Warnerville Road Race, 35+ 4/5

By Matt Wocasek

The inaugural Warnerville race turned out to be a fun race. I finished 4th in a field sprint.

The course didn’t have a lot of climbing, but it was difficult enough to break the race up. We had to complete 3-16 mile laps over rolling terrain in stiff winds. There was also a mile of dirt road with some sharp turns in it. Cyclocross! Lots of fun!

I noticed that the Davis bike club had 7 riders in the race so I decided it would be a good idea to get into a break with one of them hoping that the rest of the team would disrupt any organized chase. This actually worked out pretty good. On the second lap one of their riders attacked, with a rider from another team, and the others started blocking. I waited to see if the break looked like it would stick then jumped across a 20 second gap. We hammered through the dirt section increasing the gap, and just about he time we got a pace line going, the 3rd guy flatted. So instead of continuing with only two riders the Davis guy and I decided to call it quits and wait for the pack.

The lead group was a lot smaller when they caught us. The field must have split during the chase.

Once I was back in the pack I just tried to stay protected from the wind until the finish, not an easy thing to do on such a windy day.

In the run up to the finish, because of a strong crosswind, the front of the group was in a single file line right on the right on the edge of the road. I was 4th in line and got a perfect lead out. When the sprint up the final hill to the line started it seemed to happen in slow motion, probably because the wind was slowing us down so much. The guy at the front of the line jumped…I followed...everyone else followed me…I died…two riders got around me on the line. I guess I’ll have to win one on another day.

What a great course, I hope they have the race next year.