John Pauley's Dunnigan and San Ardo Race Report

Written by John Pauley and pic by Tim Westmore:

Race: Dunnigan Hills 35+ 1/2/3
Date: 8-13-11
Course: 45 Miles rolling terrain, (only about 800 feet of vertical over the first 25 miles and then downhill and flat for the next 20)
Distance: 1.9 laps, 86 miles
Teammates: Keith, Andrew, Christian, John Wilde, and Scott Fairman
Number of riders: about 40
Place: DNF

Well, to reiterate Andrew’s comment, “A total Blast! That was the most fun DNF I’ve ever had racing bikes.” The other guys in the race have detailed most of the race, so I will keep this one short.

I would like to make one comment ahead of time; they should change the name of this race from Done-again to “Surge-again”. I little more about that later.

I’ve never raced over 80 miles, so going into this I was a bit nervous about the race. As Andrew mentioned, we all talked about strategy before the race, and when I saw Keith go in the break a couple of miles into the race I knew the strategy was going just as planned. Within a couple of miles we had all moved to the front to disrupt the speed of the race and to chase down any attempts to breakaway. Each of us got into a break or two and chased down five or six break attempts. It was a ton of fun to ride as a team! Not exactly Tour quality riding, but maybe the closest I will ever get.

One quick note, Andrew mentioned that he thought Scott got away in one of the breaks, but that was me. I only lasted a few minutes though because the break with 4 other guys came a few minutes after the crash. I had just finished chasing with Christian for two to three minutes to get back on and instead of riding in the pack to recover, I went straight to the front of the pack so I could, hopefully, recover and slow down the pace. Unfortunately, within about 30 seconds of getting to the front, two guys broke away and I “accidentally” followed them. Before I knew it, 4 of us were 100 yards of the front. Within a minute, my legs were screaming again and I dropped back to the pack.

The thing about this race that surprised me the most was the amount of surging that took place. Much of it due to the break up the road, but also because of the makeup of the course and the strength of the riders in the peloton. For the entire first 50+ miles, we continually sped up and slowed down ranging from 17 mph to 33 back down to 20 and then up again over 30. It was like this the entire race. It was fun, but difficult. Not that it was a particularly fast race, but the surging really took a toll on my legs. Hence the name “Surge-again”.

Anyway, due to the all of the surging, chasing, and other work we did, my legs gave out at around the 55 mile mark. I was yo-yoing off the back for about 5 miles and each consecutive chase made my legs scream just that much more. At 55 miles, I decided it was best to turn around and head back to the finish line to watch the finish of a few races. (At this point, it was only about 10 miles back to the finish as opposed to riding as much as 25 or so miles by self if I continued)

Keith was impressive breaking away with over 80 miles to go and it was a pleasure to be able to work for a teammate.


Race: San Ardo 45+ 1/2/3
Date: 8-20-11
Course: 22.8 Miles rolling terrain, (only about 700 feet of vertical per lap but nothing of consequence)
Distance: 3 laps + 1.5 miles to finish, 69.6 miles (The flyer says the race is 63 miles, but it is just plain wrong. I have written to them three or four times, but they never change it. Their math doesn’t even make sense; they say each lap is 22 miles. Well that would make three laps at least 66 miles. Were the heck do they get 63?!?)
Teammates: None
Number of riders: about 30
Place: around 19th

I have been looking forward to this race for a while because I missed it 2008 and 2009 because of injury and then I rode Winters last year instead. (That was a fun race to do, once.) Anyway, I was looking forward to this race because it is an ideal race for me; no real hills, fairly long, and a good sprint finish. I had only done the 35+ Cat 4 race in the past, so I was excited to race 3 laps with the 1/2/3 group.

Before the race, I ran into Keith (riding in the Pro/1/2 race) and Scott Freiermuth (racing in the 35+ cat 4 race) and wished them each good luck. Keith’s race started at 8:00, Scott’s at 8:35 and mine started at 8:50.

Our race started off very slowly, cruising along for the first 2 miles at under 20 mph. As a matter of fact, the entire first lap consisted of attempted breaks and then slowdowns as we caught each break. About 20 miles into the race, I got into a break with 2 other guys and as we got about 150 yards off the front, I realized that no one else was going to join us so I sat up and waited for the pack. I did not want to attempt to do the next 50 miles with only three of us (not that I could have anyway). I figured it would take a break of at least 5 or 6 to stay away. The average speed for the first lap turned out to be only 22.2 mph.

The second lap was more of the same until we hit the 37 mile mark when 8 guys got about 20 seconds on the peloton. Each of the main teams (Safeway, Morgan Stanley, Taleo, San Jose and two teams I didn’t recognize) had a guy in the break. I realized that this was probably “the break of the day” and if I didn’t do something, the next 32 miles would just be a workout and a sprint for 10th place. I saw a Webcor guy and another rider without a team go, so I took off after them. I put my head down and chased for a good two or three minutes and caught the group. Now there were 11 of us and I hoped we would stay away for a while. Surprisingly, even though all of the teams had guys in the break, we only lasted another couple of minutes and the peloton chased us down! Unbelievable. What were they thinking?! I dropped back to the middle of the pack to recover and within 30 seconds, another break countered and instantly had a couple hundred yards on the group. I couldn’t chase yet and had to hope that we caught them. The problem was that Morgan Stanley, Safeway, San Jose and Team Bicycle Trip all had a guy in the break. They were going to have to do 30 miles and my only hope was either a mistake by the break, or a couple of non-team riders doing a bunch of work to catch. The average speed for the second lap was up a bit at 22.7 mph, but all in all it wasn’t too fast or difficult.

The third lap was a bit odd. The Teams were doing their job blocking and even with all the work they were doing, the pace was faster. At mile 50, we caught and passed the two women’s groups that were ahead of us and then a mile later we caught and passed Scott’s group (35+ 4’s). They started 15 minutes ahead of us, how did this happen?! (I found out later that the 35+ 4’s stopped twice for “nature breaks”. How very cordial of them!) The last 18 miles of the race, the Safeway team kept sending guys off the front one at a time and then slowing down and 30 seconds later, another guy would go. I had never seen “blocking” like this, but according to the follow motorcycle guy, the break had increased their advantage from 1 minute up to 1:20, so I guess it was working. (Safeway had five guys in the peloton and each of them was working in this way.) Well, as it turns out, the Safeway guy that was in the break got dropped and was in our group again. I didn’t find this out until after the race. Their tactics were baffling to say the least. They had five strong guys on their team, why wouldn’t they just put all five on the front and hammer? There were 5 or 6 of us with no team members that would have helped them chase and that would have negated any blocking attempts by the other teams.

The final lap we averaged just over 24mph. Still not super fast, but considerably faster than the first two laps and a lot more surging, so it felt a little faster.

The final 1.5 miles consists of a 7/10ths of a mile flat section across a bridge, a small 4/10ths of a mile climb and then a left turn to a 200+ yard slightly uphill (1% grade) section to the finish. We know we are sprinting for either 5th, 6th or 7th, so we are all motivated for that t-shirt! ;-) (Oh yeah, and the points.) I stay seated across the bridge and up the hill to save my strength for the sprint. We get to the top of the hill and are 50 yards from the left turn and I am still sitting in the top 10 and getting a little jittery before the sprint. As we make the turn we all stand to start the sprint and instantly, both my quads seize! Damn it, I sit back down and try to keep my speed up, but to no avail. The group pulls away from me like I am stopped and I roll across the finish 100 yards back and in about 19th or 20th place.

Overall, it was a fun race and I now I know that I can do a fairly long road race with the 45+ 1/2/3’s. I had a tough time the week before in the 35+ race and the extra 10 years in this group seems to make a difference for me. I will probably stick with the 45+ races for rides over 50 miles in the future.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I think I am going to take a few days off the bike to rest and recover from a long season and then I will probably race in Sacramento in the middle of September (the Sacto circuit race looks fun) and then I will finish up my year at Henleyville (anyone want to join me? Again, it is 70 miles of fun through rolling hills near Chico).

Cheers,