Race Report: 2024 Snelling RR Men’s P12
Race: Snelling RR Men’s P12
Date: June 8th, 2024
AVRT racers: Andrea Cloarec, Cameron O'Reilly, Grant Miller, Nathan Martin
Top Result: Grant (6/46), Nathan 9th
Course: The original Snelling course - 11.7 miles of rolling farm roads with decent to bad pavement. The final sprint is 300m after a tight right-hand turn.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11607408999/
Nutrition: Started with three frozen bottles with 80g of carbs. Got a few bottles from the feed with 60g of carbs and had 3 guu gels with 25mg of caffeine and one 150mg SIS gel
This year Snelling was postponed from its usual spring date to June. The weather forecast didn’t look pretty, with highs in the 90’s. While it wasn’t as bad as I expected, the heat played a huge factor in the race. We planned to try and beat the heat by having frozen water and ice socks in the feed which were a life-saver. Thanks to Nathan’s dad Roger and Drew for helping out! I started the race with three frozen bottles, two of which I shoved in my jersey to keep me cool.
The race started out with two riders slowly rolling off the front. Our plan was to be represented in any breaks, but not to overcommit and burn ourselves out. Cam jumped across later in the lap and soon two more riders did. At this point Dolce and ourselves were represented, but the biggest teams of Mikes, Voler, and Terun were not. I figured they would organize a chase or launch a counter-attack but for the rest of lap one and most of two nothing happened. At this point the break probably already had a 2 minute advantage when Mike’s called for a pee break which the field obliged. Once we were moving again, the break probably had another minute advantage.
In the next 30 minutes all the teams who weren’t represented made attempts to get across to the break which Nathan and I covered. It was pretty hard and there was one moment where I thought the elastic would snap but Voler stopped pulling and the field came back. The pace stayed pretty fast through the headwind but no major attacks went. As we turned into the cross/tailwind section again Ryan and Miles from Voler started ruthlessly attacking the field. Every time one of them got brought back the next would go. Nathan and I did our best to cover each attack, but eventually a small group with Ryan started to go away. I knew that could be the last chance to get across so I asked Nathan to try to close the gap with me in the draft. We started bridging across and there were only a few riders left in our draft. Eventually I attacked with one other rider until we caught the second break. At that point everyone sat up and the field came back, again. At this point I felt like this was the only time to make a counter-attack, but I was pretty tired and the break was nowhere in sight. I felt like if I attacked, no one would come and I would just slowly overheat in no-man’s land before getting caught, so I decided to just sit in. Andrea also had a mechanical during this part and was out of the race.
At this point Voler started to organize to chase, but all of their supporting riders were pretty gassed from the attacking. The pace stayed steady for about an hour, but we couldn’t gain any time on the break. As we came into the last lap, we started catching riders popped from the break including Cam. Even though we weren’t represented anymore, we only had two riders left while Mikes, Terun, and Voler all had 3 or more. The break was still more than 3 minutes up the road, so we decided not to help chase and wait for a late race break to race for best of the rest.
As we hit one of the rolling parts, a group with several Mike’s and Voler riders started rolling away. I jumped across and joined them but the pace immediately dropped and the field started coming back. We turned into the crosswind section and the group started taking hard pulls and I pulled through one or twice to see if we could keep our gap. The field came back and a Mike's rider immediately attacked. I saw that no one moved to cover them so I jumped and bridged across with one rider. The group sat up and I thought this might be the move so I put in one hard pull but the others were pretty gassed. As we made the turn, a reduced field caught us.
The last 10 minutes of the course are a pretty fast false-flat tailwind section and we kept a high pace. There’s one significant kicker followed by some rollers and a tight gravely turn before a final right-hand turn and 300m to the finish line. I fully expected Ryan to attack the kicker so I kept him in my sights but no major moves went there. Nathan made a perfectly timed attack as the pace slowed and forced Mikes and Voler to chase. I followed as Ryan attacked right into the gravely corner and watched him ride off the road into some gravel, somehow managing to keep the bike upright. This attack brought back Nathan and I immediately tried to counter-attack, but Ryan and Eamon were in my draft so I sat up and the field came back.
At this point Eamon jumped off the front solo and Ryan started pacing to keep his lead in check. As we approached the last turn, Nathan found me and yelled for me to get on his wheel. I managed to slot in around 5th wheel from the front which was perfect. We made it through the turn cleanly and then half the guys just sat up. I navigated through them and jumped onto the Terun sprinter, but the pavement was super bumpy and my chain almost bounced off, so I couldn’t come around him. I rolled across for 3rd in the sprint, but 6th overall since there were 3 guys up the road.
Overall I felt the team executed really well. We were represented and raced to our plan, we just didn’t account for the other teams not taking the break seriously. We also prepared for the heat and managed to perform well. Thanks to everyone in the feed zone for helping out!