Race Report: 2023 Cherry Pie Crit - Women's Cat 3/Master's

Race: 2023 Cherry Pie Crit - Women's Cat 3/Master's

Date: February 20th, 2023

AVRT racers: Gina Yuan, Lindsey Raven

Top Results: Gina (3rd overall), Lindsey (5th overall, 4th Cat 3)

Course: https://www.strava.com/routes/3062575108007079228 ~16 corners, 40 minutes. Two technical sections which I call the squiggles (top) and loop (bottom), connected by a 300m straightaway on the left and a 700m straightaway on the right. The finish is about 500m into the right straightaway.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8593714669/

Nutrition: Bottle with SIS and clif bloks on stand-by.

This course is a technical ~16 corner crit. The Strava elevation on the course map is pretty accurate for a bunch of weird lines in a parking lot. Lindsey and I congratulated each other for simply showing up this early after a weekend of racing in Fresno. We were both so mentally fried from all the race-analyzing this weekend that we agreed on the simple strategy of not working against each other.

Lindsey wanted to warm up and can go fast through the technical parts of the course, so she flew through the first part of the race and I sat on her wheel. There was all sorts of skidding and pedal striking going on in the field, but no crashes fortunately. Even though gaps were opening up, I didn't want us to pull super hard on the straightaways since they were long and it seemed the field could always close the gap.

At one point, Ilan (Terun) had a gap on the field, and I tried to form a break with her. But it was just not a good match since she couldn't follow my wheel through the technical sections and I didn't want to wait up every time. I guess I could've tried to hammer solo for 30 minutes but I was not feeling that, so we all rejoined the group and chilled for the second half. Everyone knew the course better now so we made our way through the chicanes together with no fuss. People tried attacking on the straightaways but they were so long and all attacks were quickly shut down.

One to go, I asked Lindsey to go to the front and set a sustainable pace because I thought it might be hard to move up otherwise. She did a great job all weekend setting a hard, steady tempo at the front when it mattered. As we entered the loop, I let her wheel go and yelled at her to GO since it would be hard for the pack to move up in the technical section. It kind of worked, but Lindsey was tired from pulling so much and that finishing straightaway is just so long. Two people came around me as we exited the loop and I tried to use them as a leadout, but I was not able to catch on. We caught Lindsey right before the line. I finished just ahead of a strong rider who had beat me in the sprint at Cantua Creek, so I was happy about that. Now that Lindsey and I were experts in the course, we got ready for our second race.