Race Report: Pescadero Coastal Classic - Men's Cat 4

Race: Pescadero Coastal Classic - Men's Cat 4

Date: Saturday, July 22th 2023

AVRT racers: Maxime Cauchois, Riley Chapman, Drew Matthews, Logan Allen

Top Result: Maxime Cauchois (4/50), Riley Chapman (15/50)

Course: ~1.8 laps of a loop with some rollers on highway 1 and a long drag to the main climb, Haskins. Headwind on highway 1.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9503405762

Nutrition: Two bottles with a mix of Skratch and cyclic dextrin during the race (~80g carbs/bottle), one gel before the last climb.

Race Report: The race started on a relatively mellow pace apart from the occasional surges on some of the HW1 rollers, and the group kept it together until the fast climb up Haskins. At this point, I was mostly focusing on positioning, and as we could expect the pace drastically picked up when turning right onto Pescadero road, everyone trying to get near the front before the first Haskins ascent.

When it started, Riley was in the first 10 positions of the pack, while I was still a few riders behind, with Logan and Drew not far behind. The climb started very fast, and the few positions I had to make up cost me some energy that would have been used elsewhere. Nonetheless, a split occurred around the 10-15th position, shortly after I had managed to get near the front. The pace slowed down a bit in the middle before picking up again as we were cresting the climb. 

No one really wanted to commit to pulling in the descent, which allowed most of the pack to regroup around Loma Mar and into Pescadero. Drew initiated an attack on HW1 that forced other teams to chase for a bit, but the headwind on HW1 made any move much harder to stick. After turning right on 84, a few riders launched some attacks, including Logan, Riley and Drew in turn, but the pace at this point was relatively high and all moves were eventually brought back. On my end, I tried to surf a few wheels, including Riley’s and Logan’s to make sure I was staying near the front. I had to dig hard as the pace picked up significantly right after the feedzone, but it meant I was well positioned around the 5th position when starting Haskins ascent this time.

The climb started at a very hard pace, and after a few minutes, the lead group was already reduced to a handful of riders. I was already close to the limit, but still tried to launch an attack with about 1 mi to go in the steepest section of Haskins. Only two riders followed, but they were able to counterattack and dropped me a few seconds later. At this point, I tried to regroup a bit and maintain a hard pace as I was losing ground on the two riders ahead. The last km felt like it was never going to end, and as I was fading quite a bit, I couldn’t prevent a third rider who came back from behind to pass me with 100m to go, which meant I had to settle for 4th.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed to lose the podium spot, but looking at the numbers, I actually got my second best 5 min power on the second climb up Haskins, which means I was simply at my limit and did what I could, no regret here!