NOW women's race report for Paramount State Crit Championship

Dearest Team:

Grey hair; reading glasses; sweater vests, none of these were present at today’s Paramount Grand Prix Master’s State championship. Some of the eldest and wisest in the sport rubbed elbows for roughly one hour vying for the Master’s state champion jersey (luckily the Paramount race organizers were kind enough to include races for us young grasshoppers). After a fabulous weekend in Santa Barbara; Lauren Liscinski and I lined up for the start of the Women’s pro/1/2 race, alongside recent (read: under 60 minutes prior) third place state champ Louise Koeghan (she raced in a master’s category. . .I’ll let you decide which one).


Incycle; LaGrange; Helen’s, all the SoCal teams represented and ready to race, as soon as the gun went off, the attacks began. Our race strategy. . .oh wait, that’s classified info. . .the short of it is: we covered moves, made sure to be in all the breaks and even got our elder star Louise off the front for a brutal 2 laps! For those two laps, no one, could stay with her; unfortunately her run came to an end, however, it was THE perfect set up for a nine woman break which included both Lauren and I. Being the only team with two riders in the break (go us!) we were responsible to keep the break moving. This we’ll just say. . .didn’t happen as planned, and we were brought back with a mere three laps to go.

The peleton was itching for a sprint finish; I’m talking about the kind of itch Gold Bond just doesn’t fix, and the women of NOW MS-Society were right there in the mix! Lauren swooped up alongside me and said: something I couldn’t understand; but luckily I was on the same brainwave, I hopped on her wheel as she braved the wind. We pulled up near the InCycle lead out, and the bell rang for one to go, suddenly the pace shifted and we were fighting for 17th place?? Fortunately Lauren took another heroic effort and pulled me back up to the front. With two corners to go I wizzed by; she said: something else I couldn’t understand. . . .but fear not, I knew she wanted the win and I wasn’t going to disappoint. Just before the last corner Pam Schuster attacked hard and I jumped on her wheel; needless to say this wasn’t an easy task. As we rounded the final turn and started to sprint I jumped around her with all my might; the finish line only meters away, and try though I did, Priscilla Calderon (former NOW MS-Society rider) nabbed the win; I finished second, and Jen Weinbrecht third. What a race; great preparation for next weekend. Thanks for reading.



Yours Truly,

Julia Lafranchise