Race Report: 2024 Bariani Road Race - Men’s Cat 4

Race: Bariani Road Race - Men's Cat 4

Date: March 17th, 2024

AVRT racers: Logan Allen, Maxime Cauchois, Will Hakim, Steven Pelas, Clark Penado, Richard Red

Top Result: Maxime Cauchois (3/53)

Course: 3 laps of a 20mi loop, 60mi total. Mostly flat (300ft of climbing by lap), except for a notable 1 min kicker about 1 mi from the finish line), low NW wind during the race. Poor overall pavement, with lots of potholes and cracks on the first half of the course, better on the second half.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10981485262

Nutrition: Two bottles with ~50g of carbs (Sktrach (20g) + Cyclic Dextrin (30g)) during the race, plus some filling pancakes and juice at breakfast. Probably on the lower side but the race was not very long (2h30) and not the most intense (low intensity factor)

Summary of the race (written by Maxime): This was my first road race of the season and as such I was approaching without any clear personal expectation other than building my bunch riding confidence and sharpening my racing skills for future better suited races later this year. Our team goal was to stay near the front on the first half of the race and favor late breakways from some of our riders targeting the race more specifically. We had also agreed that should the race finish on a bunch finish, we would help out the rider with the fresher legs at that point.

Outside of a few corner exits, the first lap of the race seemed fairly uneventful to me. I was positioned mid-pack for most of the lap, and I have to admit I was more focused on staying in position and moving in the bunch, therefore not really paying attention to what was happening at the front. It turns out that two riders got away about halfway through the first lap, which I didn’t witness first hand but got confirmation of at the beginning of the second lap when the neutral motorcycle announced a gap of several minutes (I couldn’t hear how many but looking at Strava, it was probably around 2).

Acting upon this news, my teammates and I, along with a few unattached riders, started a faster rotation at the front to reel them back in. Our effort was somewhat hampered by us catching a Masters field and having to slow down significantly halfway into lap 2, but by the end of lap 2, our general understanding (within our team and also other riders I could briefly talk to) was that we had brought everyone back. A breakaway with 6 riders briefly formed after the kicker before the end of lap 2, with 3 AV riders including myself in it, but unfortunately we didn’t get along very well and weren’t able to establish a significant gap, which is why our effort was short lived. The composition of that group was very favorable to AV, and in hindsight it would have been worth working harder for that opportunity.

The peloton somewhat slowed down a bit during most of the third lap, with riders visibly saving their legs for the rollers on the back half of the course. About 5 miles from the finish, a few of my teammates warned me that they were starting to cramp a little, and I therefore decided to try and play my personal card. At that point, the pace picked up significantly and I was focusing on staying among the first 5-8 riders at the front. In the main climb, one of the unattached riders attacked, followed by two others, and I could only react a few seconds later as I initially got boxed in. They must have had a 10 to 20 m gap when I got away from the pack myself, and after a short but intense effort, I was able to catch up to the end of the group right as we crested the climb. I allowed myself a few seconds to recover in the wheels, at which point I could see we had a sizable gap over the field, with a 5th rider who had just operated the junction. I stayed hidden in the group until about 500m to go, which is when one of the riders launched a full gas attack. When I saw him, I tried to jump on his wheel but he already had a fairly large speed differential and was able to establish a gap. Railing the last corner as fast as I could, I saw he was starting to fade so I pushed even harder on the very last kicker and was able to pass him on the line, for what I thought was the win… but was in fact only for 3rd, as it turned out we had actually never caught the two initial breakaway riders!

Learning upon the news, I was a bit disappointed but it also taught me a good lesson about being focused and paying attention from the gun instead of treating the first lap more or less as a coffee ride. It also highlighted the importance of communication as a team, as we definitely could have caught them had we continued our paceline effort. I still consider the end result encouraging as I was able to get a podium in a large field on a course that doesn’t necessarily play to my strengths.

Thanks for reading!