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June 2002
06/22/02 - Pescadero Road Race
by Sabine
I did not have high hopes for this race. Ever since our win at 24 Hours of Adrenalin, I've been on a vacation of sorts. Eating, drinking, not training. The time hasn't been completely wasted. I've been riding my mountain bike a lot and improving my skills and riding my favorite trails. But I figured it was time to lose the post-win weight and get back on the training track. And I would initiate it with the slap in the face that is the Pescadero Road Race.
The Pescadero Road Race starts in the cute coastal town of Pescadero, home of Arcangeli Bakery. See, this bakery is one of the reasons I subject myself to this race. When I woke up at 4:00 in the morning and had to make the decision to roll over and go back to sleep or get up, load up my bike and drive to the race, it was memories of this bakery's Artichoke Garlic Herb Bread that made me toss aside the covers and shuffle out of bed.
So off we left at 4:30 in the morning. Why so early? Because my boyfriend actually believes those drive times at Mapquest. So we arrive at the race site nice and early. The air was thick with dewy, misty cold fog. It wasn't quite raining, but it wasn't quite not raining either. I will have to ask Shelly was this type of weather is called, as I'm sure my boyfriend's term, "pissing," while descriptive is not accurate.
So, not only would there be 1,500 feet of tough climbing per lap in this race, there would also be 1,500 feet of sketchy wet descending. And the climbing is tough. The two bumps on Stage road are one thing. Early in the race the road rolls up, descends then climbs steeply but quickly before a rough descent. Then the course flattens before approaching the main climb, Haskins Hill. This is the kind of climb that if you are out riding it on a leisurely Sunday ride, you would enjoy. Straight through a redwoody, ferny lush green forest, the road pitches up at a nice constant grade. But in a race, this hill is one long suffer session; scenery be damned!
My race did not last long. The mist on my rx glasses obscured my vision and I attempted to correct it on the first descent. I got the lenses cleared in time to see the group up ahead of me climbing the 2nd pitch of Stage. oops. I was supposed to be in front on this climb so I could do the drift back and hang on. Instead I was chasing up a climb. Ummm..no. The group was spitting distance in front of me but they might as well have been miles away. When I crested the descent, the group that was right there, was nowhere to be seen. damn.
As I approached the long flat section, I sat up and waited for a group of girls to catch me so that I would have some company. (I didn't see you Laura, I swear!) Three girls tagged on and off we went. At one point we pulled close to the lead group, but then they were gone again. On the climb, we dropped one of the girls, but two of the girls dropped me. I tried to keep them in sight, and once I crested the hill, I took off down the descent after them. The roads were wet, but this descent was fun. It had perfectly-balanced turns that while steep and swoopy were very predictable. I immediately caught and flew past Carrie and then caught Bridget. Bridget and I descended together, and Bridget was kind enough to point out the Flamingo House. I'm so glad she did. This house, nestled in the woods above Pescadero Creek had the ultimata Flamingo Yard. Hundreds of the tacky plastic birds adorned the yard, roof, trees, fence, creekbed. Their bright pink tropicalness looked so silly contrasted with the fog and coastal ferns.
Carrie caught back up to us and our sightseeing was over. Carrie was strong and helped us push the pace. As we neared the Stage Road climb, Bridget, who was becoming my Official Pescadero Road Race tour guide, pointed out the skeleton. The skeleton stood in the front yard of one of the homes. The giant metal sculpture stood about 12 feet tall and sported a giant machine gun. It reminded me of those sword fighting skeletons in the Sinbad (or was it Jason and the Argonauts?) movie, except this one was all modern with an M-15. Again, I was struck by the contrast between the menacing sculpture and the white picket fence it stood behind. Very bizarre.
And before we knew it, we were at the foot of the climb. I was relieved in a way, because although there would be climbing, it also meant the race was almost over. My two companions quickly dropped me again. But this time I didn't try to keep them in sight as there would be no descent to catch them on. I climbed alone and could hear my rhythmic breathing, I could hear the rain/dew/mist dropping from the trees, I could hear the leaves scrunching from birds (flamingos perhaps?) or squirrels. I saw some people emerge from one of the dense trails and wondered how sweet that piece of singletrack would be right now. And before I knew it I was at the top and my training ride race was over. Whew, I guess.
At the top I learned that Shelly won our race (Hey Yukie, it's Shelly not Cherry). Shelly won the prime and the race to the top. Way to go Shelly Belly! (Cherry Berry?). In the 4s race, a pack of about 10 or so hit the final climb together with the top 3 riding neck-and-neck until the last 200K. Dana hung on but couldn't quite come around the winner, whom she beat the first lap to the top. Dana finished a solid 2nd. And new Velo Bellan, Monica Flesher, impressed the hell out of us with a 3rd place finish! Also in that strong lead group of 4s was Elizabeth Caraker and Emily Catchpole. And in the Women 40+, soon to be Velo Bellan, Jessie Hickel, finished in 2nd place.
All total, we had 3 women in the 3s, 5 women in the 4s, and 2 women in the 40+. Regardless of results, I would call that a successful day for our little team.
After the race, we stopped at the Arcangeli Grocery Store just in time to pick up loaves of bread straight out of the oven. This is what they mean when they talk about Manna from Heaven. Alan and I tore the warm olive-oily loaf apart and killed it before we even reached Santa Cruz. Sure beats apples.
06/17/02 - NORBA NCS #2
Susy Pryde Update from Sabine
"Ah man, that was hard! I hope it's not raining in West Virginia" said Susy as she prepared to leave Wisconsin for NORBA #3 in West Virginia. Seems Susy was one of many victims of the rain and mud of Wisconsin. She had several falls early in the race which took her out of contention and says the rest of the race was survival and finishing. Susy rode, pushed, scrambled and even slid on her ass to finish 20th for the day.
She enjoyed a front roll call up in the following day's short track but
unfortunately skipped some gears at the starting rush. The course didn't offer too many passing opportunities, but she managed to get herself back up to the lead group. Unfortunately, Luna Chix didn't want her there and Kelli Emmet attacked as soon as Susy touched up. Susy hadn't had a chance to recover from her effort and couldn't respond to the acceleration. She hung onto her position though and finished in 8th place. Although she was disappointed to be a victim of team tactics, she was excited to see its use in the Short Track event.
Susy now stands in 8th place in the series for Cross Country and in 3rd place in the Short Track...stay tuned for West Virginia results next weekend.
Report by Shelly Whisenhant
We flew in to Chicago Wed. afternoon, rented this really "manly" (that was Petra's description) 4x4 pick up at the airport and followed our overly-detailed yet very accurate Mapquest directions to our motel. The next day after waking up to rain, we loaded up and headed to the venue. The venue was quite remote in the middle of farm country. We kept looking for a mountain, but only found a hill with a little ski gondola at the top. It even appeared that they had to dig a big hole at the bottom of this hill to make it higher. The venue was pretty low-key had only one small NORBA NCS sign on the main road into the ski area that we almost missed. Anyway, it rained until we started pre-riding, which was bad because boy was it muddy.
The pre-ride was totally peanut-butter/build-up on your wheels until they were a foot-wide, clog-up-your-drivetrain-and brakes mud. After the first 2 miles on the pre-ride, we could barely even push our bikes (and they weighed like 100 lbs) so we headed to the bike wash for an intermission cleaning. The rest of the pre-ride was better since the course was beginning to dry up enough to overcome the peanut-butter effect, but still pretty slick and muddy. We were glad to get it over with after doing the 7 kms in an hour plus!!
It rained again Thursday night pretty good, and we thought it would be really bad for the race, but it turned out to be really rideable!! It was still really technical, tough and muddy but not enough to mess up your shifting or get too clogged up in your bike. The course was kind of a 4-leaf clover centered around the venue. The leaves, however, were not equally shaped or sized. For the first loop, you went through start finish then across to the front side of the venue for the last little short loop that was just a steep, steep single track climb and an off-camber steep decent back out. All rideable except for the very top of the climb which was still really slick mud.
The second loop was called "heifer" something, but I called it dead heifer after the climb at that old knobular course in Fairfax/Marin. Steep double/single track granny gear climb mostly in the open, then at the top into up-and-down single track through the trees. This loop was not as muddy as the skunk loop, so we could ride it for the most part. There was a steep no-fear type drop in this loop, with a big log drop off in the middle that most people walked (me too). There was also a spot called "cheese grater" which was a 50 ft. section of babyhead plus size rocks that was not rideable, then a steep hike up the other side. This loop was pretty fun.
The third longest and hardest loop was called the skunk loop. We didn't see any skunks though. It was really tight, granny-gear climbing single track up and really off-camber tricky decent back down. The trail was lined with these little sapling trees that would grab your arm or handle bar if you weren't careful. Lots of slippery roots. There was a tricky 10-foot drop into a little creek and straight up the other side and another creek crossing (somebody put two pink flamingo decor statues next to this one for our viewing pleasure) that was a mud bog then steep, steep climb up the other side. A few other spots with roots/mud that made the cross skills a necessity.
The next loop was short that started with a fire-road climb through the feed zone, then into tight single track that was all mostly rideable. Then back through to the venue and start-finish.
For the race, we did what they called 3 1/2 laps, but the half loop was
everything except the first really short loop, so it was really almost four laps. The race was long, about 2:45 - 3:00 for us. I had a few little spills during the race but no major biffs or bike problems to slow me down. I finished right behind Nancy Busching again (no sprint at the end this time though), for 27th. there seemed to be a lot of east coast girls filling in the gaps between 10th and 20th this time from what I could see. There were about 60 starters, which was about like at Big Bear. Petra had a couple of good biffs and ended up 39th for Team Trek.
We bailed on Saturday before the Short Track, opting to save our $100 and miss our 5 minutes of fame. We both felt pretty beat up from the CC anyway. I had a blast, and it was fun to race something besides dry and sand! The fans in cheeseland were AWESOME! And we were NOT in a cycling town by any stretch of the imagination - we didn't see one other cyclist anywhere besides at the venue. They were all over the course and were yelling for every racer as we came by. People in the little town we stayed in were really friendly, too.
06/01/02 - Way to TalGO!!
Susys road team, Talgo America, pulled their second upset of the year this weekend when new teammate, Dede Demet-Barry, beat the Worlds top women at the Montreal World Cup. Montreal is considered one of the hardest races in the World Cup circuit, but that didnt seem to faze this feisty team. This upstart team has a fraction of the budget of teams such as Saturn but twice the heart (and lungs). Talgo rounded out the success by placing three of their riders in the top twenty, including Susy at 19th. Read Chris' Report and Susys comments on the weekend. Read the Velonews story. Choo-Choo!!
06/01/02 - Montreal World Cup
Report from Chris Drake
Great News ! On a sunny and blustery Montreal Spring Day, Dede Demet Barry of the Talgo America cycling team stood victorious on top of the Montreal World Cup rostrum. Dede Conquered all 105
competitors, crossing the line solo to the cheers of thousands of French speaking Canadian cycling fans crowding the summit of the
famous Mt Royal climb. Her remarkable victory was achieved after a 20 month absence from racing and only two small training events as final preparation.
Talgo was always represented for the entire race in the front 20 of the worlds best riders. Susy Pryde and Sue Palmer-Komar provided excellent support roles. Joan Wilson also excelled with an exceptional 31st place. Eventually Talgo ended their glorious day as one of only two teams to have 3 riders placed amongst the first 20 finishers. If recollection is also correct, Talgo are the first non-UCI Registered Team / National Team to score a World Cup victory in women's cycling.
CIRCUIT RACE STATS:
12 laps x 8km
2.5km climb-each lap
World Cup Road- Round 6 / June 1 2002
Montreal Canada
Distance 96km
Starters: 105
Abandons: 11
Outside time limit: 33
CIRCUIT HISTORY:
1976 Olympic Road Race Course - Winner Sweden.
Formerly used for the Men's professional racing over the 1980's. And more recently in the mens 'Tour of Canada' The circuit now used by the female competitors is about 7-8km shorter than the first edition. Many cycling enthusiasts consider the new abbreviated version more demanding. As the competitors today do not have the former luxury of any flat recovery section before recommencing the main climb.
RESULTS:
1. Deirdre Demet-Barry (USA) TalgoAmerica.com 2.58.16 (33.12 km/h)
2 Anna Millward (Aus) Saturn - 0.39
3 Geneviève Jeanson (Can) RONA -1.02
4 Mirjam Melchers (Ned) Dutch National -1.04
5 Judith Arndt (Ger) Saturn
19 Susy Pryde (NZl) TalgoAmerica.com -1.28
20 Susan Palmer-Komar (Can) TalgoAmerica.com - 1.47
Also Joan Wilson - 31st
Meredith Miller - 55th
Quick email from Susy on the event:
"Today was hell, but I thanked God that we had a head wind up the hill so that the mountain goats couldn't completely turn the screws. Dede won!!! We are all a bit stunned at the moment but are about to set out for a big knees up...better go and put on something a little more dapper."
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