Race Report: Red Bull Bay Climb Open Men

Race: Red Bull Bay Climb

Date: 10/22/22

AVRT Racers: Nico Sandi, Cam O’Reily, George Wehner, Daniel Fonyo

Top Results: Nico (3/68)

Course: 0.3 miles averaging 15% with max 22% gradient.  

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8004277975

Nutrition: Caffeinated Clif Shots, malto, caffeinated gels. No Red Bull. Oops.  

Race Recap (NorCal Cycling): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onTldRqppzg

Race Recap (me):

This race is one all-out 70-90 second effort from a standing start. First one to the top of then hill wins. But you have to do that three times.

The way Red Bull Bay Climb works is you race up the hill in a qualifier against 9 other riders. If you are top 4 of that round you qualify to semis. If you are top 2 of the semis you qualify to the final. 

For me this was a fun race to spice up my cyclocross season. I knew I was coming into good form being in the middle of cross season and that the one minute power, standing start and explosivity required for this event were strengths I had been working on. 

Qualifier (3/10): I was a bit scared coming into my qualifier as I had never done this event and I was up against Jeff Linder and another strong roadie I knew from racing on the road. Jeff and I had a good start and I just tried to stay in contact with him all the way up the first 2/3 of the climb. Once we were into the last section of the climb I looked back to see we had a huge gap on everyone else. I realized that easy pedaling would get me a 4th for the qualifier and that is all I needed. So I reeled it back and took it easy for the last block. 1 minute power = 530W

Semi (1/10): I had about 3 hours of rest between qualifier and semis. And from my time at the track seeing sprinters do their thing I knew I had to put my legs up as long as possible. So I literally laid on the floor for a whole hour. 

Teammate Cam was on my heat for the semis, so I was scared for my life. Jokingly I kept saying I would lead him out for him to take 1st and 2nd. I had a good start, clipped in fast and stayed conservative for the first third. Then I opened it up full throttle in the middle half. I looked back and I saw a big gap but knew that I just had to push all the way to the line. I ended up coming 1st followed closely by Fraser (new AV rectruit!). 1 minute power = 701W (all-time PR)

Final (3/10): Stacked final. And I didn’t even know who the eventual winner was. I literally thought he was just a kid wearing a Trek Factory Racing Team kit that he bought online. I was wrong. He is a pro mountain biker, national champ, blah blah blah.

 I had a good start, clipped in fast again and immediately saw 3 people in front of me. The last two heats I was second wheel. These guys knew how to get off the line! This heat was just all out the whole time. I tried to stay with the top guys in the middle section but their acceleration was so hard to match. I saw 1 and 2 go up the road and I knew I could still hang on for podium. It was super helpful to have teammates there encouraging me to keep pushing to get on that podium. 1 minute power = 695W. Basically as hard as my semi. 1 and 2 were on a different level. 

I think that warmups, cool downs and nutrition played a huge role on this race for me. I brought my rollers with me so I was able to have a very controlled warm up before every heat and also able to spin the legs for 10 minutes after. I was also constantly eating gummies all day and had an actual meal in the middle of the day between quals and semis. These are all things I learned from riding the track! 

Nico

Jeff Vander Stucken Photography