Mercy Cycling Team – Elite Women

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.

Team News Brown, Cox, Hinton, Jensen, Rhoades, Wetzel

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.

Race Reports Hinton, Jensen, Rhoades

Pam Hinton just recently got the ‘all clear’ from her doctors to return to full time competitive bike racing. And in her first big test in almost a year, Pam stormed home to a fine solo victory at the prestigious Joe Martin NRC event in Fayetteville, AR.

Stage 1 was the traditional road race with 2 ascents of the infamous ‘Wall’. At the end of the stage, Pam rode home alone and crossed the line over 5 minutes ahead of the chasing riders.

Stage 2 was the Devils Den Uphill Time Trial. Pam had to settle for 4th with a time just 18 seconds behind the stage winner Katja Heinicke from Dallas TX.

Going in to the final Stage 3 criterium, Pam has a comfortable 5:30 lead. All going well, Pam should come out as the overall winner of the 2008 Joe Martin winner.

Stay tuned for updates as we get them…

In the Women Professional Cat 1/2 event, Michelle Jeanson from Lawrence KS is representing Mercy Cycling. We are still awaiting ‘official’ results to be published, so please hold tight until the results arrive…

Race Reports Hinton, Jensen

(2008-04-01) HELLS KITCHEN – FIRST RACE OF THE YEAR

Hells Kitchen RR was the first race of the 2008 season for the Mercy Elite Women’s Team. The results follow:

WOMEN CAT 1/2/3
Jennifer Herrell – 2nd
Michelle Jensen – 3rd
Nikane Mallea – 4th

Uncategorized Herrell, Jensen, Rhoades