Race Report: Regalado Road Race – Men’s 40+ 1/2/3

Race: 2023 Regalado Road Race – Men’s 40+ 1/2/3 (Masters District Championships)

Date: June 4, 2023

AVRT racers: Nat Green

Top Results: Nat (17/22)

Course: 4 laps of a flat/rolling, 17-mile loop.  The course was run in the opposite direction (clockwise) of prior years.  There was a mix of good and bad pavement, with the worst roads on Tim Bell Road, a mile or so of which required dodging deep potholes.  The finish was a couple tenth of a mile before the start at the end of the lap on a mostly-flat section.  There was a decent tailwind on Warnerville Road, at the top of the loop, and a headwind coming the other way at the bottom of the loop on Claribel.  The weather was warm to start and downright hot by the end.   

Strava: Regalado - 40+ 1/2/3 | Ride | Strava

Nutrition:  I brought three bottles of Skratch mix and a bunch of gels.  I was debating bringing a fourth bottle, but thought it would be too annoying to have two bottles in my skinsuit pockets, and figured that I could just grab bottles from neutral feed as needed.  That turned out to be a mistake because neutral feed consisted of two or three people who were unable to get bottles to more than 2-3 people each lap, so it was basically winning the lottery to get a bottle.  The group shared bottles a bit, which was nice, but far from ideal from a hydration standpoint.  So I was extremely thirsty by the last lap in which the weather was 90+ degrees.

Recap:  This was the masters district road championships, so theoretically the races were in five-year increments (I was in 40-44, since I am racing age 40 (but still 39 for now)).  However, all the 40s started together and there was no way to know who was in each age group, since about half the group registered day-of.  I asked the guy at registration whether the low numbers were for the younger 40s, and he scoffed and said “No – you need to chase everyone” (in a good-humored way).  The field was stacked with a ton of strong riders, including five ThirstyBears who all registered day-of, including Blaine Ashley, Ariel Herrmann, and Rob Whittier.  Velo Kings had several strong riders, including Mark Tucker.  Work Health Solutions also had a few guys, including Adam White, who has won 9 of the 16 races he has entered.  There was also Creative Blue Monster Racing, with “SuperDave” Koesel, among others.  Local strongmen Jeromy Cottell and Brian Kellison were also there.  Also Josh Carling, who won the race last year and has 25 wins.  In any case, I had no teammates, so knew that I would have to be judicious in covering moves and burning matches.  I decided to observe how the strong riders that I knew to be in my age group were reacting to moves (like Josh), and hope to get in the right break.  I also knew it would take a great deal of luck to get a result in this field.  

From the gun, there were attacks.  Brian Kellison went right away and was brought back.  He then went again a few miles later and got a gap with a VeloKings guy (not Tucker) and Jeromy.  I was pretty sure none of those guys were in 40-44 age group, so I was not too worried. There were then a large number of attacks by all different riders for approximately the next two laps, with only the headwind section on Claribel being relatively calm.  The group chased everyone of these attacks back within 20-30 seconds, so there was basically constant surging. The ThirstyBears, though, seemed to be biding their team and waiting for Work Health Solutions to attack, which finally happened at the end of lap 2, with Adam White and a couple of ThirstyBears going off the front with a big effort.  There was a surge among some of the riders in the pack who realized this move was particularly dangerous, and I followed Josh Carling’s wheel to try to track down the three riders who had gotten away (Adam White, Blaine Ashley, and Derick Daniels).  We did not quite get there, unfortunately.  They dangled in front for a quarter lap or so, but were getting farther away.

That was basically the end of the race, and the pack shut it down completely for almost a full lap after that, so any hope of chasing down the break was gone by the end of lap 3.  The pace in the pack picked up on lap 4.  I found myself at the front coming into the few miles.  I figured I would just take a turn and pull through, but that didn’t happen.  When I tried to pull off, the entire group just followed me across the road and back again.  I probably should have taken it down to 100 watts or stopped riding completely, but instead just continued riding.  With about 2 km to go, Mark Tucker can flying by with most of the pack on his wheel.  I reacted as fast as I could and caught on to the back of the pack, but riders started to drop off, so the wheel I was following was soon off the back, and I just rode in.  I guess I didn’t realize that there would be a big sprint for 7th, but that last surge was the difference between 7th (Mark) and 17th (me).  Does that really matter?  I don’t know – kind of?  I was also 10/10 of the 40-44 riders, which kind of sucked. 

Up in the break, I’m told that Jeromy Cottell crashed, caught back on, then stopped to fix his bike, and chased back on again, and then won the race.  Adam White won the 40-44 age group (and was third overall).

Despite the race being pretty frustrating, it was a good learning experience.  This was my first 1/2/3 race, and the strength and depth of the field was significantly higher than the 3s, 4s, and 3/4 fields I have raced in (the fact that it was district championships also probably contributed to this).  It was also eye-opening how quickly the race was effectively over after the second break got away – I’m not sure I could have done any better because I was spent after the initial chase, but maybe I should have tried to regroup and just given everything to try to bridge after realizing the pack was not going to catch them and were letting them go.  As a solo rider, though, it was just really, really hard to determine which attacks to take seriously and which to trust that the group would bring back, complicated further by the fact no one knew who was in which age group.  I would love to do it again with a few teammates, where not only would we have a better chance of responding effectively to attacks, but we could also deploy our own strategy instead of just reacting to the group.

Nat