2023 Cantua Creek RR Women P123
Race: Cantua Creek RR W P123
Date: February 18, 2023
AVRT racers: Kelly Brennan, Skyler Espinoza, Lindsey Raven, Gina Yuan, Niky Taylor
Top Result: Niky and Kelly 1-2, Skyler 5th
Course + Recap: Cantua Creek is actually fairly pretty. It’s a 12 mile stretch of road that you ride out and back. The start is a little bit up in some rolling green hills, then the road goes down to some very flat stretches next to almond fields. Then there’s a very slight up to the turnaround and you get to do it all again in reverse. Lucky you.
We had a strong team going into this race and we knew it and I was excited. I told my teammates before the race that they should just put me where they wanted me and I’d send it. Gina and Kelly (our fearless race captains) talked us through some strategy the night before. Basically we were expecting attacks from Terun who had 4 riders registered. We’d cover them in the first lap, then go aggressive on the second lap. Kelly and I would try to “go bananas” as Skyler phrased it, and if that didn’t stick Lindsey and Gina would lead Skyler out for a sprint.
Day of the race we found out Terun actually only had 2 racers. So that’s nice for us. The race started and things stayed pretty calm. Then some attacks started. I think we all collectively decided that we should just go ahead and be aggressive. Kelly did an attack that got brought back. Gina did an attack, then I solo bridged up to her and we stayed off the front until the turnaround. After the turnaround, Lindsey attacked and stayed away for a while. Alex (Terun) and a solo rider were doing all the work to bring us back in. I’m always so impressed by how strong Alex is, and I didn’t want to give her opportunities to rest. As we came up to Lindsey, I attacked again. Alex shut that down, then I ramped it up a small roller just to try and tire people out.
When we got to the climb (it’s not an intense climb but it actually is very useful turns out), Kelly set a fast pace up. Gina told me to go up and stick with Kelly in case anything happened. The group started to fracture a bit. Coming up to the start/turnaround Kelly was on the front and could tell the riders around her were tired. Then Skyler yelled “go go go!” Kelly looked back at me and took off. I jumped past Alex to catch Kelly and we hit the turnaround to start the second lap. This was awesome teamwork and communication by Skyler, because she had a perspective that Kelly and I didn’t. Her timing in telling us to go was key for the success of our attack.
Alex and a couple solo riders were still pretty close behind, but Kelly and I committed. Kelly said we should blast every roller. So we did that. It was cool. We established a solid gap. Then we got into a groove and started grinding.
As we started the break I was feeling a bit antsy, wondering if we’d get caught. Kelly was super calm and just had us focus on communicating and staying steady. She is so physically and mentally strong and totally was the driving force of our break, calmly telling me what to do and where and when. I wasn’t sure how to stay consistent for the 20 miles of flat we were about to embark on. Then I remembered I have a power meter! And a computer! So I looked at data! For like the first time ever in a race!
I remembered from riding/talking with Jack that 250 W is a fairly sustainable number for me, so I decided to try to keep 230-250 W on my pulls. I probably actually wasn’t that consistent and kept it somewhere between 200-250 W. In Kelly’s draft I was at about 170-180 W. This kept us at about 22-25 miles per hour. Wow, data.
When we hit the turnaround we realized how far out ahead we were. We had about a 2-minute gap on the field, and our teammates cheered for us as we passed going the other way. We celebrated briefly but kept the power up. And that’s how the rest of the lap went. It was awesome.
We chatted on the final climb about who wanted to take the win. Neither of us cared very much so we decided to cross the line together. I have always wanted to do that. So we did that. So that was pretty special.
Strava: https://strava.app.link/4qiVbZiaxxb
Nutrition: 3 clif bloks during the race and 1.5 bottles of water+skratch
