2023 Cherry Pie Crit - Elite 3
Race: Cherry Pie Crit - Elite 3
Date: February 20, 2023
AVRT racers: Josh Worley, Drew Mathews, Daniel Fonyo
Top Result: Daniel - 1st/33, Drew - 15/33, Josh - Mechanical issue
Course: Flat crit with a bunch of somewhat tight turns around a parking lot, connected by 2 straight sections. Good road conditions with a couple of dusty corner apexes that you had to be careful about.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8596069391
Coming to this race Josh and I were feeling pretty depleted and unenthusiastic after two intense days of racing in Fresno, and being only us two from the 3s squad to be able to show up. Luckily Drew joined us to race again after he already raced earlier in the day in the Cat4s so that brought our squad up to three.
The biggest team was Dolce Vita bringing a full squad of 8, and then a few smaller teams who we noted each had some strong riders we recognized. With the course consisting of tight and technical turns, our number one goal was to stay near the front the entire race to avoid any crashes and gaps that may come with the dynamics of such a course.
We opted to pre-ride the race course a couple minutes before the race started to get a feel for it which led us to start at the back of the field. I treated the start as a CX race start and when the whistle blew went all out in the first lap to work our way to the front of the race. In the first few opening laps Josh and I put quite a few digs in coming out of corners to gauge how the legs were feeling after the past two days and to try to see what the limits were in each corner. Unfortunately Josh suffered a mechanical to his front wheel and had to pull out. After the pace lulled, around lap four, a single Dolce Vita rider attacked and immediately got around a ten second gap going into the first Prim lap. I continued to stay top three wheels and took turns on the front, controlling the gap and also made sure the pace stayed fast in the turny sections. After about 25 minutes of this and the single Dolce rider still off the front, we were coming to three laps to go. I was a bit worried because I spent a lot of time on the front and thought everyone was still fresh sitting in behind me.
With Dolce unwilling to work, me and a few solo riders took a couple strong pulls on the straight sections and brought the gap back down to where we could see the Dolce rider about two-to-three turns ahead. Coming into the last lap, the fight for the first corner kicked off. It was a tight and fast switchback that you did not want to come three or four wide into. With a little bumping and getting the elbows out, I stayed third wheel going into the corners and then dived into the next corner to get on the front. Coming out onto the back straight away with just under a mile to go I noticed a 2 bike length gap form behind me and I decided to just punch it. In the next few turns I pushed my tire grip to the edge, leaning in and carrying as much speed as I could. With 500m to go I was coming into finishing straight, digging as hard and aero as I could going full gas. At 150m I caught the single Dolce rider that’s been off the front the entire race and used him as a slingshot to throw down a final sprint to the line just as the chasing group was catching me to seal the win!
The 3s squad came to this race as underdogs after 2 days of hard racing against much fresher riders, and still pulled out a win which I think speaks to the level of effort and dedication we’ve been putting in all off-season. Over the last 3 days, 3 different riders each won from our squad on a flat road race, a climby road race, and a crit.
With a very busy race calendar for the next month and a half I’m so stoked to see what more the AV Race Team can accomplish after such a great season opener!
