Nevada City Classic

Jenni Tafoya

By Jenni Tafoya
Date: June 18, 2006
Category: Women Pro/1/2/3/4
Course: 1.1 miles of up/up/up/down/repeat
Teammates: Jamie and Bri
Winner: Helene Drumm, Proman/Paradigm

Most wonder why a flat-lander like me would humiliate herself racing Nevada City, which is a pure climber's race. Here's why I do it:

  1. It's such a cool race (see below) that I feel obligated to provide my $30 donation.
  2. I figure you can endure anything for 50 minutes.
  3. There's actually a split second inbetween all the suffering where it's fun due to the screaming downhill, bombing turns, and cheers from the crowd.

Here's what makes this race cool to me (in no particular order):

  1. The venue is spectacular! Nevada City is a quaint gold rush town with filled with beautiful old houses set against the backdrop of the Sierra foothills.
  2. The course is so incredibly hard, it feels really good when you stop.
  3. There are tons of enthusiastic, drunken spectators who seem to cheer indiscriminately for everyone. And not the pity cheers you get at Cat's Hill, either. (Plagiarized from Judy Hay's report from last year -- I couldn't have said it any better myself!)

This was my sixth year at Nevada City and the third year racing it. In my experience, the women's field is always a big question mark due to conflicts with NRC races, but the best climbers still in town always show up. This year's field was typical in size at around 30 racers, but stronger than what I've seen in the past, with Kim Anderson from T-Mobile and 3 Webcors (Karen, Amber, and Cat); McGuire had Cindy Carroll (2003 winner) and Maria Monica, Proman had the Drumms and Shelley Olds.

The pace was steady and I hung in the main pack, now down to half of its original size, for about 7 laps until Cindy Carroll threw down an attack. I was already at my limit and got popped. Bri came by me from behind with words of encouragement, but I really couldn't go any faster. I "recovered" (which meant I let my HR come down to "just" 10 beats above my AT ) and settled into TT mode. I was just off the main pack, but was losing about 5 seconds to them every lap, so they eventually got out of sight. At one point I looked at my watch and wondered if I could do this for another 20 minutes, but there was one spectator who really kept me going, along with Tracey and the Team Safeway guys. With 2 laps to go, I caught Bri and Sarah Kerlin, who must have fallen off the group during one of the later attacks, and hung on to them up the climbs. At the end I was finally able to put my 147 pounds to good use and out-rolled them to the finish for 11th place. Bri was 13th, and Jamie was not too far behind in 19th.

The real story of the day is that Helene Drumm got away with 2 laps to go to solo in for the win -- great ride. Kim Anderson took 2nd, and Amber took 3rd.