Race Report: 2024 Cal Aggie Crit - Women P/1/2/3
Date: January 27, 2024
AVRT racers: Sue Lin Holt, Rachel Hwang, Louise Thomas, Steph Hart
Top Result: Steph (2/13); Sue Lin (3/13); Rachel (4/13)
Course: 60 min 1.09mi loop. Two corners at the top of the course including a sharp left, one corner on the right, and a bit of a drag to the finish.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10643398019
Nutrition: Clif bar between races, salted caramel gu 5 minutes before the race start
Part 1 (Stephs perspective): Rachel, Louise, and I were last minute adds to the start list after doing the cat 3/masters race earlier in the day, so AV had a minimal plan for this race. Louise and I were pretty tired from animating the cat 3 race and planned to sit in, while Sue Lin and Rachel were both relatively fresh and prepared for a field sprint.
From the start it was clear that everyone was expecting Terun (here just Alex and Kate) to control the race. They did, with both trading attacks in the opening laps of the race. For the most part these were covered by the field (primarily Gwen and Marcie from Revolution, Shannon Gaffney, and Sue Lin), and didn’t get more than a 3ish second gap. ~10 minutes into the race one of Alex’s attacks stuck for half a lap and Rachel and one other rider went with her, but this was brought back by solo riders in the field. ~20 minutes in Alex attacked again and went solo for half a lap or so before the field reeled her back to a ~2 second gap. I was feeling pretty rested from just sitting in and found myself second wheel in the group with some momentum, so bridged up to Alex, thinking I’d bring the rest of the field with me. The few other front riders must have been tired from chasing, so when I caught and passed Alex and gave a hard ~30 second pull, I was surprised the field didn’t follow and only Alex was on my wheel (she seemed equally surprised). We started trading efforts at a pretty hard pace trying to grow the gap. ~3 laps later we had maybe a 10 second gap on the field and were taking relatively long ~60-90 second pulls.
At this point, the pace was unsustainable for me given there was ~30 minutes left, but I figured I was there to get a workout in, and I was certainly getting a cornering clinic following Alex through the technical section each lap so I might as well keep rolling. With 8 laps to go Alex said we had enough of a gap and we should just hold pace and shorten up the pulls to ~20 seconds. The field seemed to give up the chase with 5 or 6 laps to go, and by 3 laps to go the moto told us we had a 35 second lead. At just over 1 lap to go the moto came by again and told us the field was no longer a factor. By this point I had been pulling for the last ~2 minutes, as Alex was clearly playing the tactical game for a last lap attack- I found this a little hilarious as I was 100% at my physical limits after 35 minutes in the break and had no intention of contesting a sprint finish with her. At the bell Alex attacked and went solo for the win, and I tried to convince my legs not to cramp too hard as I rolled in for 2nd place.
Part 2 (Louise’s perspective): Having a teammate in the break was super nice because it meant we could just chill and let other people tire themselves out. In the field, the only ones chasing were Marcie (Revolution), Shannon Gaffney, and Karen Edwards (both solo). All three of them had raced in the Cat 3 / masters race earlier in the day. With six laps to go, after putting in a good effort but being unable to close the gap, they gave up on chasing and we lost sight of the break.
Since me, Steph and Rachel were late additions to the race, we hadn't discussed beforehand what our endgame should be. Sue Lin and Rachel are both great sprinters and I am not, so I decided to try and lead one of them out. With half a lap to go, I got to the front hoping one of them would be on my wheel, and pushed up the pace coming into the final stretch. Sue Lin (who was on Marcie's wheel) and Rachel (from my wheel) both ripped it into the finish line, taking 1st and 2nd in the field sprint (3rd and 4th overall).