Catching up 2: Tales from Fabrice

Our resident Frenchman, Fabrice, is always good for riding hard, being in the mix, and getting results. Below are 3 of his recent race reports from the challenging Panoche Valley Road Race (2nd), the Bay Area classic Mt. Hamilton Road Race (3rd in a Bissell 1st, 2nd, & 4th place sandwich), and the Memorial Day Crit (8th).

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Panoche Valley Road Race
05/17/09
Distance: 67 miles
Teammates: None
Place: 2nd of 13

Two factors made the race very hard: First the size of the field (13 guys is not enough), and second, the temperature was around 100 degrees.

My plan, before the start, was to wait as long as possible to save some energy for the way back, which I expected to be difficult with the strong wind. But after 6 miles, some guys attacked and I was involved with that game. After a move from Andrew Talansky from Amore-Vita team, I made a counter attack, which worked. We were just two on the front of the race with nearly 60 miles to go!!! So I decided to work but while saving some energy. On the major climb of the day the other guy was dropped!!! So now I had 50 miles to do alone!!! After passing the valley, I was facing to a strong wind. Alone in that situation is not so easy, so I preferred to lose a little time and wait for the second group which was only 1 minute behind me. On the way back we were only 3 guys, and we worked together until the finish line where I finished second in the final sprint behind Justin Laue from Z Team.

That race was a very fun, and a good training for the upcoming races.

Thanks for reading
Fabrice

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May 24,2009
Mt Hamilton RR Pro1/2
Distance: 63 miles, 6550 ft climbing!
Place: 3rd out of 55
Teammates: Bo, Billy and Peter

Full Results

The was my first ride on the Mt Hamilton, it was a kind fun to discover the climb during a race. I only knew that you need to stay calm during the two first parts because the last one is the most difficult.

I started the race in the middle of the field and tried to not do same thing as the Panoche race. But one of my teammates, Billy, was on the ball and covered the first move of the day with AJM from Bissell. English from Z Team rolled off the front to bring back all the attacks. Then Paul Mach from Bissell again made a counter attack, which was dangerous because he knew how to win here (he won last year). On the two first parts he managed to increase his gap but with difficulty, only 10 or 20 seconds. For my part I stayed in the main group (only 10), in good position. In the last part of the climb, English was burned, nobody seemed to close the gap so I attacked two times but I was controlled by the Jacques-Maynes Brothers who were protecting their teammate. We crossed the KOM 1 minute behind the leader. The descent was for me another great new experience with some tricky turns!! On that descent, Jackson Stewart (BMC) must have made a crazy descent because he closed the gap between our group and the leader!!!

In the valley, The Cal-Giant team of 5 guys in our group worked together to close the 1 min gap. They closed it with 10 miles to go. So in that first group we found 3 Bissells, 5 Cal-Giant, one BMC, one Zteam and myself. During the last few kilometers a lot of attacks appeared and I managed to respond to all the attacks containing one guy of each big teams. In the descent Paul Mach succeeded to take a little advantage. At the bottom of this one I was surprised to see 1km to go, so I tried to recover for the final sprint. Jackson launched his sprint from a long way in order to pass the leader, but with 100 meters he was exhausted and Andy Jacques-Maynes, who was in his wheel, passed him and with his speed passed in the last 20 meters his teammate for the victory. For myself I finished just behind Paul Mach for the third place..

Thanks for reading
Fabrice

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May 25,2009
Memorial Day Crit P1/2
Morgan Hill
Distance: 75 minutes
Place: 8th out of 60
Teammates: Justin, Rand, Billy, Neil, Graham, Bruce on Radio

Full Results

After a big Sunday under the Mt Hamilton, I didn't know how my legs will respond. The circuit is totally flat with wide roads and only 3 turns. My goal was to help the team in covering escapes. After some little moves on that fast circuit, 10 strong guys succeeded to make a big move, all the big teams were in it, including Rand and Justin from our team. The Webcor team did a good job to protect that escape between Billy, Neil and myself. But one big guy who was not in it, Jackson Stewart of BMC, was working on the front of the pack to close the gap. And it was after 30 minutes of chasing that the escape was over!! All the next escapes were nothing and the conclusion of that race was a final field sprint. In the last 3 laps, Cal-Giant worked to prepare the sprint for Steve Reaney, I tried to stay in good position and I managed to finish in 8th position, the race was won by the sprint specialist Steve Reaney.

Thanks for reading
Fabrice