Thursday, May 29, 2008

Memorial Weekend Wrap Up...Podiums and More!

The team took advantage of all the great local racing over the long weekend....
Friday Night Track Racing- Karla and Mary Ellen represented well...
Points Race 2nd Karla, 4th Mary Ellen
Miss n Out- 2nd Karla, 5th Mary Ellen
Chariot Race- 3rd Mary Ellen, 5th Karla

Saturday- Canada Time Trial
Women's Merckxx Category- 2nd Mary Ellen
Women's ITT- 9th Jen VM

Sunday- Mt Hamilton Road Race
w 1/2/3- 11th Brianne, 18th Kim (great job ladies it was a talented field...an impressive finish for Kim in her first road race as a cat 2)

Monday- Memorial Day Criterium
w 1/2/3- 2nd Mary Ellen, 9th Alexis, 10th Karla, 15th Lori and Erin, Angela, Jamie, Kim, and Holly in the field.
Mary Ellen podiums at SugarCRM Memorial Day Criterium

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Hellyer Fashion...Ash vs Hernando

Who knew they wore the same size?

Story goes like this...last Friday night at Hellyer Kingsley forgot clothing, Mary Ellen took one for the team giving her kit to Karla, and wearing Hernando's Moon suit. Hard to say who's most fierce sporting the flower power (although it does match ME's bike nicely).....











Mary Ellen in all her glory....(photo courtesy of OTB Photos http://www.otbphoto.com/)






Hernando in all his gory....
(photo blatantly stolen from his blog)


Tuesday, May 13, 2008

EBC Crit, Another Great Race

A good day for the team....
Karla- 4th
Mary- Ellen 5th
Lori- 10th
Erin- Most Aggressive Rider

Here's Karla's report:

The Women's 1/2/3 crit started at a perfect time - 1:40 in the afternoon, and we all had time to sleep in and warm up. There were 6 of us lined up at the start, and one of us on the sidelines cheering and coaching (thanks, JV) - so we were one of the biggest teams, along with Tibco. There were many other teams with a few girls, making a field of about 40. The first third of the race was pretty low-key, everyone was just settling in and really keeping their eyes on the marked riders. The bell rang for our first prime, so I got in position near the front of the race. On the backside, Lori came around me and led me out all the way to the line -- that started things off a little bit and opened our legs.
Lori pulling off after leading Karla out for the prime, nice job ladies! (photo courtesy of Ruth Winder http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruthwinder/archives/date-taken/2008/05/10/ )

The racing got a bit more aggressive then, with attacks and counter-attacks, and everyone was doing a great job covering moves. Then Erin launched off the front of the pack, solo. She got a huge gap and stayed off for several laps, even with some serious chasing going on.
Erin in one of her multiple off the front efforts, nice! (photo courtesy of Paul Doran http://www.flickr.com/photos/vicarioussojourn/sets/72157605032495206/ )

Eventually, Erin started getting pulled back, and as we went by the start/finish, JV was yelling, "get ready to counter, girls!" So I sat about 6th wheel or so, and as Erin came back to the pack, I attacked up the gutter on her inside. Meanwhile Angela attacked up the other side, drawing the pelaton with her before easing up and allowing me to create a big gap quickly. I was assuming I would get caught soon, but the group let me go for a while - each time I passed JV, she yelled out my time gap, and it was holding steady. I stayed out in front alone for 10 minutes, until finally I was caught after a prime lap.
Karla off the front in TT mode (photo courtesy of Paul Doran ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/vicarioussojourn/sets/72157605032495206/ )

Two laps later, Erin went off the front again, solo, forcing other teams to chase, and winning her the award for Most Aggressive Rider. When the group caught Erin the second time, we were at 2 laps to go. Mary Ellen, Lori and I were all working to position for the final lap. We didn't quite pull things together the way we would have hoped, but we didn't do too bad either -- Tibco led out the last half a lap, and Mary Ellen and I jumped on the train for 5th and 4th place finishes behind Brooke, Taitt, and Ali. We didn't take the win, but it was a great day for us to work with each other and race aggressively as a team.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone out on the course who was cheering for us!
Karla

Post Race Show.....
Karla's prize from the Wente Crit is healing nicely...ya know Beth wants to measure that action....and nice work on the pose Beth, channeling your inner Hatch I see!

Just the best crew to hang with.
Erin with her well deserved Most Aggressive Rider award.
Karla can kill it in a sprint and bring sexy back...girl has mad skills!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

SugarCRM Cat's Hill Crit...5th!

Cat's Hill Criterium
May 3rd
W123
Jaime, ME, Holly, Bri
Field size 20-25 riders?

The field was small but composed of a strong team from Tibco, Metromint, and Proman. My goal was to watch Shelley and go with her if she happened to attack or to be on her wheel at the end. The race started with a nice effort from Holly and Jaime at the front.


Holly leading the field up the hill (photo courtesy of Garrett Lau http://garrettlau.smugmug.com/Sports )
Metromint, Tibco and Proman all took their turns trying to keep the race interesting on the hill and straight aways, but for the most part nothing got away. Not feeling my best I decided to test my legs for a prime and won. Usually this helps energize me, but unfortunately it wasn't the case today. I also surprisingly took 2nd on another prime lap when I was chasing down Shelley. I was just trying to make sure she didn't get away, but I enjoyed the 20 minute massage that came with that effort. Mary-Ellen also put in a great effort on the hill beating Shelley up it and staying away for a lap, where we caught her on the false flat after the hill.


Mary Ellen attacks on the hill to solo off the front (photo courtesy of Garrett Lau http://garrettlau.smugmug.com/Sports )

Brianne looking comfortable on the hill (photo courtesy of Garrett Lau http://garrettlau.smugmug.com/Sports )

I was in a weird state of being because before I knew it the race was down to 6 laps to go. I thought I better start paying attention. So I tried to rest up until 2 laps to go. I had planned to move up and get on Shelley's wheel where I would attack just before the base of the hill and hopefully stay away for the win or atleast pull off a podium finish. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful at moving up, finding Shelley's wheel or attacking :). I came up the hill in 6th chasing Lauren from AV. Luckily I was able to catch her and pass her before the start finish for 5th. ME came in after me with a strong finish herself.

I want to thank the club for being so supportive of the women this year. The cheering all around the course was very helpful. I have had a great time racing with the club and this awesome group of ladies. On a side note, the highlight of my day was participating in clean up after the men's race and finally meeting Barry. Thanks for the many laughs!!!

Thanks for reading,
Brianne



















Rewind! Wente Road Report

This is what happens when the blogmaster takes a header in a crit....reports don't get posted timely, sorry peoples! Below is Brianne's report on her victory...

Wente RR
Karla, JV, Jaime, Bri, 35 starters
Erin and Angela in the feedzone
66 mile race composed of a rolling 17 mile loop with a 1 mile climb to the finish

This was my second year doing the race and I had targeted this race for a podium finish, specifically a win, to get my final points for my Cat 1 upgrade! I was super excited to have teammates in the race and in the feedzone. Everyone was excited to help me reach my goals. The craziest thing was that everyone seemed to believe that I could obtain my high lofty goals, which I didn't quite believe myself. The race started mellow which was good for me because I was over heated from the beginning of the race. I have been trying to make sure my tan lines don't get too bad for my wedding and my best friends wedding which are right around the corner, so I started the race with armwarmers and an undershirt. Unfortunately, I didn't make it more than 15 minutes into the race before I had to magically take off my undershirt and arm warmers. Vanity was going to have to wait I told myself so Jen was kind enough to make sure I was ok as I undressed. Thanks Jen!!

At any rate the race was pretty uneventful. We were neutralized for almost a quarter of the second lap because of the masters and pro men's field which frustrated us so Flavia put in a good effort on the climb to try to get people racing on the third time up. Rachel Lloyd followed that with some amazing efforts and attacks on the back side of the course on the third lap. A group of about 10 of us stayed together, but once Rachel stopped pulling no one else pulled through. I wasn't about to drive the break, considering my lofty goals and that my teammates were out of sight. So because of our disorganization and lack of working together nearly 10-15 more women caught back on. Luckily JV And Karla were with the group of ladies who put in a hard effort to catch back on. Both were anxious to help out what they could before they got "dropped again". Luckily, but unluckily we were neutralized again the 4th time up the climb because the men's cat 3 field was finishing, so we went into the final lap with about 25 women and me with two wonderful teammates ready to sacrifice themselves for me to finish well. Rachel tried to string things out again, but she was unsuccessful of shedding any women so we noodled to the straight away before the last two right hand turns into the climb where Victoria from Tibco started launching some attacks along with Anna and Sarah from village peddler. Little attacks continued on the "false flat" with JV countering another attack by Victoria. Just as I was about to get boxed in Karla saves the day by making sure I was at the front of the field going into the last right hand turn into the climb. Flavia attacked around the turn brushing my hip, which kick started my adrenaline pumping for fear of crashing and for fear of letting her go. I jump hard and was able to gain good ground and pass her when the climb pitched up. I somehow easily pulled away as her legs blew. I heard Erin, Keith, Angela and various other people cheering and screaming you have it, you have a huge gap, keep digging. I looked back to see everyone much smaller behind me. Part of me starts to get excited so when I was getting close to the finish I sat down to zip up my jersey and peddle "slowly" to the finish so I could put my hands up, but I looked back to see three girls gaining on me so I had to stand up and put in one last effort and cross the finish with my head down in unbelief that I had actually done it. I won my first road race and reached my one goal this year of getting my Cat 1 upgrade (strictly for my own bragging rights---I can't marry a Cat 1 racer without being one :) ) I was so excited that Jen and Karla did exactly what I needed to make sure I was in good position which was critical for my finish. They did an amazing job of team work and still managed to finish 14th and 19th respectively. We were all very thankful to have such great teammates in the feed zone (thanks Erin and Angela).

Thanks for reading!!!
Bri