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

Race: Winters Road Race - Men’s P/1/2

Date: 8/25/24

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

Top Result: 7th - Nathan

Course: 4 laps of this. Some ripping crosswinds to start, a short but steep at times climb, fast and technical descent, then some flats to the finish.

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

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/12241763562

Race Recep (written by Nathan): 

Winters hadn’t been run since 2019, so pretty much everyone was coming into this race having not done it in a while, aside from the people from Sacramento who do a group ride on the same roads sometimes. Regardless, it was going to be fresh and new for most.

The leadup to the climb the first time wasn’t super eventful, but Erik from Dolce Vita would attack on the climb and go solo. Nobody chased him, there wasn’t much panic since it was a long day, but perhaps we would regret that.

I would push it a bit at the top of the climb, break up the group a bit, and there would be a small group formed after the climb, where we had a gap for a few miles, but eventually we got caught by the main group since it was still pretty early.

Soon after the start of lap 2, once the wind started, attacks would start flying. We did a pretty good job of moderating our efforts, and we got Greg, Jon, and Flo up the road in one break or another. I was in the back group with Cam, along with some strong riders from other teams, so figured we did well.

Rest of lap 2 was pretty tame for us in the rear group, but it sounds like the breakaway was tough on the climb and the descent, where people who had ridden the road many times before had an advantage and really could push it.

On lap 3, we started catching some people from the break, so I knew it was getting tough there. Jon and Greg had dropped from the break along with some others from other teams, but Flo was still up there for now. Still nobody was organizing a tough chase from the group, but some people like Ryan and Sean were taking some hard pulls.

After the 3rd time up and over the climb, we would catch Flo, and I was in a tough position now where I would be expected to work since I had nobody ahead. I would take some hard pulls from here to the start of the 4th lap.

When we were on the 4th lap on the southbound straight, the wind really started to hurt the group, it felt like there was nowhere to be safe. People from our group would keep popping off, and when we neared the bottom of the course I flicked my elbow, only to see nobody was behind me.

It was then me, Ryan from Voler, and Jack and Sean from Mikes’ left chasing the main break. At this point I was gassed and just trying to hang with them.

Once we hit the climb, we could see the breakaway just ahead, and we would catch them about halfway up the climb at the feedzone. However, as we caught them Miles would attack, and I’d also find out that Erik had been caught by them after his solo move lap 1 and attacked on the bottom of the climb the last time.

We were then essentially riding for 3rd place. Everyone was too gassed to chase up and over the climb, just sort of had a hard pace.

Unfortunately for me, after the descent I noticed that my di2 cable plugging my rear mech into my battery was unplugged, and basically I could not shift. I stopped to fix it, but took too long and the group rode away from me. I’d ride in with another rider to finish 7th.

Disappointing that a mechanical cost me a fight for a 3rd place finish, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. I was happy to stay with some strong riders in the rear group and stick with it, bit of a bummer the way things ended though. Fun race all around!