Race Report: 2023 Hwy17 Omnium - Men’s P12
Race: 2023 Hwy 17 Omnium (Cat’s Hill & Santa Cruz Classic crits) - Men’s P12
Date: Mar 25&26, 2023
AVRT racers: Andrea Cloarec, Cameron O’Reilly, Conor Austin, Grant Miller, Nathan Martin, Jon Wells, Jack Liu
Top Result:
Cat’s Hill: Jack 5/55, Jon 11/55
Santa Cruz: Jack 11/53
Omnium: Jack 6th overall
Written by: Jack
Course:
Cat’s Hill: 0.9 mile L-shape course featuring a 23% hill and a fast downhill into the final corner
Santa Cruz: 0.8 mile triangular course featuring a hairpin turn and an uphill kick to the finish. Usually headwinds on the start/finish hill.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8777257296/overview, https://www.strava.com/activities/8783810121/overview
Nutrition: one bottle of skratch + maltodextrin.
Race Recap:
Cat’s Hill Crit
After being close to victory in the cat 3 field last year, Cat’s hill became one of my target races this year. It’s easy to win this race -- you just need to survive doing 30-sec hill repeats every 2 min for an hour, then still have the legs (and guts) to attack in the downhill and make it through the final corner at 40+mph. Easy. I think I can handle the cornering part, so my training starting 2-month prior to the event was simply 30-sec hill repeats, over and over again. I also watched last year’s race winning video for at least 10 times (perfect trainer motivation), trying to get a sense of the best timing to attack. In addition, I got my hands on a pair of super lightweight climbing wheels just for this race. I was pretty happy with my training both physically and mentally: I knew I could survive the hill repeats for an hour, and I just needed to follow or make the right move.
Being at downtown Los Gatos and the “home race” of Team Mike’s Bikes (TMB), lots of big hitters showed up, including pro cyclocross rider Tobin Ortenblad, pro riders from Legion, Austin Aviators and Aevolo, and a full squad of 7 TMB riders. I was shitting my bibs on the start line, but I told myself I’ve done the training and there’s nothing else I could do, plus I got 6 super strong teammates on my back.
Tobin attacked in the first lap and was gone immediately. No one wanted to chase. It’s too hard to stay away in this course; unless you’re a pro I guess. The best strategy is to be conservative every time going up the hill: the difference for me doing 600w and 700w up the hill is less than 2 sec, but that 100w difference every lap will haunt you at the end of the race. Therefore, I tried to do a consistent and sustainable pace up the hill each time, losing some positions, but took them back in the downhill and flat sections. Don’t spike over 700w and keep the power smooth. Then do it all again. Fun! Just like Egan!
AV riders: Cam, me, Grant, and Andrea
Tobin was still out there after 30 min. We could see him not too far ahead but the gap was just not coming down. Cam wanted to join the solo party and attacked, but he forgot the solo party was only for 1 person so he got brought back after a couple laps. Andrea dropped his chain twice, caught back on, but then decided it was not his day and dropped out. With 10-lap to go and Tobin in striking distance, Quinn Felton (Aevolo) made his move and I jumped on. It wasn’t successful and we were all back together watching each other; meanwhile the gap to Tobin continued to grow. TMB started to chase really hard in the last 3 laps, but Tobin was just too strong and the gap was still 10~15 sec going into the final lap.
I knew it’s gonna to be super fast in the last lap and your position on top of the hill would pretty much be the same as the finishing order, so I started fighting for positions before the climb started (picked the pocket of Zac from Terun when he’s busy fighting position with Quinn). I made my way to the top 6 wheel with Jon just a couple wheels behind me. Eamon (Austin Aviator) made a monster attack the final time up the hill and I was just trying to hang on. We went up the hill so fast that we finally caught Tobin on top of the hill with half a lap to go!
Two things happened at that moment: at the front, Ryan (TMB) attacked into the downhill with his massive 55t chainring; and right behind me, a Terun rider clipped his pedal and caused another rider to crash (Jon’s video). A small gap opened up behind me and I knew I just needed to hang in with the front group of 5. It was FULL GAS down the hill. I managed to pass one person (turned out to be Tobin) in the descent and finished 5th. Jon unfortunately was caught behind that crash but still managed to finish 11th.
This year’s Cat’s Hill was exciting, chaotic and nail-baiting as the course always promised (check out some of the video links below!). I’d like to thank all the B-ride riders who made their way to cheer for us, and our sponsors for providing pastries, pizza, merchandise and other support at the tent that turned this race into a fun party!
Thanks every who came out to cheer!
Video:
Jon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg9J95f44XI
Zac from Terun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRGd3yeqOQw
Norcal cycling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neI3oINS7lQ
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Santa Cruz Classic Crit
Santa Cruz crit is the second day of the Highway17 omnium series. The course is similar to Cat’s Hill with a significant hill in the middle: not so steep this time at ~8% but with the headwind and a long drag to the finish, it felt much harder. We were facing the same big hitters as yesterday, but I was more confident and didn’t shit my bibs on the start.
For the first 20-min, local boy Quinn Felton attacked multiple times trying to impress his hometown folks. Andrea and Grant covered a lot of the moves. Andrea was always at the front every time I saw him! Then when everyone was kinda tired and nothing stuck, Cam attacked ferociously up the hill into the headwind. This time, he was able to enjoy his solo party out there. Initially, the break looked promising as the gap started to grow, but TMB started chasing him down (picture below) and he was brought back after a couple laps.
Chasing Cam burned down some of TMB’s royal domestiques, so when it came down to the final laps, they weren’t able to fully control the race at the front. Every strong solo rider would try to attack because no one wants to sprint against Ryan. The pace was surgy and one could easily get swamped if not constantly fighting. Going into the bell lap, I was lucky that I was on the right side of the road where the remaining 2 TMB riders started the leadout (Norcal cycling). Jon and Andrea were unfortunately at the wrong side and got boxed in. I was top 10 into the final corner, but all the guys in front of me were some of the best sprinters in California and I just couldn’t pass anyone and finished 11th.
Overall, I was 6th in the Hwy17 omnium standing, being behind 3 pro riders and the 1st cat 2 rider was a result that far exceeded my expectation. I’m glad all the hard training paid off, and also grateful that luck was on my side at the end of both races. These two races are some of my favorite on the calendar — whether it’s the fast and furious downhill corners, glorious and epic uphill battle, or the adrenaline rush when fighting positions elbow-to-elbow at the end of a race. I’ll certainly come back next year and I hope to see more of you at Cat’s Hill!
Video:
Jon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNfkZzX9YYo
Zac from Terun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5B4GXRsgx8
Norcal cycling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3omziEFok0&t=4s