Race Report: 2023 CA Dirt MTB Series #4

Race: CA Dirt MTB Series #4 XC – Cat 1 F

Date: October 15, 2023

AVRT racers: Rachel Hwang

Top Result: 1st (XC and ST) – Rachel Hwang

Course: XC - 5 laps around a 3.16 mile course; ST – 20min + 1 lap around a 0.62 mile loop

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10046702841, https://www.strava.com/activities/10040162861

Race Recap: (Rachel Hwang)

XC (October 15, 2023 11:00am)

The first half of the course was climby, and the second half of the course was technical.  The climbs were steep and the technical parts had lots of steep dips, some rocks, some mud and puddles, sand, and lots of tight turns.  The ruts got deeper each lap, and there were quite a few people who got flats from the course.

The race was formatted to have all Cat 1s and single speeders start in the same wave.  There were lots of junior boys and men, and there were 4 women total in Cat 1, all in different age groups (15-18, 19-29, 30-39, 40+).  Different age groups, all the women together, and all single speeders started one minute apart.

The air was thick with smoke when we started, and with the single speeders at my tail, I managed to PR my first lap at 22:08, where the next four laps were right above and below 24 minutes.

Things went smoothly the first two laps, but then in the beginning of lap 3, my chain started making noises.  The air was so dry, and with riding across the sand on the beach section, my chain sounded like it was going to break, so I stopped a few times to spray water on my cassette and splashed through the puddles as hard as possible to wet my drivetrain.

A few of the younger male racers lapped me, but I took it nice and steady for the last three laps.

I had poor planning on nutrition this race and ran out of water by lap 5, did not have hydration in my water, and barely scarfed down a gel in lap 3, but I managed to finish the race without any mechanicals and am happy about my result.  I finished 1st of the 4 women, where only 2 of the 4 women completed the course. 

Nutrition: Breakfast - Oatmeal; Race - 1.5L Hydration Pack of water and 1 GU birthday cake gel

ST (October 14, 2023 5:40pm)

Like XC, all Cat 1s raced in the same wave.  There were a total of 8 people total, (6 junior kids and 2 adults) and I was the only woman.  We did a mass start at the start line.  When the whistle went off, they took off so fast I had no chance of keeping up with them. 

The course was 0.62 miles, where the first half had a climb, all on the asphalt, leading into the second half of the course, which was a mostly flowy descent back to the start of the course.  The race timing was determined by the race leader.  Once the race leader hit over 20 minutes on the clock, he had one more lap to do, as did all racers unless the leader finished his final lap first. 

I liked the course a lot because the climb was short enough to push as hard as possible, knowing you’ll be completely tired by the top, and recover enough from the downhill to do it all again, and again, and again until the race was over.

By the end, 6 of the 7 guys lapped me, and I completed 8 laps.  While I liked the format of the race and the course, I wish there were other women I could compete with and not just get annihilated by the boys, but in a way, that did push me to go harder to avoid getting lapped.

Nutrition: Lunch - Tacos provided at the event; Race - water