Race Report: Bariani Road Race - Women’s 4/Novice/Masters
Race Report: Bariani Road Race 2024 - Women cat 4/novice/masters
Written by: Sue Lin Holt
Date: March 17th, 2024
AVRT racers: Chris Davis, Sue Lin Holt, Robin Kutner, Katie Monaghan, Janene Ostrow, Emily Schell, Rina Fujieda (club member/guest racer)
Top Result: Sue Lin Holt (5th/37 overall, 2nd/8 masters), Robin Kutner (7th/37 overall, 6th/29 cat 4/novice)
Course: 2 laps of a 20-mile course. Mostly flat/rolling with poor pavement and lots of potholes and gravel in corners. Features a half mile KOM/QOM climb at 3.8% approximately 1 mile from the finish.
Strava (Sue Lin): https://www.strava.com/activities/10982727229
Nutrition: Maurten Gel 100 Caf 100 at the start, two bottles of SiS Go Electrolyte and a sleeve of Clif Bloks during the race.
Race Recap:
Finally it wasn’t raining and the sun was shining! I was excited to be racing in a relatively large field of 37 women, and with a good group of teammates. However, having raced the P123 Land Park crit the previous day my legs were not the freshest, and I had a scratchy throat and was starting to lose my voice. In the pre-race team talk, both Chris and I decided that rather than going for results in the masters field, we wanted to support our cat 4 teammates and try to get them some upgrade points for this race.
After discussing with the rest of the team we decided that Robin should be the protected rider. Emily and Katie would try to be safe wheels for her to follow, and keep her out of the wind. Chris and I would stay close to the front and try not to let any breaks go without Robin. She would save herself and try to attack on the hill during the second lap, shortly before the finish.
The race started and Chris set a solid pace up front with me on her wheel and Emily behind me. I was feeling happy and relaxed following Chris’s trusted wheel for the first half lap, with her expertly navigating the potholes and corners. Those who have raced Bariani know that the roads are extremely rough and bumpy, but following Chris they seemed smooth like butter.
As the road kicked up slightly heading towards the first lap KOM, things became a lot less smooth. The pack started shuffling and re-shuffling with everyone wanting to get closer to the front before the climb. I managed to keep eyes on the riders we had identified as likely to make moves. Sure enough, the attacks soon started. I tried to let others chase but ended up bridging to several dangerous-looking moves. It became amusing to see solo off-the-front riders initially excited to see me join them, thinking I would work with them to stay away. I did feel a bit guilty about sitting on their wheels and refusing to help, or taking half-hearted 150 watt pulls as the other racer tried to shout words of encouragement, but the strategy worked and the rest of the pack including Robin caught up to us each time. I was starting to enjoy this domestique role!
Robin’s perspective: once we were into the second half of the race, any time an attack started to go I would let someone else chase and then follow behind them. This happened a few times and it was more energy than I wanted to burn, but I was nervous about missing “the move” and knew my best shot to get AV on the podium was from a reduced field finish rather than a field sprint. Frustratingly, these efforts ended up futile because the moto neutralized us for several minutes to let a couple of junior boys pass (whom we shortly passed back). Our field came back together more than once, and positioning generally felt stressful due to narrow roads, our large field, and some sketchy handling in the group.
By the second lap there had been some attrition, but most of the field was still together. Emily was looking strong and I was happy to see her up at the front with Robin on her wheel. After chasing down a couple of attacks on the far side of the course, I was a bit too complacent heading towards the second time up the climb. I didn’t move up early enough and became trapped towards the back half of the field as the road narrowed. Meanwhile the moto ref hovered behind us relegating racers who tried passing left of the center line to the back of the group. As a result, I could see Robin and Katie looking strong and well positioned up ahead of me, but wasn’t able to pass the mass of riders in front of me to get in position to execute a lead out.
As we reached the steeper KOM section the group started to thin as slower riders fell back. I found some gaps to squeeze through and accelerated towards Robin who seemed to be flying up the climb. Everyone was going full gas at this point, and I felt the threat of cramps start in my legs as I summited the KOM. I could see Katie ahead (having buried herself to lead Robin out into the climb) and Robin a few positions ahead of her. On the final straightaway before the left turn to the finish I desperately tried to catch up to Robin to try to lead her out for the sprint. As the gap to her closed and I was about to pass on her left, I tried to yell at her to jump on my wheel. But my croaky voice didn’t stand a chance against the deafening rattle of bikes speeding over potholes, and I realized afterwards that the speed differential and lack of warning made it impossible for her to jump on. (Sorry Robin!). I took the bumpy final left turn as fast as I dared and started to sprint to the line, passing a few more riders and crossing the line 5th out of 37.
The scariest part of the race happened immediately after the sprint finish when the winner apparently had a mechanical, braked, and veered sharply across in front of me. I swerved to avoid her and went off road into the gravel at 35 miles/hour, somehow managing to stay upright! Robin finished strong not far behind me, taking 6th in the novice/cat 4 field and successfully earning some upgrade points. The rest of the team did great, with Katie, Chris and Emily achieving solid finishes after burning a lot of matches for the team throughout the race, Janene having a successful return to racing, and Rina completing her first road race.
Thanks for reading!
Sue Lin