EMC2/Vellum Cycles Criterium

A beautiful, sunny day in Pleasanton. A good day for a bike race. I was a bit apprehensive about racing, having gone down at the Twilights five days prior. But I felt like I needed to race again as soon as physically possible, get right back on that proverbial horse.

Not a huge field, maybe about 25 or so. A few girls from Palo Alto, a few from Proman, a few McGuire, a couple Morgan Stanley girls, as well a couple Los Gatos girls. Off we went. Some attacks near the beginning of the race, but nothing that stuck. Then about halfway through the 50-minute crit, a break of 4 women took off... and they stayed away. At one point, they had nearly a minute on us. PABW, Proman, Morgan Stanley and LGBRC all had someone up there, so their teammates certainly did nothing to bring them back. Surprisingly, McGuire did not get more organized to try and chase down the break. What saved the race from being a complete waste of time was Katharine Maher from Morgan Stanley. Three-time collegiate national champion and formerly of Team Basis, Maher certainly picked up the pace when there was a pack prime on the line... or maybe just when she felt like it. And when this girl jumps, she really jumps. Now Maher was not going to do anything to jeopardize the breaks success in staying away (and I heard her teammate, who also has plenty of racing experience and ended up winning today, definitely put the hurt on the rest of the girls in the break), but when she surged, I know I had to work hard to keep up. But kept up I did, and then with about 1-1/2 laps to go, a couple girls attacked, so it was work, work, work to the finish.

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