Race Report: Patterson Pass Road Race - Men's Cat 4

Race: Patterson Pass Road Race - Men's Cat 4

Date: Sunday, August 6th 2023

AVRT racers: Maxime Cauchois, Michael Fryar, Drew Matthews

Top Result: Maxime Cauchois (8/32)

Course: 3 laps of a ~23 mile loop totaling 65 miles with ~6500’ of elevation. Here’s a course breakdown by Jeremy: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EimAPKne5_zoPfqbCKgzwS5Z2m6p-BeURk1C_V-SI8I/edit.

Briefly, each lap consisted of the feed zone at the base of Patterson Pass, (3 mile climb at 5.5% with minimal wind) followed by a fast, nontechnical descent. A sharp right onto Flynn Rd (2.2 mile climb at 4.3% finishing into a headwind). This is followed by ~9 miles of gradual descent (cross headwind becoming cross tailwind as the road turns from north to east). There’s a very tight left turn that requires significant braking just after cresting Flynn. Each lap ends with a right turn onto Midway Rd and a 0.8 mile climb (finish at the top on lap 3) followed by a fast descent (laps 1 and 2). Wind was from the NNW at 10-15mph, mostly favorable on Patterson Pass. Temperatures ranged from 80 and bearable at the start to 100 and insufferable at the finish.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9596026490

Nutrition: Three bottles with a mix of Skratch and cyclic dextrin during the race (~80g carbs/bottle), one feed bottle at each lap, not nearly enough hydration and too many carbs per bottle given the conditions

Race Report: The fact it took me about two months to process this race and finally get myself to write a race report already hints at the physical and mental toll this race had inflicted on me.

To summarize it, it was plain brutal, a course of attrition where the pack wouldn’t necessarily even hit insane numbers up the climb, but where the heat and dehydration would remove riders out of contention little by little.

I actually felt somewhat okay during the first 1.5 laps, staying near the front the first two times up Patterson Pass, but even at that point I could see my heart rate was much higher than it should be given the power. I even ended up somewhat inadvertently in a two-man break on Flynn road on the second lap, but we got brought back relatively, first because it was clear we would only waste our energy going into a headwind, and also because my break companion unfortunately crashed out of the race right in front of me going into that tight left turn after cresting Flynn. I somehow managed to avoid him and continue racing, so it is undeniable that my day could have been worse.

Nevertheless, I could feel the intense heat getting to me even as I tried to stay hydrated as much as possible. Unfortunately, I could only manage to retrieve one feed bottle per lap, which turned out to be not nearly enough. In retrospect, it seems clear that I should have targeted at the very least two full bottles per lap, but it is easier said than done: the feed zone was located at the bottom of Patterson Pass climb, and the group would invariably surge as we would approach it, making the full bottle collection fairly technical and possibly sketchy — one guy even crashed in the process.

In any case, I found myself with leg cramps and energy depleted at the end of the second lap, at which point I knew it was only a matter of time before I exploded. It was invariably the case shortly after starting the last ascent of Patterson Pass, despite renewed efforts to hydrate myself. My whole body completely shutting down, it was pretty clear to me that I would just DNF and head back down, but I then met another rider from the P12 field who encouraged me to keep going, stating that I only had one lap to go when he still had two remaining. His indisputable math as much as my relatively clouded mind kept me pushing to the top, at which point I thought I might just keep going and try to finish the race. It was probably not the right or smart decision—I was dehydrated, heat exhausted and my heart rate was near his maximum, despite only producing Z2 watts—but I still tried to make my way towards the finish line. It was a highly unpleasant experience, especially with no water in the last 45 min, but I did eventually reach it, probably a bit delusional at that point. 

I quickly learned that I’d finished 8th, which came as a complete surprise as I thought there would have been more people ahead. I was lucky and relieved to find a few teammates at the finish line as they handed me about 2L of water. I then proceeded to stop at a Starbucks and drink another 2L of fluid on the way home. If you must ask, when I weighed myself after I came home, I was still about 2 or 3 kg lighter than my usual self, and the leg cramps took a few days to dissipate. Overall, it was one of if not the hardest race I have done, even more so with my inadequate preparation, but I do question whether it wouldn’t be better placed earlier in the year.

Thanks for reading!