My teammates were at home exercising great devotion to the human race by not infecting it with flu like symptoms. I love them for their legs and even more for healthful instincts. That being said, the pre race team meeting was brief.
The head count at the start line gave us 8 Tibco, 10 Metromint, 2 Touchstone, 4 Red Racing and a whole bunch of individual riders including a girl from Boston who I rode with on the Nature Valley Pro Ride last year. If you weren't from around here, you might think that Metromint would be the team to watch. That Tibco and Metromint would have at each other all day. However, most people know that Metromint has a history of not being able to work together as a team. So the only thing a rider would really need to pay special attention to is what Tibco was planning.
Tibco controlled the race. They didn't let anything go. Even a breakaway with Webcor (me), former Webcor (Lindsay Myers), a Team Leadout and *2* Tibco couldn't stay away. It became clear that Tibco wanted to force a field sprint so they could practice a lead out train. At about 1.75 to go Tibco began to attack the pack. They were supposed to attack with the field so that the pace would increase instead of attack out of the pack and dangle off the front. A few girls attacked the way they were "supposed" to. Then 1 Tibco attacked and created separation that no one was willing to chase. It didn't appear that she didn't finesse it the right way on purpose. She just did what she thought was right. The result was that Tibco was forced to block for her and the pace slowed. We were then neutralized twice (once for the mens P12 break and later for the remainder of the mens p12 field). The neutralization' s only helped Tibco stay away.
None of the individual riders would chase because Tibco wouldn't let them go. The only thing the womens peloton could hope for was a team like Red Racing or Metromint with more than 1 racer to go to the front and rotate to chase. Then very next thing that happened shocked the womens field. Metromint organized and chased. Metromoint! We couldn't believe it. We were completely blown away. We were so proud of them. It was only 3 Mints at the front and there were still others in the pack that didn't choose to work at the front but 3 of them did some- thing that we never thought we would see. Metromint has so much horse power it's always been such a shame to watch them race defensively and without organization. I can't wait to see what else they pull off this season.
Ok, so we are coming up on the second to last turn. We get neutralized for the remainder of the mens P12 field. We are taking that second to last gravelly bumpy corner with the mens pack. After we are clear, Tibco lines up at the front and starts a lead out train. We turn the final corner and I'm 4th wheel. Two Tibco pull off and Webcor and Tibco are sprinting for the finish. Remnants of the mens field are spread across the road between us and the finish. There was no where to go. Webcor took second in the sprint and 3rd in race. At least that's what we thought.
Back at registration, an hour and 30 minutes after the race, The race results were still being tallied and refuted and tallied again. We spent our time looking at the Merced River and admiring Josie Morgan's winning Velo Promo Snelling t-shirt design. The TIbco rider that broke away was caught riding with the men's P12 break away. She was observed by a moto official and apparently DQ'd from the race. So the 3rd place moved to second. Unfortunately there were no small shirts left so I could have saved my energy for the Merced Crit and gotten 11th place.
I have no way of knowing what Tibco or Metromints tactics really were. It's sort of like predicting the weather. You can try and get close but you can't know what the real plan is. Maybe they realized that they actually were a strong competitive force and didn't have to be afraid to race their bikes or maybe they did it out of desperation but whatever happened for them was a metamorphosis that really impressed the girls that know them. I do know is that Metromint took a giant baby step forward and I'm really looking forward to racing WITH them this season. They are good girls that always bringa positive competitive attitude to the race.
Mary
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