Elite RR Championships/Fort Ord Report

The district championship road race at Fort Ord was this past weekend. This is a long hard race of attrition and the W/AV team did well to have a few guys left going into the finish. Steve Reaney (Cal Giant) got off solo with a lap to go and held it to the line. Fabrice was in the second group of about ten and fought hard to get a podium spot, finishing 3rd overall. Below is Fabrice's report.

Full Results (courtesy of Steven Woo)

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Northern CA/NV Elite Road Race Championships
Fort Ord/Monterey, CA
Men's Elite 1/2/3
Teammates: Rand (18th), Aroussen (21st), Bo (30th), James, Jono
Placing: 3rd of 75ish

The Monterey Race is a race encompassing 10 laps of 10 miles each. The loop had lot of curves, little roads, and a "wall" 3km before the finish line. That climb was about only 1.5 km but very steep.

The start of the race was very early (8am), but that didn't discourage 3 guys who attacked in the first lap.

During 5 laps, nobody wanted to animate the race. But later, the speed increased and some teams began to decrease the gap between the pack and the escape. Aroussen did a fantastic job during the next 3 laps, riding with a lot of bravery.

During that time Rand and I tried to stay in good position, without using too much energy. The two last laps were covered in high speed, leading notably to Aroussen's loss. The pack caught the escape and from that moment, a lot of attacks ensued. Rand tried to get away several times but unhappily without success. Then, the future winner, Steve Reaney of Cal Giant, attacked and got a comfortable gap on the pack. In the remaining group, his team controlled the race. I attacked several times in the last lap but i was always followed by Cal Giant racers...

Despite my attacks, we were still 8 guys racing for second place...Thanks to a little slalom during the sprint, i took the 3rd place of that race. The group sprint was taken by AJM, also of Cal Giant for 2nd overall.

Rand's efforts finally caught up with him in the last few kilometers and he finished in a second group. Aroussen finished bravely just behind Rand. Bo was incredibly motivated and finished the race despite all the difficulties. James and Jono gave the maximum to help the team at the beginning of the race. Thanks to Bo's wife, Amy, who was our best supporter and for her expertise to supply the bottles!!

To conclude, that was a hard and very long race (100 miles) but with lot of suspense and a good result for the team!!

Thanks for reading.

Fabrice