Image by J.Suzuki
Bay Area SugarCRM rider Karla Kingsley took a stunning 4th place at today's Women's Amgen Tour of California Criterium in Santa Rosa. In a completely rainsoaked diced to the finish, Karla was beaten by Swedish National Champion Emilia Fahlin (Columbia-High Road) and US National Team members Lauren Franges (Team TIBCO) and Rachel lloyd (PROMAN).With over 20000 spectators on hand at the finishing circuits, thetense international field raced at a frenetic speed that saw manycontendors sliding into the barriers as they tried to maintain thehigh average speed.Early in the race, a significant move of 12 riders went clearcontaining representatives from all the major teams includingColumbia, TIBCO, Webcor, Vanderkitten, Proman and Karla from SugarCRM.In the main peleton, the SugarCRM team patrolled the moves as theyattempted to put another rider in the break while negating anyopportunites for pre race favourites Brooke Miller (Tibco) and InaYoko Teutenberg (Germany, Columbia- High Road). In the final moments of the race several attempts by Touchstone andWebcor came to no fruition and a breakaway sprint was inevitable.In the furious dash to the line Karla was able to go head to head withsome of the most talented athletes in the world and hold her head highas she earned an astounding 4th place and a massive bonus check fromAmgen to share with her jubilant teammates.
Image by J.Suzuki
