Race Report: 2024 Winters Road Race - Men's Cat 3

Race: Winters Road Race - Men's Cat 3

Date: August 25, 2024

AVRT racers: George Wehner, Henry Mallon

Top Result: Henry 2nd

Course: The course consists of three laps around a 25-mile loop starting in Winters, CA. The key feature is the Cantelow East climb, a 3.35-mile ascent averaging 3.2%, with the final ⅓ mile ramping up to over 9%. After a twisty descent, there are roughly 10 miles of flat before a slightly uphill finish.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/12241468946 

Nutrition: Two bottles of high-carb drink mix, one bottle of water, and a few gels.

Race Recap:

My goal for this race was to make it as hard as possible on the climbs and hopefully shed the more power sprinters before the finish. This is easier said than done, as the full Cantelow East climb is only 3.2% average gradient and summits about 10 miles from the finish. 

I’m normally much more patient, but for the first two laps, I actively followed moves and counterattacked when the race was hard. I would have welcomed a breakaway, but my primary goal was to soften riders before the final ascent of Cantelow East. I was happy to see others contribute to a hard pace on the climb, and gaps were forming on the final steep two-minute section before the descent. There was always a regrouping after the climb, but I knew the motivation of the last lap would allow a group to stay away. 

By the final ascent of Cantelow East, the climbers were eager to make a difference and drop the more powerful sprinters. I crested the top of the climb with one other rider, and the race splintered behind. After the descent, a small group bridged up to us creating a final selection of about eight. At this point, there was still one rider off the front solo, and the group worked seamlessly together to bring him back. 

I was hoping for a smaller group going into the sprint finish, as some of the more powerful riders did a great job making it over the climb and bridging back to the front. I managed to finish second in the sprint, which I think was the result of positioning, the slightly uphill finish, and high fatigue from a hard race. 

Overall, this was one of my favorite races of the year. The climb’s profile and distance from the finish allow for almost any type of rider to win, which creates really exciting race dynamics and opposing strategies. It would be equally fun to race for a sprinter—pacing them up the climb and then trying to bridge back to a front group of climbers in the final 10-mile stretch to the finish. 

Thanks for reading,

Henry