Race Report: 2023 Berkeley Hills Road Race Womens Short Course

Race: 2023 Berkeley Hills Road Race Women’s Short Course (P/1/2/3/4/Novice/40+/50+/60+/Collegiate)

Date: April 29, 2023

AVRT racers:  Chris Davis, Kristin Hepworth, Lora Maes, Louise Thomas, Steph Hart, Stephanie Burns, Sue Lin Holt

Top Results: 

Cat 4: Louise 5/25 (7/44 combined) 

50+: Lora 1st (8/44 combined), Chris 2nd, Stephanie Burns 3rd

40+: Kristen 3rd, Sue Lin 4th

Course: 1.85 laps of the “3 bears loop”, finishing at the top of Papa Bear. It’s a hilly, 19-mile loop with the main features being the two big climbs at the end: Mama Bear is just over a mile at 4%, which is immediately followed by a short descent and another short climb (there doesn’t seem to be a consensus on whether or not that’s still part of Mama bear) before descending 0.75 miles to the start of Papa Bear, which is 0.9 miles at 6.7%.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8979798867 

Nutrition: Some granola and yogurt for breakfast and a cliff bar just before the race started. During the race, I had 1.5 bottles of malto/fructose/salt mix, plus a handful of gummy bears. I think I screwed up the salt ratio in my bottle because I ran out of sodium citrate and was using table salt instead, but it was actually ok (just more salty than I was expecting) so maybe I’ll continue doing that in the future.   

Recap: 

In the combined field there were 44 of us in the race, which for anyone who knows women’s racing in the area is an absolutely incredible number. Typically the number of racers is closer to 10, so kudos to the promotors and everyone who showed up. We also had good representation from Alto Velo, with seven of us plus Robin (friend of AV) starting. 

Team! Minus Steph who got a flat during the race 😢

The race started out fairly civilized. Everyone was being cautious with such a big peloton, and Chris and Stephanie did a great job taking control on the front to stretch out the field. Even with everyone trying to be safe shit still happens though; on San Pablo Dam Rd, just a few miles into the race, I heard a crash behind me and found out from some of the other riders that Liz and another rider from Super Sprinkles and crashed out after catching a wheel in a crack in the road.

On Castro Ranch Rd there’s a kicker that thinned out the field a little bit, but apart from that the pack mostly stayed together for the first lap. That is until Mama Bear. Going into the race I assumed it was going to be a race of attrition on the hills and that’s essentially what happened. On the climb people were dropping like flies, and by the top of Papa Bear a breakaway of 8 had formed. Lora had made the break but unfortunately I’d been dropped just before the top of the climb. However, working with Haley (Super Sprinkles) and Evelyn (Eclipse), we managed to catch back on at the bottom of the Papa Bear descent. After this, the pace relaxed again.

The second lap played out pretty similar to the first one, with not much happening for most of it. As we passed the crack in the road where Liz had crashed there was a police car stationed to warn people to go around. A bit further up the road a couple of firetrucks had pulled up next to some riders that had crashed from a different field. I never thought of that stretch of road as being particularly dangerous, but it was absolute carnage that day. 

On the far side of the course, before getting to the bears, we kept yo-yo-ing with a junior guys field. They would sprint past us, then slow down so that we would have to go around, before shooting past us once again. It was a little bit annoying, but at least the field had thinned out enough by that point that there was enough space for everyone.   

Going up Mama Bear I got dropped once again along with Haley, Lora, and Evelyn. Once again I managed to catch back on, this time by myself and just before the start of Papa Bear. I was pretty proud of that effort - I’ve never managed to catch back on after being dropped before and this race I did it twice! The solo effort to catch the front group left me pretty gassed though so I had nothing left in the tank for the final climb and got dropped again almost immediately. Luckily there was no one immediately behind though, so I just finished the race as best I could as the last rider in the first group. Lora crossed the line not long after, then followed by a group with Kristin and Sue Lin. Lora, Chris, and Stephanie dominated the 50+ category taking home 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively. 

Thanks for reading!
Louise

Chris, Lora and Stephanie sweeping the podium