New Bridge Team Rider! Annie Fulton

We are pleased to welcome Annie to the team! (Annie is the one in red on the right..)

Annie Fulton
Age: 23
From: Palo Alto, CA
Sporting Background: I was a gymnast for 14 years, but picked up cycling in college. I was mainly a recreational rider for 3 years, touring in France, Switzerland, and Italy in the summers. I was also VP for the Bates College Cycling team, where I got a taste for racing. I made the big jump to racing summer 2008 when I joined Webcor/Alto Velo and have loved every second of it!

Recent Results: 2nd at Cherry Pie Criterium, 2nd at San Jose Cycling Classic Criterium, 1st at Snelling Road Race

2009 Goals: Work towards upgrading to Cat2, begin time trialing, and promote the Webcor/Alto Bridge Team presented by Sportvelo!



http://anniefulton.wordpress.com/

Annie Fulton Snelling Report

This is the race that got Annie her upgrade and invite to the Bridge team...figured i would share for posterity.

Snelling Road Race, Women Cat4
1st of 50
2/21/2009
Teammates: Ashleigh Jackson

I've been excited about this race for a while for a couple of reasons: it's
a road race (enough crits!), and there was a full field of 50 (not to
mention another full B field). Snelling, however, is a "C" race for me, so
I had not tapered and was honestly a bit fatigued going in due to a nasty
combination of hiking and strength training on the Thursday before. I
headed out to the race early to get in a solid warm up and be as primed as
possible for the 35 miles ahead.

Within the first 5 minutes of arriving, I was approached by a team in my
field who first notified me that I was marked and asked if I would like to
take part in a breakaway with them. I was a bit taken aback (albeit
flattered), but listened to what they had to say and decided that if it
worked out, sure I'd go in a breakaway with them. My experience with
pre-planned breakaways is that they rarely work and that you really have to
think on your toes.

The first two of three laps of the race were fairly uneventful, save for a
rather large crash that took out several riders behind me. I kept my eyes
open for strong riders, and found a woman who I new was strong. Half way
through the last lap, she and I attacked after a sharp turn. We took turns
pulling, but were eventually caught by more riders. We had a breakaway
going, but no one would pull their weight. I attempted to get a double pace
line going, but didn't work (I made no friends here ;)). The effort wasn't
completely in vain, the field was whittled away to a mere 12.

I sat in for the remainder of the lap, concentrating on staying towards the
front. I had been warned that some anxious riders would start the sprint
before the last turn into the finishing straight away, and the prediction
proved true. I let them go and headed into the last turn around 5th. I
decided to wait a bit before sprinting, but when a lot of girls started
passing me, I decided to gas it. I executed a very McEwen inpsired final
sprint and maneuvered my way through the field to victory!

The points won in the race now qualify me to upgrade to Cat3, which is
really the icing on the cake. I've had a great time racing with Cat4s and
have met a lot of amazing women. I look forward to taking the next step in
racing as a Cat3 :)

Anne Fulton
Bates College '08

http://anniefulton.wordpress.com/

More Snelling Photos (Prolly some repeats from last time)

http://www.jpimages.biz/gallery/7423358_umcki#479081664_uqCsW
http://www.jpimages.biz/gallery/7423358_umcki#479083313_sAjiB
http://www.jpimages.biz/gallery/7423358_umcki#479083537_mBAzk
http://www.jpimages.biz/gallery/7423358_umcki#479090066_TSop5 Annie after her flat :-(
http://www.jpimages.biz/gallery/7423358_umcki#479090931_X8jCa
http://www.jpimages.biz/gallery/7423358_umcki#479093291_D6Xwq Tibco TTT
http://www.jpimages.biz/gallery/7423358_umcki#479093541_8gRBy Lauren pulling the field

Quick Snelling Update From Coach Dan

Annie Malouin flatted :-(

Lauren Hecht 10th 3rd in field sprint. Team Tibco TTT OTF for all top 7 spots!

Annie Fulton 1st in WCat4! Now a cat 3 :-) She's ready for the Bridge Team!

Snelling Photos

http://www.jpimages.biz/gallery/7423358_umcki#478460610_2LMYJ-XL-LB

http://www.jpimages.biz/gallery/7423358_umcki#478461180_sf5CN-XL-LB

http://www.jpimages.biz/gallery/7423358_umcki#478464168_UXWWw-XL-LB

TOC Women's Crit Full Report 2/15

Women’s Tour of California
Date: 2/15/09 Start time: 1 p.m.
Location: downtown Santa Rosa
Teammates: Annie Malouin, Rae Brownsberger
Conditions: POURING rain and 45-50 degree weather
Results: Lauren – 38/56, Rae – 48/56 (starting field of 80+)

I believe the word to describe this day was EPIC. We arrived in Santa Rosa with two and a half hours to spare, a little sleepy and freezing. When we had finished registering we walked outside and up the sidewalk come Mara Abbott, Emilia Fahlin and some other Columbia High Road women. We knew this was going to be one heck of a race!

We were lucky to get a great spot on the ground floor of a parking garage where we could warm up and stay dry until the start. As usual, the time flew by and we found ourselves a little rushed but luckily we had the awesome Smith team who pinned our numbers, took care of our bikes and made sure we were on the right time track.

At 12:35 we rolled over to the start line and rolled along the course until line-up. I got a good spot in the second row with Rae to my left. We were ready for a hammer fest but nervous about the rain and the commotion it would cause. I have very little experience riding in the rain and this was my first race in the rain. As expected the race took off from the gun and on the last corner the first crash happened taking out a bunch of girls. Luckily I was to the inside and a little in front of the mess and caught back on to the main field. Rae managed to squeeze by as well but Annie wasn’t so lucky and ended up in a chase group for a good portion of the race.

The rest of the race consisted of two groups (a lead group off the front of 11 then 13 and the main field). It seemed like the peloton didn’t have a lot of incentive to pull back the break as most teams were represented but that didn’t stop the attacking or the field primes. It was a pretty consistently fast race and the weather conditions, while EPIC, did help keep the pace a little under control. I think about half-way through the race I heard over the radio that Annie was on the sidelines but was unsure about Rae. Minutes later Rae came flying by me looking strong so I knew there were two of us left. The race was loud and full of spectators which amplified the excitement of the speed and downpour.

Our goals for this race were to get used to riding as a team, get comfortable with the race radios and have fun. I would say we definitely fulfilled the last goal – all three of us were pumped to have been in such a great field in such dramatic conditions. We are definitely getting to know one another and getting used to hearing Dan’s voice over the radio (however muted it sounded among the cow bells).

I enjoyed racing with all of my teammates for the first time and look forward to us growing into that group of 13 off the front.

Thanks for reading and all the support!

Lauren

TOC Women's Crit Prelim Report 2/15

Results were excellent!

Basically, people started coming off the back immediately, not helped by a crash in the first lap. Every time the field would go by, we would see some strong Norcal woman OTB or struggling. I don't have a complete start list, but I would guess that no more than 2/3 of the starters finished (56 finishers).

Annie got gapped by a crash, but stayed in a chase group for most of the race. Rae was the ticket collector at the back, and Lauren rode comfortably in the middle, and attempted a strong attack for a prime, but the field was way too strong (few sprinters made the break, so the designated team sprinters were cleaning up the pack primes). Rae and Lauren finished in the pack.

Conditions were epic: in the 40s and dumping race. Very, very slick. Very, very wet. Very, very cold. 60min is a looong crit for so early in the season. - Andi

February-March Team Schedule

Snelling RR (B)
Merco Crit and RR (A, A)
Berkeley TTT (fun race good chemistry) (C)
Menlo Crit (B) local opportunity to race w/ the other AV women
Madera SR (A)
Orosi RR (C) long drive I may be going if I do seats in car available
Trying to get riders wanting to race Redlands on a composite team.

BTW, Lauren has been invited to compete in France with the National team.
Very exciting stuff. I'll let her give you an update but it means she's in
Europe from March 10th - April 7-8th. She'll miss Madera, and Redlands.
Should be home in time for Copperopolis!

More Cherry Pie Photos

Video: http://www.deltavelo.com/09_race_videos/cherry_pie/cherry_pie_pro_women.html

Photos
http://casadelane.smugmug.com/gallery/7311120_awhHy#470268152_xuoqX
http://casadelane.smugmug.com/gallery/7311120_awhHy#470269847_ouCXe
http://casadelane.smugmug.com/gallery/7311120_awhHy#470270331_95Z7m-A-LB
http://casadelane.smugmug.com/gallery/7311120_awhHy#470294968_8NX3m-A-LB
http://www.velosportphoto.com/gallery/7313182_SWgom#470384770_YA4A8-A-LB
http://www.flickr.com/photos/swoo/3267054584/in/set-72157613510208603/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/swoo/3266139155/in/set-72157613510208603/

Cherry Pie 2/8

Coach Dan: "Lauren was 2 in field sprint in WP12, 4 riders OFT so 6th place! Great result for first race of AV Women's Bridge Team presented by SportVelo. We had Annie M., and Lauren vs. Proman, Touchstone, Tibco and 9 riders from Los Gatos. Lauren's Full Report Below"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swoo/3267054584/sizes/l/in/set-72157613510208603/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swoo/3264547543/sizes/l/in/set-72157613526369532/


Cherry Pie Criterium
Category: Women 1,2,3
Date: 2/8 2:05 PM
Result: 6/~45
Teammates: Annie Malouin

This was an awesome first race! I was definitely getting butterflies
all afternoon but the cold pretty much froze those. I got to the race
site very early because I was carpooling with some masters racers so I
had plenty of time to get myself ready. I was armed with my new Zipp
404 wheels (that I hadn't yet ridden), an earpiece radio and my newest
teammate, Annie. I was excited to finally have a friendly comrade in
the race with me. I lined up with two problems: no magnet for my
power meter and some iffy shifting with my new wheel. I put those
both out of my mind and we took off, radios on and attention sharp.
In the first few laps a group of four got off the front. I wasn't
very worried about it (which turned out to be a mistake) and sat in
the main field. The race progressed and the break got farther and
farther from the field, topping out at 30 seconds. There were several
attacks but nothing stuck until about 5 laps to go when a Tibco rider
took off to bridge solo and a Los Gatos rider took off shortly after.
I jumped and bridged quickly to the Los Gatos rider and we started
working together. We ended up cutting the gap by about half at about
the time the Tibco rider made it across. Once the group had her they
took off again and the Los Gatos rider and I got swallowed up at 2 to
go. I sat in and tried to recover some before the final lap. Before
the hill I located all the "sprinters" and ended up on the Los Gatos
train. Their sprinter wasn't launching and as I began to move around
I heard Dan in my ear telling me to go, go, go. A Proman rider was
coming up the right and I didn't see her until she was already ahead
of the field. I took off and gave it everything I had but was a
little late and got beat by about half a wheel. Thanks to Annie for
getting to the front and blocking when I was off trying to bridge; too
bad it didn't work... no matter - it is going to be an awesome season