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