The Green Team hit up round 3 of the CalCup series on Saturday. Despite some really solid team racing, things didn't quite work to plan. They rarely do though and that's what makes racing exciting. Below is Dominic's report from the race.
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Dunnigan Hills, Pro/1/2
2 laps, 85 miles
August 18, 2007
Field: 60+
Teammates: me (12-15th or so), Rob MacNeil, Tore Natua, Matt Morenzoni, James Badia, Matt BeBe, Greg Davis and Brad Goodson
Dunnigan Hills is not my kind of course: mostly flat with some gentle rollers in the typically hot central valley. Yet I had a blast here last year and this year was pretty fun too (though it didn't work out for the team).
My job was to cover early attacks which I did. Of course you cover 3 or 4 of those in the space of 10 minutes and you start to get a little tired. Matt BeBe and Tore took over, then Rob, Matt M and I got back in the mix and we were on everything for the first 40 minutes. Then Matt BeBe got into a break that managed to get better separation and they hung out there for 20-25 minutes.
When that was brought back more counters ensued and this time Matt Morenzoni got into a break that even got out of sight on the twistier roads on the backside. They gained about 60-90 seconds and held out for about an hour. The semi-organized chase by CalGiant and Los Gatos brought it back on Road 99 as we headed back to start our second lap.
As expected, the story repeats itself here: more counter-attacks came with Tore, Brad, Matt, Rob and Greg doing a good job sticking on everything. I bided my time a bit knowing that once we got on to the backside of the course there was more of a chance that a break could stick and it would be important to have someone in it.
We neared the overpass of 505 and Vince from CVC attacked followed by an unattached rider and Greg Davis. They quickly got 20 seconds or so on the group. Michael Tymoff (Arete) started to roll off the front to bridge up to them so I hitched a free ride. Once Michael got us clear of the pack I worked with him to get up to Greg and company figuring Greg wouldn't mind some help and 2 AV out of 5 guys is good odds. The only flaw in the composition of the break was that we didn't have someone from CalGiant with us.
We quickly got together and started working to build our gap. After a short while Greg unfortunately started to suffer from cramps and the unattached rider (David) couldn't/wouldn't pull through. I offered water and food to Greg and he did drink some but it wasn't enough. Greg bravely soldiered on and did as much as he could until he popped. Now the odds were down to 1-in-4 but I figured I'd be able to beat at least one of them in a sprint, maybe two, so that's worth working for.
As we neared the point where the course crosses back over Hwy 5, the moto guy (Shawn Mehaffey) gave us some status: we had 40 seconds to a group of 15 and over a minute to the main pack. Then it went up to a minute to the pack of 15 but I knew we needed at least 2 minutes by the time we hit Road 99 to stay away so we probably were going to get caught.
Once on road 99 the group of 15 could see us and the gap quickly came down. We eased up knowing that we'd get caught and would have to react to counter-attacks. I just hoped that someone from AV was in that group of 15 so I could help them out at the end. Unfortunately Brad, Tore and James missed that split and so now I had rather unfavorable odds: me against 18 guys. Definitely not good. On the positive side I didn't have to do any work since it would be better if we got caught so I could work for James.
The pace stayed reasonably brisk with a few attacks here and there but it all was together with about 2 miles to go. We still had 30 seconds on the main pack so it was a sure bet we'd stay away. Now I was in a bit of a quandry. Sprinting against that many guys was probably not a good idea so I would have to attack. We passed the 1k to go sign and I was 3rd wheel or so. I jumped and went as hard as I could, getting Michael Tymoff for company. We took the right turn and I took a quick glance over my shoulder. The group was single file and in hot pursuit. I started up the overpass and made it about half-way before the group caught and passed me. I had one bullet and I had just spent it. I dug deep to hang on but there was no way. I rolled in just off the back of the group for whatever minor placing that left me with.
Although the result wasn't great, I did have a lot of fun in the race. I like being active, covering moves, getting in breaks that stick for more than 5 minutes and racing with good teammates. There were two mistakes we made that cost us a better finish. The first was that no one from the team was in that chase group of 15. Had someone else been in the group I could have worked for them to help setup the sprint. The second was that I took the gamble of playing Fabian Cancellara instead of sitting in until the last 200 meters. While I'm not a sprinter by any means, at the end of 85 miles most guys are pretty tired and I could have beaten a few of them which would have been better than what I did get.
--dominic
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