NorCal Cycling News – Cycling and Racing in Northern California

Pshew – TOC was cool, but with the Lance crap in the background, combined with Contador flying through Italy like he’s on rockets, it started to feel a little depressing.  Weather still hasn’t quite turned for us but it didn’t stop any racing. I think I will have to get some twitter hastags out next week so we can get better results sharing through the interwebs.

Eye Q Crit

Despite having a full squad out the Sierra Pacific boys could not quote control former pro Daniel Ramsey who took the win.  They did manage to put Bosch in second but I imagine he could do that on his own.  Logan Loader popped in for third right ahead of Pat Briggs. In addition to having some funny facebookery going on, Briggs looks like he’s ready for crit season.  Since there was no Women’s race in this first year event Mary Maroon jumped in with the men and eaked out a 10th place finish to show she’s flying no matter who she’s racing with.  She’s going to get even faster if she keep riding above her head like that.

Golden State Crit & Circuit Race

Emily Kachorek took the women’s crit giving her Primal-Map My Ride team yet another NorCal Crit win.  Primal Map My Ride may be based out of Denver but Rachetto and Kachorek have really brought the heat to the NorCal Crits.  Dean LaBerge broke out his former pro legs and took the mens race win with his 18 year old son James coming in 4th.  I hate being on the wrong side of the gene pool.

In the circuit race took the men’s win ahead of Chris Statsny and Rand Miller.  I’m piecing that all together from Facebook posts so shoot me any details if you have them.  No word on the women’s race yet.

Great update from RPVH Esquire on the women’s circuit race race.

Emily Kachorek also won the circuit race (and series) at Golden State in dominant fashion.  She outsprinted a big break that included Ally Stacher (HTC-High Road), Emily Mathieu (Red), Hanan Alves-Hyde (PB 2012), Molly Van Houweling (Metromint), Emily Thurston and Carol Irving (Touchstone).  The group finished roughly in that order.

Mary Maroon (Webcor) missed out on the break, which was initiated as a counter to one of her many animating attacks in the early part of the race.  She nearly bridged, but they kept the pressure on at the front and she finished in the gap.

Panoche Pass

Metromint Cycling is reporting that Rikke Preisler took the women’s race . Preislers victory would be a great win for the squad as they get ready for the District Elite Championship which will be held on the famous Pescadero Classic course this year.   took another win for the powerhouse Cal-Giant squad in the Men’s race.  Lucas is in that tough part of his career as he climbs up the U-23 ranks and races for the USA Cycling chumps in Europe. I hope he starts eating up some of the races here for the Cal-Giant squad so we can spend more time giving him some ink.