Race Report: 2023 Watsonville Crit - Men’s P123

Race: 2023 Watsonville Crit - Men’s P123

Date: July 8, 2023

AVRT racers: Jack Liu, Conor Austin, Matt Carvell, Colin Karpfinger, Jon Wells

Top Result: Jon Wells, 11th of 60

Course: 1 km loop through the neighborhoods of Watsonville, CA. The course is fairly technical with 5 turns and a slight hill up to the finish.  Additionally, there are significant gutters that run through the middle of turns 1 and 2

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9415313100 

Nutrition: Pre-race Red Bull chug plus a double scoop (60g carbs) bottle of Flow Formulas during the race.  Try it for yourself with code “Jon15” for 15% off here.

Race Recap:

Watch my race highlights here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp-OD3P0To8 Be sure to smash those like and subscribe buttons!

Game plan coming into the race was to stay in good position near the front of a large field on a technical course which suits a breakaway and to cover moves with the big teams represented (Mikes Bikes and Project 74). 

Things got underway with a motocross style hole shot into turn 1 as everyone knew the importance of positioning on this course.  Attacks were fast and furious from the start and we all did an excellent job covering moves in the first ~15 min of the race.  

Unfortunately, the first dangerous move that we really missed out on ended up being the move that stuck.  A group of 3 including Mikes Bikes, Project 74, and Voler snuck away.  Their teammates did a great job sitting on the front of the peloton slowing down the chase and making bridge attempts even harder.  With them occupying the first several positions, attacks had to be launched from even further down the group on a course with few places to move up.  

Once the break was gone, there were some efforts to chase but no big organization amongst teams that had missed out.  The pace was kept high enough that we were never lapped on such a short course but not high enough to bring them back.  Bringing back that group on a course with so many turns was a big ask once the gap had gone out.

Coming into the finish it was super important to be in a good position since it's challenging to move up on this course.  I found myself around maybe 15th with 2 laps to go with Mikes Bikes and Project 74 setting the pace for a field sprint.  Was able to slide up single spots at a time through corners in the last 2 laps and ended up taking 8th in the field sprint for 11th overall.  

-Jon