Race Report: 2023 Livermore Criterium - Women’s Cat 3 & Masters

Race Report: 2023 Livermore Crit - Womens Cat 3 & Masters
Date: February 12, 2023
AVRT racers: Skyler Espinoza, Janene Ostrow
Top Result: Skyler 1/17 (1/6 Cat 3s)
Course: 40 minutes of a flat .94 mile, 4 corner crit course
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8550824181

It ended up just being me and Janene in this race, Janene's goal was to get her feet wet and get her first race of the season done, and mine was to try to go for the win and we both crushed our goals!

I focused today on staying towards the front of the race and staying glued to the wheels of other strong riders in the pack, keeping the race together and doing as little work as possible to try to bring it to a field sprint. I knew my best chance of winning was to prevent a break from forming, like it did in both of the Cal Aggie crits! In the past I’ve done a lot of work in the race and burned all of my matches before the sprint, but because I was racing against bigger teams I held it in and didn’t get pressured into doing more work than I needed to! I attacked going into turn 3 in the last lap because I knew I wanted to control my line through turn 4 and it worked! I was able to tempo on the front from 3 to 4 and then turn on the gas through the corner and to the line. First win for me of the season and I was excited to be able to have a safe and smart race.
Janene was able to hang in the race longer than she thought she would, and did a great job getting out there and doing the first race of the season! The beginning of the race was much faster/harder than either of us anticipated so it was a tough day to have your first race!