Cat's Hill

Cat's Hill Race Report from Lauren on the Bridge Team
Race Report: Cat’s Hill Criterium
Category: W1,2,3
Place: 2nd/34
Teammates: Maura Kinsella (mechanical), Lindsay Meyers (9th)

After some overly complicated logistical preparation Lindsay, Maura and I met up on the road and made our way to Los Gatos for the infamous Cat’s Hill Crit. I have been looking forward to this race since last year when I had shifting complications on the hill and had to chase back on to finish 4th (ironically enough, by barely getting beat in the sprint for 3rd). This year would be different, or so I told myself.

We were about 10 minutes late to start but the race director told us we would race the 60 minutes as planned. And so we were off...

The race was rather uneventful. There were several cash primes, which were swept up by some Tibco riders and a few other ambitious souls. Some attacks went but were quickly reeled in. Unfortunately, Maura, being new to the hill, had the common chain-drop mechanical and ended up having to chase for two laps to get back on. I waited patiently for the laps to wear on everyone as they always do. Unfortunately, the lap cards came much sooner than expected and after only 42 minutes of racing we saw one to go. I was sitting about 4th wheel into the hill where Jazzy (Third Pillar) attacked. I hesitated just for a moment thinking that one of the two riders in front of me would surely react. When no one went I launched myself over the top and SLOWLY inched my way up to Jazzy’s wheel, only really catching it as we made the right hand turn down the hill. As we hit the last turn, Jazzy gapped me as I shifted for the sprint and had some technical difficulties (still unsure what they were). I sprinted my butt off but ran out of real estate and crossed the line a fraction of a rim behind her, with a spectacularly rambunctious bike throw. It was an awesome move by Jazzy and great to be able to go with it.

Thanks for reading! And special thanks to all those cheering on the hill!

--Lauren