Hill aggression

Brown went to Wisconsin for the second of a two week series for the womens pro/1/2/3 field at the International Cycling Classic, also known as “Superweek.” Arriving on the 18th to Schiltz Park and finding overcast skies and a power climb, she couldn’t have been happier. Brown attacked from the gun and arrived at the top of the hill with a gap and took off. Another rider joined her on lap 3 and critical breakaway power, Kristin Wentworth from Team Kenda, bridged up a few laps later. Together Wentworth and Brown ended up lapping the field with Wentworth giving the win to Brown.

Although Brown attacked and tried many breakaway attempts the rest of the week, only one other ended with a podium finish — the 8-corner Racine criterium for third.

Winning the top amateur award was a goal realized for Mercy's Sydney Brown.

Mercy Cycling Team’s Sydney Brown won the top amateur award at the 2009 Nature Valley Grand Prix as part of the Nature Valley Pro Ride team. Last year she finished 8th in this competition and a win was a goal achieved. Read her race report on her blog

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The next day, she race the criterium and although she tried everything she knew, she ended up out-sprinted by one of her breakaway companions by the width of a tire and had to settle for 2nd.

During the week…Pam is Dr. Hinton at the University of Missouri where she teaches nutritional science courses.

Favorite-

food- ice cream
drink- diet Mnt. Dew
movie/ book - East of Eden; Sophie Scroll
riding vacation- TX hill country
music- U2

Watch out. Gloves may keep hands clean, but if you forget, you might end up with a greasy face.

Riding to work today on the Waterford, which has an internal hub, but functions like a singlespeed, and a bolt had come a little loose, allowing the chain too much slack. I went over a bump and the chain came off. Normally, this is no big deal, but without a derailleur and sans crescent wrench it, my commute to work suddenly looked like a walk with a lot of stuff to carry. Fortunately – I thought – I was by a busy Burger King and street and looking girly in a skirt and boots. Surely someone would at least stop and ask if I was ok when they noticed me poking at the chain. However, I must have looked like I had it under control because NO ONE stopped.

“For crying out loud!” I thought as cars and even trucks went in and out of the restaurant. Then I spied a 2×4 jutting out from a nearby light pole. I hung my bike from the saddle and tried to figure out how to get that chain back on the rear cog. I finally resorted to brute force and by rotating the cranks backwards while pulling the chain towards me as hard as I could, the chain returned to its proper position and I continued on my way.

Upon arriving at work and catching the glance of a grade student across the hall, I went and checked my face in the bathroom. Sure enough, grease on my face, hands and forearms. I guess I forgot it was on my gloves and in the course of getting my bags off my back got it everywhere.

Lesson learned….always carry your fix-it bag, even if it is only 7 minutes to work. Oh, and if you’re really cool, you’ll keep some little ‘fix-it’ gloves in your bag so you don’t sully your fashionable mitts.

Hinton, Rhoades and Jensen finish up breakfast and the morning meeting.

The women of Mercy Cycling 2009 met this weekend in Fort Smith, Arkansas to spend a couple of days getting to know each other better and put in some fair weather hours on the road, including a Sunday afternoon trip up Mt. Gaylor.

This year’s line-up brings back Michelle Jensen, Jennifer (Herrell) Rhoades and Pamela Hinton. Rumor has it that Melissa Cox will be joining the squad later in the season and Nebraska’s Sydney Brown and Iowa’s Lindsay Wetzel round out the team for this season.

The team finalized its calendar and will kick it off with a full squad at Hillsboro-Roubaix, April 4th. Other season highlights include the Joe Martin Stage Race, Tulsa Tough, Masters Nationals, Tour of Kansas City and the Gateway Cup.

Mercy riders will also be spotted at various other races with Wetzel and Brown covering the northern region and Hinton, Jensen, Rhoades and Cox laying it down in the south.  For more information about the team, contact Hector Mendoza at hector.mendoza@mercy.net.

Race report from our riders taking part in the annual Queen City Criteriums in Springfield MO

Saturdays Race
Donning the new PINK Mercy kits, Pam, Jennifer and Michelle had a plan: get first, second and third. The course was technical and well designed and with the rain we realized that the best place to attack was on the start finish stretch since it was a hill and the longest section. For the first prime Jennifer took off; however Molly rocketed past, grabbed the money and ran. Pam followed her with Michelle racing to catch. Inching closer Molly stepped on the gas and opened the gap. Rejoining Jennifer and one other racer, the race calmed. Then Jennifer attacked speeding up the road and a few laps later Michelle jumped to join her and off they rode. Afterward Pam said she tried everything to attack Molly but she would counter and then took a risk in the last brick laid corner to take the win. Michelle and Jenn finished third and fourth. Time to wring out the new kits and get a refreshing recovery drink- Snapple!

Sundays Race

With the sun shining and our legs a little stiff from the wet race the night before we were ready to try out the plan a second time. The Queen City course was short and technically only had two corners, the first and last since the others were sweepers; plus, there was a downhill on one side and a slight uphill on the start finish stretch. So we had the same plan, attack! We didn’t want the same situation as Saturday so each time Molly closed the gap the others would shut it down and counter attack. Taking all three primes, we felt more confident for the final sprint. Molly had a few other racers who helped pull so she didn’t have to do all the work but she did 75% probably. After attacking nearly every lap we came down to the final three laps and waited. But perhaps everyone got a chance to recover except Pam on the front of the lead out. Jumping first in that last corner on the inside was the way to win and Molly beat us to it. Jen shot out from behind the group and took second followed by Michelle. Pam hung on after leading the last laps an placed fifth. Well that didn’t go according to plan; we tried to rehash what we could have done differently and decided that we did what we should have done. We’ll get another chance in a few weeks.

For the omnium Jen took third and Michelle second.

This afternoon, Pam made contact with us… she’s alive... In a field of over 1000 athletes (mostly Male as noted by Pam), she finished in a time of 11 Hours and 11 Minutes with a final placing of 484th !! What a fantastic result.

Pam commented that “this was by far the hardest bike race I’ve ever done. But, I’m going back next year—knowing the course and getting more comfortable on my mountain bike—especially the crazy descents—will make a difference“.

She also noted that lining up beside the one and only Lance Armstrong was certainly a highlight for her trip into the Rocky Mountains.

Great Ride Pam !!