Race Report: 2023 Cats Hill - P123W
Race: 2023 Cats Hill - P123W
Date: Saturday, March 25th 2023
AVRT racers: Kelly Brennan, Ari Pascarella, Nike Taylor, and Gina Yuan
Top Result: Kelly Brennan (6/24), Niky Taylor (8/24), Ari Pascarella (15/24), Gina Yuan (17/24)
Course: Steep short hill. Flowy corners. Strong winds the day of the race.
Recap:
TL;DR: The field was pretty stacked with some pro criterium racers. I attacked off the front about 40 minutes into the race for 1 lap. Gina, Ari, and Niky were doing a great job of staying in the main group for the whole race. A dropped chain is not a mechanical at Cats Hill, so unfortunately Gina and Ari (and many others) lost a lap. With 2 laps to go, Niky was on the very front of the group, and I tried to move up to try to help her out and keep AV in a good position. I finished the last climb about the 6th wheel and held that wheel to the finish.
Full story:
This was my second criterium at the P123W level, my first Cats Hill, and I was nervous about doing one of the more famous classic northern california races. My legs were not feeling great going into this race. I was tired from a long week of finals and traveling. After doing the hill 4 times, I swore we must be 30 minutes into the race only to look down at my garmin and see we’d only been racing 10 minutes and had 50 more to go. I wondered if I could continue.
I hung in there, often at the very back. But every once and awhile, I experimented in getting to the front. I found that the straight away with the finish line (and a tailwind) and the hill were good places for me to move up. It was really windy, so anyone at the front at the top of the hill and heading into the climb faced a pretty strong headwind.
Niky and Ari did a really good job of staying in the top 10 wheels most of the race. Gina ripped the descent into the finish a couple times to help push the pace.
About 40 minutes into the race, my legs were finally feeling warm and I was the 2nd wheel into the steep climb. I decided to attack the climb and ended up with a 10 second gap on the field. My main goal here was to get some of the other teams to work to catch up. I stayed off the front for a whole lap and was caught on the next climb. Niky tried a counter attack. With the headwinds, being solo was exhausting. I barely hung onto the field as I tried to recover, but fortunately found Gina’s wheel.
With 2 laps to go, I saw Niky on the front pushing the pace. After knowing how exhausting it was to be on the front, I spent that lap trying to move up to get her out of the wind, but the pace was too fast. With one lap to go, the pace on the hill was fast. I moved from the 12th wheel to the 6th wheel on the climb. After the 3rd to last next corner, I tried to move up more, but the headwind was pretty strong, so I ducked back into the group to keep my positioning all the way to the finish.
Given my legs at the start and my first time at this race, I’m pretty happy with my result and how we raced as a team. I’m already excited for next year because I see more ways we could improve. For example, if we had had Niky on the front for that 2nd lap to go and a teammate behind her (or vice versa), she could have launched one of us up the hill to snag one of the top positions. I’m really excited to continue to race with these ladies!
Key learnings: a dropped chain is not a mechanical at Cats Hill. To win or get a top position, you really need to get to the second to last corner first.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8777168328
Nutrition: Drank most of my scratch water before the race, and left a few sips in the bottle for the race. 1 SIS Salted Strawberry gel about 10 minutes before the race. I got kind of hungry and thirsty during the race… could have eaten more.