Mothballs Criterium -Goleta, CA By Holly Breck

Mothballs is a short, flat, fast, "D" shaped course. Windy on the front straight and fast on the back side. Its exactly a 1k course and most the time if not careful breaks can stick and lap the feild. There where quite a few strong, fast women in our feild. Lisa, Amber, Pc and myself all had a plan, which was to watch and counter any attacks that had went, which we did beautifully.Lisa, Pc and Amber did a great job attacking and countering anyone who would try to go and Amber got out in a break soloing with some prem pick ups for a while. I was just trying to slow down anyone from trying to catch any of my teammates up the road. I guess my legs where a little dead after the RR the day prior so I did the best I could to help out. On the last lap is when it got a we bit hairy. Everyone gets all excited to sprint for the line. So around the first corner la Grange was on the front with Amber on the inside of  her,Pc to the left of Amber and myself on the other side of Pc. La Grange jumped Amber grabbed her wheel and I jumped on Ambers wheel.  Just before the last corner Amber attacks on La Grange, La Grange fights back and pinches me off of Ambers wheel, pushing me wide on the last corner sqeeking in a surf city girl in the mix as well. Now theres four of us barreling into the final straight,Amber doing all she can to lead me out so i swing out and sprint as hard as I can with Sruf city taking first La Grange taking second and myself taking third, Amber ended up fifth and lisa and pc pack finishs but with excellent attacks and counters throught the race. WOW!! Was I worked after that sprint. Though we didnt get the top spot on the podium we sure had alot of fun, worked well together and came away with some pretty awesome stuff. Thank you so much everyone for your help and the support. Until next time, keep the rubber side down

Race Report: Poor College Kids Road Race - January 28, 2012 By Amber Gaffney

Saturday was a beautiful day for a race- the weather was warm, but not hot, and the location of Poor College Kids gorgeous. We had four members of our team represented at this race: PC, Lisa, Holly, and myself. PC led our pre-race meeting and instructed us on our strategy: try to get two teammates in a move and stay near the front on the narrow road to ensure that we could manipulate the field (broadly).

            The race started on a downhill with a strict centerline rule enforced. I, of course, started near the back and watched as my teammates easily maneuvered up to the front, while I felt trapped and claustrophobic. I eventually made my way up to the front as well. The first 10 miles were pretty uneventful, except Lisa provided me with amazing advice (save your legs, don’t work too hard, and much more that proved to be very helpful later in the race!) Eventually, attacks started, many of which PC and Lisa instigated, and Holly countered. I did my best to join a move without chasing a teammate and pulling the field to her. A few failed breaks got swallowed up uneventfully.

The field was broken up when PC attacked, Lisa countered and then a few other women and I countered that. A group of five of us broke away (I had no idea we were in a break until we started taking turns pulling through). Our group of five was filled with strong riders and we started off taking easy and fast pulls, steadily increasing our gap. When we got to the rollers, I think that we increased our gap even more, which we confirmed with the motorcycle race official. It is really a different experience to be in a break knowing that your teammates are behind you. The knowledge that PC, Holly, and Lisa were working in the field and protecting the break gave me a huge amount of confidence that I hitherto had not felt in a race.

Our break made it to the turn around where our wonderful team support, Jacob and James, cheered me on and offered water. When we passed the field on the way back out to the course, I heard cheers from the rest of the team and I remembered to SPIN (seriously, I spun nearly the whole race), because I wanted to make PC proud. We lost one rider, and our break became four, with most of us pulling through and taking equal turns. When we hit the final set of rollers, there were a few attempts at attacks, which I held onto. Nearing the final turn, I knew that were down to a sprint (luckily, an uphill sprint). As we took off, I had no idea where the start finish was located, but I knew that I was in the lead… Except, I was caught and passed by half a wheel! Moral of my sprint: start earlier and go harder, because I felt that I had more to give. Second place did feel nice though.

I waited at the start finish for the field sprint. PC finished very strong in the sprint, with Holly not too far behind. PC is an animal- she finished looking very strong, but her legs were cramping (apparently since mile six). A sprint finish like that is amazing, but with the cramping, it was unbelievable that she looked so strong.

This was a great day. I think that we communicated well and both Lisa and PC showed amazing leadership both on the course and pre and post race. A great first road race of the season!

Race Report: Dominguez Hills, 22 June, 2012 - By Amber Gaffney

This is my first attempt at a race report and I am doing my best to follow Lisa’s lead. While I’m guessing that she has much smaller feet than I, her shoes for race reports are not easy to fill!

 Today at Dominguez Hills, I first raced the 3/4 race in search of my final Cat. 2 upgrade points and the much-needed experience of crit racing. Although I was without teammates in this race, I had PC’s voice ringing in my head, “SPIN!” I created a break and I worked with a few women and even did a little coaching of my own, telling another woman to spin to save her legs (I’m passing on the knowledge!). I had a big enough gap in this race that I was comfortable enough to work on my pedal stroke and I achieved my goals for this race, grabbing the win, the points, and the experience.

Now, for the fun race (the 1-3 where I got to race with the team)! Jenny and I had a very brief pre-race meeting and Bea and PC showed up just in time to line up and start the race. Jenny did a wonderful job of getting in an early break with Kristin Armstrong- this break was really all Kristin needed to be off on her path to eventually lapping the field. After Jenny rejoined the pack, she jumped on the front many times and helped to give my legs a break as we tried to bridge Kristin’s gap. PC had some amazing attacks, which helped to speed up the group. I did my best to listen to Bea’s words of wisdom during the race, which I find not only help me to learn to race crits, but also help to calm me down. In general, although the four of us raced well in this race, we could have benefitted from better communication, because as hard as each of us worked our moves were somewhat disparate and had we worked in unison and harnessed our abilities, I believe that our team would have placed higher than we did today.

I certainly learned a great deal in this second race and I was pleased with the fact that I actually initiated some attacks and I was less “squirrely” than I was at Ontario the previous weekend. Until I have a little more experience, I think that I could benefit from a thorough pre-race meeting to plan out a specific plan of action. I need this type of structure at this point, to ensure that I am making moves that benefit the team. In general, the experience of this race is invaluable, and racing with Bea, PC, and Jenny was a great experience. In addition, there is nothing that compares to witnessing the strength of a rider of Kristin Armstrong’s caliber. An exciting day!

Here’s to next weekend- Poor College Kids and Mothballs (for some of us at least)!

2012 Seasons starts strong!!!! - Race Report by Lisa Campbell

RACE REPORT ONTARIO SERIES #1   1/15/12

Well, it is my honor to write the first race report of the season for the SC Velo/Empower Coaching System’s women’s team. What a great day we had. There were 8 of us present, and that included our newest members…Amber Gaffney, Holly Breck and Jenny Rios. Also racing was our team manager Lea Adams, Bonnie Breeze, Not so PC Calderon,  Bea Rodriquez and myself. We had, as we always do, a pre race meeting to discuss our strategy. We were the biggest team out there in the field of 18 and wanted to control the race with attacks and at the same team get a feel for how the newest members liked to race and help them learn some great crit skills.

I have to admit that I was a little nervous on the starting line because it felt darn early for my legs to be following directions to “sprint”(it’s hard for my legs to follow those directions in July, let alone January).

From the gun PC was off, then it was, well, maybe me, to be honest I don’t really remember. I just know that everyone had a turn either attacking, or countering someone else’s attack. No one from the field got away except for our team. We had Lea out there for several laps, picking up some bonus points for the series and Bonnie got away for a bit too. If I forgot anyone I am sorry but after 2 or 3 attacks of my own I was in severe oxygen debt and I’m not sure what was on fire more, my lungs or my legs. Jenny, Holly and Amber did excellent. They listened to directions from the veterans on the team and executed beautifully during the race. After a few laps of all of us together, and me sitting at the back (because of the various burning body parts and all…) I got a little nervous. I don’t like being in the back and I also knew that I did not want to have to go to the line without one or some of us in a break. So with no idea what lap it was I launched what felt like a slow motion move…but it was into a headwind so luckily everyone else was moving in slow motion too. I didn’t dare look back til I was almost a lap out there alone and to my delight I did not see the field. Now I knew I had to work hard because there were 7 women behind me doing an amazing job of slowing down the race. I put my head down and ignored the very scary numbers on my heart rate monitor and flew past the start/finish. I was not so delirious that I didn’t notice that lap card said 3 to go. With a mix of intense fear (I had to do this 3 more times) mixed with overwhelming excitement (there was a chance that I might win a crit for my team??) I just kept going as hard as I could. No sense in saving anything. If they caught me my teammates would take over. On the last lap I stole another look back and I could see them…Crapola! I managed to reach a new heart rate max as I pushed just a little harder. Coming around the last and final turn, even though they were closing in I knew I had it thanks to all that orange,  white and  blue I saw in front of that pack….

It felt great to win, don’t get me wrong…but it feels just as good when it’s one of my teammates coming across the line first, because a win by one of us is a win by all of us and that is why I love this team. We had Holly, Amber, PC and Bea bringing in the rest of the top spots.

We missed the other four teammates and send  speedy, healing thoughts to our champion Pam who is recovering from wrist and elbow surgery, to our little speedster Tammy who is also on the mend, and Dotsie who is on the road to Olympic Gold, and Ruth our machine who will be out there with us soon putting the hurt on.

This is still the best group of women on wheels in southern California.