Santa Cruz Crit-W4 and Masters

Race: Santa Cruz Classic Criterium Women’s 4/5 and Masters

Date: March 24, 2024

AVRT racers: Chris Davis

Top Result: Chris 1st in Masters

Course: 40 minutes around a 0.78mi crit course.  Triangle course: first corner is a hairpin turn downhill, followed by a decent into the second corner, and a gradual 4-5% climb into a 2% climb to the finish.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11029941949

Race Recap (written by Chris):

This is one of my favorite crits despite it is invariably is raining during my race. This year was no exception, as the biggest downpour of the day was during the Women’s Novice and Master race. The silver lining in this is that everyone takes it very slow around the 180 turn and so we had no slide outs during our race. Prior to the start of the race, Janine Bubner, who raced for AVRT last year connected with me. It was nice to see her again and I hoped to help her out.

As we started out, the rain was just beginning so that was good. I positioned to the front to take the 180 turn. We went a couple of times around and then my chain jumped when I stood to ride up Beach St. I came off the pack at this point and had to hustle the next two laps to reattach. As I was doing so, I tried to grab Janine, who had also come detached from the pack.

Once I got back to the pack, I kept watch on the riders I thought would take off in the final two laps. Given I stayed toward the back of the pack, I missed the opportunity to take off with the four riders that did make a run in the last two laps. I came in first in my category and 6th overall. The highlight was that Niky and Cam were cheering as they were marshaling the 180 turn. After the race, I took to that marshaling spot the rest of the day. It was particularly eventful in that a fire truck had to be let onto the course during the Men’s P12 race!

Photo Credit: Greg Beliera