Race Report: 2022 SF Giro - Women’s Cat 4,5 and Masters
Race: SF Giro Women’s Cat 4/5, Masters
Date: September 5, 2022
AVRT racers: Sue Lin Holt, Niky Taylor, Louise Thomas
Top Result: Niky 3/15, Sue Lin 4/18
Course: This course is an L shape. From the start, T1 is the only left turn, then there’s a slight downhill to T2 which has train tracks cutting across it. It wasn’t as bad as I might have expected though because it’s not a sharp turn and it’s easy to cut straight over the tracks. In a bigger group it would likely be more sketchy. After that there is a short punchy uphill to T3, which turns onto the longest straight away. The middle is roughest, the right side was probably the best line but everyone in our race stayed on the left, probably in prep for T4 which turns right into a downhill and then T5, which turns right again into the final sprint section to the line.
It took a lot of willpower for me just to get to the start line of this race since I wasn’t feeling too hyped about crits. Sue Lin, Louise, and I decided Louise and I would cover attacks, but try to keep the field together and lead Sue Lin out for a sprint at the end. I also wanted to try and score some upgrade points but decided to play that by ear.
The race started and stayed pretty chill for the first half. Louise did some work on the front and controlled the race, keeping it steady but fast and covering several attacks. After a few laps I went up and did some pulls on the front and realized I could get a gap on the climb. We kept up a decent pace and dropped maybe half the race off the back. Things stayed relatively calm until 8 laps to go when the pace picked up a bit. At 6 laps to go I was feeling good and decided it was time to do some stuff. I did a hard attack on the hill and tried to hold the gap. The group pushed to keep up with me, but when I was caught around T5 they seemed content to just hang behind me. So I did a similar thing on the next lap, forcing the group to keep up and catch up. I knew Louise would be fine on the climb and could take care of Sue Lin, especially since no one seemed interested in forming a break. After that I got back in the pack for a bit. At 2 laps to go I asked Sue Lin how she was feeling and she said good, so I figured it was time to set up our lead out. I attacked on the hill and stepped on the gas. I led us through a lap, then attacked again on the hill for the last time. Louise was behind me and Sue Lin was behind her and everything was beautiful and the world paused in awe of our incredible lead out train.
Then an SJBC rider attacked going into T4. Two others followed her and I stuck on their wheels. We whipped around the last turn and the SJBC rider slid out. I was able to adjust to a wider line and avoid her fairly easily, but both my teammates lost momentum getting around her and our lead out train fell apart. I ended up hanging onto the wheel of the rider in front of me and rolling in 3rd, with Sue Lin sprinting to make up the lost time and coming in right behind me in 4th.
Overall this was a fun race. I had a good time trying stuff and felt like we rode well as a team, it was just a bit of a bummer to not get to put it together at the end. It was also frustrating that for some reason our race had no primes but all the others did.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/7759596207
Nutrition: I ate a blueberry scone before this and one clif shot blok (https://gelvio.com/collections/energy/products/salted-watermelon-energy-chews). During the race I drank maybe a third of a bottle of water.