Race Report: 2024 Original Merced Criterium – Women’s 3

 Race: Original Merced Criterium Women’s 3/Master’s & Women’s P/1/2/3

Date: March 3, 2024

AVRT racers: Rachel Hwang

Top Result: Rachel Hwang - :( but finished the race

Women’s 3/Masters

Course: 45 minutes around a 0.68mi crit course. Flat with 3 90 degree corners and a bubble with 3 corners in the 4thcorner.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10885136181 

Race Recap:

Going into the race, I was pretty confident, as I have the strategy down for crits pretty well. 

As all the racers took one lap before the start of the race, we agreed there were lots of potholes, and in the one “bubble” 4th corner, a tight space with lots of potholes, uneven ground, and gravel.  Not a problem, or so I thought.

With no teammates today, my strategy was to do minimal work, hide behind the mass until the last couple laps, get in good position, and sprint finish.

However, as we went around the lap the first time, every time we hit that fourth corner with the gravel patch and holes, my chain would skip and grind as I would put down power.  While it was worrisome, there wasn’t much I could do.  On lap 4 or 5, as I powered out of that corner, my chain dropped.  Not knowing what to do, I stood there for a few seconds before the moto guy just told me to keep going, and a spectator told me to go to the tent to get my free lap, but I get to the tent and they tell me it’s not a mechanical, so I keep going.  At this point, I can see that I am half a lap behind.

In my mind, I keep weighing my options:

1)    Work hard to catch up, potentially burning myself out for the next race or

2)    Don’t try to catch up and saving my energy for the next race

I decide to work for it, but at some point, start losing hope as I am not getting any closer to them.  However, with maybe 5 laps to go, I start seeing them in the same long flat stretch.  With encouragement from the announcers as well seeing how close I was to catching them, I hop on the end of the group with 2.5 laps to go.  I was so happy to have caught back on after having thought the race was over, and even thought I could potentially sprint for it in the end.  Not even a full lap later, with 2 laps to go, in that same gravel pothole corner, I accelerate out of the corner and my chain drops again.

Women’s P/1/2/3

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10885144949

Race Recap:

After the first race, my goal this race was to not drop my chain and therefore get dropped.  I even go to the tent and have them adjust the high limit screw so my chain won’t fall off the big chain ring, and purposefully drop my chain to see if it will self adjust – which it does.  With all the solo laps I had now done, I knew how to keep my chain on.  My strategy was to stay far enough behind the group going into that one corner to not have to break through it and coast past all the bumps, then slowly easing the power back up.

It worked for the first 24 minutes.  I even let people in front of me so I can scoot to the back every lap, and open up a bit of a gap every time out of that corner since I wouldn’t pedal through it.

Of course the one lap I end up in the middle of, I had to break, and as I accelerate out of it over the bumps, my chain drops.  This time, I try to pedal it back on, and with no luck and the forced pedaling with a dropped chain, the chain gets lodged in there.

At that point, I knew that was the end of the race.  I focused on getting a good workout in the rest of the race.

Nutrition: 1 bottle of water with a stick of liquid IV, and a Clif Double Espresso flavored shot on the start line right before the first race, and a Clif Citrus flavored shot before the second race.