Giro di San Francisco Race Report

Giro di San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
9/1/2008
Weather: Sunny, warm, windy
Teammates: Fabrice Dubost, James Badia, Rob MacNeill, Jono Coulter,
Neil Harrington, Brad Goodson, Jan Diemont, Graham Simpson, Aroussen
Laflamme, Ryan Prsha
Finish: 10th of ~150

Downtown criteriums are cool...but downtown big-city criteriums are even better. Especially when you live a 10-minute bike ride from the course!

Much like every other street in San Francisco, the roads used for the Giro contain numerous pavement seams, potholes, and railroad tracks, making for some technical racing. Add the brutal winds that picked up in the afternoon, the small hill on the backside, and the strong 150 man field, and you have the makings of a very hard race.

The team plan for the race: stay up front, be represented in moves, and try and get Fabrice and I into the top 10, if possible. I started on the front row, so as to avoid being caught up behind crashes and caught out of breakaways on the technical circuit.

The race started very fast (and stayed that way, naturally), and Fabrice, Rob, Jono, James and I took turns at the front getting in moves. Everyone on the squad rode strong, and I saw most of them up at the front at one time or another.

There were a few promising moves that contained both Fabrice and I, but it was too early in the race and they came back, in spite of having all major teams represented. Finally, near the last 1/4 of the race, Fabrice made it into a strong move of 6, but 3 of them were CalGiant riders who attacked and counterattacked the break and eventually ripped it apart.

Somewhere along the way, whether it was attacking out of that original break or counterattacking right as they were caught, Eric Wohlberg and Andy Jacques-Maynes escaped off the front and they were not to be caught. The rest of the break ultimately came back to the field in the closing laps. Fabrice rode super-strong and I was bummed that he couldn't stay away.

I held position as best as possible, and attempted to finish well in the bunch sprint for 3rd. Andy J-M won the race, Wohlberg finished 2nd, and Holloway won the pack sprint. I came through in 10th place...not quite the finish the team was hoping for, but not terrible. Got a T-shirt, which is worth a lot to us poor graduate students! Fabrice rolled through in 12th or 13th.

Overall, I was happy with how the whole team rode, and we came pretty close to achieving our goals.

Thanks for reading,
Rand