stay on her wheel. She is a true cross racer. My team just finished mountain biking. We need a couple of weeks to get into cross racing. I just kept on her wheel and tried to attack her. I couldn’t get away. We did try to put some pressure on each other. We were pretty equally matched today so neither of us could open a big gap.  I had a great time racing today.”

Katerina  Nash (Luna Chix Racing Team)

“It was really hard because Katerina rode really well,” stated Compton.  “It was a challenging race and the course was really tough. I tried everything I could to go fast. We were trying to attack each other and we also tried to have a pace that we both could sustain. It’s pretty hard to get in front on this course. We are just naturally fast starters so we just kept the pace on and we really got a good start. It feels really good to win.”

Compton and Nash keep it close.

Compton, who won a UCI World Cup event last season and finished second at the world cyclocross championship in 2007, said she would be focusing her 2008-09 efforts on European racing.

Elite Women
 
1 Katerine Compton (USA) Spike Shooter                                41.58
2 Katerina Nash (Cze) Luna Chix Racing Team                            0.03
3 Georgia Gould (USA) Luna Chix Racing Team                            0.07
4 Kelli Emmett (USA) Giant Bicycles                                    0.18
5 Rachel Lloyd (USA) California Giant Berry Farms/Specialized          0.19
6 Susan Butler (USA) Monaviecannondale.co                              1.26
7 Wendy Simms (Can) Kona                                               2.12
8 Deidre Winfield (USA) Velo Bella - Kona                              2.25
9 Meredith Miller (USA) Aaron’s Pro Cycling Team                       2.26
10 Kari Studley (USA) Velo Bella - Kona                                3.31
11 Laura Van Gilder (USA) C-3 Sollay (Cross Team) Cheerwine            3.52
12 Kathy Sherwin (USA) Velo Bella - Kona                               4.09
13 Shannon Gibson (USA) Velobella                                      4.16
14 Barbara Howe (USA) Velo Bella                                       4.26
15 Natasha Elliott (Can) Emd Serono/Stevens                            4.29
16 Sarah Maile (USA) Ventana Mountain Bikes                            4.36
17 Josie Jacques-Maynes (USA) Specialized/KMC Pb Cal Giant             5.00
18 Tiffany Pezzulo (USA) Park City Iron Man                            5.18
19 Eszter Horanyi (USA) Waltworks/Fuentes Design                       5.25
20 Melodie Metzger (USA) California Giant / Specialized                5.48
21 Kate Scheider (USA) Bikes Belong-Mafia Racing                       5.55
22 Kendall Ryan (USA) Team Cicle Presented By Voler                    6.10
23 Kelli Jones (Can) Sugoi                                             6.22
24 Jennifer Tilley (USA) Velo Bella                                    6.39
25 Kris Walker (USA) Krieg Cycling                                     6.47
26 Lana Atchley (USA) Bailey Bikes                                     7.52
27 Marian Jamison (USA) Velo Bella                                     8.47
28 Dorothy Wong (USA) Team Cicle Presented By Voler                    1 lap
29 Deb Sweeney Whitmore (USA) BMW-Bianchi
30 Heidi Kanayan (USA) Team Cicle
31 Christy Blakely (USA) BMW-Bianchi

All phots copyright Stephanie Gutowski

With the help of team mates Amber Rais and Rushlee Buchanan, Brooke Miller easily won the tight bunch sprint finish at the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix on Sunday, June 29^th.

Jazz Apple was quite aggressive all race long. With two laps to go Alison Shanks built a 20 second lead before Team TIBCO sent Rais to chase the break down. “With five laps to go Jazz Apple went,” stated Miller. “Linda told us that we needed to bring that break back. Rushlee attacked first…then Amber went. That was great for me because Cheerwine had to chase it. Kelly Benjamin (Cheerwine) had to chase Amber which set me up perfectly. I knew I could fend for myself going into the finish. I needed to make sure I was in a good position. I wanted to be in the top 5 going into that last corner because I did not want to get swarmed or boxed in. With the curves in the backside it’s really easy to get pinched. One of the Vanderkitten riders (Melissa Sanborn) tried to go with about 500 meters….which was perfect. It caused everyone to jump so I didn’t have to worry about get swarmed. Jen McRae (Team Advil/Chapstick) followed….Van Gilder (Cheerwine) followed… Martina Patella (ValueAct Capital) followed….I followed. Coming around that last turn I was following third wheel which was great. The pace was fast so I could relax. Jen McRae then jumped which gave me a perfect bike lane to run. I was really fortunate to have it set up really well for me.”

Brooke Miller (Team TIBCO)
Amber and Rushlee did a fantastic job covering everything so that I could just sit in. I don’t often get amped or get nervous before a race but today I was like a chicken with its head cut off. It was so nice to have such great team mates to calm me down. I trust that are going to do their job…and sure enough they did. There was a lot of aggression trying to get breaks off. It was a nice and aggressive field with nice and aggressive riders.  

Linda Jackson (DS-Team TIBCO)
That was just a fantastic race. We really wanted to set up Amber to win today. Amber was going to try to go early and then she was going to try again with a few laps left to go. Alison Shanks (Jazz Apple)went off the front and Amber single handedly brought back Alison. That was a phenomenal ride by Amber. Brooke owes the win today to both Amber and Rushlee for all of their hard work. They did a fantastic job. Once it was a bunch sprint it was all Brooke. We didn’t care that she was up there alone. Get into a bunch sprint and Brooke can take care of herself.

Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine)
I had three of my team mates with me. We have really been having a good season. Kelly (Benjamin) has been winning a lot. Sarah (Bamberger) has won races. We raced with Ally in
Austin. We thought we had a super strong team. This is always a difficult course to have breakaways get away. Certainly a lot of the teams tried but felt pretty confident in our ability to keep things going our way. With two laps to go, the two rider breakaway definitely put the pressure on us  to bring it back. First Sarah tried to get across…then Ally (Brandt ) tried. There was a flurry of activity going into the finish. I thought there was going to be good competition for that sprint finish. I was probably about third, coming into the last corner, behind Jen (McRae) and Brooke (Miller). We kind of remained in that position. It’s still a long way to the finish after that turn. The wind made it a little trickier. It’s always windy here.

Amber Rais (Team TIBCO)
Sometimes on a course like this people can get complacent but it was pretty aggressive with lots of attacks. The attacks made it fun because we could counter and we could chase. Rushlee  was very active in the first part of the race covering everything so that we could have gas for the second half. Alison Shanks put in a good move off the front. I knew that we had to bring her back. I didn’t want to go right away because I didn’t want to be towing people. I waited for a few people to start chasing and railed the hairpin turn and just attacked straight out of it to get a gap. I kept that gap and caught her at the backside of the course. The group then caught the both of us at the straight section on the backside. We needed to have that happen for Brooke. Brooke got into a great position.

Rushlee Buchanan (Team TIBCO)
I was just trying to go out and cover for the girls…do the work so that they could race. We only had three people and some teams were out there with six. We just had to go out there, watch and cover. Brooke was patient. She knew what she was doing…it was awesome.

Women Cat 1-2 Final Results: 

1          Brooke Miller (Team TIBCO)

2          Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine)

3          Jennifer McRae (Team Advil/Chapstick)

4          Melissa Sanborn (Vanderkitten Racing)

5          Beatriz Rodriguez (Southern California Velo)

6          Martina Patella (ValueAct Capital Cycling Team)

7          Lara Kroepsch (ValueAct Capital Cycling Team)

8          Rebecca Quinn ( South Bay Wheelmen)

9          Melodie Metzger (PROMAN)

10        Rachel Herring (Rock Racing)

All photos by Stephanie Gutowski

Originally posted by MB1 in the forums… click here for the original post.

It was freezing when we woke up but by the time we had our bikes put together and took a little spin we were in summer clothes. Had a great dinner watching the sunset from outside on the patio.

Of course there was a little flight to Florida in between our waking up and that riding.

Nice!

Lakes and Hills.

For the last 3 years we had ridden Gator Week in Florida, actually an 8 day supported tour doing about 100 miles a day. We liked the distance but most of the route was not all that scenic and the places we stayed were not all that good. One part of the ride we always enjoyed was the rolling hills and lakes just west of Orlando in Central Florida.

So this year we decided to base ourselves out of Clermont in Lake County and do a whole bunch of loop rides.

Miss M did all the research and somehow managed to pick the highest hotel in Florida for our base. Now of course we are not talking any real elevation but every ride started with a couple miles of cruising downwards and finished with some out of the saddle. It cracked me up every time.

We quickly figured out why it was named “Lake County”. On the windy days there was nothing to block the howling winds-worse than hills actually.

Sure was pretty though.

…the rest of the ride report can be found in our forums here.

Originally posted by Ridgetop in the forums… click here for the original post.

I had to get one last night run in before the snow hit today. It’s coming down right now but still not sticking, so I’d thought I’d post the few pics I took while riding. My wife bought me a new 12-24mm lense for my DSLR so I threw it in my camel back and road the 14 miles into town. The temps were in the 20’s and my water bottle froze through. Thankfully I was well layered and was wearing ice climbing gloves (best darn biking investment I’ve ever made for icey weather riding thanks to the recommendation by one of the commuters on this board). Thankfully I brought along a little tripod also. The first shots are of Virginia Lake which is a little man made puddle in the middle of town. I often go for the night shots on this lake just because I like the reflections of the Peppermill Hotel Casino in the background. By the way, if you have the money and like a nice suite, that place is both romantic and very nicely done up. Anyway, continuing on from Virginia Lake I rode down to Wingfield River Park and took some shots down the river. Usually I try photographing lower down as there is more light, but I liked this angle tonight. Heading from there I just had to get a picture of the big ol’ and green Silver Legacy Casino. It reminds me of a glow in the dark toy. From there it was down to where the local panhandlers hang out over the train trench. They ignored me, but I would have too with all the black spandex covering me from head to toe. Shot some pics of Fitzgeralds and back down towards the El Dorado. I tried to get a bus in the last shot but it only came out as a slight blur in the lower right hand corner. Oh well, still learning this far fangled DSLR thingy.

Originally posted by Ridgetop in the forums… click here for the original post.

Siena is an awesome town situated on a series of small hills. The city is stacked up on itself and makes for quite the picture opportunities. As far as just wandering around this was one of my favorite places. Lots of tourists, but it was hard to beat the thrill of exploring all the little alleyways and hills. It also has the Duomo which competed with Florence with regard to making the fanciest church in the area. If you don’t mind a few tourists, I highly recommend visiting this city and would happily do it again. The flags are for the various contradas, or districts that compete with one another within the city. Siena is famous for a horse race that takes place around the central plaza. 10 of the 16 districts are selected to race their horses around the plaza with jockeys attempting to hold on for dear life and not really succeeding too well at it. Riding through town is a challenge so don’t say I didn’t warn you! But, there are some great hill climbing routes through narrow alley’s if you are into that sort of thing. The gellato, pizza, and wine is awesome stuff and fuels your climbing attempts.

Anyway, if I didn’t bore all of you to death with so many pics I’ll post another section later next week. Got to say, even after two months I’m still in a slight depression looking out at our cold brown fall coming on. Tuscany is an addicting place. I didn’t want to leave. . .

Originally posted by Ridgetop in the forums… click here for the original post.

Day three was the classic ride through the Chianti countryside. We rode through the main Chianti wine region and through the Monti di Chianti. The route went up the Passo Sugame which was a switchback climb up through some impressive forested hills. At the top we stopped for refreshments and dodged the hordes of horse flies that would plague us on several of the rides over the next couple of days. These suckers are tough and fast, and when they bite you’d think their mouths had flames attached. For the fun of it Brian and I were able to track them up to 28km per hour on the bikes before they began to fall off. Made it a bugger when climbing the slow steep roads. We descended into Greve for cappuccinos and then climbed up to the village of Panzano. Lots of great views of vineyards and forests. We then climbed up to the Castellina in Chianti and took an extra loop to Radda. The climb to Panzano was hot and buggy but what a great view when we got to look up at the town on the mountain. I took pictures of the riders below. For whatever reason I felt good this day and had broken away to climb ahead and snap shots of the other riders. We climbed up into the town to a beautiful church and lunch under a big fig tree and great views of the valley below. And then it was on to Siena!

Part 2 of Ridgetops original post “September in Tuscany”. click here for the original post.

The passes and climbing were my favorite part. The temps were in the low 80’s with large thunderstorms in the evening that helped to cool things down for sleeping. Although ultimately we would end up on the island of Elba, right now I was only thinking that horseflys were the most evil creatures on earth and where the hell was the next wine stop! Luckily lunch was always there waiting and there were lots of towns in between where I could at least get a caffeine fix to keep me going. Riding through the towns brought many new challenges, but luckily the Italians and million German tourists were pretty good at watching out for us hapless American tourists. But honestly, the people we met were probably some of the nicest people I had ever run into. I couldn’t understand 99% of what they were saying, but the arm waving and smiling seemed to work.

Originally posted by Ridgetop in the forums… click here for the original post.

Sorry it took so long to post these. I road this from September 4 through the 19th. I took over 2000 pics and its been hard to get them edited and reduced in number! One of the rides that will leave a good mark in my memories took place for me in September. My wife and I decided to ride (or zig zag ) across Tuscany over about a two week period. It was an organized ride through a touring group that focuses on “adventure” type vacations. I was pretty doubtful at first due to the total cost of everything, but boy am I glad we did it.

This picture post covers the first three or so days. We started in Bologna and ended up in Siena zigzagging through the Chianti Mountains outside of Florence before heading into the Monti de Chianti. We stopped at so many little towns for wine or coffee that I don’t remember all of them, but I know this pics include a stop in Montemarciano, an awesome medieval town at the top of a mountain (all our rides always had plenty of mountain tops to visit!). We had cappucinos (sp?) on the edge of cliff overlooking the Val D’Arno under a giant fig tree next to a church. I. Talking about awesome stuff. We then climbed up to the town of Loro Ciuffenna where we had lunch. We then doubled back to Dan Donato before heading over to Siena the next day. The route was awesome, the horse flys horrible, and the scenery beyond belief. Outside of the horseflys (I clocked these things at up to 28km/hr and they were still keeping up and able to land on me!)

It’s hard to describe everything so I thought I’d let my overly numerous photos do the majority of it. Quick note, the guy holding up his arm with all the blood is my friend Ken. He and three others went down in the first mile of the first day due to slick roads and new tires covered in mold release. Unbelievable. They went down in succession with a crunch. Lots of roadrash and bruises but nothing too permanent. The bottles were from a restaurant that we asked to see his wine cellar. The guy was unbelievable. Thousands of bottles of wine rotting and going bad down there. Oh the humanity!

Originally posted by MB1 in our forums - original thread can be found here.

Nothing like adding a little weather to the evening commute to liven things up.

Same ol’, same ol’ really. Went down to the garage, unlocked the steed, rode past The Wall and Lincoln to meet Miss M. Cruised up the Mall just because we like to.

Rain? No bigie when you have the right clothes and fenders.

We have the right clothes and fenders.

So does ComMUTter Man (although there is nothing you can do about the wet leaves except ride carefully).

We were careful.

Up around the Washington Monument I noticed another thing about wet, late fall days.

It gets dark early.

We have lights, the camera has a flash.

MB1
Flashy
Well; not really.

We did our usual commute; 14th Street Bridge over to Virginia, upstream on the Mt. Vernon Trail to Key Bridge, back over the river into Georgetown. Adds a few sweet miles, misses a whole lot of nasty traffic.

One great thing about this time of year and this weather-the trails are nearly empty and all the fools without lights and the right gear are home till the spring. We LIKE this time of year.

That is about it.

After Georgetown we take the Capitol Crescent Trail (the dark, wet CC Trail (I can’t believe it but there was some chump out there on a bike without lights, rain gear or fenders )) to the Tunnel, up the hill (watch out for the wet leaves and laugh at the traffic) and pull into the back.

Turn off the lights; the commute is over.

At least ’till tomorrow morning.

MB1
Done