Two other Team TIBCO riders earned strong results over the weekend flying the team colors solo.
Perhaps the largest crowd on record lined the streets of Nevada City to watch the pro women take on what is considered one of the hardest circuits on the racing scene. Of course, some of those thousands of people may have been there to see Lance Armstrong, but no matter. “We don’t get to race in front of crowds that big very often,” said Team TIBCO’s Brooke Miller.
The women put on a pretty good show for the fans. Miller, racing solo, finished 2nd to an on-fire Shelly Olds (ProMan), who benefited from having several teammates with her in the race.
Early on, ProMan set the pace to soften up the field, quickly decimating the peloton and leaving only a small front group of six to contest the race. “I was in there with Katerina (Nash, Luna), Shelly and two of her teammates,” Miller said. “One of Shelly’s teammates attacked and stayed off for several laps. Katerina and I had to do the chasing, and as soon as we caught her, Shelly countered and we just couldn’t follow.”
The front group eventually lapped the rest of the field, and it was left to Miller to battle with Nash for 2nd place. “I attacked her a couple times on the climb but I couldn’t shake her,” Miller said. “She’s a really strong climber, but I was able to take the corners a bit better than she did.”
In the end, the duo came to the line together and Miller was able to hold off Nash for 2nd.
Farther north, the team’s rising Canadian star, Julie Beveridge, took on Western Canada’s top women’s teams solo during the two-day, three-stage Banff Bike Fest, which she likened to the recent Tulsa Tough.
Beveridge dished out plenty of punishment on her own, starting Saturday morning with a dominating 0:46 win in the opening time trial stage, run on a 21 km course. She just kept going in the Saturday evening criterium. Beveridge joined a break initiated early by one of the other teams, then attacked solo and motored around the 1km course in downtown Banff until she had lapped the entire field, easily taking her second stage win of the day.
All she had to do during Sunday’s 52km road race was stay near the front and stay out of trouble to preserve her solid general classification lead. She did so quite well, joining a three-rider break that stayed away to the finish, where she came 2nd to Alison Testroete (Total Restoration) and easily secured the overall win.
