Cantua and Dinuba Race Reports

Made it up north to Cantua Creek on Saturday for the road race, and to Dinuba on Monday for the crit. I thought I'd give a short commentary in case anyone is interested for next year. There were a couple Chicken Ranchers at Cantua, and Hecky, but nobody I recognized at Dinuba.

Cantua was an out-and-back though farm country, 2 laps 26 miles each, with a course that was a lot like our Sunday group ride. The only real hill was a 1km rise to the finish pretty much identical to the climb up Bates from Rincon, so that came mid-race, and at the end. Otherwise it was flat or slightly rolling through farmland and the pack stayed together. That is, unless you made a suicidal, lone break-away, which I did on lap 2 for about the last 20 miles so Gene could sit in the pack, and also just for fun...they caught me at the 1k to go sign and I think Gene ended up winning the race (45+ cat 4/5) in the final hill sprint. Congrats, Gene. Hecky said the 2/3 race was just a pack, with a 2-man break that never got any ground and got swallowed up on the final hill sprint. The pro/1 race was dominated by the Yahoo team, who had 12 guys and just turned it into a team time trial when they got 5-6 guys off the front who walked away with it while the rest of the team blocked. (They did 3 laps for 78 miles). The course was pretty good pavement-wise, although if you're allergic to bees don't go there, because the cropland is dotted with hives brought in to pollinate the trees.

Dinuba was a classic downtown crit, although L-shaped so there was one left turn. Several harsh pavement joints in the turns and a big giant concrete rain-swale in the main straight made it a little nerve wracking. The Cat 5's had three big crashes on the final lap, but I did the 35+ Cat 4/5 race and there was only 1 crash, which I missed narrowly, and the usual last-lap weaving and thrashing around, but everyone stayed up. I tried the solo break-away technique with 3 to go but they were having none of it, so I got swarmed & swallowed up in the last lap. Fun race though, nice little town, no traffic problems, etc. Cheap hotels, too.

Both races were about a 4-hour drive from SB. Think about it for next year...especially at Cantua, if we could organize 4-5 Chickens for any one division, we could definitely dominate the Cat 4 or Masters, I think, especially with guys that are fast up Bates or Gube.

-- Paul


Paul's move at Cantua was amazing. He was pretty much on the attack for the second half of the race, most of it solo. I had a "free" ride to finish as the strong riders in the group had to burn matches to bring back Paul and his breakaway companion.


I was talking to a few of the riders after the race and one of the Webcor riders, a very tall German, said in his best German accent, "The Big Chicken (Paul), and the Little Chicken (me), worked very well together". I had a good laugh at being called the Little Chicken.


Well done Paul! I owe you one.


Gene

Cantua & Pine Flats-Cat 5

Chickens,

Nothing like a weekend of racing! Matt Perry, Big Bob, and I started the weekend trip off on the right foot by hitting up the Chicken Ranch on the way out of town for some burritos for the road. Where else would we go? Next stop, the Motel 6 in beautiful East Coalinga, where the sheets made me more nervous than a 50 mph descent.

Day 1 - Cantua

Matt and Big Bob being the mountain bikers that they are were determined to make sure that they made the race hard. I'm pretty sure they just wanted to hurt people, which they did and will continue to do on every ride or race they ever take part in. Let's all just be glad we wear the same jersey as them. Each of them took turns attacking the field, which resulted in too many quick chases to mention. At the beginning of the second lap Matt went to the front and drilled the short descent and Bob looked at me and said, "Let's make it really hard." We formed a paceline at the front and after a few pulls I looked back and there was no one on our wheels, so we rejoined the pack, but we made it hurt enough to drop some people. After the last turnaround, Matt and Bob had already put the fear of god into the field, but they were still grumbling about the race not being hard enough. So, they did what they came to do and attacked a few more times. The last few miles everyone was looking at us saying, "Watch those guys." Matt took the lead and stared drilling it with me on his wheel into the 1k finishing climb. I saw the k to go sign and jumped, a mystery rider hopped right on my wheel. We got a nice gap and then he attacked me and I was saying to myself, "Damn this guy is fast." We were riding side-by-side and with 200 to go he hopped on my wheel as I was trying to jam my shifter into the big gear. With 150 to go the guy jumps hard and flew around me as I'm stil playing games with my shifter, 100 to go, Bob and Matt fly by! We cross the line with the Chickens in 2-3-4. Good stuff!

This mystery attacker was none other than our new friend Fredy Prado who we would get to know well over the weekend, but not too well because he only speaks a few words of English.

Dan road like the powerhouse he is and scored a podium (3rd) in the 45+ 4/5.

We had a little lunch at the local Red Robin and headed to the next great tourist destination California has to offer, the outskirts of Fresno!

Day 2- Pine Flat (the one with the hill)

We lined up at a chilly start and our new friend Fredy pointed at me and said, "Climb good, you try win, how many years you?" "Yes, I try win, I'm 27 years" I responded.

Needless to say we were on Fredy's radar screen. Maybe 15 miles in, Matt rolled off the front to take a tinkle and Fredy jumped around the group, sprinting like a mad man in the drops to get Matt's wheel. We were screaming, "Hey Freddy, he's gonna take a piss!" When Matt pulled off the road, Fredy was maybe 3 inches from his wheel and almost crashed into him. The scene was priceless as he realized what was going on and rolled back to the pack. Shortly after, a rider from Salinas attacked hard off the front before the descent and once we got on the roller section it was time to do some chasing. We tried to organize everyone and to reel in the rider, but it was just the three of us trading pulls. Everyone in the field was scared of the wind and had no interest in helping us bring the rider back. After Chicken Ranch train pulled, Bob was bored and wanted to make it interesting, so he attacked, HARD! Once again, Freddy shot out of the pack and bridged to a Chicken wheel, which was a few 100 meters down the road. Communication was a bit tough between them, so Bob yelled, "Fredy, VAMOS," and pointed up the road. They were off, awesome, Big Bob finally had his break.

Matt and I sat on high fiving each other and road 4th & 5th wheel as three guys chased, while everyone else just looked. On the rollers before the climb, one of the guys decided to really start racing and dropped the hammer, shelling all but a few of us out the back. When the climb started I just road tempo with a strong climber from team Vapor with a few others in tow. Maybe a mile and a half from the top we caught the break, which had become three and I shifted my mindset to racing! We crested the climb in a group of 5 and started the 5-6 mile rolling descent to the final climb. I was sitting second wheel and all of a sudden I hear Matt scream, "Are you read for the Chicken Ranch 1, 2, 3!" He and Bob had bridged and went right to the front. I came around the guy in front of me and said, "That's my ride!" That section was hands down one of the coolest experiences I've ever had on a bike, getting to follow my two buddies, flying down a cool descent with the adrenaline pumping. When the road flattened or popped up a bit I was yelling like a maniac, GO, GO, GO, RIDE, F*CKING HIT BOB. Bob would look back with his face redder than a tomato nodding his head.

Finally, the shallow rise before the steep final climb. Matt takes off as hard as he can, it's not going to stick and our small climber group is going full gas at the climb. Fredy attacks hard on the 1st section of the steep climb, the Salinas rider couldn't keep the pace as a whipped around him. It was just me and Fredy throwing down all we had, riding side-by-side, slugging it out. The final steep section had a sharp switch back and I thought now or never and attacked the hell out of it and got a small gap. I crested the final climb on to the shallow rise to the finish and made it about halfway to the line before sitting down and backing off a bit (it hurt). Fredy smelled my weakness and threw the final attack and went to the line. I rolled to the line in 2nd behind Fredy pounding on my bars disappointed I couldn't finish what I came to do.

Bob and Matt rolled in for 6 & 7, so there were some good results for the Chicken Ranch boys and more importantly a whole lot of fun. Getting back to the parking lot we hooked back up with Dan who soloed to a win! Nice!

Driving back we were all overcome with the riding our new friend Fredy through down. Matt told us how at the beginning of the race Fredy was taking a piss, while he was still riding his bike, mad skills that guys has. Bob and I were completely dismayed and couldn't imagine how a cat 5 racer could race so well, let alone piss and pedal at the same time. A quick google search of Fredy Prado popped up a bunch of race results for pro Mexican stage races from a few years back. Huh! What was he doing in the 5's?

John A. Comunale

Cantua Creek Race Report

Thanks for the report Craig! Welcome aboard! By the way if any of you are noticing I'm trying to teach myself how to use Google maps by trial and error. Thanks for you patience

Hi everyone,

My report for Cantua Creek is nothing to brag about but considering I just finished a round of antibiotics for a sinus and respiratory infection I did OK.

I was one of two ranchers to race Cantua and I apologize to my teammate who was there I don't remember your name(old age).

The weather was chilly about 40 degrees at start time.

I was in the 45+4,5 race,The race was pretty mellow no attacks that stuck until we hit the turn around of lap two,At this point one brave soul went of the front on his own and proceeded to get a pretty big gap so much so he was out of site.

No one was willing to work the front to pull him back,But as we got closer to the finish it was clear that if we didn't start a chase he was going to win.

One rider was complaining so much so that I told him if you go to the front and work I will follow.

This started the chase and we went from about 22mph to 27-28mph and held this consistently to the base of the 2 mile climb to the finish.This blew the field up and it became a group of twenty chasing one.

We caught him on the climb at this point due to illness and with the work I did in the chase I could no longer hold the pace up the climb(so sad).

Not sure of my placing but I believe it was just outside the top twenty.

New Rancher,

Craig Foley



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