Besides Evie Stevens taking up from where she left off last year, CRCA/Foundation got their season off to a good start at the San Dimas and Redlands stage races in California.
Evie was incredible once again taking third in GC at San Dimas and taking third in the TT and first in the final day’s road race at Redlands. The Sunset Road Race at Redlands has been said to be the toughest road race in the states. After carrying HTC/Columbia teammate Ina Teutenburg up the hills so she could hold on to 1st place in GC, Evie soloed in for the stage win. A tactical decision to hang with the GC leaders and not go with the break in the crit kept Evie back in 5th place GC. The most impressive thing remains Evie’s incredible consistency.
Gavi Epstein and Lisban Quintero turned in credible performances in the NRC Pro field at Redlands and at San Dimas. Despite facing the severe handicap of spending the winter in New York, Gavi was in the top 50 of 200+ riders going in to the last stage, Sunset Road Race. Losing 10 minutes sent Gavi back to 69th place, which was still among the top amateurs in the race.
Gavi and Evie share the same coach, Matt Koschara and credit him with helping with their improvement and success.
Others on the Foundation team found out that there is a very big difference between an NRC stage race and dominating in local park races. It was tough.
Kudos to Ric Wolfe and Foundation for going up against the best riders in the US. Look for Gavi and Lisban to achieve some really good results as they catch up with the riders who were out in the warm weather all winter.