2023 Pine Flat Road Race - Men's Cat 4

AVRT racers (7): Logan Allen, Jeremy Besmer, Fraser Bulbuc, Maxime Cauchois, Michael Fryar, Ian Twamley

Top Result: Ian Twamley, 5th/29

Course: 62 miles, 4,000ft. Rolling for the first 26 miles on an out-and-back overlooking Pine Flat Lake. 2 mile fast, non-technical descent into a 16 mile valley with minimal features, then the main 11 mile climb that starts with rollers, gradually getting steeper until the last mile averaging about 10%. 6 mile descent into a 1 mile climb to finish the race.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8589554499

Nutrition: Failure! I did NOT stick to the fueling plan that Andrea helped me map out. I only had 1.5 bottles of Skratch (60g/bottle), and 2 Spring Energy Gels (30g total). That’s entirely insufficient.

Race Reacp:

Nico’s recap of the Men’s 3’s was how we wished our race played out. Instead, a combo of terrible luck and bad decision making lead to a difficult race. Lots to learn for newer racers below!

We had the biggest team in this race, and after Fraser’s win as our designated sprinter at Cantua Creek the day before, it was Jeremy’s turn to be our protected rider and punish people on Pine Flat’s brutal climbs.

Logan, Fraser, Maxime and Michael kept the peloton together through the fast out-and-back section, reeling back a lone early break and keeping the pace high. We then lost Max to a puncture, and were down to 5 AV riders. On the long descent into the valley, a rider managed to gain a 20 second gap on the field and committed to it. 

Then disaster struck. A softball-sized rock took out Michael, Jeremy, and another rider while going about 35 MPH. We are extremely thankful that nobody sustained serious injuries, but at the time we knew teammates were down and probably hurt, and it wasn’t until almost 20 min later that the moto ref let us know everyone was alert and OK, which helped us focus. I was next-rider-up to go for the win.

During the commotion, the solo rider opened his gap to about 40 seconds. Then a minute.

Nobody seemed interested in reeling him back, so I made the call to get Logan, Fraser and I to alternate steady pulls to close it before the climb, worried he could lose us again on the next descent.

Mistake 1: That was the wrong choice. Plan A should have been to convince other teams to work in. Plan B would have been to send Logan and/or Fraser to attack and attempt to bridge to the rider, with the goal of waking up the field to chase. 

Logan and Fraser worked extremely hard until the pitch picked up. Logan pulled up, and Fraser kept working for the shallow portion of the climb to help keep me out of the wind. It was also at this time that the breakaway rider was caught and teetered of his bike into a grassy patch, so mission accomplished, but at way too big a cost to our team.

When the climb truly started, the eventual rider launched his attack, and I managed to hold his wheel. Three minutes later, I realized he was way out of my league, and he opened up a minute gap on me over the top, while I carried at least a minute on the field. To me, it was now a race for second.

Mistake 2: I over-committed when I should have been conserving energy for the final shorter climb. Instead I kept the power up to try to hold my gap on the field through the final descent/valley. It didn’t work because my ego is dumb.

I was caught in the valley by 3 riders. At 1K to go I tried a final dig to lose them, but didn’t have it (remember when I outlined my terrible fueling strategy above?).

At 200m to go, all 3 launched, and I watched them cross the line ahead of me. I know I have the power profile for a finish like that, but it’s useless if I race poorly!

HUGE THANK YOU to Fraser for helping get Jeremy’s partner to the hospital, and for getting a very ill Will home. And thank you to Will for donating your car to them for the day to get them home to San Francisco. The races are pretty meaningless once someone is injured, but it’s the unflinching support of teammates that keeps me coming back. 

Please wear and upgrade your helmets regularly (Jeremy might need a KAV now)

Brand-new Princeton CarbonWorks took the brunt of a 35mph front-flip.