Race Report: Regalado Road Race - Womens Masters Districts Championships
Written by Lora Maes
Race Report: Regalado Road Race (Masters District Champs)
Date: Sunday, 6/4/23
Teammates: Lora Maes 50-55 1st, 4th overall masters, Robin Kutner and Emily Schell in the Cat 4 / 5 race (started separately)
Course: 54 mile race that is 3 laps of a 17 mile loop in Oakdale on central valley roads through farmland. There is a rolling 4 mile promenade to the start. It is mostly flat with some rollers on part of the course that are a bit punchy, it is deceivingly not a totally flat course. There is also a rough section that has gravel and potholes to navigate through. In prior years, the race was counter clockwise, this year they changed the direction to clockwise. Now the rollers were not before the finish, it is a fairly flat finish after the last turn for 2 miles with a very slight upgrade with the change in direction.
Conditions: Head wind 13 mph on the backside of the course with a tailwind coming into the finish. Temps in the upper 70’s at the start, increasing into the 80’s by finish.
Race Plan: The plan was going to be different depending on whether we could get the agreement to have the Cat 4 /5 field start with the masters. Knowing who was entered in the masters field, I was doubtful we would get any agreement which turned out to be the case. So it was me racing solo. We started with a total of 13 in the masters categories racing together but picked separately. I only had one other in my age category, she was not a factor so my plan was to just race the field and do as little work as possible. There was no real team representation other than SJBC. I thought SJBC may try to control the race but they did not execute any team tactics.
From the start Gwen (Revolution) and Shannon (Cycle Sport) were on the front pushing the pace. I stayed 3rd or 4th wheel for the first lap just sitting in and letting others do the work finding some good wheels to follow. The first time through the rough section with potholes and gravel required some navigation for good lines, I got on Yvonne’s (PV) wheel since I knew she is an experienced gravel rider (wow, I have to do that two more times). I thought this was a good place to attack and made note to watch others through this section on the next two laps (unfortunately I was not in the position on future laps to attack and get away here). Once we got through and made the right turn on the back stretch we hit the headwind. Pace was still fairly fast. I was glad that Gwen and Shannon were pushing the pace off the front to hopefully drop some others and thin out the field. We were now down to a field of 6 for laps 2 and 3. I am not sure at which point we dropped the rest of the field but I think it was on the rollers on the back stretch.
Lap 2, the pace continued to fast averaging around 20 mph. It would slow as whoever was stuck on the front would want to come off. When I did find myself on the front, Shannon would throw in an attack, she did this three times but I was glad to be rotated off the front. Some other half hearted attacks went but nothing sticking to break up the pack of 6, I tried to let others bring them back and not do too much work. Lap 3 was about the same, on the rollers on the back side of the loop Karen (Chico Racing) made a strong move up one of the bumps and I immediately got on her wheel thinking we could get a two woman break but she let off the gas. Coming up to 1K to go, men start passing us gunning for the finish. There was a lull in the pace and I decided to go early hoping Shannon was tired from all the attacking and I could drop everyone. It was chaotic with the men sprinting through us and trying to find a line to the finish. Unfortunately my strategy did not work, I ran out of steam and got caught with about 150 meters to go. Shannon ended up winning (she was clearly not tired), and I placed 4th overall for the masters and secured the win for 50-55.
Nutrition: Gel at the start, two bottles of Fluid Hydration Mix mixed with Maltodextrin (this is my new go to!), one gel during.