Race Report: 2023 University Road Race - Men's 35+ 1/2/3
Race: 2023 University Road Race - Men's 35+ 1/2/3
Date: August 20, 2023
AVRT racers: Nat Green
Result: Nat Green (5/8)
Course: 14 laps of a circuit through UC Santa Cruz featuring a 1.2-mile climb followed by a 1.4-mile descent. The climb averaged 5.5% with a short 8% kicker at the top.
Strava: University - 35+ 1/2/3. Fifth | Ride | Strava
Nutrition: Had some food before the start and had two bottles with me. Weather was cool so that was all I needed.
Race: This had a small but strong master’s field, with two ThirstyBear riders (Brian Schuster and Rob Whittier), two Work Health Solution guys (Andrew Conley and Adam White), and a couple of strong individual riders, David Fidler and Art Rand.
I had no teammates in this one, so my plan was to sit in and then try to go with a strong move if one was made (e.g., a break with both a ThirstyBear and WHS rider). I had done this race before and each time it was full gas from the start, with fast laps around VO2 max and “easy” laps around threshold. This one, however, was much more tactical. We took two easy laps to start, getting passed by both the Men’s P/1/2 field and some of the 50s riders. Art Rand made a move on lap 3 or 4 and the pace picked up, and we did one of our few sub-five minute climbs of the day. We caught Art 2-3 laps later and the pace calmed again. There were occasional attacks after that, including Adam White going hard a few times after the turn back on to the climb, and a few guys tried to make moves over the top of the climb into the descent, including one by Art Rand that got caught up in the P/1/2 field and was a bit chaotic, but ultimately the field came back together for the last few laps. I didn’t see any real opportunity to get away from the field at that point and no one else tried to form a break, so it came down to the long uphill drag to the finish line on the last lap. I put out 420 watts for two minutes and beat a couple of guys, but Adam (anther win), Brian, Andrew, and David were ahead of me, so I rolled in fifth. I had no shame about standing on the podium in fifth by the way. Never know how many chances one will get.
All in all, I was satisfied with the race, and felt like my fitness was on par with the field. It was much more tactical than prior years, and I think with a teammate, I could have participated in more of those tactics rather than sort of being along for the ride, so I’m looking forward to trying again in 2024. If you are an AV master’s guy, please join me. By the way, this is an awesome race to come out and hand out bottles or just support the team, even if you’re not racing, since everyone goes by 12-20 times.