Race Report: 2023 Pescadero Coastal Classic - Men’s 35+ 1/2/3
Race: 2023 Pescadero Coastal Classic – Men’s 35+ 1/2/3
Date: July 22, 2023
AVRT racers: Nat Green
Top Results: Nat (11/23)
Course: 2.7 laps of a 27.7-mile loop, totaling about 75 miles, starting with a roll-out onto Highway 1, which featured between 2-4 short climbs, depending on how you counted, then a slightly uphill/rolling stretch east on Highway 84, before turning right onto Pescadero Creek road for the feed zone and a short climb/false flat before the famous Haskins climb, a 1.6 mile climb that takes approximately 6.5 to 8 minutes, followed by a steep descent and then a longer, flatter run-in back to Highway 1. Pavement was good throughout, except for a gap before a bridge right before the turn onto 84, where people lost bottles, and a few potholes on 84 that were avoidable with some pre-race recon. Conditions were cool to start, but quickly warmed up and were hot by laps 2-3. Wind was not too significant, but felt like a cross-headwind on Highway 1 and a tailwind on 84.
Strava: Pescadero masters 1/2/3 -11th | Ride | Strava
Nutrition: I brought two bottles of Skratch mix and a bunch of gels, picked up a bottle of water before the second time up Haskins and a bottle of mix before the final time up Haskins. Thanks very much to the folks doing the AV team feed.
Recap: I was dreading this one a bit watching the pre-registration fill up with strong rider after strong rider, including big teams from ThirstyBear (Ariel Hermann, Brian Schuster, Ben Erickson, Rob Whittier, and others) and Work Health Solutions (riding for Adam White, who has been winning most Masters 1/2/3 road races this year), as well as a number of very strong individual riders, including Jeromy Cottell, Max Noda, David Fidler, and Todd Markelz, who is one of the strongest climbers in the area and won the 30s/40s event last year (and other years). I was riding by myself, and after getting advice from some AV teammates, decided that my best chance was to try to sit in as much as possible to save my matches for what was expected to be a very fast pace up Haskins each lap, and hope that the big teams would chase back threatening moves up the road. I also thought that even if guys from both ThirstyBear and WHS ended up in the same break, there would still be enough firepower among the individual riders to chase that down. I also knew that I needed to be near the front over the Haskins climb each time to make sure I could hang on the descent, since I predicated (correctly) that I would be a below average descender in this group, compounded by the fact that I was on my back-up bike with skinnier tires, having decided to tinker with the brakes on my main bike before the race and somehow lost all braking power in the process.
Basically from the gun, there were a lot of attacks, but most were brought back either right away or within a few minutes, and I was able to sit in about two-thirds of the way (or farther) back in the pack until the first Haskins. There was a split in the group, and I was maybe 6-8th over the top and stayed with the front group decently on the descent, although I felt like I was sliding in some corners (probably just in my head). No one pushed the pace, though, once the road flattened out, and the group behind us caught up quickly. There were more attacks on lap 2, with Max Noda and a ThirstyBear rider getting away. I again sat in, knowing that others would chase it back. The second time up Haskins was fast again, and I was more like 10th over the top. The group descended faster this time (probably some folks who hadn’t ridden the course before were tentative the first time down, so it was slower than the second time), and I was gapped by 10 seconds or so by the time it flattened out. I saw three riders behind me quickly catching up, so instead of chasing immediately, I waited for them so we could work together to catch the front group. Other than Haskins, this was the hardest effort of the day, as it took us about twenty minutes of rotating to catch the group of ten or so in front of us, which we did right before the turn onto Highway 1. Conveniently, they were just catching Max and the ThirstyBear rider right there, so we were a group of about 16 at that point, having dropped 7 guys on Haskins.
This group mostly stayed together until the end. There were a number of attacks by ThirstyBear riders in the last few miles of 84, intended to tire out Todd and Adam (this worked in the case of Todd, but not Adam, who won again). The group strung out a bit once we turned onto Pescadero for the short climb and false flat before Haskins, but mostly it was just a hill climb time trial at that point to see who had the most strength left for the third Haskins. A number of guys surged ahead, and I found that I couldn’t match the acceleration this third time up Haskins, so I tried to settle in at a steady wattage, hoping I could pick a few people off before the finish line. I passed a few and rolled in 11th.
I was pretty happy with this result, given the strength of the field. I was pleased and slightly surprised that I was in the top 5-10 the first two times up Haskins, and I think I could have potentially had a better time the third time up if I hadn’t gotten gapped on the descent on lap 2 and been forced to chase for 20 minutes at a pretty high wattage. So descending remains something I need to continue to work on. In general I thought the strategy of sitting in and relying on other to chase back attacks was the right one for me in this race, especially as a solo rider. I think if I had tried to get in a move, the chances were low that it would have succeeded and I would have wasted a lot of energy that I needed to keep up with the stronger climbers.
Nat