Race Report: 2024 Oakland Grand Prix M35+ 3/4
Race: 2024 Oakland Grand Prix Masters 35+ Cat 3/4
Date: Sunday September 15, 2024
AVRT racers: Shai Traister, Daniel Choi
Top Result: Daniel (8/31)
Course: The first right hand turn is a sharp hairpin, followed by another right hand turn, then a long straight section that goes slightly downhill, then slightly uphill, into another right hand turn, and then the final right hand turn to the final straighaway to the finish.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/12420132636
Nutrition: 50 minutes race - so only one gel immediately before the race and 1 sip of electrolyte water during the race.
Race Recap (Written by Shai)
I don’t normally race crits - normally only racing road races, but I decided to give this one a try as a learning experience.
As far as teams - Monster racing had 4 racers, Dolce Vita had 3. A couple of teams with 2 riders (us, Penvelo) and the rest were singles/unattached.
The race started off super fast, right from the beginning (as expected). It took me a couple of laps to get used to the corners and find my position in the pack. After a few laps where I tried to follow wheels and find good lines through the corners I decided to try and move up. I made some accelerations on the straightaways but the most effective way was to maintain speed (as much as possible) through the corners where the entire field slowed down. I managed to get to about 5th wheel, and I felt the race was a bit more consistent than further in the back.
Few attacks but nothing held - either the field was chasing it down, or the people who got away realized they were alone and didn’t give it full effort. The problem was that no single team was controlling the race, so it ended up being super chaotic and almost too slow. The front was slowing down before the corners (especially the hairpin) which allowed riders to squeeze through and advance. I could gain - or lose - 10-15 positions going through a single turn, so I kept bouncing between ~5th to 20th wheel and was constantly fighting for positions.
With about 5 laps to go, a rider in front of me crashed going through the hairpin. As he crashed towards the outside, I kept my line on the inside and didn’t lose too much time. A group of ~6 riders that were in front kept pushing the pace and I did an effort to chase them through the back straightaway. I closed the gap and we had a slight separation with other chasing from behind. Unfortunately, things slowed down after about a lap and everything came back together.
i maintained my position near the front until ~1 lap to go, but on the hairpin turn many riders dove the inside and passed me. After that corner the pace picked up all the way to the line and I couldn’t move up. Finished 17/31.
I was disappointed in my finish for sure. In hindsight, it would have been good to try and push the pace when we had that little separation, or maybe try a flyer on 2 laps to go (when the pace was still fairly manageable) and try to get to the last hairpin with a gap.
Was definitely a good race and I’m glad I participated.