Race Report: Regalado Road Race – Women’s 4/5

Race: 2023 Regalado Road Race – Women’s 4/5

Date: June 4, 2023

AVRT racers: Emily Schell, Robin Kutner

Top Result: Emily, 1/11

Course: 3 laps of a flat/rolling, 17-mile loop. There was a mix of good and bad pavement, with the worst on Tim Bell Road, a mile or so of which required dodging gravel and potholes. The finish 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. We were the last group to start, so it was extremely hot for most of our race (90 degrees!), but the wind helped with the heat.  

Strava:  https://www.strava.com/activities/9203775250

Nutrition: Two bottles with Malto and Skratch mixed in, 1 sleeve of Clif Shotblocks, 1 packet of Cakesters (they are elite race food, don’t try and convince me otherwise…) 

Recap (written by Emily):
As many of you know, I am not a fan of hills (understatement of the year). This race does not have hills, which made me very happy. It also meant that this would be a target race for me, as I had been working on my fitness for the last month and a half and was feeling good. I have a pretty good sprint, so I figured if I could stick with the lead group until the end of the race I would have a shot at success. As a result, Robin (coming into the race tired) was open to working for me. The strategy was for her to cover all attacks and I would sit in as long as possible. 

The women’s fields all had to complete 3 laps, so I figured the first lap would be chill and things would get increasingly harder as the race continued. That is what happened; most people were not trying to work too hard in the heat and nobody wanted to pull. It was very easy for me to sit in, and Robin stayed in the top few wheels to easily cover the few attacks. She also would swing next to me on crosswindy sections to protect me from extra effort.

Things started to get harder in the middle of lap 2. A few of the racers from Super Sprinkles (the largest team there, with 3 racers out of 11) started launching attacks on each roller. Although it was more challenging (~350W for 20-30 seconds for me), Robin did a great job continuing to cover attacks and I didn’t do much work to stay with the group. We lost a few through these attacks, but by the end of lap 2, the group was still together. Per our strategy, Robin took the front a few times on this lap (mainly on the tailwind sections 🙃). 

On lap 3, 17-year-old Shantelle took a bottle from her dad and then launched her first attack while still in the feed zone... Super Sprinkles didn’t love that, and then they launched their team strategy. They would send one rider (who often had at least one woman hanging on) out front; then, when those two got caught, they would counter-attack and send another rider to try and create a break. Both breaks were ultimately caught, but the strategy was effective in whittling the group down. Unfortunately that included Robin - she was on the front when Sprinkles attacked on the biggest “hill” and couldn’t react quickly enough. 

After this point, I was working more than I probably should have been to close gaps. I noticed that (yay for remembering the strategy!) and moved to the back of the remaining group. Nobody complained, although I could tell that the 1-2 women who got stuck on the front pulling weren’t thrilled with their position. 

Around 1km out from the finish, the pace picked up significantly, but I knew I needed to stay in the back until ~200m to execute a successful sprint. Around 250m out, I came around the side and put as much space in between me and the remaining group as I could. We had the whole road width available (vs just one lane) for the finishing straight. I’m not sure how long I sprinted for, but at one point I saw 590W and knew that I was not at risk of getting passed, so I knew that was a good effort.

(Robin’s addition: meanwhile, with ~20% of the race left, I got dropped with two others. One eventually DNPed, and the other (Erin) was a competitor Emily had marked as being a sprint threat. Not wanting to bring a sprinter any closer to Emily, I sat behind Erin for the final 30 minutes of the race. It felt lame to sit on and put out fewer watts than we had on lap 1, but this was the correct thing to do. I flew past her with 400m to go, which felt like a dick move, but after the race we chatted and the way it played out seemed mutually understood. This is bike racing??) 

This was my first win in my 5th road race ever! It felt amazing to execute a successful race strategy and I am very grateful that Robin was willing to be such a great teammate for me to help me make it happen. Looking forward to continuing to improve my sprint in races throughout the summer (and help my teammates get on the podium, too)!