Race Report: 2022 Dunnigan Hills Road Race - Men's Cat 4

Race: 2022 Dunnigan Hills Road Race - Men's Cat 4

Date: 8/28/22

AVRT Racers: Nat, Brian, Will, Ian, Daniel

Top Result: Daniel (3rd / 25)

Course: Link to the Strava segment. The course was 2 laps consisting of 44 miles with 150 feet elevation, as flat as it gets! The road surface was typical country roads with a couple of bumpy sections but overall fairly good. The back stretch of the course heading into the last mile had a strong headwind for the entire race.

Nutrition: 2 bottles filled with 80 grams of carbs, 1 big bag of gummy bears. Definitely felt a bit under fueled and felt the fatigue set in towards the last lap when the temperatures rose.

Race Recep: Going into this race, we were the largest team and had the most firepower. We came in with a number of gameplans depending on how the race played out. Given the hilly sections after the start finish line, we were expecting a possible breakaway, but knowing how flat most sections were, Brian and I were also ready to sprint. 

As the race started, we were going snail pace. A couple of riders were yelling at us to pull through and ride the front but we just ignored them and sat in. We knew how long the race was and didn’t see any reason to start pacing the front. This continued for a while until about halfway through the first lap a couple of solo riders decided to start throwing down on the front. They pulled us along the rest of the lap, until the headwind back stretch where everyone just sat up refusing to work into a headwind. 

When we started the second lap, the fireworks started. A super strong Pen Velo rider decided to light up the front going up the hilly sections which strung the field out. Most of us were already positioned up near the front expecting something like this, so Will, Ian and I did some pulls with the Pen Velo rider through these sections to keep the pace up and put some hurt in behind us. This continued for a while until we came out into the flats and the pace mellowed. Unfortunately during all this Nat flatted, and we didn’t manage to communicate this out between ourselves so we ended up drilling the front while Nat was trying to chase back on, which was a lesson learned.

As we neared the last 15 miles or so, a masters field ended up catching us, right as a solo rider attacked out of our group. We ended up getting neutralized while the masters peloton passed us, however the solo rider out front just kept riding and extended his gap. Will and Ian sensed the danger in this and immediately got on the front and started pulling hard. We then ended up catching the masters field and now they were neutralized as we passed them trying to reel this rider out front. When we caught the solo rider from our field, the pace settled and like clock work the masters field caught us again and we got neutralized. This happened two more times until we ultimately ended out in front of the masters group. Going into the headwind section, some of the strong riders noticed that we were the biggest and strongest team and started attacking us into the headwind section. This is where Will and Ian saved the race and began covering every attack. I was sitting in the draft the whole time and I was getting tired from just staying in the wheels with all the accelerations to put it into perspective. With a final turn going into the finishing mile, there was one Mikes Bikes rider left out front and Will burned his final match to reel him in and get us out of the headwind section. Ian stayed on the front and I slotted in behind in second wheel as he pulled us into the last few hills to the finish. Given the insane output Ian just did, he ended up blowing up with exactly 1km to go and I was suddenly left on the front. Knowing I can’t go from 1km out, I sat up too and started looking around which then caused things to explode as a bunch of riders attacked and came around me. I put in a huge dig to get into their wheels and just barely hung on to stay about 5th wheel going into the final uphill sprint drag. I started my sprint and being at my absolute limit while having to weave through a field of 4 guys, three of us came to the line together where I was able to snag third place by a bike throw.

The effort the team put out to cover attacks and keep the race together was amazing. We learned some lessons, specifically around knowing when a teammate has dropped (for a flat in this case) that we need to communicate and not pull on the front to let them catch up, and for me that sitting second wheel with 1km to go is not the right position to be in as it’s very hard to cover any attacks from the back if they come.