Race Report: Snelling Road Race E4
Race: 2023 Snelling Road Race - Men’s Cat 4
Date: February 25, 2023
AVRT racers: Nat Green, Will Hakim, Fraser Bulbuc, Ian Twamley, Drew Matthews
Top Result: Nat (1/22), Fraser (2/22), Drew (6/22), Ian (10/22), Will (14/22)
Course: Three clockwise laps of a 23-mile course that was used for last year’s race, but differs from prior years. The course is mostly flat with a slight downhill in the first section (Cox Ferry), slight uphill on the next two stretches (Turlock and Looney/Monte Vista/Bledsoe) and rollers in the final 6-7 mile stretch (Keyes). Cox Ferry Road had very bad pavement and two unavoidable water sections where the road was flooded from recent rain. There was some bad pavement in other parts of the course that was mostly avoidable. The finish is on a short uphill after a couple of quick turns. Weather was about 40 degrees and did not change much during the race. Light rain was forecasted, but very little fell during the race. Wind was blowing slowly south to north, and was not a major factor.
Strava: Snelling E4 - win! | Ride | Strava
Nutrition: I brought two bottles of Skratch mix (purchased from our fine sponsor, Gelvio) and a bunch of gels. I lost a bottle immediately on one of the many bumpy sections on Cox Ferry (as did many other riders), so I had to ration the one remaining bottle a bit. I considered grabbing a bottle from the feed zone at the beginning of lap 3 (thanks Gina and Hoss), but was off the front and not thinking totally straight at that point and just powered through. It probably would have been a good idea to have eaten more and had more to drink, but I still felt okay by the end.
Recap: We had the biggest team with five riders. Other teams included Dolce Vita, Velo Kings, and SJBC with 2-3 riders each. There were a few strong individual riders, as well. Our plan was to cover attacks during the first lap (and counter attack), and then launch our own attacks during the second and third lap to either stick the breakaway or tire the field to give Fraser, our designated sprinter, an advantage at the finish. Will, Ian, and Drew were setting the pace at the front during the first lap. An individual rider attacked and quickly got a big gap, which increased to close to three minutes about three-quarters of the way through the lap, despite Will and Ian making big efforts at the front and trying to rally other riders to help with the chase (who showed no interest in doing so). Will dropped back to ask us to come up to help chase, and the AV squad went hard in a rotation for the next 20-30 minutes or so, and brought the gap down to around 20 seconds by the start of the second lap. A couple of individual riders eventually joined the chase, but the other teams did not help out.
The breakaway rider dangled in front at about that 20-second margin for another half of a lap until we caught him on Turlock road. There were a number of attacks on Turlock road after that from AV and other teams, with none sticking. Shortly before the right turn onto Looney, I launched an attack and was joined by a rider from Dolce Vita. We stayed away for about 15 minutes, but he didn’t seem committed to the break and only pulled through a couple of times halfheartedly. The group caught us before Keyes.
The group then slowed a bit. Since by then, I’d had time to recover from my prior attack, I decided to go again. No one followed my initial move and I was able to open a gap of about a minute by the end of Keyes road averaging a little over 4.5 w/kg (about 315 watts) for 20 minutes until the turn onto Cox Ferry to begin the third lap. I then tried to settle into a pace that I thought I could maintain for the next hour or so if I were able to stay away through the finish, and just focused on keeping up the pace and making it to the next turn ahead of the group. Every time I looked back, I saw that the group was still at about the same distance as the last time I looked back, so I just told myself to keep the power up to the next section and to see what happens, confident that my teammates would be disrupting the chase and that the other teams might be having a difficult time organizing themselves to bring me back, which turned out to be the case: Ian and Will reported that only three riders were making a concerted effort to chase, and they were not organizing well, and Will and Ian marked two other strong riders who potentially could have bridged.
Even with about five miles to go, I thought I had a good chance of being caught if the other teams in the group finally got organized or a strong rider attempt to bridge, and it was only with the finish line a couple miles away and the group still 45-60 seconds behind me that I realized I was going to make it, and I rolled over the line, relieved. I had been able to average about 4.1 w/kg for over two hours, which was the longest sustained effort I think I‘ve done – having the pack within sight the whole time really helped with motivation, as well as wanting to get the team the win (although I figured Fraser had an excellent chance of winning the sprint even if I had been caught).
In the pack, Will got back on the front with about 1.5km and started driving the pace, with Ian and Drew behind him followed by Fraser, as they went through the final two turns before the finish. Drew took a wide line on the final turn so that Fraser could launch inside out of the final corner and he outsprinted two Velo Kings riders to take the field sprint.
I have reached the podium a few times at road races and have a couple of time trial wins, but this was my first road race win, and my first win with AV. It was awesome celebrating with the team at the finish line and I was very grateful to be able to work together with everyone to achieve this result. It was also cool to see Fraser win the field sprint with a lead-out from the team so we could go 1-2 on the podium, and overall it was just a memorable day and team effort.
In terms of lessons learned, it was a reminder to me that attacking solo is a solid tactic even in a flat road race, where a reasonably organized group should be able to bring a rider back with relative ease, since even managing minimal coordination between multiple teams is not a sure thing and can devolve into gamesmanship, arguing, etc. And when the team has a very strong sprinter, as we did, even if the breakaway attempt is brought back, you’ve likely tired out other sprinters (or at least their teams), while your own sprinter has been able to rest. As a corollary, it was also a reminder to me that if you don’t have many other teammates with you, you run a real risk by allowing even a small break to go. It’s quite possible, for example, that the solo rider that was off the front for much of the first and second laps would have been able to stay away if we didn’t have a reasonably big team that was quickly able to get organized to reel him in - maybe the other teams would have pitched in if they didn’t have us there, but maybe not. Obviously, the optimal strategy and tactics depend on the dynamics of the particular race, the strength of individual riders and teams, and many other factors, but I recommend giving the break a shot if you’re on the fence - at the very least it’s a good workout.