Race Report: 2024 Winters RR Men’s Cat 4

Race: Winters Road Race - Men’s Cat 4

Date: August 25th, 2024

AVRT Racers: Clark Penado

Top Result: Clark Penado - 6/11

Report Author: Clark Penado

Course: Three 24 mile loops of country roads, with one interrupted climb and a narrow twisty fast descent. short uphill gravel stretch.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/12241419508

Nutrition: 4 energy gels, 2 bottles of high carb drink mix and 2 bottles of plain water

Event Recap: This year featured the same classic course, with a small gravel bit to mix things up. With that in mind, I threw on some 30mm tires and dropped the tire pressure accordingly.

The start rolled out fairly conservatively, with some commentary from some of the other riders asking if it was a coffee ride. After the first turn, there were a couple attacks, but nothing particularly stuck. At one point a gap opened in the group with a Dolce Vita rider leading a small second group I was also in. Since there was a rider from the same team in the group ahead, I opted to close the gap with the assumption there may have been some tactics involved with forcing the break in the group. From here, we stayed together through the gravel section until the one climb on the course, which immediately attracted a surge in pace. A small way into it I didn’t feel like it was a pace I could maintain for the climb, and opted to ease up slightly and try to make up the lost time on the descent immediately following. 

Coming off the descent, I was able to catch back up to a Dolce Vita rider, but there was a larger gap up to the main group of about five. We agreed to work together, and spent the bulk of the race taking turns trying to chase back up to the group of five. During this I was extremely diligent to pay attention to my nutrition, and not to exceed a heart rate of ~185 when I was pulling. This continued through to about the gravel section of the final lap. 

From here I was able to accelerate into the final climb solo. About halfway through this climb, I noticed one of the riders from the pack that we had been trying to chase back on to. This gave me a second wind, and coming off the descent I was able to catch onto their wheel. From here we traded turns a bit until the finish, which got a bit gamey between the pair of us. Going into the finish, a little over 200m the other rider got the jump on me, just edging me out in the sprint putting me in 6th for the day.

Overall this one had a lot of fast bits, and it was a bit of fun being able to come to an agreement with someone from another team to share the work.