Race Report: 2024 Patterson Pass RR Men’s Cat 4
Race: Patterson Pass Road Race - Men’s Cat 4
Date: August 4th, 2024
AVRT Racers: Clark Penado
Top Result: Clark Penado - DNF
Report Author: Clark Penado
Course: Three hilly 22 mile loops with two major climbs and an uphill finish per loop
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/12063460208
Nutrition: 2 energy gels, 1 bottle of high carb drink mix and 1 bottle of plain water
Event Recap: The race started fairly gently into the first major climb on Patterson Pass Road, which felt like everyone was waiting for someone to jump. After a little while, a VeloKings rider started to move up the road to the left of the group, and I opted to hop on their wheel. After a bit they peeled off, and I opted to move to the front and settle into a pace a little less than threshold. The wind was blowing from our right, so I also moved over to the right side of the road in front of the larger group. I was able to stay on this effort for the bulk of the climb, and coming over the top some of the group passed me going into the subsequent descent.
I had to stay on the power a bit to stay with the group through this section, which was followed by a right turn into the second climb. For this one, I ended up putting in a high end V02 effort, but wasn’t able to stay with it. I ended up losing contact, but was able to continue on with another rider for the rest of the lap. We did some rotations through the rest of the first leg and through the final uphill before pushing on to the second time around the course.
We could still see the main group farther up the first climb at the start of lap two, but the other rider I was with ended up peeling off part way through the climb. For the rest of this lap I continued on solo, but by the end of it I decided to call it a day since I couldn’t see the group and the heat was starting to settle in.
Definitely a tough race, and in hindsight I probably should have held off from pushing the pace initially. That said, there were some fast bits on the back side of the course that added a bit of fun too.