Dave McLaughlin's Story, 1985

Dave McLaughlin here. I was second to Gavin Chilcott in the 1985 version of Cat's Hill. So anyway, I was checking out the website and noticed the 1981 winner slot is left blank, so here it is - Dave
Zanotti of the San Jose bike club won that year in a long solo break. Don't know where to find him but last I head he was around San Jose somewhere.

A couple other things - You have Fred Markham errantly listed as the '85 winner when it was, in fact, Gavin Chilcott. In another area you have Gavin listed as the '84 winner, who was actually Sterling McBride. (editor's note: we have since changed the list to reflect Dave's recollection and we hope Gavin will write in to verify this.)

Here's my story of the 1985 race if it is interesting to anyone... Riding in the group and went for a cash prime with about 22 laps to go and next thing I know I'm off the front alone so I'm like damn, I guess I gotta stay on it. So here I am, out front all alone for like 18 laps and all of a sudden my 45 second gap was down to about 10 seconds with three to go. Gavin Chilcott was my teammate at the time and, being the tough guy that he is, bridged the gap to me by riding up the hill in
his big ring. As he got to me it was all I could do to stay on his wheel and we quickly opened the gap between us and the main group. I had recovered in time for the sprint but unfortunately let Gavin jump first and he just barely beat me at the line. I guess it was pretty close because it took the officials about 30 minutes to call the winner. This finish was bittersweet for me because I had been away solo for so long and really wanted to win, but in the other hand if Gavin hadn't come to get me I would have been swallowed up by the entire group.

Anyway, Cat's Hill has always been a favorite and it's good to see the race still going strong.

Hope this helps.

Dave McLaughlin
May, 2005

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