Sept 4 - Giro di San Francisco
Race info

Results

Photos:McBomb,  BrokenStar57,  Kevin King,  Itacud Imaging,  Chris Patterson, 
Exodus Images by Stephen Lam

Reports: 35+ 123 report by Larry Nolan, AMD-Discovery Channel Masters,
Women's 123 report by Shelley Olds, PROMAN/Paradigm Women's Cycling Team

35+ 123 report by Larry Nolan

Another race within a race at the Giro di San Francisco - Larry Nolan,  AMD-Discovery Channel Masters

The California Cup really spices up our end of the season races as riders have multiple agendas. Finish off the year, win one last race, win the Cal Cup or win the NCNCA Premiere Series. Great stuff. Well, yesterday’s Giro di San Francisco could have been a race within a race within a race but Kevin Metcalfe (Pacific) had already wrapped up the Cal Cup with his win at the Challenge Road Race. That left us to fight out the race win and the NCNCA Premiere series.

The Giro is a worthy classic of this series because we get the rare opportunity to race in downtown San Francisco, and we have been doing so for 32 years. On the NCNCA Premiere Series front Billy Clark (Morgan Stanley) headed into the M35+ Giro with a comfortable 12 point lead over Jeff Angerman (Spine), and 16 points more than me.

On paper, this race typically ends in a field sprint but I have too much respect for the Billy’s sprint and his powerful teammates to head into a field sprint so I wanted to get up the road. Teammates Peter Allen and Mike McCarthy joined me in the M35 hunt for points. I thought Safeway and Team Spine might want to get up the road as well. Safeway had lost the Cal Cup, and their best-placed rider (Roger Bennett) was sitting in sixth, a whopping 27 points behind Billy. Jeff Angerman was on a shorter leash than I was so Scott Derenger (Mako and 4th on points) and I attacked with nine to go hoping to draw some Safeway muscle with us. Instead Russell Clark (Morgan Stanley) hopped on to mark our breakaway attempt. Our gap hung at 10 to 15 seconds. Stubbornly we continued. With four to go, our break was slowing when out of the pack, Mike McCarthy joins us and immediately does a one lap pull. Back to 15 seconds, but upon his return into the rotation Mike confused Russell for Billy and started to gap him off the back. This playfulness was enough to stall our break and we were caught with a lap and a half to go. Peter took over and led us into the bell and up through turn four but then the Safeway boys took control. Mike inserted himself into 2nd coming out of turn six but the Safeway boys rolled to the line 1-2-3 (Roger, Jeff Poulson and Dean Peters). Jeff was 4th, Mike held on for 5th, Billy was 6th, Scott was 7th and I limped across in 10th. The Safeway sweep really threw a wrench in points tally.

Now the fun begins… Billy is in the lead by just 7 points over Jeff and 8 points over Roger. Looks like a Morgan Stanley, Team Spine, Safeway showdown! Of course, we are wondering how AMD figures into the points(?). The nine event NCNCA Premiere series concludes at the San Rafael criterium this coming Saturday.

Women's 123 report by Shelley Olds,  PROMAN/Paradigm Women's Cycling Team

The Giro di San Francisco is definitely one of my favorite races. As the final race in the Cal Cup, it attracts all the best riders and it's location right downtown in the beautiful city of San Francisco brings an enthusiastic crowd. In fact, the best part of this race was the spectators.

I was racing to defend my lead in the NCNCA Premiere series, so I had intentions of finishing in the top five at least and had the support of several teammates. From the beginning of the race until the end, there were attacks from all the strong teams.

Webcor-Platinum's Christine Thorburn initiated several attacks and managed to get into a break with representation from all of the strong teams.

With about nine laps to go, I realized the field was not trying to bring the break back and so I decided to bridge up to the break. Once across the gap I was now a part of a six person break and the field was not far behind and gaining on us, Palo Alto's Stacy Marple refused to be caught and so she attacked hard and the rest of us followed. Now we had opened up the gap again but no one else was willing to pull through, so I jumped and powered up the hill to keep the group motivated to stay away. I looked back and I had opened up a small gap from the rest of the break and I yelled to them to catch on. Through the start finish I still had a small gap and it wasn't until the bottom of the hill that I looked back again and saw the rest of the group behind me disorganized and looking at each other. That's when I knew I could win the race. I turned back around, powered up the hill, and immediately put my head down to time-trial the last 3 laps to the finish. I heard the announcer on the loud speaker saying that the field would not be able to catch the break and I knew I had at least twelve seconds on the break. The crowds inspired me on every corner to keep going. When I came through the start finish with one lap to go, the crowd cheered louder than ever and I knew I had won. It was truly an amazing feeling to win the Giro di San Francisco and to be looking forward to the conclusion of the NCNCA Premiere series knowing PROMAN had secured the top spot.

Thanks for reading,
Shelley Olds, PROMAN/Paradigm Women's Cycling Team

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