Serving It Up

Bausch Betters Field, Cromwell Solos

The women of Colavita/Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light served it up on the road at the Sea Otter Classic on Friday and Saturday.

On Friday, Dotsie Bausch battled not only the field and extremely windy conditions during the 5 lap, 47 mile NRC Road Race, but also herself.

"We had a headwind on the climbs - it felt like the whole day there were crosswinds and headwinds; it was deceivingly windy," said Bausch of the external conditions, which were greatly overshadowed by her internal condition.

"I felt like crap the whole race. It was one of those days where if you feel really awful and you stand up, you can perform. Some days it can be a total sufferfest and you can win - that's what it was today."

On the final laps, Bausch was the only one to respond to the attack of Ruth Clemence (Simple Green) up the final climb of the penultimate lap, and eventually out kicked her breakaway companion to take the win by three seconds.

Today's SRAM Circuit Race saw Bausch's teammate, Tiffany Cromwell, out kick the field and solo to victory. The 19-year-old from Adelaide, Australia, who took the Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix earlier this week just ahead of teammate Iona Wynter Parks, drove an early break of 10 hard during the 22 lap race.

As ten eventually became two groups of five, Cromwell continued to stay well away from those in the first chase group. She would come to the line at approximately 1:30 ahead of the second place finisher.

Taking second was the recently featured team leader of PROMAN Racing, Shelley Olds. In the sprint, Shelley was able to overcome the remnants of the Cheerwine train [with a fading Laura Van Gilder] and TIBCO's Rachel Heal.


Results
1 Tiffany Cronwell (Colavita Olive Oil/Sutterhome)
2 Shelly Olds (Proman Women's Racing)
3 Rachel Heal (TIBCO)
4 Catherine Cheatley (Cheerwine)
5 Dotsie Bausch (Colavita Olive Oil/Sutterhome)
6 Stacy Marple (Cheerwine)
7 Tina Pic (Colavita Olive Oil/Sutterhome)
8 Brooke Miller (TIBCO)
9 Virginia Perkins (Proman Women's Racing)
10 Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine)

Photo: Kurt Harvey (bottom)