Second Annual Tour of California Women’s Criterium Won by Emilia Fahlin
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| Photo by Ken Conley |
By Stephanie Gutowski
The second edition of the Tour of California’s Women’s Criterium was wild, wet, and windy. Throughout the entire race the riders were constantly showered by a steady rain and gusts of strong winds. Most teams had marked their strong sprinters to be in contention, but the weather prevented Brooke Miller (Tibco), Ina Teutenberg (Columbia-High Road), and Martina Patella(ValueAct Capital) from challenging the field. Lisa Hunt, ValueAct Capital DS, stated, “In this kind of conditions it’s not a surprise for a break to succeed. So many teams with a lot of horse power were trying to drive it. In these conditions when it’s cold and raining it becomes hard for the girls. We had a plan to get Martina set up for the sprint.”
The lead group did manage to stay away from early on. “We knew the rain would be a factor today,” commented second place winner Lauren Tamayo (Tibco). “It was one of those….if the break was to go….we wanted to make sure we were in it. We wanted to make sure we had the numbers and we did that. The weather did play a huge part. My team mate Meredith Miller was coming in with one to go. I was able to get into position about fourth wheel coming into the first corner. Meredith kept it strong and fast on the back stretch and then Kim Anderson took over on the last two corners. Kim rode out for Emilia and I was sitting there coming out of the last corner.”
Race winner Emilia Fahlin (Columbia-High Road) said, “I just tried to be up front from the beginning. I really like to be up front in a crit to see how it goes. Then all of a sudden I heard on the radio that there was a break on and it was splitting up the field…but I had Kim. It was great because the group just kept going and kept it steady. I had great help from Kim today in the break. She did all of the work.”
“I don’t really mind riding in this kind of weather when it’s just a crit for an hour,” continued Fahlin. “I think other people get more harmed than I do. Of course it’s cold but you don’t think about it when you are racing you just focus on the race. For me the rain is not a big problem. You just have to trust your bike.”
“We knew we wanted Kim in the break,” said team owner Bob Stapleton (Columbia-High Road) “She is an incredible work horse. She is over 40 years old and that is an inspiration for every woman cyclist. She is a team mate extraordinaire. We wanted to get Emilia up there if we could. It gave Ina the position to sit back and wait to see what happens….or bridge up. I think Ina could have gone up there herself but she was in a good position to sit back. It was a great team victory. It really shows how well these women work together. They are selfless team mates looking for the team success and not so much their own.”
“I was concerned about how Emilia was since she came straight from Qatar. She got in late Friday night. She had big smile on her face and was happy to be here. I think she was expecting California weather instead of Belgium weather.”
“The key for Emilia is that she had Kim in front of her. Kim is a very experienced rider and has been with the team six years. She is a mature, sophisticated, smart rider. Kim chased down most of these breaks and set it up for Emilia. Great team work between the two. Emilia knew that she had a good wheel to follow. I think the big thing was those two were together. Kim rode full on the full race.”
Rachel Lloyd (ProMan) stayed with Fahlin and Tamayo on the last lap and held on to third place. “I was following attacks thinking we were going to keep it fast for our sprinter,” stated Lloyd. “It was very cool to hear people cheer for me. It helps being the hometown rider. When I was in the break I thought here there are two Tibco’s and two Columbia and I should try to have a good finish. I am not really a sprinter but we were coming out of that last turn with a tail wind and we were going really fast. We just kind held our position.”
