Race Report: 2023 Bariani Road Race P12
Race: Bariani RR P12
Date: March 12th, 2023
AVRT racers: Austin King, Conor Austin, Grant Miller
Top Result: Grant Miller (6/47)
Course: The “old” Bariani Course - https://www.strava.com/segments/579474?filter=overall
10 mile loop with significant wind (15-20mph) from the south. One small climb into a headwind before the start/finish stretch.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8704298129
Nutrition: Two bottles with 100g of carbs, grabbed two bottles during the race with god knows what in them. 75mg caffeine gel midway through the race.
Race Report: This year the Bariani RR course was changed and the overall length shortened from 100 to 80 miles due to bad weather and road closures. The new course was perfect for our truck squad, with significant crosswind sections to drop smaller riders and enough uphill to make it hard for larger riders. Going into the race we were one of the smaller squads, with significant turn-out from Mike’s Bikes (TMB), Terun, and Voler. Our plan was to try and stick on the right side of splits and mostly follow TMB, who had 7 riders in the race.
The race started fairly slowly, with the course heading straight into a headwind before turning into crosswind for a mile and then a 4-5 minute tailwind descent. I tried to navigate towards the front to prepare for the crosswind stretch coming up. Right as we hit the turn into the cross-wind the race opened up with multiple riders attacking and guttering the field. I followed wheels and found myself in a selection of around 10 riders. Annoyingly, this group did not want to work together and people kept attacking or letting wheels go. I wasn’t paying attention to my power and just focused on trying to ride smoothly. Later on I realized that we were in the middle of a really hard effort and had gapped the rest of the field by around 20 seconds and people were probably already at their limits.
After about 10 minutes, a group of two slowly rolled off the front. Unfortunately I was boxed in on the line and couldn’t make a move to follow as three riders attacked to bridge up. As we hit the right hand turn into the climb/headwind the group crawled to a slow with multiple TMB riders appearing to try and block the group, perhaps to let their teammates come back. I attacked around them to try and bridge to the breakaway. After a hard effort I caught a few people in no-mans land and tried to organize a rotation. I didn’t realize that these guys were totally gassed and we were actually losing time to the break. This was where I made a big mistake. I should’ve taken my shot and tried to bridge the rest of the way but I saw that there were no TMB in the break and figured it didn’t have a chance with 7 guys chasing so I decided to go back to the main field.
The next two hours consisted of TMB trying and failing to bring back any time of the break. The gap went from around 30 seconds at the start to more than two minutes. It was somewhat comical to watch a team of the best riders in Norcal actually losing time to a group of what was eventually 3 break-away riders - two of them masters riders! When it was clear that TMB was running out of gas, Conor came to the front and started pacing the tailwind stretch. I told him to go full gas out of the corner and attempt to make a split in the field.
When we hit the turn he lit it up and there were huge gaps behind us. I did almost 500 watts and that was in his draft! Unfortunately for us, the moto ref decided not to let us pass another group that was pedaling at a coffee ride pace. We actually had to stop pedaling for 30 seconds and let the whole group come back before the moto let us pass. We stepped on the gas again to pass the group and stretched the field back out. It was obvious people were at their limits but no gaps were opening in the top wheels.
When we hit the headwind stretch the group slowed to a crawl again. Fed-up with the pace and getting cold I decided to attack. At first no one came with me and I resigned myself to trying to bridge solo. Luckily after a few minutes alone I looked back and two groups were trying to bridge. Eventually we had a group of six riders and we locked into rotation. The pace was hard but I could tell I had some of the best legs in the group. When it became clear we were going to catch the break I started looking for opportunities to save energy and started to think about how to win.
Unfortunately that all came to a crashing halt when I slid out on the turn into the headwind section with 1.5 to go. After a quick systems check (body okay, bike okay) I tried to hop back on the bike but unfortunately my chain had dropped. I spent way too long (45s) trying to get it back on before a course martial helped me. I immediately put down the power to try and catch back on but quickly realized my break-mates were long gone. At this point I just tried to do the highest average power I could do for the last 30 minutes. All I wanted to do was avoid getting caught by anyone and catch anyone falling out of the break. I was successful on both fronts and managed to catch one person with a few minutes left in the race, moving me up to 6th.
Overall it was a great day for the team with Conor grabbing 9th and Austin 11th. This was my best finish in a P12 race and I know that if I’d kept it up in that corner I would’ve been racing for a podium position.