No blues in St. Louis so far for Team TIBCO: Miller takes wins in first two Women’s ToMO races.

St. Louis, MO – Team TIBCO sent four riders to St. Louis for this weekend’s Women’s Tour of Missouri Series, part of the Gateway Cup. Despite being outnumbered by the likes of Colavita/Sutter Home and Team Type 1, those four women seem to be riding like eight, having now delivered Brooke Miller to wins in the first two races of the series.

Saturday, on a wide open, 1.3 mile St. Louis Hills circuit, Miller took advantage of a sneak attack leadout from teammate Katharine Carroll, who took Miller to the last turn and let the sprinter finish the job.

“We wanted to be the aggressors again today,” said Miller. “We launched a lot of attacks but nothing was getting away. About half-way through the race we decided to change tactics and race a bit more defensively. We thought Colavita might attack more since they had the numbers, but they weren’t going on the attack.

Instead, with two laps to go, Colavita set up their train on the front.

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Bend, OR – In her first crack at the under-23 U.S. National Time Trial Championship, Jerika Hutchinson of Team TIBCO posted a strong 2nd place finish to earn the silver medal. Hutchinson, a month short of her 19th birthday, came in 0:14 behind Jacquelyn Crowell (Team Type 1), who posted a time of 53:44 on the hilly, 35 km circuit. Hutchinson’s time would have placed her solidly in the top 20 of the elite women’s group.

“It was a really challenging course,” Hutchinson said. “It was also really hot. I had a bag of ice on my back before I started, and a wet towel on my back for the ride trying to keep me cool.”

The course was similar to the course used for the Cascade Classic the week before, opening with a climb to the turn-around point 12 km out and return back to the start area. However, the national championship course added a 11 km loop with several rollers to bring it to 35 km.

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Team captains Amber Rais (left) and Meredith Miller lead a deep Team TIBCO squad into the Cascade Classic, beginning Tuesday

Los Altos, California – Team TIBCO will bring one of the strongest, most balanced stage race rosters into this week’s Cascade Classic, which begins tomorrow.

“We have a lot of options with our roster,” said Meredith Miller, one of the team’s captains.

The squad includes three of last year’s top 10 finishers, including Canadian Julie Beveridge, who finished 3rd overall and won the best young rider competition. Amber Rais finished 8th overall last year, while Miller slotted in at 10th overall.

Add in Kiwi Joanne Kiesanowski, who has been one of the team’s most consistently strong riders this season, and it gives the Team TIBCO numerous options in the battle for the overall title.

“Looking at the overall, we have a lot of different cards to play this year,” Miller said. “Julie is probably our best climber, and Jo is climbing and sprinting really well. But above all, we want to make the race as hard as possible each day.”

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Come watch Team TIBCO bust it in Burlingame this Sunday!

Los Altos, California – This Sunday, Team TIBCO, the fastest start-up in Silicon Valley, will take its speed show to downtown Burlingame for the Burlingame Criterium. The women’s race, run around a tight, technical 0.7-mile course, starts at 1:30 p.m.

Team TIBCO is looking to dominate the race the same way it did the Santa Cruz Criterium in April, where the team stacked the podium. Leading the charge will be U.S. National Road and Criterium Champion Brooke Miller. Miller will have powerhouse support from Amber Rais, who dominated the Tour de Nez in her hometown of Reno last weekend. Also racing will be rising stars Alison Starnes and Rushlee Buchanan along with Katharine Carroll, Emma Rickards, and Alison Rosenthal, all experienced riders who have been key to many of the team’s top performances this year

“It’s not often you get to see one of the top teams in North America race in your own backyard,” said Team TIBCO founder and manager Linda Jackson. “We have a ton of supporters in the Bay area, and on the Peninsula and Silicon Valley in particular, who have been with us since we were a small startup just a few years ago. They’ve been critical to our growth and success. So it’s important to the team that we race close to home and invite all those people to join us and really make it more than just another race on the calendar, but a celebration of their contribution to the team’s success.”

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Petaluma, CA – Alison Starnes of Team TIBCO demonstrated yet again on Sunday that she is a rising star on the women’s pro cycling scene.

Still showing good form after a five-race stint with the U.S. National Development Team in France in late April and early May, Starnes and teammate Alison Rosenthal took on a small but solid field at the Spring Hill Road Race near Petaluma, and Starnes left everyone in her wake.

“Our plan was to use the first lap to get to know the course and make sure we were warmed up, figure out the best places to attack and go from there,” Starnes said of the 23-mile loop they would do three times.

However, she decided not to wait. “I started attacking at mile 17,” she said. “I got caught, countered and got caught again. The third time, everyone seemed to sit up for a minute. I just put my head down and went as hard as I could.”

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Photo courtesy of Ken Conley - kwc.org

Saint Salvy de la Balme, France – Alison Starnes of Team TIBCO is proving to be an incredibly quick study, along with being a very strong rider.

Barely more than a year into her cycling career, not just at the elite level, but since her first race as a Category 4 rider, this past Friday Starnes delivered her third podium in five races in France.

Riding for the U.S. National Development Team, the 23-year-old missed out on her first professional win in Europe by less than the width of her Challenge tire to Béatrice Thomas.

Starnes has adapted to the French style of racing. “Chris (Georges, her team director) told us to attack from the gun, which wasn’t anything new,” Starnes said. “That’s how they race here. Even if it is 80 miles long, they race from the gun. Right after the start, I worked on gaining position and got ready to attack.”

The race consisted of 10 laps around an 8 km circuit that climbed in steps, with slight down-hills, and a sharp right that led to a steep climb up to the KOM. This was followed by a steep, technical 3k descent back into St. Salvy de lat Balme.

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Agen, France – Alison Starnes of Team TIBCO took a hard-earned 3rd place at Les Pruneaux D’Agen in France Sunday. Starnes, who is racing for the U.S. National Development Team on this trip, soloed in for 3rd on the final lap of the 40-lap, 70km criterium, which was won by teammate Devon Haskell, ahead of another American, Megan Guarnier.

“With six girls in the race, we wanted to make it hard, fast and safe,” Starnes said of the race, which was run under cold and rainy conditions.

The team was aggressive from the start, and by five laps in, Haskell and Guarnier had established a break with a third rider. That left Starnes and teammates Lindsey Meyers and Sinead Miller in a group of seven chasers, with nothing to do but chase down any attacks from their group, which they did handily.

“The other girls were relentless in attacking,” she said. “We still had 33 laps to go and they were attacking every lap!”

However, they weren’t quite as good at working together in the chase, which allowed the trio upfront to maintain their gap. They did succeed in lapping the field twice, though. And when the two Americans succeeded in dropping their break-mate later in the race, the U.S. team’s director, Chris Georges, came on over the radio and told the other U.S. Development riders they were racing for 3rd place.

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Madera, CA – Alison Starnes and Alison Rosenthal of Team TIBCO had a steep task at the Madera Stage Race this past weekend, contending with a strong elite women’s field that included full squads from several teams, including Touchstone Climbing.

“With just two of us, we were definitely outnumbered amongst the other teams,” Starnes said.

Despite that, both riders posted strong results, with Starnes garnering a 3rd place in the time trial and 2nd in the road race en route to finishing third overall on GC. Rosenthal also took home a 5th place in the opening stage criterium Saturday morning.

“We were going for a stage win in the crit with Ali R.,” Starnes explained. “I was supposed to lead her out, but failed to get into the final corner in the front position. She was forced to jump onto another train, and did a great sprinting effort for 5th.”

Saturday afternoon, Starnes was going all out for the win in the time trial but had to settle for 3rd, which put her in 3rd on GC, and needing to win Sunday’s road race to acquire the time bonus to win the overall GC.

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