NorCal Cycling News – Cycling and Racing in Northern California

 

The new USA Cycling website is definitely less ugly.  If the huge gold medals on the home page are any indicator, I would say that USA Cycling is trying to secretly gear up for London 2012 Olympic Games.  Seeing as how the only cycling medals the USA has a hope of getting is Sarah Hammer, the Women’s TT,  and an outside shot at the women’s road race, maybe they are trying to signal a big year of investment in women’s cycling?  I won’t hold my breath, but the new site did make it possible for me to dig up some of the weekend results

CCCX

Moreno Dulce (Rouse Bicycles) took a win in the small but strong women’s field that included heavyweights such as Mary Maroon, Jane Despas, and Lauraleen Fenech.  After waking up early and taking on the Mt. Diablo Hill Climb Rand Miller almost tasted glory once again this year but was spoiled by Ethan Atkins (Metromint) proved the spoiler and won his second race in two weeks after taking the top spot at the 2 Wheel Cycling and Early Bird Criterium (ugh – FIX THAT NAME!)

Tour De Nez

I’m not sure what it says about the cycling press when the only good story i find on an NRC Crit is in a Reno newspaper but… The men’s field got SoCal’d by Daniel Ramsey, who broke away and held it for a win, and then Rahsaan Bahati took the field sprint.  I hate SoCal Crit Monkeys, I think we need to start a NorCal Crit Monkey breeding program… Reaney can be the donor…

Anyway… At least NorCal women rock.  Amber (Rais) Pierce took the win over a heavy women’s field in a solo break off the front.  Pierce is slogging it out in Europe with the  Diadora-Pasta Zara-Manhattan squad but returned to her family home in Reno and was able to jump in the race this weekend while visiting relatives.  Aside from my relief that a SoCal rider didn’t school us in the women’s race, it’s great to see Pierce get a big result in front of her home crowd.

Hanan Alves-Hyde (Peanute Butter Co 2012)  busted out her East Bay trackie sprint to teach Peninsula favorites Jane Despas (Yahoo) and Annie Fulton (Metromint) a lesson in how to hustle across the finish line.  Hanan comes on strong late in the year and this might be the beginning of a run for her if she can keep up and beat the likes of Fulton and Despas.    My prediction of a James Mattis (Cal-Giant) victory was spoiled by one of the Fremont Bank young guns, a certain William Myers, who I can honestly say I do not know anything about.  The reason is… he’s a recently upgraded Cat 3.  Sure he had some big Cat 3 wins but he beat a pretty good men’s field, the least of which was former national champion and Webcor pro James Mattis.  Myers will be one to watch.