Merco Grand Prix and Foothills Road Race

The Grand Prix was pretty uneventful. It was a big field and a steady pace. No drama, no breaks, some unenticing primes for Powerbars... It came down to a field sprint in the end. I wasn't in terrible position going into the last corner, but I didn't get going soon enough. Some of those girls have a fast short sprint, but I regretted not going sooner. Crits are still new to me, but it was a good learning experience. I got 7th, but wished I had worked harder. Roaring Mouse got 2nd and 3rd (Marissa Axel and Beverly Chaney) and Marley Smith, a cat 4 racer won!

Heather and I got to race together for the first time and the first 30 miles were a perfect pace to chat and talk about our plans for the season. We also hung out with our additional teamate for the day, Cody Graf from Wells Fargo. We considered making a break after the first lap, but the hills weren't that big, and the relaxing pace and shelter from the cool drizzle was too cozy to leave. In the end the pace picked up in the end and we moved up on the rough road. The little bumps at the end strung the group out a bit, and I snagged 3rd and Heather got 11th. Cody got 2nd and Bergen Watterson from Roaring Mouse won! It was fun standing on the podium with such nice riders!

Pine Flat Road Race

I won my first race, sort of... This is my favorite race of the year and it comes at the very beginning of the season. It is gorgeous and long and pretty chill until the hill at which point the race really starts and the hard climb is followed by a fun descent and then a fairytale-like road to the hill finish. This year it was chilly! There was snow on the edge of the road towards the end and I wore a long sleeve jersey AND a warm vest! The field was tiny... there were 3 other cat 3s, which was 3 more than what signed up. I gave them all a hard time at the start line for not signing up and inducing anxiety that I might have driven 4 hours to do a 62 mile time trial in arctic conditions. They combined our race with the two lonely cat 2s since no one objected. Luckily one of the cat 2 girls took some long pulls. She clearly was the strongest of the group. I was amazed how short some of the others' pulls were given how long we had to go and how few people we had, but nonetheless, it was a steady pace for most of it. As soon as we hit those bumps before the hill, the group got even smaller. I didn't even see them go. Once we hit the bottom of the hill the 2 cat 2s were in front of me, but not together and I could see one cat 3 behind me. I went as hard as I could, knowing that that was where it counted. I comfortably dropped the girl behind me, which was a relief, and I worked hard to catch one of the cat 2s. I caught her at the very top of the hill and then caught my breath on the way down. The leader must of sat up because the two of us caught her and she was wondering if we wanted to wait for anyone else. I said I'd rather keep going and took my pull. I had some weird shifting issue after my pull and heard my wheel rub my break (which it had been doing intermittently throughout the race). After last year's bike breakage on this course, I got a little nervous and slowed down a bit. The two girls pulled away from me in the flats before I knew it and I wanted to kick myself. I never caught them, although I did see one of them on that last hill finish. I would have liked to hit that last hill with her, but I was still happy to win my category. As it turned out, the hub on my rear wheel was cracked, but I was psyched that it didn't leave me stranded!

Mt. San Bruno Hill Climb

Scott and I woke up early on New Year’s Day to ride to our favorite hill, Mt San Bruno. It was chilly, but we road to the start, which was a great warm up for our first race of the year. The course starts at the bottom of Guadalupe Canyon Road and I had the privilege of starting seconds after the Pro/1/2 men with the rest of the Women 1/2/3. Just after we started the juniors came storming by us with their young testosterone. Then other strong men pulled around us and I got a nice pat from Scott coming by. I had a slow start… I don’t know whether it was the cold, the buzz kill when people fly by you off the start, or that it didn’t really feel like a race since we do this hill all the time. I caught up to the wheel of Birgit Cory, a nice Hill & Co rider I had been chatting with at the start. The two of us took turns pulling until we got in the park. The park is my favorite part and I stood up as we entered and went on to chase as many people as I could see. It got really foggy as we went up, but I kept picking off people one by one. I heard some nice cheers at the top even though I couldn’t see anyone. No one was that close to me at the finish (at least no that I could see) unlike it Scott's finish. He went on to drop all the guys in this photo. Scott finished 16th and I got 4th. It was weird to see so many people on top of the mountain… it’s usually so desolate up there. We went on to do an epic ride in the hills south of San Francisco. It was a great way to start the day and the New Year and I put this on my list of races to do forever…