Race Report: 2024 Cantua Creek Road Race - Women’s 3/4/Masters
Date: Saturday February 17, 2024
AVRT racers: Katarina Zgraja, Kristin Hepworth, Claire MacDougall, Hannah Chen
Top Result: Katarina 2/16
Course: 13 miles out and back. For the women’s field, the first lap turnaround was at 6.5 miles, so total course distance was 6.5+6.5+13+13=39 miles. However, because of the neutralized start, we all calculated less than 39 miles total (~35 miles). The final km of the race was uphill, with a couple of small rollers preceding it. Wind picked up in the 2nd half of the race (second half of the second lap).
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10782345924
Nutrition: Before race: coffee, water, bagel with fried egg and salami. During race: 1 bottle of Tailwind Endurance Fuel and 1 pack of shot block gummies.
Event Recap (Written by Katarina): We had planned on having a bigger AV turnout for the 4/masters squad this weekend, but due to various illnesses and injuries, we ended up having four people on our team. The super sprinkles team had 6 people lining up, so one of our strategies was to push them to control the race more.
With myself being the likely sprinter, we also planned to try and protect me from doing too much work up front. We also planned to have someone either chase down or join any break if anything threatening were to develop during the race. There ended up being a couple of attempts for a break, but throughout the entire race, nothing really stuck. There was one solo break, which lasted for maybe ten minutes or so.
The Sprinkles riders always appeared to be planning something, but I was honestly a little bit surprised at how little moves they ended up initiating. They were trying to get others to pull for some of the race, and a couple of times I got stuck in the front, but my teammates came in to help me out.
In the last quarter of the race, I found myself ensuring I was positioned well up front, and I did chase down a few break attempts to keep the group together as well. There was a small enough climb right before the last kilometer, which blew up my legs more than I had expected. In addition, the last kilometer marker came up as a surprise to me (as I mentioned earlier, we were all expecting the race to be 40 miles, but it ended up being closer to 35 miles). As soon as that 1km to go appeared, the “sprint” began. I had a bit of a delay because of my slight confusion, and the racer who ended up coming first got a substantial jump on everyone. Everyone else also appeared to be pretty blown up from the previous climb as well, because I managed to pull ahead and hold onto 2nd place until the finish.
POV from Kristin, Hannah, and Claire was that they were also caught off guard at that 1km to go. In addition, the motorcycle marshall was repeatedly yelling at a few different riders for crossing the centerline during the race, and one of those instances occurred right before the 1km to go, which pulled people’s attention away from the race.
