From Ruth...

Madera Stage Race There was a great group of Cat 4 women, with a clean crit (only one randomone-person crash), fast ITT times, and a lead road race pack that passed theCat 3 women! Women's cycling is really starting to take off this year, andit's exciting for me to be a part of it. This was my first time really working together with team mates, and it was a blast, especially in the road race. So much more enjoyable than racing by myself. Trudi was our the prime organizing force among the group that stayed in the lead pack throughout the road race (herself, Anna, Carol and I). Since Iwas 8th in the General Classification after the Crit and the Time Trial,Trudi always told me not to pull and worked all day to keep me and the others protected. When we were back in the pack, we would line up behind her and she would lead us up to a better position in the front. She alsorallied the whole pack quite effectively for chasing in attacks. Carol turned in a pretty impressive ITT, and along with Trudi did a great job working for the team in the road race. She took a lot of pulls(sometimes when no one else in the pack wanted to pull), and tried to take me with her on a break. She's a steady wheel and up for trying anything.She was also the only one in the pack in the road race with deep rims, so you could always tell she was close by when you heard the sound of the carbon rolling up. :) Anna is one of those people I kind of envy who thrives in the hills. She was not so happy on Saturday after the flat crit and the flat, windy ITT(the worst thing she's ever done in her life, she said). She showed up on Sunday morning with a huge smile on her face and practically jumping up and down after seeing the hills at the end of the loop. She got in a great solo breakaway on those hills at the end of the 2nd-to-last (2nd) lap, and afterrejoining the pack she regained the energy for a dominating 1st place at theline. Way to pick up a stage win for the team! Cary stayed true to her two priorities, protecting herself and trying to help the team. She attacked the pack relentlessly in the crit, and also putin a good effort at the ITT, placing 10th even after all of the solo attacking in the crit. In the road race she attacked on the "Roubaix"section, I believe on the second lap, with a huge solo flier. She is nowgoing into full-time triathlon focus, and Madera was her last racing withus, other than TTs. After her bad experience with the crash at Snelling, it was great to see her smiling on Sunday after the road race, saying she endedthe season of bike racing on a good note. Michele put in an impressive effort to bridge to the front group afterlosing contact in the rollers at the end of the first loop of the roadrace. After the second time through the rollers, she again put in aprolonged effort to bridge, reached a group of women...but unfortunately, itwas the Cat 3 women that we had passed. If not for that, I'm sure she wouldhave made it back again to work with us at the very end. Bridging gaps is ahuge mental challenge, and I was very impressed with her accomplishment.Great job, Michele! Kelly Calhoun impressed us all by doing a stage race as her first everrace. She literally did not know what she was signing up for - she sawthere was a race on a weekend she didn't have her kids and that there was aspot in the hotel room, so she signed up and then looked up the info on therace. She didn't seem at all intimidated, and raced the whole weekend witha great attitude. She got dropped in the road race, and said she found agreat group to ride with and got some lessons on group riding in theprocess. I had a pack finish in the crit, wished I'd put in an attack or two, but Idid manage to keep myself protected the whole time anyway (rather thantaking wind for no reason). Then was the ITT. Well, when you don't rideyour time trial bike from November to March, it feels a little differentthan it used to. My one practice on the TT bike pre-race was painful andslow, but it turned out that one ride brought back my TT ability somewhat.My ITT at Madera was faster and the pain was more what I was used to. I managed an 8th place finish. The road race was by far the most fun of the few road races I've done.Working with my team was great, and as I said earlier Trudi and Carol did agreat job protecting Anna and me (despite her lack of aero equipment andcomplete detest for time trialing, Anna is good at it and was 13th in the GCgoing into the road race). I made an attempt at a break during the lasttime through the Roubaix section. Anna tried to go with me and for a couple of reasons did not get on my wheel. I looked back and saw that I was aloneand the pack was not too far and chasing hard, so I decided to shut itdown. Anna pointed out later that the hard chase was really splitting apartthe pack, and it would have been down to about 10 in the lead group, butwhen I shut down my break the pack slowed and regrouped. She pointed outthat it would have been great if I hammered a little longer, shedding abunch of riders, and then when I inevitably got swallowed up, someone elsecould have gone. It's so hard to work out the right strategy in the moment,but by talking afterward about what worked and what didn't, hopefully we can pull off something really cool at some point. It was amazing to have people work for me at Madera, and I'm ready to work for the team at Bariani. I'll keep in mind what I learned, and commit to my breaks. From what I could tell, after the road race everyone was really happy withthe way things turned out. I was happy to keep my 8th place in the GC. Lastly, a big thanks to Robin for protesting as team director when VeloPromo listed me as DNP for the road race. Happy cycling,Ruth