2023 Cantua Creek Road Race - Women 3/4/5 & 40+
Date: February 18, 2023
AVRT racers: Steph Hart, Louise Thomas, Chris Davis (Friend of AV, Robin was also racing)
Top Result: Steph (1/10 overall), Louise (4/10 overall), Chris (6/10 overall, 1st masters)
Course: 24 mile flat(ish) road race (out and back with 180 degree turnround, uphill finish)
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8583112987
Nutrition: Banana and coffee pre-race, ~half a bottle of water during the race.
Going into Cantua Creek, Louise and I had raced a few times this year, but had yet to pull together a really cohesive team effort. Glad to be joined by an experienced racer, Chris helped craft a pre-race plan. Louise is a fan of long-ish climbing and TT efforts, and with relatively few technical sections of the course, the plan was for Chris to soften the field by launching short lived attacks in the first half of the race, and then Louise and I would attack and try and make a break stick at the 180 degree turn around point. After rolling off the start line for a few miles, Chris launched her first attack….and nobody responded (unclear if this was because the bulk of the field was not in the masters race or if people were just not interested in chasing). After a few more round of this with minimal chase efforts, the group settled into a smooth rhythm with friendly group ride vibes for the remaining 6 or so miles to the turn around. Sitting at the front of the field, Louise then attacked exiting the turnaround and I went with her, where we initially established separation but were quickly joined by 2 other riders (one from eclipse, one unknown). Given the lack of other places to attack on the back half of the course until nearly the end of the race, we decided to keep the break rolling with the four of us. However, in classic cat 4 fashion, our well-intended efforts to take strong pulls and maintain a gap led to a pretty surgey pace for the first few miles, and unfortunately Louise fell off the break that she established. I waited a few seconds for her to catch back on, but having already fallen back, Louise waved me on and from then, it was just the three of us. The ~2 miles into the finish consisted of rolling hills, which made me a little nervous given that the other two riders looked quite a bit lighter than me, but we made it through most of the rollers without any animation. As I haven’t really figured out how to sprint on a bike yet, I attacked with ~0.4 miles to go up the final incline and managed to keep separation from the other two riders until the finish. Louise rolled through in 4th less than a minute later, having held a solid solo effort for almost half the race. Robin then rolled through (absolutely crushing her first race) followed by Chris, mentioning that they got bored sitting in the pack after the break went and decided to attack the field on the way back to the finish. All said, this was the first time that I’ve been part of a planned and well executed team strategy, and it was pretty cool when it all came together for the win.