Race Report: Coyote Creek Circuit Race

This past weekend the Webcor/Alto Velo Men's Elite Team did another round of local races. First at Coyote Creek in South San Jose on Saturday, then at Lafayette crit on Sunday. It was a really good weekend for the team in general. We're clicking for sure and getting consistently good results. Below is Fabrice Dubost's race report from Coyote Creek. He's a new addition to the team, just recently arriving in NorCal from the Brittany region of France (think first week of The Tour, wind, foul weather, hardmen, Bernard Hinault!). Fabrice is an experienced road racer with an impressive palmares, and we're glad to have him on the team.

A report form Lafayette will be coming soon.

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Race: Coyote Creek Circuit Race, P/1/2
Date: 12 July 2008
Team: Fabrice Dubost, Rand Miller, Rob MacNeill, Jono Coulter, Brad Goodson, James Badia, Aroussen Laflamme, Graham Simpson, Bruce Wilford (directing from sidelines)
Placings: 4th (Fabrice) and 8th (Rand) of ~50

The Coyote Creek Circuit Race is a race on a 1.8mile loop. It's not a crit, so there are no free laps, but not a road race, since our race was only 70 minutes. The loop has two long legs and two short straights with a little climb of about 100-feet on the main leg. Lap times are on the order of 4-5 minutes. On race day there was a huge wind at our back for the climb, turning to a headwind for the flat long return straightaway. It was hot and sunny for our 2:15 start, but conditions were tolerable.

After some attacks covered by Rand, an attack from Jackson Stewart put me and 4 other guys in the front during the third climb. All riders were working well together during this escape.

At mid-race, a counter attack containing 4 Webcors amongst 12 guys approached at 40 sec but their efforts did not succeed. Behind the 2nd group, the race was breaking up into splinter groups. In the main chase, the Webcors guys weren't helping to bridge the gap to the main breakaway; they just covered counter attacks and tried to help the front group get an established lead. The gap turned on the advantage of the escape, 1 minute at 4 laps from the finish. I decided to attack on the hill into the last lap, due to the wind on the other side of the circuit. When I thought to attack the lap cards showed 2 to go instead of 1. In the confusion, the opportunity to attack was gone, so I waited for the sprint. But before the last climb one guy attacked, and the other guys looked me to close the gap, so I decided to wait a little bit but the gap increased. At 300 meter from the line I launched the sprint but it was too late to close the gap to the first guy who won the race, and just 10 meters from the line two other guys passed me for 2nd and 3rd place. I finished 4th. Rand sprinted from the 2nd group and finished 8th overall.

The plan before the race was loose and just that we needed to be present on the front of the race and cover breakaways, which we did well. The team was well represented in the main moves of the day.

The result was not what I had hoped for, maybe due to my less of experience racing here (3^rd race in USA so far) and I wish that the victory will appear as soon as possible...

Fabrice