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Colavita/Sutter Home Women’s Cycling Team Presented by Cooking Light on the Podium in All Three Stages of
Central Valley Classic
Tina Pic Wins First and Third Stages; Dotsie Bausch Takes Second Behind World Champion Bronze Medalist in Time TrialCentral Valley Classic (CA)
March 9-11, 2007
Race report by Jim Williams
Photo: Mitch Friedman/www.mitchophoto.comStage Three –
Tower District Criterium: Tina Pic’s win in today’s criterium is a victory not only for Tina and her teammates on the Colavita/Sutter Home Women’s Cycling Team presented by Cooking Light but also breast cancer patients and their families. For every race win that Tina achieves this year on her custom-made pink Blue Competition bicycle, co-title sponsor Sutter Home Winery will donate $1,000 to the City of Hope, an innovative medical center dedicated to research to find the causes of and cures for breast cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Today in the final race of the Central Valley Classic, Tina won a hotly-contested sprint over T-Mobile’s Susan De Goede. The general classification for the race was set yesterday with Webcor's Christine Thorburn holding a 23-second lead over Colavita/Sutter Home’s Dotsie Bausch in the time trail. With only 20 seconds total in time bonuses on the line today, it was unlikely that there would be any change in the GC. The Aaron’s team was very aggressive trying to get one of its riders off the front but with the combined efforts of Webcor and Colavita/Sutter Home, no one was able to get away. The Colavita/Sutter Home team went to the front of the race with two laps to go and competed with the trains of Lipton and T-Mobile. Rounding the last corner of the race was De Goede, followed first by Tina Pic, who was able to sneak out of the T-Mobile rider’s draft and nip her at the line. Kori Seehafer of Lipton was third with Colavita/Sutter Home’s Mackenzie Dickey finishing fifth on the stage. The final GC saw Thorburn retain her 1st place status, followed by Colavita/Sutter Home’s Dotsie Bausch in 2nd, Alison Powers in 4th and Tina Pic in 7th.
Stage Two –
Mitch Friedman/www.mitchophoto.com
Belmont-Piedra, Individual Time Trial: The Colavita/Sutter Home Women’s Cycling Team presented by Cooking Light went into today’s time trail with the hope of trading the race leader’s jersey from Tina Pic’s shoulders to one of its three general classification riders. The job would be tough as they would have to beat Webcor’s Christine Thorburn, the bronze medalist in the 2006 World Championships in the time trail. The course was a long, 16-mile solo effort that only the strong would survive. Thorburn prevailed to win the stage and the race leader’s jersey but not without great effort as the Colavita/Sutter Home riders pushed her to the limit. Dotsie Bausch, fresh off her recent win at the Geelong Tour time trail, finished just 23 seconds down on the stage and took the second step of the podium. Thorburn’s Webcor teammate Katheryn Curi, back after an injury that plagued her throughout the 2006 season, finished third and Colavita/Sutter Home’s Alison Powers took fourth. Tina Pic had a great ride to finish in the top 10.
Stage One –
Raymond Granite Road Race, 54.4km Raymond, CA: The Central Valley Classic is a stage race on time this year and with the first stage being a road race, the first of the 100+women to finish the two laps of the 33-mile circuit would pull on the leader’s jersey. The Colavita/Sutter Home Women’s Cycling Team presented by Cooking Light aimed to get its GC riders into a position where they could used their strength in the time trial in Stage Two to compete for the overall. The team had mountain ace Andrea Dvorak push the pace every time the course tilted upward to fatigue the legs of the other riders. The high pace set by the Colavita/Sutter Home team prevented any breakaways or threats from occurring and the group was together at the base of the climb at the start of the second lap. The team first sent Sarah Tillotson and then Andrea to the front to launch its climbers. After the two had done their job, Dotsie Bausch went to the front of the field and stretched it thin. Dotsie pulled away and a group of 15 including teammates Alison Powers, Alex Wrubleski, and Tina Pic gave chase. Rather than spending the rest of the day out alone, Dotsie sat up for her teammates. A group of 15 caught up to form a leading pack of about 30. As the racers covered the remaining rolling terrain, a break of seven developed that contained Feclia Gomez of Aaron’s, Stacey Marple of Tibco, Kim Anderson of T-Mobile, Mara Abbott of Webcor, Chrissy Ruiter of Cheerwine, Kristen Lasasso of Lipton, and Colavita/Sutter Home’s Alison Powers. Both the Webcor rider and the Lipton rider were sitting on the break dangled off the front by about 45 seconds until the Webcor Team starting chasing. The break started attacking each other and after three attacks by Alison Powers and a strong counter by T-Mobile’s Kim Anderson, Alison was dropped by the group and Colavita/Sutter Home switched gears and started a lead-out for its sprinter Tina Pic. Alex Wrubleski hit the front for over a mile and brought the remaining breakaway riders into the peloton’s grasp and then her teammates formed a train that competed with the Lipton train. In the end, it was Colavita/Sutter Home’s Tina Pic taking the win ahead of Tibco’s Brooke Miller, with Kelly Benjamin of Cheerwine in third. Tina’s win gave her the race leader’s jersey but also added another $1,000 to co-title sponsor Sutter Home Winery’s donation to City of Hope for breast cancer research.
