Sept 9 - Carrera de San Rafael
Race info

Photos:
Kevin King, 
Itacud Imaging, 
AbbiOrca.com photograpy, 
Denison Design, 
PK Photography, 
Chris Patterson - Jamfoto.net, 
Service Course Images - Tim Brennan, 
Exodus Images - Stephen Lam, 
California Giant Cycling Team

Results

Local news coverage

Reports:
A recap of the day's events by Josh Kadis
Women's 12 report by Rachel Lloyd, PROMAN/Paradigm Women's Cycling Team

LAINE AND LLOYD VICTORIOUS AS PRO CYCLING RETURNS TO SAN RAFAEL

San Rafael, Cal. (September 9), 2006 - Today's Pro30 Carrera de San Rafael treated a strong turnout of riders and spectators to a well received show as pro cycling returned to the downtown streets of Marin's largest city.

"The sidewalks were as crowded as we'd hoped for today, even after two years off. So this was an overwhelming reception and now we understand that we can become a legacy event for the community," said San Rafael resident Wil Matthews of race producer Grupo Carrera.

The Marin-based PROMAN/Paradigm team dominated the pro/elite women's race, with Fairfax' Rachel Lloyd taking the win ahead of teammate Shelly Olds of Los Gatos.

After an aggressive race, Lloyd and Holly Borowski, riding for McGuire/US Armed Forces, attacked out of an earlier break and opened a gap on the PROMAN-controlled field in the closing laps.

But on the last lap, Borowski was dropped and swept up by the field while Lloyd stayed away for a solo victory ahead of Olds, McGuire Cycling's Laura Charameda of Fulton and another PROMAN/Paradigm rider, Helene Drumm of San Anselmo

"I just started drilling it for the last lap, got a little gap on the hill and held it to the line," Lloyd recalled.

In the pro/elite men's race, the California Giant Strawberries/Village Peddler team placed two riders, Andy Jacques-Maynes (Watsonville) and John Hunt (Fairfax), in a group of five that lapped the field, then the team controlled the front of the race for the last dozen laps to set up Jacques-Maynes for the sprint.

But the race was far from decided, as the winning breakaway also contained Jacques-Maynes' twin brother Ben (Kodakgallery.com/Sierra Nevada), a San Jose resident who finished 7th in last weekend's USA Cycling Pro Championships, Health Net-Maxxis' veteran Mike Sayers of Sacramento, and race winner Owen Laine of Menlo Park, riding for BMC Racing.

After BMC Racing's Ken Hanson took a $1000 prize offered by Pro30 Funding CEO Bill Coleman with two laps to go, Sayers jumped to the front of the field on the back side of the course on the final lap and led through the last two corners with Laine on his wheel.

"I figured I'd just wait for someone to jump, hold their wheel and come around them if I could, and that's what happened," he described.

Sayers took his fifth second-place finish in San Rafael, ahead of Andy Jacques-Maynes, Ben Jacques-Maynes and Hunt.

Kodakgallery.com/Sierra Nevada's Jackson Stewart (Los Gatos) won the sprint for 6th ahead of Jelly Belly's Dave McCook (Mountain View).

Other winners on the day were Team Spine's Jeff Angermann in the elite Masters 35+ race, Alexis Alexander of PABW powered by TIBCO in the Women Cat 3 field, NorCal Velo's Sarah Miller in the Women Cat 4 race, Chris Carscadden (WTB/Santa Cruz/Fox) in the novice Masters 35+ race, Scotts Valley's Steven Reid (Easton/Specialized) in the Juniors 15-16 race, and San Rafael's own Zach Williams (Tieni Duro) in the Juniors 17-18.

The Pro30 Carrera de San Rafael was also the final event in the Northern California/Nevada Cycling Associations' nine-race NCNCA Premier Series.

Billy Clark (Morgan Stanley/24Hr Fitness/Specialized) beat today's winner Angermann on a tiebreaker to capture the series title for the elite Masters 35+ category.

In the elite women's category, Olds had clinched the series title even before taking second in San Rafael, while Symmetrics' Eric Wohlberg hung on to win the pro/elite men's series despite missing today's race due to team commitments.

Women's 12 Report by Rachel Lloyd

Of course I procrastinated working on my bike till the morning of the race and was changing tires and dialing in my shifting (by hanging my bike off of the clothesline in my backyard at 10:45 the morning of the race.) I then raced into San Rafael, registered and found Niki... in the back of an ambulance getting her arms shot full of benadryl for the bee sting she sustained on her TONGUE while warming up. What a bummer, I was looking forward to racing with her and an almost complete team (this was only possible, because I didn't end up racing much this summer, in fact my last crit was Cat's Hill crit, back in...May? This fact didn't boost my confidence in my ability to race well, but I suppose nobody will believe me when I say that anymore.

I found myself surprisingly nervous before the start, and tried to ease the apprehension by reminding myself that I would be racing for the team and that It didn't matter how I did, nor was I expected to win.

Our team plan was to race aggressively, attack repeatedly and force McGuire to chase down everything. This turned out to be their strategy as well. Helene attacked from the line and for the first 15 minutes it was basically attack after attack out of the (small) field countering every break that was brought back. Around 15 minutes in, a break of Helene, a Laura Charameda, and Lisa Hunt got up the road and we blocked. The gap was growing and the field seemed content to let it grow. At this time the announcers called out a field prime ($40) and Shelley and I were set up to go for it, she said "do you want to go for it?" I said sure and attacked into the two right hand slightly descending turns before the finishing straight. I instantly gapped the field (with Shelley blocking for me) and had a good little gap at the line to win the prime. I then just decided to bridge to the break, since I felt it would be silly to sit up and let the field catch me, it seemed like I was halfway between the field and the break anyways.

Well it took me three laps to bridge up and when I looked down at my clock and saw that we were only twenty minutes into the race, I realized I might have made a mistake. That was quite an effort to get up there and we ended up getting caught a couple of laps later as McGuire didn’t want two PROMAN gals up there. So I sat in for a few laps, and then Kristin was up the road in a break of three who we let stay up the road for a while. It seemed like we slowed quite a bit, but it allowed me to recover, so I didn't mind. By now we were maybe forty minutes in and I was hoping to see lap cards soon. Kristin's break got caught and Lori and Shelley started going on the attack, then with around ten laps to go I got back into the action and it seemed like I was covering everything, more than once me and Shelley were chasing a McGuire girl and then she would sit up (block) and yell "go Rachel" so I would go and then get caught only to have someone counter and find myself chasing that one as well. Now I realize that it is not wise to chase from the front, even though I am not a seasoned roadie, I have had these tactics used against me in cyclocross races (a few years back Carmen D'Alusio and Gina Hall would incessantly tag team me.) But I was racing for the team and I figured that Shelley or Helene would take the win in this race, so when Holly Borowski, McGuire/US Army attacked, I found I was the only PROMAN up there to respond and so I chased her.

What I didn't know was that Shelley and Helene (the awesome and smart teammates that they are) effectively blocked the field so that we got a gap and I sat on McGuire's wheel for a lap till she motioned me to pull through (with two laps to go) I said to myself : sure I'll pull through...I’ll rip right through these two turns, I instantly gapped her I decided to drill it. The finish bell lap rang... and up the last little hill legs burning.... ouch..... and windy back stretch... oh my golly gee!.... what's this...... no it can't be..... this is just too funny...... but it really looks like..... it's happening..... I am winning this crit! Oh, yeah put the arms in the air for the victory salute.

And that's pretty much how it happened! At least from my perspective, I had no intention of winning the race, I felt like I had rode way too hard to be able to have it for the finish. But with the awesome work of my teammates, it happened! My first criterium win! Shelley won the field sprint followed by Laura Charameda with Helene Drumm a close 4th, Kristin took 7th and Lori 15th.

Any one of the PROMAN gals could have won the race that day and it just happened that I was at the right spot when the move went and my teammates knew what to do! Thanks everyone for being out there cheering and supporting us! Thanks to the PROMAN/Paradigm team for being such a great group of girls to ride with. And thanks to Niki, our team manager, for doing all the work of putting the team together and securing such supportive sponsors... and allowing me to occasionally race with you guys! Shelley also secured the NCNCA Premiere Series and Helene was 2nd. What a great way to end the road season.

Thanks for reading.

–Rachel Lloyd

This text is a spacer to fix a browser compatibility issue with netscape and safari. This text is a spacer to fix a browser compatibility issue with netscape and safari.