Race Report: 2023 Hwy 17 Omnium - Women’s Cat 4
Date: March 25-26, 2023
AVRT racers: Elizabeth Ordeman, Louise Thomas
Top Results: Louise 2nd, Elizabeth 4th
The Hwy 17 Omnium is comprised of two local crits: Cat’s Hill in Los Gatos on the Saturday followed by Santa Cruz on the Sunday.
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Cat’s Hill
Date: March 25, 2023
AVRT racers: Elizabeth Ordeman, Louise Thomas
Top Result: Louise 2/9
Course: 0.9 mile L-shaped course. Features a 23% climb up Nicholson (which caused many dropped chains throughout the day).
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8777557513
Nutrition: Pizza from Terun and a muffin or two before the race, part of a bottle of maltodextrin mix during the race.
Recap: Firstly, thanks to everyone on the B and C rides that came and supported at Cat’s Hill! It made the race much more exciting with a crowd there to watch.
Going into the race I knew the hill was going to be the main deciding factor for two reasons: the 23% grade is enough to wreck anyones legs, and shifting at the wrong time will often cause a dropped chain. While practicing the hill with Elizabeth before the race I didn’t shift in time, got stuck in the big chainring, and had to end up walking up the hill. Lesson learned: it’s better to shift too early and lose a bit of momentum than shift too late and get stuck. At least I only did it in the warmup rather than the race.
The race proceeded as expected for the first few laps, with the hill taking its toll on several riders. Things started to get interesting on lap four when a prime was called. I saw this as an opportunity to practice my sprint, ultimately winning the prime but leaving me pretty gassed. On the rollers just after our next time up the hill the Terun rider attacked. Tactically it was a great move, but at the time I was regretting my choices to go hard for the prime.
The attack whittled us down to four riders in a breakaway, which stayed together for most of the rest of the race. At one point someone dropped a chain on the hill, but impressively managed to catch back on after a lap or two. Going into the final lap I was happily sitting in on second wheel. The lead rider flicked me the elbow to take a pull, but I’ve been stuck on the front going into a sprint way too many times before to fall for that one so I stayed behind her.
On the final hill Tess attacked. I struggled to stay with the group, and going into the downhill section I was last in the breakaway. From previous laps I’d noticed everyone was going relatively slow on the downhill and taking the corner wider than necessary, so I decided to bomb it down the inside and managed to be first out of the corner going into the home stretch with the others hot on my heels. In the sprint the Terun rider came around the side to take the win, but I managed to hold off the other two riders to end up with second place. Overall I’m pretty happy with how it all played out - after all I do like a good hill repeat or two.
Santa Cruz Classic
Date: March 26, 2023
AVRT racers: Chris Davis, Elizabeth Ordeman, Janine Bubner, Louise Thomas
Top Result: Chris Davis: 1st (masters 50+), Louise: 3/7 (cat 4), 5/16 (overall)
Course: 0.9 mile course featuring a sharp hairpin turn and an uphill finish
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8782437368
Nutrition: a gel before the race and a few sips of maltodextrin/fuctose/sodium drink mix during the race
Recap: The race started with the women’s cat 3, cat 4, novice and masters categories all raced together, including Jamie Chapman who had lapped the field with a solo break in the cat 3 race at Cat’s Hill the day before. As the whistle blew, Chris got the party started by getting to the front and pushing up the pace. I tried to stay near the front of the pack, not wanting to get stuck behind any slower riders on the hairpin turn.
I’d been keeping an eye on Jamie, assuming she would attack at some point, and on lap 3 she made her move on the rollers before the “hill”. Four of us followed: two of the riders that were in the break with me at Cat's Hill yesterday and Gwen (from Revolution). As expected, none of us could hold Jamie's wheel. Unfortunately me and Gwen also couldn't hold the wheels of the other two riders and we got jettisoned from the chase group. With Gwen in cat 3 and me in cat 4 we weren't really competing against each other and both wanted to stay away from the peloton, so decided to work together taking turns to each pull for a lap.
With three laps to go Jamie came up behind us, having just lapped the field once again, so we hopped on her wheel for a free ride on the Jamie train for the final laps. Once she finished we assumed we still had one lap to go since she was a lap ahead, so continued around for another lap. Turns out that's not how it works. Apparently we should have stopped as soon as we crossed the line after Jamie, but no one told us that so our sprint for 4th was all for nothing and only served to confuse the number recording. In the end it didn’t really matter since Gwen was ahead of me both when we drafted Jamie across the line and in the sprint finish, but good to know for next time (though I’m not planning on making a habit of getting lapped).
All-in-all it was a fun weekend of racing, and congratulations to Elizabeth for racing her first (and second!) crit, Chris for winning her category, and Janine for a strong race for her first one in the US after a hiatus of a few years.
- Louise
