Alisha Third at San Dimas Uphill TT

Dave says: Alisha had an amazing result yesterday against some great riders from all the big national teams! She is having a great start to her season.

Here's the story from CyclingNews:

Mara Abbott (Peanut Butter & Co TWENT12) displayed her formidable climbing prowess to win the Glendora Chevrolet uphill time trial on Friday. Abbott road to the top of Glendora Mountain Road with a winning time of 14:31, some 16 seconds faster than runner up Evelyn Stevens (HTC-Columbia) and 19 seconds clear of her teammate Alisha Welsh in third.

"It’s exciting to see when you go to the first race with the team because you never know what is going to happen," Abbott said. "You trust your training and everything you did in the off season but it’s a relief to know that it all came together."

Abbott won the time trial in 2008 and started the day as the odds-on favourite to win the nearly six kilometre climb through the switchbacks of Glendora Mountain Road. The Boulder, native beat her previous time by 30 seconds. "Some of that might have been because it was less windy or just a faster course, not just because of training," Abbott said.

Stevens was pleased with her second place performance while racing for her new HTC-Columbia outfit. She is confident her team can pull off a winning performance by the end of this weekend. "It was a hard course but it was good competition," Stevens said. "It’s still early in the season. Any of the girls on this team are capable of winning the overall. But there is really strong competition so we will see how everyone is riding."

Abbott praised her teammate, Welsh, for her third place effort. Welsh’s result surprised some observers, but not Abbott. "We have to highlight Alisha’s ride today," she said. "There are a few people out there who realize how much talent she has but by and large there are people who've overlooked her. I am very excited to get the chance to ride with her because she’s excited about it and so talented."

Other notable performances include Robin Farina (Vera Bradley Foundation) in fourth, Carmen Small (Colavita/Baci) in fifth, Kathryn Donovan (InCycles-SCVelo) in sixth, Ina Teutenberg (HTC_Columbia) in seventh, Katharine Carroll (Peanut Butter & Company TWENTY12) in eighth, Rebecca Much (Webcor) in ninth and rounding out the top ten Courtney O’Donnell (Herbalife Lagrange).

The racing continues on Saturday, March 20 at the San Dimas Hospital Road Race held on a 12 kilometre circuit through Bonelli Park. The Pro men will take on 12 laps totalling 135 kilometres and the Pro/Elite women will complete 8 laps for a total of 70 kilometres of racing.