NorCal Cycling News – Cycling and Racing in Northern California

While we create the magic wrap up of the Snelling/Merced weekend it’s a good time to give out some PRE-SEASON grades. Due to my lack of creativity I’m using my old performance reviews as the format. Hopefully this will not engender the tears or humiliation my past jobs did on me but we welcome your feedback either way. Part 1 cover’s the women and Part 2 will cover the dudes.

Exceeded Expectations: Beth Newell and Susannah Breen tag teamed the early season races and walked away with about six win’s between them. Count me surprised, but the Fremont Bank Cycling Team dominated the early season races and they did it with a skeleton crew at each race. If these women start riding as a team they could be the dominant factor through the season.

Met Expectations: Where Fremont Bank left off Webcor and Primal/MapMyRide took over. They may not have racked up a lot of win’s but Mary Maroon was in the mix for every race she showed up for. The Rachetto/Kachorek combo might be riding for a Colorado team but they lit up each NorCal race they entered. On top of some blinged out kits and bikes they have this 70′s cop name thing going that is totally cool. Just imagine… a burly captain behind a desk screaming out into the bullpen… “Rachetto! Kachorek! Get your asses in here! Did you try to shake down a Velopromo official for info on a entry fee increase?”

Area’s of Opportunity: Red Racing where are you? You got some awesome kits, awesome photos, a nice little Facebook following, a bunch of cool fund raising events, and i see your kit on the Voler email i receive every other day. I suppose it’s a long season, and nobody missed much if you skip January and February, but i was surprised not to catch more sightings of your crew. It’s a racing team right? Get out there and do some damage.

Favorite Interloper: Who can’t love the visiting Swiss Miss! Pascal Schnider, must be visiting the US, Socal i think, for early season training or something. She’s got some track bona fides’ but her crit skills are looking pretty sharp based on her NorCal results.

Nice Surprise: Van Houweling taking the big prize down at The VOS for Metromint was big win and great way to show the country that she’s ready for the big show. Once the full might of the Metromint women’s team get’s rolling they could be an interesting player.

Best Race: I think it’s a toss up between Cherry Pie and Folsom. The both had good turn outs and some hard racing by pro’s, nearly pro’s, and interlopers. It give’s me hope that some of our local talent will get into the results at the upcoming Classics like Merco, Redlands, etc.