Race Report: [2022 San Ardo Road Race - Men’s Cat p12]

Race: 2022 San Ardo Road Race - Men’s Cat p12

Date: Aug 20, 2022

AVRT racers: Cameron O’Reilly, Shane McGuire, Austin King, Andrea Cloarec

Top Result: Andrea (10/27)

Course: 84 miles on a 22-mile loop of flat and rolling country roads in Monterey County. Good to fair paving, some narrow stretches

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/7671499865

Nutrition: Based on 90g/hour with Maurten gels 100, Maurten solid bar, water with 80g Maple Syrup, and mix carbs bottle prepared the day before (with Skratch ?)

Recap: 

We started this race as the biggest team of the team, with 4 riders.

The plan was either to get in the break with Cam, Shane or Austin. Or if a break isn’t possible, control the race for me, Andrea, to try to go for the sprint finish. So my job was to try to save as much energy as possible, and fuel correctly to feel fresh at the end of the 84 miles.

An early break of 2 guys during 3 laps held. And it was quite “funny” to see the other teams asking us, Alto Velo, to do the job as the “biggest” team.

Cam, Austin and Shane did very great efforts of controlling the pace and the break to finally catch the break with one lap to go.

Meanwhile we tried to control the other big team, Project 74, Mikes Bikes.

Finally we arrived at the last lap, I mentioned to Cam that I still really feel good, and I am confident in my abilities to have a good result.

In the last 10 miles, some action started. Some attacks, counter attacks, and finally a small group of 5 gets 10-20sec ahead with less than 6 miles to go.

Maybe impatiently I feel that no other team wants to do anything, and I decide to bridge this small group of 5. I managed to do the bridge with a big effort, and join this group with 2 miles to go. However the peloton is just 10 seconds behind.

I decided to go on the front to pull the small group, after asking for another guy to pull, and they all told me they were done, or just didn’t want to pull.

I think I made the mistake of staying at the front of this group, and finally the peloton catch us with 1 mile to go.

I do my best to stay close to the front, but I spent too much energy on the last miles to be able to have a good sprint finish, or any kind of sprint…! 

I finally finished 10th behind the guys able to sprint.
Maybe one day this bridge would be successful, but on this day it was not the good option.

Anyway it was a good race in this p12 field with the AV team. There should be more to come next year where Alto Velo can have a very good impact in this field with a very good team.

Looking forward for the next season!
Andrea