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Joanna Bechtel's Journal
Dunnigan Hills Road Race Report
veröffentlicht von: at 00:14 on August 20, 2009
Dunnigan Hills Road Race
August 15, 2009
Teammates: Monica, Karena, Kimmy, me
Field: ~30 W3, ~15 Junior Boys 17-18
Course: fairly flat with some rollers, big clockwise circle, strong wind about 15-20 mph from the north
I did well at Dunnigan last year (4th in W4) so I was hoping to do well or help a teammate finish in the T-shirts. Whatever preconceived notions I had about how the race could unfold and how I wanted to race were shot to the moon when the officials put the junior boys with us. Having never raced with junior boys before I didn’t know any better and obliged like the rest of the field. Next time I’m going to insist on starting us a few minutes apart. Some of the junior boys had poor bike handling and pack riding skills and it totally changes the dynamics of the race. Young kids like to hammer away.
Davis Bike Club had at least 4 riders, and they were actually organized. One of their guys went off the front right after promenade and his teammates sat on the front, sitting on the wheels of any rider who tried to bridge. A Sugar CRM attacked a few times in the beginning, as she usually does, and those attacks never lasted long. On the first stretch north into the wind going along I-505, I went off the front as we approached an overpass because at the moment the field wasn’t going terribly fast, the boys were being a bunch of squirrels, and I thought we turned west at that overpass. Should have studied the course more because that wasn’t our turn yet. I integrated back into the pack, and stayed out of the wind pretty well. There was a lot of unnecessary surging with the boys up front as they sized each other up or something, and some women made comments along the lines of “Quit fooling around and race your bike.” I was near the front and still slamming on the brakes because of the ridiculous riding up front. Unnecessary.
Davis Bike Club did a good job of driving it in the crosswind sections when we headed east or west and in the 10 mile tailwind section coming back to the finish. So the headwind section was actually the easiest part of the race to stay out of the wind. I did well staying to the left side of the road heading west and was well sheltered. By the time we were heading east the pack had thinned and I had to work hard to hang onto the pack. Kimmy was doing a great job staying near the front, unlike me who had drifted back some.
With 6 miles to go, there was a crash going through a traffic light. It was behind me, but I saw a Dolce Vita girl sliding out of the corner of my eye, and unfortunately she crashed right in front of Kimmy. You’ll come back in no time, Kimmy! After the crash the boys got off the front and I pulled for a few miles at a more manageable 26-27 mph with two gals. There was still 12 or so ladies left along with 10 juniors. 3 miles to go a gal in green and while accelerated when I was on front. I jumped on the third wheel that went by me, but the acceleration didn’t feel too good. Touchstone, Green/White, and 3 Sugars left looked liked they had more pop than me left after a tough pace the whole race.
Coming into the final right turn to the last <.5 miles, I was in decent position around 7th wheel. I lost ground on the overpass ‘hill’ and a podium spot was out of reach by the bottom of the overpass. No T-shirt this year. Finished 9th or 10th.
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