Giro di San Francisco

Oh my goodness sometimes it can be shocking how much time can change things- in this case the topic at hand is hotel room and elevator size. I am sure Denise will share photos at a later date but this race report would not be complete without the mention of the room that five of us all piled in to the night before the Giro di San Francisco. Let us start with the elevator- six, maybe seven (and Im being generous), square feet. Capacity- one person and theyre bike, with the bike upright. Claire being adamant about not taking the stairs before race day insisted on using the postage stamp style elevator so somehow we managed at one point to fit Kevin, myself, and Claire with Kevin and my bike upright- and no one took a deep breath until we rolled out of the device on the third floor and were once again allowed full lung capacity. On to the room we went, and although Claire had warned us about the nature of our sleeping quarters, we all burst out laughing when we realized that we were going to have to fit five people and their bikes into the allotted space. Thankfully Denise was- as usual- immensely prepared, and had brought an air mattress that fit snugly between the two double beds that we shoved to the walls in order to accommodate her twin blow-up. It was a hoot.

On to describe the race. We got there at a great time and scored a couple sweet parking spots right on the third corner of the course so Denise, Chandra and I all jumped on the course to warm up while mama Claire ran over and got us all registered with Denises pre-printed race waivers (always prepared!). None of us even had to take the time to wait around at registration and we just rode the course right up to the start time. The course itself is very cool, lots of turns and a decent little hill and a nice stretched out downhill, it kind of gave the mind a little something to think about other than the bursting of lungs and burning of legs. Our Chan Chan and Denise were shining stars of blue and orange winning primes and podium spots right and left! Yours truly was actually lapped by the field but its probably the best time Ive ever had getting lapped. I got dropped with about five laps to go on a prime lap and was feeling a bit dis-spirited when a VeloBella girl came pedaling along and hollered out the ol "lets work together" line. I jumped on her wheel and rested a bit, then came up front and pulled, then rested, then pulled. Round and round we went- the two of us forcing the other to get a decent work out- being cheered along by the fantastic crowd telling us we were doing a great job- and to keep working together. As the field came back around I jumped in and finished up with the rest of the girls which was a lot of fun too. Denise finished fourth and took a prime, and Chan also scored a sweet prime with all kinds of blazing glory (the closest girl was at least two bike lengths back). Our team got mentioned on almost every lap with either Denise or Chandra stealing the spot light- then they also mentioned my name a couple times because I came through the start/finish- VeloBella in tow- without much of a field to give the announcer anything else to talk about ;)

The second womens race starred Cathy and Rita once again putting our team in the spotlight- lap after lap they were consistently in great position at the front of the pack- often leading it! Cathy took a very proud 3rd!!! Rita made some awesome and strong breaks that had Caire and I yelling at the top of our lungs as they came round the bend.

For the final race that our team took part in I believe our newly appointed Ashley Staroba took sixth in the pro/1/2/3 field- and Cathy and Rita were amazons of endurance as they participated in this race too. I unfortuanately was not there to witness it because we had our poor pup at home all by himself for the first time overnight!

Thanks for reading kids- and thanks for being such a great team to be a part of- I sure know I wouldnt be doing all this if it werent for you!!

-Mariko

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