NorCal Cycling News

Women on top

… whoa, just have to take a moment for that to settle in.

The PeanutButterTwentyDozen team brought out their local stars to shine bright at the Wente Road Race.  The temperatures and conditions turned out perfect for them, with only just enough wind to slightly bruise the nose when stuck it out … while not strong enough to really break or turn anything ugly during the race.  PB had all-world Shelley Evans teamed up with the elegant Kat Carroll, the iron-willed Olivia Dillon, and the up-and-coming Ruth Winder.  They would go against a quality field of NorCal regulars from the Touchstone, Metromint, Wells Fargo, and Los Gatos squads - as well as a host of hardcore individuals, not the least of whom being TIBCO’s powerhouse Alison Starnes.

Lap 2 was when the shredding occurred for the women’s field.  Dillon and Carroll drilled it strong up the steep, initial surge of the Wente climb - and then it was Evans putting in a detonation of an attack as the field frazzled up the kilometer+ false flat section that always seem to last forever.  It was a true grenade lobbed, and the survivors were Evans, Carroll, Dillon and Starnes off the front in a quartet of some of America’s best talent, with a quality group of 10 Norcal regulars chasing from behind.

Beginning lap 3, Carroll would drill it again at the base of the Wente climb just as the chasing group was hoping to make contact with the leaders.  Wells Fargo’s Cody Graf had done strong work in the chase group and Susannah Breen’s lean figure shot out of the pack to try and make it across for their squad.  With Breen would be the ever improving road racer, Molly Van Houweling of Metromint.  These two bravehearts would bleed buckets to keep the leaders in site, with Dillon eventually falling into their group under the undue pressures up front and from behind.  In the lead, it would be a small reshuffling as the final lap would be contested between the battlehorse from TIBCO, Ali Starnes and the two PB&Juggernaut talents, Evans and Carroll.

Late in the final lap, Evans would launch away solo in a bid for the win.  She would start the final climb with a small gap, and have to hit the accelerator with determination up the agonizingly long finishing slope to get her first Wente Road Race win.  Carroll would wait  behind the incredibly resilient Starnes, waiting like the patient and ferocious feline she is, and only until just after the steeps of the finishing climb would Carroll then lithely spring away and accelerate cleanly to the line for a PB 1-2 finish.  Starnes would continue to stomp on her pedals up the hill and claim an incredibly well deserved bronze for the day.  Ms. Olivia Dillon would glide away from MVH and Breen to finish out the top 6 places.

It’s off to the Tour of the Gila for most of these top finishers … the 16 mile time trial awaits them and I won’t be surprised to see any of these women rocking the select placings in the results.  Also a rider to watch is Heather Pryor of Touchstone. She’ll be on a composite team for Gila and after watching her fierce acceleration on the climb at Wente, and after seeing her improve with each week’s racing thus far in 2010 … Gila will be an excellent experience builder for her and she’ll be much the stronger for it.

Luck to you all, ladies!
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For the Mens

Ryan Parnes of Yahoo would be the first man up the climb as their racing began in earnest for the pro 1,2 field.  The men would rattle off the 5 laps in a bit over 3 and a quarter hours … that’s quick pedaling.  Off the front in most the initial moves and representing Cal Giant Berries once again as the class of Norcal climbers and stage race men was Jesse Moore.  By late in the race, it would be Moore joined by Bissell Pro’s Andy Jacques-Maynes and Yahoo’s Evan Huffman.  These three would trade savage pulls mile after mile and launch into the final climb with a significant gap over the dwindled field.

Moore would leap away from the two, with Huffman doing a brave chase after AJM launched a massive bridging effort.  It would be Moore throwing the sink and every other kitchen appliance at AJM on the final climb to try and crack the Bissell strongman … but, if there’s a finish line and 200meters to it ~ chances are low to naught that anyone is going to be first to it other than AJM.

Bissell would get another solid win in Norcal with AJM, Moore second for CalGiant and Huffman a brave 3rd for Yahoo.  Good representation from our homegrown talent.

(to be cont’d when there’s time … )