Bakersfield "The Final Day!"

The race reports are fast and furious these days. I'm just posting them as they come in. Great Job B Teamers! So read em all and leave some comments!

Hi all!

So today's race was scheduled to be 75 miles of hilly terrain (for those of you who raced way-back-when (I didn't, but I learned this from Mark Fennel's blog)--this is the old Woody course that they used to use for
the so-cal championships). There was about 2000 feet of climbing per
25 mile lap. However, due to a concensus among the 3s, with a brutal forecast for today (over 100 yet again), the race was shortened to 2 laps. So instead we had 50 miles with 4000 feet climb.

The race started on a neutral, because one of our field was in the port-a-potty, and seeing as we were in a nice mood, we started slow till she caught up! Once the race got underway, one of the girls in non-contention went to work attacking from the get-go. It made for a fun race. The course is a really fun one--almost the right combination of rollers, the best descents you could ever want, and lots of climbing. The descents were as fun as I remembered from last year, and I again managed to top my previous in-race top speed (53mph) on the fastest of them. (the new bike is speedy...) Unfortunately the climbing was just a bit too much for my non-climber self, and I got shelled on the first big hill. I caught a lot of people, though, until I was most certain that only 5 were in front of me. Unfortunately those five were speedy climbers, and there was no way I was catching them! And the folks behind me were too tired to do any work to add much, so I had over
25 miles solo ahead of me. The good news is, that Susie was in this
break! Susie will have to add her own race report to tell about what
went on there, but from what I heard, even with a mechanical, she still finished strong, and got 3rd in the stage, preserving her 2nd in GC. I held my 6th in GC as well.

We had a ton of fun. We stayed around for the awards ceremony, which for this race is quite extensive. Not only did we both take home cash, but Susie won a CLOCK for winning the TT, and even the LAST place finishers in each category get awards (the RED LANTERNS). It is a Velo Bob race, after all, so we all got t-shirts as well.

So there you have it. Another Kern women's stage race behind us. I think the Chickens were well represented. And Susie will be a 2 before we know it! She doesn't believe me...but I say, add up the points!
(really, Congrats, Susie--you had a fabulous race)

Cheers,
Kimberly