Fabrice's Reports from Tour de Nez

Last weekend Fabrice and Rand were in Reno participating in the Tour de Nez Omnium. Up until last year, this was an NRC race. This year it dropped off the NRC calendar but it's still a big, hotly contested race composed of 2 criteriums and one circuit race for an overall omnium. Below are Fabrice's reports from each stage.

Tour de Nez, Downtown Truckee Criterium, Pro 1/2
4th of ~60
June 18th, 2009
Teammate: Rand Miller

The 60 minute crit is on a a 0.6 mile course with 4 turns and one U-turn before the finish line. Before the start I didn't know what to expect after 5 hours of driving and a race at altitude. After a few laps, Chad Gerlach from Amore Vitta, who's form is unbearable the last couple of weeks, attacked and took one guy with him. Nobody from the pack moved, so I attacked, I took with me Steve Reaney from CalGiant, and we tried to catch those guys. But during 20 minutes we managed to not come closer than 10 seconds! In the last 20 minutes we had understood that the only thing we were able to do is to race for third place. So we worked together as strong as we could to stay away from the pack. Steve won our 2-up sprint for 3rd, leaving me with 4th place. Chad Gerlach took the win.

Tour de Nez, Downtown Reno Criterium, Pro 1/2
18th of ~60
June 19th, 2009
Teammate: Rand

The second criterium is in downtown Reno, 0.8 miles with 7 or 8 turns and a power hill climb. Normally I prefer that kind of circuit compared to Truckee, which is totally flat. So I started the race with a lot of hope for success. I started the race in good position and tried a silly attack on the first lap to see how the legs have recovered. I was caught the lap after and I tried to stay in good position despite the number of turns. After 15 minutes a crash happened just before me. I stopped just in time to not fall but someone behind me hit my rear wheel. After that incident, mechanical issues limited shifting between only a few gears. As the crash happened on a tricky road, 10 guys took an advantage on the field (with all the big guys, of course!). I tried with Rand to close the gap but without success; the gap was still increasing. With 20 minutes to go my mechanical problems got worse and the rear wheel locked up, so I stopped and walked to the SRAM pit to get a new wheel. After the wheel change, I tried to stay focused and I managed to stay on the front of that second group and I finished in 18th position. Gerlach won again.

Tour de Nez, Northstar Circuit Race, Pro 1/2
~13th of ~60
June 18th, 2009
Teammate: Rand Miller

The Tour de Nez finished with a 2 mile circuit race near Truckee at the Northstar ski area. After two victories, Chad Gerlach started that last stage with a good advantage on the other contenders for the overall omnium. For me, who was 9th in the omnium, I was thinking to catch an escape in that hilly race. But after few laps, I figured that will be difficult, I don't know if it was the altitude or something else but as soon as I wanted to attack or to follow an attack I was over-breathing despite feeling very easy in the main field. So I managed to stay in the field and to catch a good position in the final sprint for the spots still remaining. Because on the front of the race there were two strong guys (Jesse Moore from CalGiant and Graham Howard from Bissel). They managed to stay away from the field nearly from beginning to end, being caught only by another CalGiant, Justin England, in the last 10 minutes of the race. Jesse Moore won the race, and I managed to take the 13th place. I finished 10th overall in the omnium standings. Gerlach held on to win the overall.

That was a nice weekend in Reno.
Full results can be found here.

Fabrice