Merc-lane Classic primer

ah ... the traditional NRC openers.

I have to be honest ... they aren't my favorite races. The first year i did it was when we had one of those torrential storms blow riders all over the place. I think Saturn shredded the field down to something stupid and everybody else ditched it for cars and heaters.

Thankfully, i'll be racing the geezer division this year, 'cuz ... that Tour o' Cali form is going to shock the shit out of any poor pro or cat 1 just jumping into their first race of the season.

le' ouch.

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And for the women?

Well, that frickin' Tibco powerhouse Brooke Miller looks to be riding a notch above the rest right now. With Colavita, TMobile, and Cheerwine sending squads to Geelong, i wonder how much dominance we'll see from one team? To my thinking, this might be one of those rare years where a break sticks away from the field. There are a lot of big sprinters missing from the field and a TON of attacking teams in the race.

I expect Aaron's will be shooting full guns this year, as they've got Carmen D'allusio cracking firing orders into their ears. Webcor has a very good sprinter in Amber Rais, but also big engines who can handle breaks better than most. Colavita has a good sprinter in Mackenzie Dickey (and an excellent lead-out rider in Candice Blickem) ... but the team will be short-handed and may have to spread themselves out covering attacks to remain in contention. And then there's Charameda's new team that i don't know much about, Advil Chapstick. But, if Charameda's there ... the race will be animated.

The mystery team of Value Act has two very good sprinters in Taitt Sato and Martina Patella ... but, thus far they've been shutout of any pre-season wins. I wonder if this will be the breakout race for that squad? More importantly, maybe we'll finally get a glimpse of the new Value Act kits? (Though ... i do have a fancy for an all black getup.)

And then there are the riders on smaller squads who can be opportunistic and play off the big teams. I'm thinking Velo Bella's Mary Maroon fits nicely in that category. She's a good strong rider who can hold position in the pack. We'll see if she can pick the right wheel and unleash a good sprint. And, I've been hearing good things about PROMAN rider Shelly Olds. The PROMAN team has been knocking with some good results thus far with Zell and Cranmer getting top-10's in some hard fought races. We'll see how it runs.

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In the Men's race ... I'll be surprised if one of the ToC sprinters doesn't take the field sprint. Healthnet has Downing able to turn a good kick, but they've lost the majority of their field sprint dominance. Toyota has Dominguez ... fresh off a final stage win at the ToC. But, you can't discount BMC from putting a guy up there like Hanson. He's not as experienced as the other sprinters, but he's a fair-bit fearless and has a good top-end.

Personally, my sentimental hopes go towards a win for Priority Health. They certainly got the shaft at this year's ToC - a leader's jersey robbed by an unheard of commissaire's ruling and a dearth of non-coverage for BJM's two shining rides to book-end the Tour.

PH has a fast guys with Abraham and Zirbel ... but, if there were a break to go ... let's hope BJM nabs it with a win.

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