After 'warming up' the legs yesterday, and a feast for dinner, featuring Cid's meatloaf and other homemade delights, we were ready and raring for today's stage. SoCal once again put on the good weather for us - blue skies, a nice 98 degrees (36C) and a cooling breeze.
A whopping 113 girls lined up for the stage, which comprised of 3 laps totalling 72.3 miles (about 116km). A fast and mostly flat course, with one decent section of climbing. HTC entered the stage with both aces up their sleeve, sitting pretty with 1 and 2 on GC. This therefore left it up to any other team with GC aspirations to make something out of the race. Either everyone missed the memo, or the torture TT from the day before had had a greater impact than expected, and crushed peoples will to attack along with their legs. For Webcor I think it was the latter. We had the will (aptly displayed by Haley's solo 2.5 lap TT after a mechanical) but the legs didn't quite match.
There were a few attepmted breaks, but no real threats, and HTC easily defended, driving on the front and stretching out the field whenever they felt it was necessary. Apart from this, a couple little spills, a busy feed zone and the in race game of bidon dodgeball, not much else happened, and the climb became the race deciding factor. The main field approached the climb hard on the last lap, and a lead group of about 20 was formed. The run into the finish after the climb was fast though, and the first chase group caught back on, bringing it down to a bunch sprint, which was lead out quite late, with the final little uphill drag taken out by Theresa Cliff-Ryan of Colavita.
All the Webcor girls rode well. Karen and John were kept on their toes in the support car, doing a great job, especially without a working radio, and left to rely on carrier pidgeon... or maybe it was just the race official. Haley toughed it out solo on a long, hard day in the saddle, only to be dealt the rough news of being time cut. She leaves with the dignity of no DNF though. HUGE respect coming from this direction, and I'm sure she'll be an amazing swanny!!
For now the rest of us are resting up, ready for tomorrows 60 minute crit. Keep your ears pricked for that report, should be an interesting race.
Redlands Stage 3 - Sunset Road Race
I headed into today's stage full of apprehension. Being my first time at Redlands, I had no idea what to expect, and was relying completely on the stories and legends told by riders past. This was not a good thing. Many are to scarred to talk about it. The mere mention of the name 'Sunset' in conversation with cyclists and at pre race meetings drew gasps and screams, and looks of utter dread and horror. Position would be vital. The race would be rough and fast. People would be dropped, and gaps would form right at the beginning...and this was just in the neutral start!
With a build up like that, I jumped at the gun like a startled rabbit, but my nerves settled a bit when I realised it was only half as bad as all the legends made it sound. There were only 1 or 2 crashes in the neutral section, and the main race at the start was to see who could edge the furthest in front of the neutral car without being pulled back.\par
Unfortunately Mary and Amy were caught behind the second crash, putting them on the back foot heading onto the loop for the first time, which the field hit at a ferocious pace. There was a time bonus up for grabs at the first QOM, so the climbers and GC girls gave the rest of us a lesson in climbing, and danced away up the hill, instantly shattering the pack and gaining a lead of 1:30 in what seemed like no time. All the big players had someone in the break, so that first climb pretty much set the field for the rest of the race.
If you can stop focusing on simply holding onto the wheel in front for one second, you realise that although it may be hard, Sunset is a really cool loop. It initially winds it's way to the start of the climb through the suburbs, keeping you on your toes as the road is never straight for more than 50 metres. Then the climb starts quite steep, before plateauing and kicking up again into a longer drag, where at the top the QOM points would be decided before a flase flat gives you no time to relax and clear the lactate. It then bumps along through the feed zone until flowing back over the top of the TT finish and quickly winding its way back down to start the loop all over again. Nine times!
The first three laps were pretty straight forward. Mara Abbott glued herself to the front and set the pace, and everyone else followed along, fluctuating from about 30 seconds to a minute and a half behind the leaders. When a course is like that and the break goes early with the best climbers up the road, there's not a heap you can do. Everyone climbs as fast as they can, and as long as the lead group doesn't stop pushing inbetween, they stay away.
At some point the pack behind the main chase caught back on, and on about lap 6 or 7 we caught the front group momentarily. It only took them till the next time up the climb to decide that they didn't like sharing their playground with all the other kids, and they burned us on the hill, once again shattering what was left of the race. We then rode the last lap in our splintered groups, until we finally reached the finishing circuit. It was a nice downhill and then flat detour back to the start line. With the leaders completely out of sight, and 9 laps of the legendary Sunset in the legs, everyone was fairly content to roll the last bit home without too much stress.
Put on paper, it sounds so much easier than it was. Of course there were the usual screeching of brakes and crunching of carbon on bitchumen that you dare not look back for. I'm sure there would have been a lot more happening in the front group... but I wasn't there to know. Plus I know much more happened in my part of the race that I've failed to mention or skimmed over, but to be perfectly honest, I couldn't really tell you. I didn't quite have the armchair view today, and when you're chewing stem and well inside the box, the thought process can be very limited, and concentrating on what's happening so that you can write an awesome race report doesn't even come into consideration. So think of some of the crazy and exciting things that make a good bike race and insert them in here, cos I'm sure they would have happened!
For the record, Colavita won the stage, and HTC held onto the leader's jersey and 3rd place, sandwiching a Tibco rider in between.
Well done to all the Webcor girls, it was a ripper of a weekend.
Take it easy
Bec
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