Race Report: 2023 Cantua Creek Road Race - Men’s Cat 4
Race: 2023 Cantua Creek Road Race - Men’s Cat 4
Date: February 18, 2023
AVRT Racers: Drew Matthews, Fraser Bulbuc, Ian Twamley, Jeremy Besmer, Logan Allen, Maxime Cauchois, Michael Fryar, Steven Li, Will Hakim
Top Result: Fraser 1/38
Course: Approx. 70mi and 2000ft of elevation. The course consists of three out-and-back laps along a two-lane road with good to excellent pavement. The section of road is mostly straight and flat with some rolling hills near the start/finish. The finish is slightly uphill with a ~2-3% gradient.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8583318306
Nutrition: Approx. 50g of carbs and 250ml of water per hour. I planned to consume more carbs and water but my second bottle bounced out of its cage on the first lap. Fortunately, the temperature was low (~45-55F), and in my role as our protected sprinter, I wasn’t doing much work so this was enough.
Recap: AV was the largest team in the race. We had 9 riders in the field of 38. Our plan was to have Drew/Ian/Logan/Maxime/Michael/Steven/Will attacking and covering attacks, myself as protected sprinter, and Jeremy as race captain. We were prepared to win from a breakaway or bunch sprint.
The race started slow, and the first two laps were largely uneventful. There were a few attacks but we covered them and nothing stayed away for long.
Near the end of lap two, Jeremy attacked on the uphill section going into the turnaround and caused a split. This reduced the field down to ~25 riders for the third lap, though 2 AV riders were caught on the wrong side of the split.
During the first half of lap three, Will attacked. He was committed to staying away or making the non-AV riders work if he was to be brought back. He was out front solo for about 30 minutes but was eventually caught midway through the second half of the lap.
Shortly after Will was brought back, an unattached rider attacked and Ian followed. The pair continued to gain time on the bunch, since we weren’t going to chase our teammate, and it appeared that they would stay away. However, with about 5 miles remaining another unattached rider attempted to bridge to the group of two. We liked our odds of Ian against one rider on the rolling uphill finish but not two. So Jeremy made the call to bring them back, at which point Jeremy, Logan, Maxime, and Michael drove the pace on the front and caught the bridging rider with about 2 miles remaining. Because of the increased pace, we anticipated that the break containing Ian would be caught and the race would end in a bunch sprint.
We practiced lead outs the weekend prior at team camp and attempted to organize ourselves on the front, but our leadout in the race did not go as planned. The final mile was chaotic. The pace was not fast enough to prevent late attacks, and I got swarmed and lost Jeremy’s wheel. I found myself boxed in until the ~800m mark when things opened up and I was able to find the wheel of two other sprinters. I stayed in their draft until the ~200m mark then pulled out into the wind and sprinted past them. I didn’t have a particularly strong sprint on the day, but my timing was better and it was enough to take the win for AV.
-Fraser