Dunnigan Hills RR Report

Fabrice scored another top-10 at what sounded like a really tough, windy edition of Dunnigan Hills Road Race. Below is his report.

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Dunnigan Hills Road Race
Dunningan, CA
8/31/2008
Weather: Sunny, windy
Teammates: James Badia, Jono Coulter, Jeff Williams, Dominic Giampaolo, Bo Hebenstreit, Neil Harrington,
Finish: 6th of ~70

The race encompasses two big 42 mile loops, without any climbs (there are a few small rollers), just long straight roads. The only one difficulty was the wind because there was no wind shelter.

The start was done again at 8h00am, on the part of the circuit where everyone were getting hit by the wind from the right. The best thing to do in that case is to have a good placement in the pack. But the speed was very high from the start due to an early attack from two professionals, Eric Wohlberg and D. Holloway. But we caught them a few miles later. In order to be on the front of the pack, I managed to pass some guys but briefly had to cross the middle of the road (slightly illegal since the centerline rule was in effect). An official told me to go to the back of the pack. It was a very bad moment to do so because of the speed was high. But I had no choice, so I dropped back. At that moment, Eric Wolhberg attacked with a Calgiant guy (Jesse Moore), and they increased a big gap. Then nobody wanted to take the pursuit, so the gap increased and increased again. Just before the end of the first lap, there were two big crashes due to potholes in the road... but fortunately without Webcor guys.

The second lap was same as the first one, no team wanted to catch the escape... The race was therefore won by the two guys (the Calgiant guy respected Eric's strong work and Eric Wolhberg won). In the pack, there were some attacks for the third place. I managed to be in one of them and finished in a group of three for sixth place.

Thanks for reading,
Fabrice