Race Report: 2023 Oakland Grand Prix - Women’s Masters

Race: Oakland Grand Prix - Women’s Masters

Date: September 17th, 2023

AVRT racers: Lora Maes, Sue Lin Holt

Top Result: Sue Lin Holt - 4th/10

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9870734076

Nutrition: Oatmeal for breakfast, an espresso gel on the start line, half a bottle of lemon lime SiS Go electrolyte

Course: Four corner crit with one narrow hairpin

Weather: Cloudy, 65F, significantly less windy than the 35mph gusts in previous years

I was excited to race the last crit of the season, which also happened to be the masters district championship for my age group. Lora had already won the masters championship for her age group at Giro di San Francisco and kindly offered to race Oakland to support me. Racing with a teammate is always more fun!

Conditions on the day were so much better than last year when it poured with rain. I was grateful for that.

Lora and I warmed up around Lake Merritt and discussed our strategy. We knew it would be a fast race as there were a lot of strong racers registered. We agreed that ideally we’d like the race to end in a bunch sprint and so she would try to chase down any attacks and I’d sit in and try to stay rested.

Apart from the hairpin, the course was fairly wide open. Except this year there were cones blocking the left lane of the road on the last straight towards the finish (more on that later).

The race started fast just as we had expected and there was never really a lull in pace. Lora did an excellent job of following some powerful attacks just like we had planned. These accelerations managed to drop 1 or 2 riders during the course of the race, but coming into the last few laps it was clear that it would end in a bunch sprint.

Coming into the last few turns, Lora and I were well positioned in the first 5 wheels. I was just behind and to the outside of her coming around the last corner. The rider in front of me (to the left of Lora) slowed more than expected around the turn and so I made the split second decision to go wide instead of braking, and try to come around her. That meant that I lost Lora’s wheel but I figured she had done her job at that point and now I just needed to execute during the final straight to the finish line. There was a line of riders on my right side and I started to accelerate and pass the rider ahead of me. At that point I realized with horror that the cones blocking the left lane were fast approaching. In a hopeless effort to get other riders to move a few inches to the right I yelled “coming through on your left!” but obviously nobody wanted to let me through and I had to stop pedaling and slot back into the group to avoid crashing into the cones. At that point I had lost all momentum and several bike lengths, but I put all the power I had back onto my pedals in a vain effort to make up some ground before the impending finish line. Ultimately I managed to pass 3 or 4 riders in the last few hundred meters, and crossed the line in 4th place.

This was a somewhat disappointing result as I felt like I could have done better if I had made a smarter decision at the end. I also felt that I had let Lora down after she had worked so hard to support me. But that’s the nature of bike racing - not all races go as planned - and it had been a fun and most importantly safe race (and season!). I’m definitely motivated to do better in this race next year!

As always, thanks to all our sponsors and club members for your support this season. See you out on the road!

Sue Lin