Race Report: 2022 San Ardo Road Race - All Women
Race: San Ardo Road Race - Women’s Cat 3,4,5 and Masters women (all women ended up racing at the same time)
Date: August 20, 2022
AVRT racers: Sue Lin Holt, Sharon Newman, Kristina Okamoto, Emily Schnell, Niky Taylor, Louise Thomas, Gina Yuan,
Top Result: Niky Taylor 2nd overall and in Cat 4, Gina Yuan 3rd overall and 1st in Cat 3, Louise Thomas 3/12 cat 4, Kristina Okamoto 4/12 cat 4, Sue Lin Holt 2nd Cat 3.
Course: San Ardo RR is pretty flat. There’s some rolling at the beginning of the course and a couple short hills after the turn to head back to the finish, but not much that will help a climber get away. The road is pretty rough in places, especially over the bridge on the far side of the course. Goat heads (thorns) are a hazard on the sides of the roads. The end of the course is on a short climb off from the rest of the course, about 4%.
We did this race as part 1 of our women’s team camp. The night before we came up with a plan to control the race, then have Gina and I attack over the very bumpy bridge section on lap 1 to break away. When the race started, Emily started out strong in front and set the tone, establishing Alto Velo as the controlling force in the race and keeping it steady for the first few miles. I struggled with a mild anxiety attack that pushed my heart rate up, but Louise and Sharon helped me keep position and stay calm. Sue Lin got a flat and had to pull out at mile 4. Luckily she was able to change it and keep riding, though it was a huge setback and we didn’t see her until the end of the race.
At mile 11 we were approaching the bridge. Kristina was in front, with Gina behind her and me behind Gina. Emily, Louise, and Sharon were behind us shielding from the rest of the pack. Kristina led us out, then Gina and I attacked. We had a harrowing sprint over the extremely bumpy bridge. We ended up with a gap, so we tried to hold it, but I was too tired to be much help to Gina (who seemed FINE).
After I recovered we touched base on what had happened and what to do next. Since this was training camp, we decided to just try some stuff out and see how it went. It seemed unlikely that any attacks were going to stick, given the wind and the flat terrain, but we decided to play around and see how the peloton responded. Gina and I alternated attacking on a flat, forcing other riders to pull the group up when they chased. After an attack by Gina, there was a slight lull and I felt like I had some extra momentum. So I went ahead and attacked again. When I looked back I was surprised at the gap. I saw a wall of my teammates, so I assumed they were playing defense to let me go. Which was cool but I also didn’t think I could hold a solo break on flat ground in the wind for 30 miles. So I kept it pretty moderate to not sacrifice much energy, staying out solo for a few minutes before the group caught up.
After that we had a fairly uneventful half lap. We contemplated doing another attack on the bumpy bridge, but we weren’t that committed and Ilan (cat 3 rider from Terun) decisively positioned herself to keep us from trying anything. At this point I was feeling tired and kind of resigned, because sometimes that’s just how riding on flats makes me feel. I pushed the group pace up the last small climb, then Kristina and Louise took over. About 8 miles from the finish Gina started getting us organized again. We still had 5 people in the group and were controlling things well, so we decided to do a lead out with me as the sprinter.
Gina went off and started attacking and then counter-attacking her own attacks to break up the field. It was pretty amazing and blew up the field, but was a bit too effective because our lead out was also totally broken up and we dropped Kristina and Louise. Maybe that’s the risk when you let the very fit all-rounder blow themselves up as a domestique.
Coming into the final stretch (between the start and the feed zone), Gina was out front with Gwen (cat 4 rider) chasing her, then me and two other riders chasing Gwen. Everything turned into a mess on the overpass bridge. Two cars were stopped in our lane, and another car was coming head on. Also two or three male riders were floating around, slowly riding around the cars, not aware that our race was finishing on the course. Gina and Gwen managed to swerve through safely. The remaining three of us were forced to slow down, then onto the centerline to avoid the guys and cars. The bumps in the middle caused the two other girls to touch wheels, and Ilan, who was next to me, went down hard. She screamed and fell into my leg, and I thought I was going down but luckily she hit below my center of gravity and I stayed up. She was able to walk away from it but didn’t finish the race, and didn’t get to race University the next day either.
Gwen at this point had passed Gina (who finally looked a little bit tired after attacking about 500 times) and was getting a big lead. The remaining rider and I started working together to get back up to her. Then I realized we were going up a hill! Wow. Amazing. Time to go for it with what I had left. I ramped it up and passed Gina, chased Gwen, closed the gap down but didn’t quite catch her before the finish, coming in 2nd with Gina in 3rd (and 1st for cat 3’s) behind me.
Overall this was kind of an odd race but a great learning experience. I probably wouldn’t target it for myself in the future and would instead do it to ride for a teammate. We all got a lot more comfortable riding together and it felt great to do team stuff, even if it didn’t always go exactly as planned.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/7672041853
Nutrition: Feed zone was a bit over half a mile from the start, a few hundred meters from the finish. I started with one small bottle of scratch mix and one large bottle of water. I made sure to drink a lot of water the day before the race. I didn’t take any bottles during the race (George had scratch bottles for the women's team and neutral support had water) but drank most of what I started with. Anxiety made it hard to eat beforehand but I managed half a bagel and half a banana. Also ate 2 clif bloks during the race (https://gelvio.com/products/salted-watermelon-energy-chews).