Dunnigan Hills RR 8-14-09
So Matt and I showed up at Dunnigan Hills RR … with 800-other riders WOW! There were 3-groups in our category of Masters 45+ 4/5 with 50 riders each. This was the first time I’ve ridden this course so Matt gave me a tour of the finish line and a breakdown of how the finish has happened the last two years (group finish 1-year, breakaway of 10-last year). The race start was 45-minutes late…better than never. We were in the A group in our category and looking around there were 3-teams with 5 or more riders including Rio Strada, DBC and one other team I can’t remember.
About 5-min before race start the wind started up and was a major player in the race. There was a neutral start for about the first 1.5-miles and then they turned us loose…I was about 4th rider on the center line with the wind coming from the front and side, so well protected. The race was ~46-miles and about 35-miles was a side or headwind with miled rolling terrain. Both Rio and DBC took some turns pulling/attacking but the wind was strong enough that nothing lasted more than about 2-min of hard effort. One of the course martials directed the group into a wrong turn about 1/3 of the way into the race so we all ended up turning around and anyone who had been dropped got to rejoin…great. After we did find the correct right turn, we ended up into a head wind for about 15-miles followed by more sidewind on the top part of the course. When we finally turned downwind about 10-miles from the finish things really started rolling with steady 35+mph. Matt and I continued to stay in the top 5-10 riders with Rio Strada again doing most of the work up from. With 1-mile to go a DBC rider took off the front in an attack that put him about 100-feet off the front…we all watched him slowly pull away in a great TT effort. I kept waiting for Rio to chase but no one did. We were now closing on the final turn with about 500-meters to go from the turn to the finish line with a overpass crossing the 5 Fwy about 100-meters after the turn. Matt came flying by on someones wheel and I jumped with him into the turn…we were going pretty fast and I was liking the situation. The guy ahead of Matt started dying at the bottom of the overpass and I yelled at Matt to Go GO GO! He took a great pull to the top of the overpass and another rider went up the right side (in the wind) and I jumped around Matt’s left to grab his wheel. I did a quick check under the arm behind me and we were clear by 25-feet so I settled in behind the rider who was trying to shake me left and right down the stretch. The DBC rider was still ahead by ~50 feet when I decided to start my sprint ~150-meters from the line. Just as I did another rider went flying past on our left. I dug as hard as I could and finished 3rd half a bike length out of 2nd. Matt finished a very good 8th after a great leadout over the overpass!
San Ardo RR is next Saturday…wish us luck!
Rob
My man Rocks! Matt you’re not bad either.