Race Report: Benicia Crit P1/2

A big contingent of the W/AV Elite Team was at Benicia Crit this past weekend. We rode well as a team with a lot of the guys in the mix getting in breakaways. Fabrice did his standard go off the front for the last 10 laps but got caught with the finish in sight. It was heartbreaking for him, but he still finished 5th, a nice result. Below is his report.

Full results

Normally Fabrice would post the report but he was rushing out for the Tour of Mexico so I'm filing this report on his behalf. Wish him luck down there!

-Rob

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Race: Benicia Crit
Date: 9/7/08
Category: Pro 1/2
Distance: 60 minutes
Result: 5th on 70 riders
Teammates: Jono Coulter, Chris Crawford, Jan Diemont, Bo Hebenstreit, Rob MacNeill, Rand Miller, Ryan Prsha (10th), Graham Simpson

Benicia is a 4-corner criterium, a long rectangle approximately of 1.5 miles. It's flat from the start to turn 1, slightly uphill to turn 2, two big-ring rollers on the backside to turn 3, downhill with a slight rise into turn 4, and then slightly down hill to flat through the finish. There was a headwind on the finishing straight and a tailwind on the roller section.

The start was done with an a aggressive move from the Webcor guys. Rand and Rob were on the front in an escape of 5 guys during 5 laps. Then Rand, always in the move, attacked again with Ryan, they were 10 guys with a 10 seconds gap but after some laps the pack caught them. At this moment I moved from the pack with a Rock Racing rider. After two laps at high speed, we were 6 on the front with a little gap, but some laps after a counter attack from the pack caught us. As the harmony of the group was not good I decided to attack with about 20 minutes left in the race. I managed to increase the gap and during 10 laps I kept my advantage. With 3 laps before the end I was caught by a CalGiant racer. In the 3 last laps our advantage was only between 5 and 10 seconds. During the last lap, the CalGiant sat on and left me to do the work. In the last straight, he launched the sprint and I was not able to beat him. And to top it off, I was caught by the beginning of the pack at the line and I finished 5th. Very disappointed!!!!

Still, it was a good race for the team. Ryan finished from the pack with a nice 10th place after a dodgy finish with big crash at the start of the last lap.

Thanks for reading,
Fabrice