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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Scarperia, IT – Katharine Carroll of the TIBCO Women’s Pro Cycling Team posted a strong time in the opening prologue of the Giro Donne Saturday. Riding for the U.S. National Team, Carroll rode to a 6th place finish with a time of 3:12 over the 2.5km prologue course. Her time was just six seconds behind stage winner Kirsten Wild (Cervelo Test Team), who won the recent Grand Tour du Montreal, and just two seconds behind Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo Test Team), the reigning Olympic time trial gold medalist.

The three other members of Team TIBCO riding for the national team at the Giro Donne also posted solid times in the prologue. Lauren Tamayo, Meredith Miller and Brooke Miller were all just 0:10, 0:15 and 0:16 off the pace of Wild respectively.

The Giro Donne continues Saturday with a 100km road stage from San Piero a Sieve to Pratolino di Vaglia.

Photo (c) Jason Mancebo

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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Fayetteville, AR – “We were either going to win the race today or blow up trying,” Team TIBCO directeur sportif Jeff Corbett said about the team’s efforts to earn Katharine Carroll a stage win and time bonus to win the overall title on the final day of the Joe Martin Stage.

The six-rider squad threw everything they had at race leader Alison Powers and her Team Type 1 teammates, as did Webcor, the team of 2nd place overall Katheryn Curi Mattis. But in the end, not only did Powers survive the onslaught, once the attackers had burned their matches, she took off solo and won the stage to seal the overall victory.

“She deserved to win the race,” Corbett stated.

Despite her best efforts, Carroll was unable to move up the overall classification and had to settle for 3rd overall after finishing the stage in 7th place. Her teammate, Joanne Kiesanowski, finished just behind her in 8th place, and was able to move up one spot in the overall to 9th place.

In all, Team TIBCO posted one stage win, by Kiesanowski in Stage 2, as well as a 3rd place in Stage 2 and 2nd place in Stage 3 by Carroll.

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Los Altos, California – Team TIBCO brings its strongest roster ever into the first NRC stage race of the season this weekend, the Redlands Classic, beginning Thursday, March 26.

“We’re definitely focused on the overall,” said Team TIBCO directeur sportif Jeff Corbett. “It’s a wide open race. It’s not a pure GC rider’s race. Redlands isn’t for pure climbers or time trial specialists. Just about any one of our riders could be in contention for the overall. Someone like Lauren (Tamayo) or Kat (Carroll) could get in the right move on Beaumont (Friday) and get in contention.”

The team will still look to several riders in particular in pursuit of the overall title, including Carroll, who finished 3rd in the 2008 edition, and rising Canadian star Julie Beveridge, who posted a 9th overall last year.

The team also can look to Kiwi Joanne Kiesanowski, who finished 8th in the 2008 world championship road race, as well as veteran Aussie Emma Rickards, who returns to racing in the U.S. after four years with top-level teams in Europe and a 2nd place finish in the 2008 Geelong World Cup. Powerhouse Amber Rais gives the team yet another weapon for the overall and stage wins. For the downtown Redlands criterium, Tamayo is the top candidate for a sprint finish after posting strong results at the Tour of Qatar and the Amgen Tour of California Women’s Criterium.

But Corbett adds that “We’re coming out of a really good training camp and everyone is going really well. I’ve been impressed. We’ll see how things go in the opening prologue. That often decides the hierarchy.”

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