Merced Cycling Classic

Merced Cycling Classic
Crit: Women's 1/2
Place: 20th

This past weekend, my team and I went to Merced, CA for the Merced Stage Race. Ange, our token Aussie, came for support since she broke her wrist and is out for a few weekends of racing. Thankfully, the team opted out of doing the TTT on Friday due to school, work, and a very jetlagged Aus. So instead we headed out Saturday bright and early. On Saturday afternoon, we had a 6-corner, flat crit in the heart(if you can call it that) of Merced. HTC-Columbia was there, getting ready for Redlands, along with the other top dogs: TIBCO, Peanut Butter and Co, and Webcor. The race was fast, but not as excruciating as I had expected. In the 40 lap criterium, I attacked with 25 laps to go, not afraid to put my nose in the wind, and to see what kind of damage I could do. Not much. I was off the front for like half a lap and then was brought back by Evelyn Stevens (HTC-Columbia). I recovered well after that attack and so I decided to go for a prime at about lap 15. I was 2nd to the prime, outsprinted by TIBCOs Megan Guarnier. After that, I led at the front for half a lap and then slowly moved back. After this dig, it was harder to recover, feeling totally gassed. I kept good position, top third of the peloton for the rest of the time. There was massive carnage with 3 laps to go, completely stopping the field for about 15-20 minutes. We were off again, starting at 5 laps to go. It was really hard to go full gas again after stopping for so long. I wound up finishing top 20, still in the money, which was pretty cool in an 80-person field of the top women in the country and world.

Merced crit race report from Maura on the Bridge Team