Race Report: 2023 Cal Aggie Criterium - Womens Pro/1/2/3

Race: 2023 Cal Aggie Criterium - Womens Pro/1/2/3

Date: January 28, 2023

AVRT racers: Robin Betz, Chris Davis, Skyler Espinoza, Sue Lin Holt, Lora Maes, Jennifer Steele, Gina Yuan

Top Result: Robin - 5th/19

Course: 60 minutes of a  flat 1.09 mile loop with a chicane

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8468492549

I haven’t raced a criterium for almost a year so I had no real goals for the race other than be aware of where my teammates are in the field and do my best. With 7 AV riders in the field, we decided to only let a break go if it had at least two of us, and my role as captain was to yell to chase or not. There were quite a few other strong riders and other teams represented.

Lora set a good pace for the first few laps and I stayed near the front to get the best line through the chicane. At the straight stretch near the finish, the eventual race winner attacks. We bring her back and per our team strategy, I go all-in on a counter attack. Chaos ensues and when the dust settles I find myself in a group with 6 other riders, including Sue Lin, 2 Revolution riders, 1 Terun rider, and 2 others who are very strong.

Great, we have 2 riders in the break! The others are very motivated to keep it away and we take pretty hard pulls. At this point I decide I am working for Sue Lin so I take reasonable pulls and tell the others to make sure Terun is working too. Sue Lin smartly sits on the back and I rotate through a bit extra but don’t go super hard. A spectator tells us we have 40 seconds and at this point I know the break is going to stick.

The eventual race winner attacks again pretty hard and we all chase with the knowledge that she’s strong enough to get away solo. We bring her back but unfortunately Sue Lin,  who an hour ago had won the 40+ race, lost contact. The break has too much time on the field to be brought back given the technical chicane and so I become determined to survive and get the team the best result I can. I also thought “oh nooo now I have to write the race report so I’d better make it good.”

We work together well and I keep sampling the best lines for the first almost U-turn corner and can’t get it quite to my satisfaction. Eventually we see the back of the field and my life dream of lapping the field is within reach! My teammates have been chilling to deliberately let the break lap the field. As we approach I attack in an attempt to create confusion, but it doesn’t work and they just let us through. I think a better approach here would be to link up with my teammates again, as the rules say lapped riders *can* help someone in the break, but no one in the race knew that rule.

With one to go the pace is surprisingly sedate and I think about how I’m going to win. I ended up as the last rider coming into the final stretch and plan on letting everyone lead me out, but the final sprint is only 25 sec and the group shatters apart and I sprint in for 5th. I’m a good but not outstanding sprinter and that’s a lot of bike lengths to make up in time versus actual sprinters, and I could have got on the podium here if I’d been smarter. As a good descender and cornerer I should have attacked right after the U-turn and tried to hold it to the line, as my 30+sec power is great and I was gaining on third and fourth place at the finish. Nonetheless, fifth place was enough to get me my first 2 upgrade points as a cat 2!

Sue Lin rolled in for 7th in between the break and the field after chasing hard the entire race, and Skyler won the field sprint out of 12 riders for 8th! We have such a strong women’s team this year and I’m so excited to see what we can do together.

Previous
Previous

AV Wednesday Intervals 02/15, by AC Coaching

Next
Next

AV Wednesday Intervals 02/08, by AC Coaching