GIRO DI SAN FRANCISCO - WIN!

The Giro di San Francisco is definitely one of my favorite races. As the final race in the Cal Cup, it attracts all the best riders and it's location right downtown in the beautiful city of San Francisco brings an enthusiastic crowd. In fact, the best part of this race was the spectators. I was racing to defend my lead in the Premiere Series, so I had intentions of finishing in the top 5 at least and the support of several teammates. From the beginning of the race until the end, there were attacks from all the strong teams. Webcor-Platinum's Christine Thornburn initiated several attacks and managed to get into a break with representation from all of the strong teams. With about 9 laps to go, I realized the field was not trying to bring the break back and so I decided to bridge up to the break. Once across the gap I was now a part of a 6 person break and the field was not far behind and gaining on us, Palo Alto's Stacy Marple refused to be caught and so she attacked hard and the rest of us followed. Now we had opened up the gap again but no one else was willing to pull through, so I jumped and powered up the hill to keep the group motivated to stay away. I looked back and I had opened up a small gap from the rest of the break and I yelled to them to catch on. Through the start finish I still had a small gap and it wasn't until the bottom of the hill that I looked back again and saw the rest of the group behind me disorganized and looking at each other. That's when I knew I could win the race. I turned back around, powered up the hill, and immediately put my head down to time-trial the last 3 laps to the finish. I heard the announcer on the loud speaker saying that the field would not be able to catch the break and I knew I had at least 12 seconds on the break. The crowds inspired me on every corner to keep going. When I came through the start finish with 1 lap to go, the crowd cheered louder than ever and I knew I had won. It was truly an amazing feeling to win the Giro di San Francisco and to be looking forward to the teams last criterium of the season knowing we had won the NCNCA Premiere Series. - Shelley