Race Report: Baker City Cycling Classic - Men’s P/1/2

Race: Baker City Cycling Classic - Men’s P/1/2

Date: 6/23/23 - 6/25/23

AVRT Racers: Austin King, Cam O’Reilly, Deven van Greuningen, Grant Miller, Greg McCullough, Nathan Martin

Top Result: GC: 1st - Nathan, 5th - Cam, Stage 3: 5th - Deven, Stage 4: 1st - Nathan, 5th - Cam

Nathan wrote the report, with Deven writing the crit stage report

Stage 1: Catherine Creek Road Race - 6/23

Course: 71 miles of rolling road with an unexpected gravel sector. Wind played a large factor. Feedzones at miles 23 and 48.

Nutrition: Malto and Skratch, about 250 calories, and 200 calories of hammer perpetuem. 2 gels and 1 larabar. Got a team bottle at the feed at mile 48 with another 250 calories or so.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9321719464

Summary: Our plan going into Stage 1 was to have Grant and I be protected with Cam, Austin, Greg, and Deven responding to anything dangerous. The fact that there was no time bonuses basically meant we were fine with a group finish, since we were looking to really make a difference on Stages 2 and 4. Austin and Deven would also be on the lookout for a good placing if it came down to a sprint, but we wouldn’t do a lead out or anything in order to save legs.

However, as per usual, we quickly scrapped our carefully thought out plans as Cam got into a break at mile 5. The break started with an uncommitted group of three riders but then gained momentum when two more jumped across. The break then had representation from two large teams (AVRT and George’s Cycles) as well as strong solo riders, and was missing two other large teams (Pacific Automation and Expeditors), putting pressure on them to maintain the pace. While he was off the front, Grant and I mostly relaxed in the group with Austin, Deven, and Greg responding to and shutting down any dangerous bridge attempts from strong teams. However, the group mostly stayed together, with the only two Pacific Automation riders making the bridge.

At the halfway point, we had an unexpected gravel segment. Not like normal gravel, but it was like someone just dumped gravel on an already paved road, which was clearly visible in some parts. It seems this wasn’t a usual feature, chatting with those who did the race previously.

On the other side of the gravel, Expeditors sent their train near the front and started to work, but looking back on the data the break continued to gain time on us even during this part, so they weren’t working very hard. Greg, Deven, and Austin did some big work here to get everyone to the front so that when attacks started flying, we would be in a good spot to cover things.

At the base of the climb, Expeditors’ GC man, Max Ritzow, launched a hard attack, and a few of us followed his wheel, with Grant having to bridge a bit to catch on to the group. As Max slowed up, people from the break continued attacking and Grant and a few others fell back into a second chase group just behind.

Cresting the hill and passing through the feed zone, my Dad shouted that Cam’s group was 4 minutes up the road. This may have energized my group, as they began to work hard together. My job was to simply sit on and surf wheels while they rotated, not giving any work. However, this proved a little difficult as there were some gnarly crosswinds after the feed zone climb, meaning I still did a fair bit of work.

The riders in my group were strong and Cam’s group had been off the front for hours now, and we caught them with around 6 miles to go. As this happened I yelled at Cam that I was with the group.

Eventually I found myself on the front with about 5 miles to go. We had some wind from the right and I rode the centreline in an attempt to gutter some riders, which was a mistake on my part as I was guttering Cam as well. When I pulled off, Mark Tucker was right behind me and attacked. Two riders went with him, the rest of the field hesitated, and he got a gap.

When we hit the flat last 5k, he had a solid gap with one rider, dropping the other, and we motored to try and catch them. The group sat up for a second and I tried to attack, but there was a pretty strong headwind and I made no ground. Instead, I opted to work on the front to try and close down as many seconds as possible.

I stayed on the front until the line and a few guys sprinted around me for 3rd place. I ended up finishing 6th and Cam finished 13th, with us both getting the same time. 

Overall we were happy to have two of us in the break, with a couple minutes separating our group from the next solid group of riders, and only about 35 seconds down on Mark Tucker.

Stage 2: Baker City Time Trial - 6/24

Course: 11 flat miles with a slight downhill start. Some chipseal along the backside of the course.

Nutrition: Gel 15 mins before

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9327271599

Summary: I was excited for the TT, when I did Tour de Bloom I had a rather lackluster result so I was excited for a bit of redemption. It was a bit hard for me to estimate what I could do since we were at a bit of altitude and I was on a relatively new bike frame, but I was still confident.

I went a bit hard out of the gate for the first 5 minutes and paid for it during the middle sector, averaging well below my target power. I found my rhythm about 15 minutes in and had a good last 8 mins of my effort.

I’d finish 10th on the day with Cam just behind in 13th. I was now down over a minute on Mark Tucker and Cam down about a minute and 15 seconds. We didn’t lose any GC position so we were ultimately alright with our efforts.

Stage 3: Baker City Downtown Criterium - 6/24

Course: Flat L shaped course.

Nutrition: Clif Blocks before the start and sipping on a Malto bottle before/during. 2 GUs during and mostly water during the race.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9329001132

Summary: I (Deven) was the only one to race the crit as it was not towards GC. This was due to rain during the day and delays. The race was ultimately shortened and we started with only 30 laps to go. This would make it super fast and aggressive throughout the entire race. My plan was to sit in and wait for a sprint, unless there was a threatening move I could possibly bridge up to. 

Attacks started almost right away and were quickly being covered by others. This worked great for me. I made sure to just stay in the draft and sit in. most attacks would go on the finish straight into turn 1. I was SUPER confident in all of the turns so was able to close any little gaps with just taking faster lines. 

There was a large break forming about halfway through with all the major teams in it as well as Mark Tucker. Decided to make an effort to get across in the most technical section of the course (turns 2, 3, and 4) was able to close them but the field was not happy with that and the break was reabsorbed. 

Once we hit 3 laps to go I was in a good position near the front. There was a break of 3 up the road but we were close enough to catch. We ended up getting super close to them  on the last lap through turn 2, 3, and 4. This is whe I knew it was time to go. A few of us launched on the back straight going into turn 5, I think I was 4th or 5th wheel out of the last turn right as we were catching the break. I gave it everything on the finish straight. Had a decent sprint and we were able to catch 2 of the 3 up the road. One was able to stay away and I was able to get 4th in the field sprint and 5th for the race. 

Was happy with the result. Legs were definitely starting to feel the fatigue from my previous racing earlier in the month and the RR the day before and the TT from that morning. 

Stage 4: Dooley Mountain Road Race - 6/25

Course: 100 miles 7k feet of climbing. Two small climbs, three medium climbs, and a 25 minute climb to finish things off. Very nice pavement, some wind. Feedzones at miles 45, 72, and 95.

Nutrition: Started with a team bottle of malto and gatorade (~250 cals) and about 500 calories of perpetuem. Drank about 80% of both bottles before the first feedzone, where I grabbed another team bottle and a neutral bottle. Also ate 2 gels and about a lara bar and a half.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9334817871

Summary: I was down 1:01 on 1st, 0:45 on 2nd, and 0:29 on 3rd after the TT. Cam was 0:13 behind me, so we had two cards to play on the final stage which really suited us. It was a long stage and a lot could happen, but we knew that our best chance would come if Cam and I could make something happen in a reduced group on the final climb. Cam and I were to be the protected riders, trying to save as much as we could, while Grant, Greg, Austin, and Deven would do any and all work to bring back breaks, sit on dangerous moves, help us get good positioning in the field, etc.

As such, the first 28 miles were very uneventful for me. I stayed near the back of the group with a few other GC guys for the first 15 miles, then when they started moving up before the first climb at mile 18, I moved up as well. Grant tapped out a solid pace up the first small climb to ensure nobody tried anything, and we all stayed together. After this climb, a group of 4 slipped off the front, but no other teams were worried since they weren’t GC threats, so nobody was chasing just yet.

When we started getting pretty close to the first medium climb of the day, Deven helped move me up to the front. Next thing I knew, however, Deven was on the front, right at the base of the climb, and drilling it. I was working a bit to stay in his draft, but still this meant the group was staying together and no attacks were going. However, I knew that when Deven eventually sat up, there might be an attack. Sure enough, as he sat up, an attack went, but it was from Cam! He went and a few others jumped on his wheel, I let gaps open and forced other people to try and close gaps to them.

We spent the rest of the climb catching up to Cam’s group and caught them before the top, but no counterattack followed and we all rolled over the first climb together.

Similar story between climb 1 and 2, I stayed in the draft and was protected, same as Cam. On climb 2 Greg and Grant did work at the front to keep the pace controlled and make sure no bridge attempts went to the break, which now had a gap of about 4 minutes on us. Regardless, nobody was super concerned about the break, and we rolled through the first feedzone and continued on.

At mile 52 we hit our second small climb, nothing super interesting happening, then at mile 58 we hit our last medium climb, with Team George’s sitting on the front and pacing us up the climb. Each climb, again, I was moved into position by someone and kept very well protected.

At mile 70 we turned into a valley and the race started to get a bit faster. 3 teams, Team George, Pacific Automation, and Gene Johnson, started working to bring the break back. Austin was also on the front doing lots of work from here onwards. He was eating wind and working with these guys so the rest of us could stay fresh for the climb.

We hit our last feed zone around mile 78 and it was a bit of a mess. We came through it at 30 mph, lots of bottles everywhere, I stayed well to the left and didn’t grab a bottle since it wasn’t worth risking hitting something.

Around mile 85 Greg, Grant, and Austin started to move Cam and I towards the front. Our plan was to have Greg and Grant each do 4-5 minutes as hard as they could on the front at the start of the climb to keep the group strung out and drop anyone we could. Then, I would attack from about the 20-22 minutes left mark, since my stomach was absolutely turning at this point and I thought I’d not have it in me to finish. My attack would hopefully set up Cam to go and get enough of a gap to get as much GC time as possible.

As we hit the start and Greg started hammering the front, I was still a bit of a ways back, having lost Greg’s wheel in the chaos of people trying to get into position. Austin saw this and pulled anchor, got me on his wheel, then towed me up just before Cam’s wheel. I tried to fight a bit with Expeditors to get in their train, but ended up just having to eat a bit more wind to get in front of Cam and he let me in. It was also right at this point we caught the break from the beginning, they did a huge effort being off the front for nearly 90 miles.

I sat in as Grant did his turn on the front, Greg having done his job. There was a big switchback where we were planning to have me go from and as Grant sat up right around the turn, I went for my move. I knew I’d have to go hard from the gun to try and get a gap then I could settle into a tempo, but when I looked back after about 30 seconds the gap was already closing. There was an Expeditors rider on the front doing a ton of work, and behind him another Expeditor’s rider and a George’s rider. I was averaging well over 400w so he was exceeding that as he was gaining on me. The chase was extremely hard on these riders and each one of them was forced to pull off after their efforts, leaving these teams’ GC riders less protected. 

Once I got caught, it was part of a well reduced group, with mostly GC riders and one or two of their teammates if they had any, as well as Cam. As I settled into the group, letting my heartrate get back under control, I noticed there was no counterattack of any kind. If other teams wanted to win GC, they needed to get a time gap, they couldn’t just sit in because there was no time bonus for winning the stage. I figured I might as well attack again to try and set Cam up since everyone was gassed, so off I went.

Again, the same Expeditors rider started to bring me back after about a minute or so, and I eased off the power. After easing off for a bit, I looked back and noticed the gap was about the same, so they had eased off too, and nobody was rushing to close the last bit. Cam yelled at me that there was still a gap and to go, so I threw another acceleration and started to dig in.

The minutes ticked by and the gap between me and the group was growing. Eventually they were a turn or two behind me and I started thinking about the stage win. After about 9 minutes I hit a ‘3k to go’ sign and focused now on getting as much time as I could. The second, third, and fifth place GC riders were all in the group behind me, so I was aiming to put enough time in to at least get on the podium.

I tried to hold my power as best I could, but we were now well above 5,000 ft of elevation and I started to feel it, easing off a bit, but still crossing the finish line strong. I had gotten myself a 0:49 gap on the group behind me, meaning I had finished with a time gap of 0:04 on second place who was the virtual GC leader at the bottom of the climb, resulting in me just barely edging onto the top step of the podium. Cam would finish 5th on the stage and 5th overall, notably not sprinting at the end to try and give me as much cushion as I could, which clearly was important given how close it was.

Overall this was such a cool experience. It truly was a full team effort, the amount of work everyone did was staggering. I really owe the squad a lot for this win. Super grateful for everyone, and a huge shoutout to my Dad who came out as well and worked the feed zones for us both road stages, without which we’d probably have been toast. It feels great to get an awesome result for our second stage race this year, hoping we can keep this momentum going!