Race Report: 2024 San Ardo Road Race - Men’s P/1/2

Race: San Ardo Road Race - Men’s P/1/2

Date: 8/17/24

AVRT Racers: Nathan Martin, Greg Mccullough, Cam O’Reilly, Flo Costa

Top Result: 5th- Nathan, 7th - Cam

Course: 4 laps of this. One short/rolling climb, then a fast descent, a poorly paved bridge, and a long flat backside often with some crosswinds.

Nutrition: 2 bottles of mix, 3 gels, partial neutral water bottle

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/12173629721

Race Recep (written by Nathan): 

San Ardo is always a fun race, usually there’s some heat, wind, and a little climbing. It’s interesting, usually. This year it wasn’t going to be nearly as hot, and the field wasn’t as big as previous years, but it was still going to be fun. There weren’t any huge teams entered, everyone had 2-4 people, so it was going to be dynamic and fun. Main goal was to try to get Flo to the finish and have him sprint, with Cam going for any moves early, me going for any moves later, and Greg helping Flo with the leadout.

First lap was pretty tame. A couple attacks here and there, but nothing really got away, and the wind wasn’t super strong yet. Greg would drop his chain and have to burn a match to catch back on, but all was well otherwise.

Second lap is where the fun began. The climbing section was fine, and after the descent there was a pee break. After the drama at Patterson Pass, I decided to stop, some people kept going sorta slow rolling. The group that stopped then rolled together, the people who didn’t stop were decently close. However, we noticed that our gap was staying pretty similar even as we were upping our pace, and soon they were putting time into us.

Attacking the pee break! How rude. We’d rotate and pull them back for about half a lap. Once we caught them, people were putting in more attacks since the wind had picked up, and it was a really dynamic end of the lap, but nothing stuck. Unfortunately on this lap, Flo would flat out, which was a bummer since this was a good race for him.

Lap 3 a couple solo moves, but nothing crazy, until towards the end of the 3rd lap Cam was able to slip off the front and was soon joined by a couple strong riders for a good breakaway. 

The chase in the main group wasn’t super organized. Terun would work, then Dolce would work, but ultimately nothing worked well and the gap would start growing after the poorly paved bridged.

The last time on the crosswind straight, I was on “mark any attacks” duty, since we still had Cam in the break. Mikes’ Bikes also had someone in the break, so me and Dylan were marking each move. Until one time, we marked a move, and there was a gap, so I kept on the gas a bit. We looked back, had a bigger gap, Dylan attacked, and I stayed with him. Pretty soon we had about 20 seconds on the main group.

I knew Cam was still up there, but I figured that even if I pulled Dylan up, we were in some crosswinds, so it wasn’t like he was sitting on easy, and he’d be hurting. Soon though, I saw Cam up ahead and he had dropped off the breakaway, so I basically just kept pushing to the line.

We didn’t catch the main group, but I was able to hold Dylan off for 5th.

Bummer that Flo flatted, Greg dropped a chain, and that the breakaway Cam was in was doing all sorts of stupid stuff, but nothing ever always goes to plan and I was happy to salvage a 5th place out of everything.