From Anna...

Madera was my first ever stage race, and it was a great experience.Travelling and riding with the DBC team was great fun !! I felt like I had a tough day on Saturday, I wasn't very effective inthe crit (sprinted for both primes, but only came 2nd twice!), and the TT was pretty hard with all that wind and those annoying flat roads:-) The Womens team did amazing though, we had a great team train going in the crit, and Cary was attacking endlessly! Carol was flying at the end of the crit, leading the pack at super high pace with just2 laps to go. I think next time we need to save her for the bunch sprint finish, she would so easily make it to the top 5 or higher! Carol, I hope you are doing Land Park next week? Ruth and Cary both did amazing ITTs, as expected. Look at this:http://www.jpimages.biz/gallery/7612247_dLRuU#492638581_H9Ls4 ! I personally was struggling a lot in the TT. On the last miles with all that headwind, I felt as if I was going at about 5 mph. It waspainful! TTs on the flat are just not my thing! The road race on Sunday was amazing for me! It was my first ever win:-) The finish was made for me, the hilly last section and then a topof the hill finish. I attacked at the end of the 2nd lap over the hills section and stayed away on my own for about half a lap. When Iwas caught I tried to recover as much as possible to try it again onthe 3rd lap, and it just worked. No one could catch me up the hills :)The team support during the RR was superb! Especially Carol and TrudiH. (my real heroes of the day!!) worked fantastic, moving Ruth and mearound the bunch, chasing breaks, and doing the pace making at thefront when the race slowed down. They were so good, I think I wasfollowing DBC wheels all day long during the race, feeling safe andrelaxed! Great job! A good team makes such a difference, for sure! Iam also impressed by Michele chasing and catching the (cat 3 and 4!)field multiple times (!!!), Cary's attacks on the Roubaix section and Kelly's first ever race performance! Great team :) Greetings and thanks a lot also to Robin and Rod for organizing the team dinner on Saturday and everything else :) Looking forward to the next race with DBC now! Cheers,Anna