Race Report: 2024 Cantua Creek Road Race - Men’s P12
Race: Cantua Creek Road Race - Men’s P12
Date: 2/17/2023
AVRT racers: Nico Sandi, Austin King
Top Results: Nico 9/29
Course: 24 miles out and back on flat road. Two 180 turnarounds. Our field did this 3 times totalling ~70 miles. The finish is on top of a hill made up of a few rollers, with the final 1k being uphill.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10782243918
Nutrition: two bottles with malto/sugar, two clif shot sleeves
Race Recap: Austin and I came into this race as a very low priority race. The rest of our teammates were in Arizona racing so we had a chance to be one of the smallest teams in the peloton which took a lot of the pressure off. It really wasn’t on us to chase or control the group since there was a couple other teams with many more people on them.
The plan going in was to make sure I was on any threatening moves and keep Austin fresh for a final sprint. The first lap was a bit spicy with people trying to get off the front until eventually two riders went away. Counter moves tried to go and I was trying to sneak away into a couple of those but non stuck.
We also had Tobin Ortenblad and Lance Haidet in the field and everyone was covering them aggressively. Any time Tobin started chasing a move the people on his wheel would refuse to pull after him and the whole peloton moved from left to right of the road while Tobin kept trying to have someone else chase.
Going into the first climb at the end of the first lap three riders snuck away from the pack at different times and slowly made it to the front two leaders. By then the two had become only one, plus three fresh legs from the peloton. One lap in and this was the 4 person break that would lead the rest of the race.
With Mikes and Voler in the break it was up to solo riders and Dolce to chase it down. And we got super close a couple of times. My main mistake at this point was not jumping across when I had the chance. I was too busy covering other people from going and wanted to go with them. I could have initiated a move myself at some point.
On the climb on the second lap Austin came up to me and said he wasn’t feeling too good and that I should sprint at the end. That meant that during the third lap I tried to stay sheltered while Austin started to help chase the break. Unfortunately everyone started working together a bit too late. By the time we were coming back to the last climb the gap was over 2 minutes. We were not going to bring it back.
I focused on just getting a good sprint out of the pack. The break won the day and I ended up coming in 9th.