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Merco Cycling Classic - NE
USA, February 28-March 1, 2009
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Stage 3 - March 2: Women's foothills race, 115km
Teutenberg unbeatable in Merced
By Kirsten Robbins in Merced, California
Ina Yoko-Teutenberg scored another victory for Columbia-Highroad when she convincingly won the bunch sprint ahead of US national road and criterium champion, Brooke Miller (Tibco) and Laura Charmaeda (Team Swift). It was the fourth win of the early season for the squad's women, and a valuable contribution to the overall tally of 10 victories for Bob Stapleton's outfit.
"It's always good to have two wins early in the year," said Teutenberg, who tallied the womens' victories in a friendly, sibling-like rivalry. "We are catching up to the boys. Well, actually, percentage-wise we are better because they have more races and riders than we do."
Team Tibco displayed another solid lead-out, similar to that of the previous day, only this time they launched a surprise attack from Amber Rais, intended to foil Teutenberg's plan for success. "They gapped Amber at the top of the hill, trying to surprise us," said Teutenberg of the last 500 metres.
"I saw her straight away so I jumped up to her. I had a gap on Brooke so she had to do the same amount of work in the wind as I did. In the end I was able to sit on her wheel for another hundred metres and waited until she started sprinting to react. It was too long to the finish and I knew if Brooke was on me, after chasing down Amber, I wasn't going to win."
"I think we really lucked out with this weather today," said Miller. "It was a really hard race today and it could have been pouring rain but it held out."
According to Miller, her squad planned to use their numbers to force a breakaway. Rival teams with the same plan included Columbia-Highroad, Colavita-Sutter Home, Touchstone Climbing and Sugar CRM. "Yesterday we were working on being defensive and our lead-out and today we wanted to work on being offensive" said Miller who also worked on ‘chasing' the peloton after a missed start. "I'm not a good chaser because I'm a sprinter and I ended up having to chase the field for the first fifteen minutes."
The most significant breakaway of the day included Olivia Dillon (Touchstone Climbing), Kim Anderson (Columbia-Highroad), Kelly Benjamin (Colavita-Sutter Home) along with Ambar Rais and Katharine Carroll (Tibco). They gained a nearly one minute margin on the peloton on the second lap but without representation from all teams, the break was doomed and caught with half a lap to the finish.
"I don't think there was any one team being more aggressive than the rest," continued Teutenberg. "It was an aggressive race in general. Tibco always seemed to want to have two in the break. They are outnumbering us, which is fine, that is their tactic. We played our tactics too. Kim felt like she had to sit on the break in the end because she wasn't comfortable she could win out of it."
The peloton was animated the last five kilometres of the race, forming lead outs for their strong sprinters. "We did a perfectly executed lead-out and sent Ambar up the road to force Ina to have to chase," Miller said. "I got to sit on Ina and when I decided to go, I had no pop at all. I jumped and she probably laughed and thought, 'here let me show you how its done'."
Results
1 Ina Yoko Teutenberg (Team Columbia Highroad Women) 3.00.25 2 Brooke Miller (Team TIBCO) 0.01 3 Laura Charameda (All Sport - Team Swift) 4 Meredith Miller (Team TIBCO) 0.02 5 Lauren Tamayo (Team Tibco) 0.03 6 Vanessa Drigo (Hopkins Honda) 7 Beatriz Rodriguez (Kahala-LaGrange) 8 Lindsay Myers (Team SugarCRM) 0.04 9 Amanda Seigle (Metromint Cycling) 10 Kristen Lasasso (Unattached) 11 Alison Starnes (Dolce Vita Cycling) 12 Melodie Metzger (Vanderkitten) 13 Liza Rachetto (Team SugarCRM) 14 Olivia Dillon (Touchstone Climbing) 15 Megan Guarnier (PROMAN Racing) 16 Starla Teddergreen (Team SugarCRM) 17 Karla Kingsley (Team SugarCRM) 18 Kelly Benjamin (Colavita/Sutter Home p/b Cooki) 0.05 19 Alison Rosenthal (Team TIBCO) 0.06 20 Marina Kochevay (3rd Pillar) 0.07 21 Stacy Marple (Colavita Sutter Home P/B Cooki) 22 Mary Elizabeth Maroon (Vanderkitten) 0.08 23 Lauren Hecht (Webcor Alto Velo) 24 Yukie Nakamura (Metromint Cycling) 25 Kate Ligler (Dolce Vita) 26 Annie Malouin (Webcor Alto Velo) 27 Merce Pacios (Bicisprint) 0.09 28 Jennie Phillips (Wells Fargo Racing Team) 0.12 29 Laura Hines (Southern California Velo) 30 Morgan Kapp (Kahala LaGrange) 31 Janeen Thorpe (Chico Corsa / Sierra Nevada ) 32 Emily Zell (Value Act Capital) 33 Anny Henry (Metromint Cycling) 0.13 34 Elis Bradshaw (Metromint Cycling) 0.14 35 Katheryn Mattis (Webcor Builders) 36 Sarah Bamberger (Touchstone Climbing) 37 Emilia Fahlin (Team Columbia Highroad Women) 38 Christine Wehlburg (Latitude- ABRT) 0.15 39 Jennifer Van Muckey (Team SugarCRM) 40 Jerika Hutchinson (Team TIBCO) 0.17 41 Katharine Carroll (Team TIBCO) 0.22 42 Kimberley Anderson (Team Columbia Highroad Women) 43 Jessica Phillips (Unattached) 0.23 44 Nichole Wangsgard (Colavita Sutter Home P/B Cooki) 0.56 DNS Mary Ellen Ash (Team SugarCRM) DNS Rebecca Rising (Central Valley Cycling) DNS Jane Despas (Klein Real Estate) DNS Emily Thurston (NA) DNF Tracie Nelson (Dolce Vita) DNF Kimberly Fong (Team SugarCRM) DNF Megan Rathwell (Touchstone Climbing) DNF Maria Monica (Touchstone Climbing Cycling) DNF Betsy Bloom (Kahala La Grange) DNF Patricia Black (Morgan Stanley /Team Spine) DNF Kristina Seley (Touchstone Climbing) DNF Susannah Breen (wells fargo racing team) DNF Ashley Dymond (Pramar Hit Squad) DNF Shoshzunz Laxson (Local Ride) DNF Jennifer Greenberg (Vanderkitten)
