Race Report: 2023 Pescadero Coastal Classic - Women’s Long Course (P123 + Masters)

Race: 2023 Pescadero Coastal Classic - Women’s Long Course (P123 + masters)

Posted by: Louise Thomas

Date: July 23, 2023

AVRT racers: Lora Maes, Louise Thomas

Top Results: P/1/2/3: Louise 6/10 (6/12 combined) 50+: Lora 1/2

Course: 2.7 laps of the Pescadero loop starting at the high school, out to Hwy 1, up to San Gregorio, back along Hwy 84, then Pescadero Creek road to the top of Haskins where the finish line was. (total 74 miles, 5200 ft elevation)

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9503382410 

Nutrition: Some yogurt and granola for breakfast before the race, a couple of bottles of malto and a couple of packets of Juicy Burst gummies during the race

Recap: On arrival, it was great to see so many friendly AV faces (thanks to everyone that volunteered!!!), and helped a little to alleviate my nerves. This was my first race since upgrading to Cat 3 and the P123 field was stacked so I was feeling out of my depth. I think I need to work on my game face though; when I bumped into Steph on her way to course marshal she commented on how terrified I looked. 

The field was dominated by Terún and Monarch, with 3 and 4 riders respectively in a 10-person field (12 in the combined field). The race started with a rollout from the high school to Highway 1 and then we headed north toward San Gregorio. There are a couple of short hills along that stretch, but nothing big enough to create separation in the field. Monarch attacked on the corner from Hwy 1 to 84, but they were quickly brought back in.

The stretch along 84 was pretty chill - there were no good places to attack so everyone took it easy and stayed together with Alex doing most of the work on the front. We then took a right turn onto Pescadero Creek Rd, past the feed zone, and started our first ascent up Haskins. The pace started brisk but manageable, but about halfway up the inevitable happened and Terún and Monarch attacked. My position wasn’t great, but I saw a gap in-between the two riders in front of me so tried to squeeze through to chase. The gap wasn’t quite wide enough though, so I ended up bumping Ilan as I went past her and got yelled at to watch where I was going. No hard feelings though - I should have been more careful with my positioning and she apologized later in the race when it had calmed down a bit. 

By the top of the climb, the group had splintered. Jamie Chapman (Monarch) and Jen Tave (Terún) had formed a breakaway, I was in the chase group with most of the riders, and Lora and a couple of others had dropped off the back. After a fun, twisty descent, Leslie was leading the charge and continued on the front almost the entire way to Pescadero. At that point, she pulled off and said that I needed to take a pull since Monarch and Terún weren’t going to do any work to bring their own riders back. Chloe helpfully confirmed this. 

I knew theoretically it was my responsibility to chase, but I also knew that I didn’t have the speed or endurance to catch up to Jamie and Jen. In previous races I hadn’t even been able to hold Jamie’s wheel, so didn’t want to waste all my energy on a lost cause. Luckily Hannah, the only other non-Terún/Monarch rider in the group, took over pulling at that point, sparing me from seeming uncooperative. As we turned the corner onto Hwy 1 I took my turn on the front for appearance's sake; the breakaway was nowhere in sight so I assumed they were long gone.

After turning onto 84, I noticed that my front brake was rubbing. I think that hitting a crack on the bridge before the turn had knocked something out of alignment but, being the optimist that I am, decided it probably wasn’t dangerous so just opened my rim brake calipers a bit wider to avoid the rubbing and continued on. Try doing that with disk brakes.

A bit further up the road, Will yelled out that the gap was 4 mins something. Given that, any semblance of chasing fell apart and we settled back into a more relaxed pace. By the time we got to the feed zone, the gap had increased to 6 mins something. This time on Haskins Chloe shot off the front by herself but stayed more-or-less within eyesight. One of the men’s fields was also climbing at the same time as us and we ended up trading places for a bit. It made the descent a bit tricky because of all the extra riders, but I feel like that played to my advantage since I know the roads fairly well. At the end of the twisty section me, Ilan and Alex had a gap on the others and started pacelining to catch up to Chloe. Once we caught her, the four of us then started working together to maintain our gap. Given that we were all working together I thought we had dropped the others for sure, but they caught up to us in Pescadero. I was pretty impressed with that actually.

The pace then relaxed again, which lasted all the way until the feed zone when Monarch decided to attack. I was thinking everyone would go hard on Haskins so the early attack caught me off guard and a gap formed in front of me. I was almost ready to give up at that point, but then Alex pulled off to the side and I noticed the gap to the others wasn’t getting any bigger, so decided to try and chase them down on the climb. Helen, who had initiated the attack in the feed zone, then dropped off from the group leaving just three in front of me (if you don’t count Jamie and Jen way off the front). I was slowly making ground on them but didn’t quite manage to catch them before the finish line at the top of the hill and ended up coming in 6th.

Overall I’m pretty happy with how it went. To be honest I didn’t have very high expectations considering how strong the other ladies were, but proved to myself that I can hang in with them and still be competitive. It was also interesting comparing a P123 race to what I’m used to in Cat 4; I feel like the lower division races are more just a test of who has the best fitness to push hard for the entire race, whereas in this race people were a lot more deliberate about when and where to use their energy.

Thanks for reading!   

Photo credit: Dirk Bergstrom

Race Report: 2023 Pescadero Coastal Classic - Men’s 35+ 1/2/3

Race: 2023 Pescadero Coastal Classic – Men’s 35+ 1/2/3

Date: July 22, 2023

AVRT racers: Nat Green

Top Results: Nat (11/23)

Course: 2.7 laps of a 27.7-mile loop, totaling about 75 miles, starting with a roll-out onto Highway 1, which featured between 2-4 short climbs, depending on how you counted, then a slightly uphill/rolling stretch east on Highway 84, before turning right onto Pescadero Creek road for the feed zone and a short climb/false flat before the famous Haskins climb, a 1.6 mile climb that takes approximately 6.5 to 8 minutes, followed by a steep descent and then a longer, flatter run-in back to Highway 1.  Pavement was good throughout, except for a gap before a bridge right before the turn onto 84, where people lost bottles, and a few potholes on 84 that were avoidable with some pre-race recon.  Conditions were cool to start, but quickly warmed up and were hot by laps 2-3.  Wind was not too significant, but felt like a cross-headwind on Highway 1 and a tailwind on 84.   

Strava: Pescadero masters 1/2/3 -11th | Ride | Strava

Nutrition:  I brought two bottles of Skratch mix and a bunch of gels, picked up a bottle of water before the second time up Haskins and a bottle of mix before the final time up Haskins.  Thanks very much to the folks doing the AV team feed. 

Recap:  I was dreading this one a bit watching the pre-registration fill up with strong rider after strong rider, including big teams from ThirstyBear (Ariel Hermann, Brian Schuster, Ben Erickson, Rob Whittier, and others) and Work Health Solutions (riding for Adam White, who has been winning most Masters 1/2/3 road races this year), as well as a number of very strong individual riders, including Jeromy Cottell, Max Noda, David Fidler, and Todd Markelz, who is one of the strongest climbers in the area and won the 30s/40s event last year (and other years).  I was riding by myself, and after getting advice from some AV teammates, decided that my best chance was to try to sit in as much as possible to save my matches for what was expected to be a very fast pace up Haskins each lap, and hope that the big teams would chase back threatening moves up the road.  I also thought that even if guys from both ThirstyBear and WHS ended up in the same break, there would still be enough firepower among the individual riders to chase that down.  I also knew that I needed to be near the front over the Haskins climb each time to make sure I could hang on the descent, since I predicated (correctly) that I would be a below average descender in this group, compounded by the fact that I was on my back-up bike with skinnier tires, having decided to tinker with the brakes on my main bike before the race and somehow lost all braking power in the process.  

Basically from the gun, there were a lot of attacks, but most were brought back either right away or within a few minutes, and I was able to sit in about two-thirds of the way (or farther) back in the pack until the first Haskins.  There was a split in the group, and I was maybe 6-8th over the top and stayed with the front group decently on the descent, although I felt like I was sliding in some corners (probably just in my head).  No one pushed the pace, though, once the road flattened out, and the group behind us caught up quickly.  There were more attacks on lap 2, with Max Noda and a ThirstyBear rider getting away.  I again sat in, knowing that others would chase it back.  The second time up Haskins was fast again, and I was more like 10th over the top.  The group descended faster this time (probably some folks who hadn’t ridden the course before were tentative the first time down, so it was slower than the second time), and I was gapped by 10 seconds or so by the time it flattened out.  I saw three riders behind me quickly catching up, so instead of chasing immediately, I waited for them so we could work together to catch the front group.  Other than Haskins, this was the hardest effort of the day, as it took us about twenty minutes of rotating to catch the group of ten or so in front of us, which we did right before the turn onto Highway 1.  Conveniently, they were just catching Max and the ThirstyBear rider right there, so we were a group of about 16 at that point, having dropped 7 guys on Haskins. 

This group mostly stayed together until the end.  There were a number of attacks by ThirstyBear riders in the last few miles of 84, intended to tire out Todd and Adam (this worked in the case of Todd, but not Adam, who won again). The group strung out a bit once we turned onto Pescadero for the short climb and false flat before Haskins, but mostly it was just a hill climb time trial at that point to see who had the most strength left for the third Haskins.  A number of guys surged ahead, and I found that I couldn’t match the acceleration this third time up Haskins, so I tried to settle in at a steady wattage, hoping I could pick a few people off before the finish line.  I passed a few and rolled in 11th.

I was pretty happy with this result, given the strength of the field.  I was pleased and slightly surprised that I was in the top 5-10 the first two times up Haskins, and I think I could have potentially had a better time the third time up if I hadn’t gotten gapped on the descent on lap 2 and been forced to chase for 20 minutes at a pretty high wattage.  So descending remains something I need to continue to work on.  In general I thought the strategy of sitting in and relying on other to chase back attacks was the right one for me in this race, especially as a solo rider.  I think if I had tried to get in a move, the chances were low that it would have succeeded and I would have wasted a lot of energy that I needed to keep up with the stronger climbers.

Nat

Race Report: 2023 Pescadero Coastal Classic – Men’s Elite 3

Race: 2023 Pescadero Coastal Classic – Men’s Elite 3

Date: July 22, 2023

AVRT racers: Andrew Ernst, Jeremy Besmer, Florian Costa, Matt Carvell, George Wehner

Top Result: Andrew 2/29, Jeremy 3/29, Flo 4/29, Matt 6/29

Course: 2.5 laps of a 27.7-mile loop totaling 70 miles. Each loop consisting of: Hwy 1 northbound with rolling hills and headwind, Hwy 84 eastbound with minimal elevation, the feedzone at the base of a 1-2 minute climb on Pescadero Creek Rd, a 1.6 mile climb up Haskins Hill, a fast and technical descent, and then a gradual downhill headwind section back to Hwy 1 on Pescadero Rd. The race started with a neutral roll-out from Pescadero to Hwy 1 and finished at the top of Haskins Hill. Detailed course notes by Jeremy and Jack: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13AtfoN_Ijgvx-VCrxTdlcNmgvCjABgnJe4CYF1xst6Q/edit

Strava:  https://www.strava.com/activities/9502283779

Nutrition: Started with two bottles (one with water and one with 50g table sugar and an electrolyte tab), picked up two bottles from the feed zone (one water and one with maltodextrin). Also consumed 5 gels. Total calorie intake was ~900kcal and 90oz for the 3 hour race.

Recap (by Andrew):

The week of the race, we all discussed our personal and team goals. Based on that discussion, we put together a race plan where Flo and George would cover early moves or represent the team in early breaks, Matt or Andrew would look for mid-race breakaways, and ultimately we would keep Jeremy as fresh as possible should the race be decided by the final climb.

Things started out conserved along Hwy 1 before attacks started on Hwy 84. EJ (Velo Kings) was motivated to initiate a breakaway. George and Andrew jumped on for a draft to the base of the climb. As expected the breakaway shattered when we hit the climb, and the climbers in the main field were chasing hard. At the top of Haskins Hill, it was Jeremy, Andrew, and a strong climber from Cycle Sport named Antonio. Jeremy lost contact on the descent and joined up with a motivated chase group of ~8 guys. At the end of the first lap, we had a group of about 10. After a fast climb and descent, we figured the main group was long gone, so nobody really worked to keep the pace up. We were a bit surprised when the main group caught back on just as we turned onto Hwy 1.

Attacks started again and continued throughout Hwy 1 and Hwy 84. Flo, Matt, and Andrew covered the dangerous attacks. Two riders were just up the road at the base of the climb and were quickly caught during the ascent up Haskins Hill. Antonio drove the pace leaving a group of six remaining at the top. Knowing that this breakaway could stick, we descended a bit more cautiously to keep the group together. The group was made up of Jeremy, Flo, and Andrew, a solo rider from Origin Factory Racing (Morris), and two strong climbers (Antonio from Cyclesport and Leo from Primal Audi Denver). We kept the pace fast and smooth all the way back to Hwy 1. We could see that Leo and Morris were struggling to keep up on Hwy 1, so Jeremy put in a good dig that dropped Leo. One less climber to worry about at the finish! Hwy 84 was quick thanks to a building tailwind. We discussed and considered a string of attacks to get an AV rider up the road for a solo finish. Instead, we settled on a few small attacks by Flo and Andrew to soften up Antonio while keeping Jeremy fresh for the final ascent.

Antonio again established a quick pace up Haskins. Flo stayed with for a few minutes to provide maximum support before dropping back. Andrew’s goal was to stay on Antonio’s wheel as long as possible and provide a draft benefit for Jeremey while minimizing the effect of Antonio’s surges. Unfortunately, Jeremy cramped when he stood up to attack, and Antonio continued on with Andrew on his wheel. Andrew held onto the wheel until about 100m from the finish, came around Antonio on the inside, but didn’t quite have enough to keep the lead for the win.

Looking back, I think our team did a great job establishing and executing our race plan. In retrospect, I think we could have come away with a win if we had attacked on 84, but I don’t regret leaving the race to be decided by the final climb as we had planned. At the end of the race, I think I could have waited just a little longer to sprint, and I should have come up on the right rather than the left. Had I been more conservative throughout the race, I know I would have had more left in the tank at the finish line. Clearly sprinting isn’t my forte and I need to practice it more. We got four guys in the top five which is fantastic. Well done guys!

Race Report: Sand City Crit - Men’s P123

Race Report: 2023 Sand City Men’s P123

Date: 7/23

AVRT racers: George Wehner, Greg McCullough, Jon Wells, Jack Liu

Top Result: Jack 11/31, Jon 12/31, Greg 16/31

Written by: Jack Liu

Course: https://www.strava.com/segments/30725550

The course is very interesting with lots of features, including 10 corners, a small hill (~7 sec), technical descent, and a S-turn chicane before the finish. The wind also played a big factor, as it was headwind into the hill, cross-wind most of the time, and tail-cross on the finish. you are either coasting into corners or sprinting out of corners, and the only good place to move up is the long start/finish straight. 

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfpCZ9qOtaA

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9510150371/overview

Nutrition: one bottle of water with SIS

Race Recap: 

Sand city, now in its 2nd year, has an interesting race format for the men’s P12: everyone starts with a 30-min qualifier race, and the top 50% (15 places) of the 2 qualifiers get into the final 60-min race, while the bottom 50% get into the 50-min petite final. 

In my qualifier, everyone was pretty conservative, but Team Mike’s Bike (TMB) still hammered at the front and eventually took 1st and 2nd (Tim, Ryan) soloing out the front. Jon, Greg and I made it to the final, and our plan was to cover early breaks and help each other move up in the final laps.

The race was relatively chill most of the time, perhaps due to the fatigue from Pescadero RR the day prior. TMB didn’t seem to want a break to form and covered most of the attacks. I noticed their sprinter, Ryan, was sitting mid-pack most of the time while his teammates controlled the race at the front, so I decided to sit-back and let them do all the work. I tried to follow Ryan closely, and was impressed by how smoothly he maneuvered around the field -- a true demonstration of skill and power. 

As it came down to the final laps, 4 teams occupied and fought for positions at the front -- TMB, Terun, Project 74, and Voler Factory. Each team had 2-4 people, and it was really hard to get into their rotation as a single rider (Jon and Greg were slightly further back and couldn’t help) as you just got bullied out of their way. In the end, I finished 11th behind all the big teams, with Jon right behind me. 

Overall, I think I did my best to conserve energy and fight for position. Knowing that TMB will chase down every single breakaway attempt but you also stand no chance against their sprint is frustrating, but I guess that’s just life racing in NorCal. Perhaps it’s time to befriend other local teams to bring down the dominance of TMB.

Race Report: Pescadero Coastal Classic- Women's 4/5 Short Course

Race: Pescadero Coastal Classic- Women's 4/5 Short course

Posted by: Kristin Hepworth

Date: Saturday July 22, 2023

AVRT racers:  Kristin Hepworth, Robin Kutner, Elizabeth Ordeman

Top Result: Kristin 5/19, Robin 9/19, Elizabeth 13/19

Course: 28-mile loop through coastal dunes and redwood groves consisting of Highway 1., Hwy. 84 and Pescadero Rd. 1500’ of climbing per lap. Race starts with neutral zone from High School to HIGHWAY 1. Neutral Feed Zone located after right turn onto Pescadero Rd from Hwy 84. Finish is at the top of Haskins Hill on Pescadero Creek Road.

Kristin’s Strava

Nutrition: I ate 3 “super muffins” (homemade wheat bran) for breakfast at 6:30 and a few Skratch chews at the starting line. During the race I had a bottle with Hammer Perpetuem (malto) and a bottle of water with a Nuun (electrolyte) tablet. I ate 5-6 Skratch chews during the race and had more in my pockets, but didn’t need them.

Recap: The 3 of us are all pretty new to racing, so our plan was a little loose. We decided I would be the protected rider since I am the most familiar with these roads and I’m a strong descender. The idea was for me to try to get away on the first Haskins climb, potentially descend with a breakaway group, and get away from the peloton. 

We raced with the P123 women (which really meant 4 Cat 3s) and the first lap was pretty uneventful. Robin helped block the wind on Hwy 1. Super Sprinkles riders made a few attacks on 84. (Of the 19 Cat 4 riders in the race 10 of them were from the Super Sprinkles team!). Elizabeth did a great job chasing down the attacks, bringing them back, and pulling.  The group was mostly together into the first Haskins climb. I was feeling really strong and led the pace all the way up Haskins in hopes for an attack at the top. I attacked when everyone felt like they reached the top so I got away just before the descent. I’ve ridden Haskins a fair amount and knew to keep pushing. I entered the descent alone and hammered it. (The night before I memorized Jack’s descend map for Haskins and knew which corners I needed to break on and which ones I could just “send it.”) I rode solo for about 3 miles.

Photo credit: Dirk Bergstrom

I was expecting to have a few more women join me and realized there was no way I could make it alone for the entire next lap. I slowed down my pace until we had four other riders. We hit it hard for a while, but not everyone was willing to work, so we slowed down.

 From the chase group (Robin): behind Kristin’s attack was one cluster of women chasing down the hill. I got stuck behind a few slower descenders - which is surprising for me as a low-confidence descender and certainly a lesson learned - and did not feel safe zipping around them on the hairpins, so I was in the next cluster. Knowing there were ~8 strong riders ahead including Kristin, it was worth a chase effort. That was a new and fun experience for me - rallying the racers around me to get in line and trade pulls. As soon we caught back on, I made my presence known to Kristin so she would sit in.

(Kristin again) The chase group joined us at the same time another mens group came by. I was happy to see Robin and Elizabeth. We stayed together on Hwy 1 again, I took some turns leading (probably shouldn't have), stayed together on 84 and I sat behind Robin’s wheel. There were some more attack attempts but I sat in and waited. 

Then came a break away opportunity with a few women that I thought were fully committed. We created about a 20 second gap up the first kicker and then the group sort of fell apart as some Super Sprinkles riders decided to stop pushing and come back. This was unfortunate because I was committed to sticking and this breakaway took a little out of me for a bit.

Towards the end of the 84 segment I started to get pretty nervous about someone else attacking as we got closer to the right turn onto Pescadero Rd. I found myself in front leading the group just before the right turn and in retrospect I really wish I was further back saving my energy. As I feared, another rider attacked there and I took off after her. That was a (super embarrassing) rookie mistake because she was a cat 3 rider and I didn’t know at the time that she wasn’t in my race! I chased her all the way to Haskins. My heart rate and breathing were too high entering into the final climb. I made it about halfway up Haskins chasing her before I felt like I might pass out. Practically hallucinating at this point, I looked behind me to see where the group was and saw a group that I mistakenly thought were men coming closer. I decided to take my foot off the gas and catch my breath and get my heart rate under control. Not a good idea. Four women passed me and I couldn’t keep up, so I crossed the line in 5th. 

This race was so fun! I learned a lot of valuable lessons. Next time I would try to take a more proactive approach when I get in a good breakaway and encourage everyone to work to keep it going.  I’m already looking forward to trying again next year! 

Downieville Classic 2023

Race: Downieville Classic 2023

Date: July 15th - July 16th

AVRT racers: Kelly Brennan, Alex Rusoff, and Riley Chapman

Top Result: Kelly Brennan (4th XC, 3rd DH, 3rd Overall). Alex Rusoff (2nd XC, 6th/96 Overall). Riley Chapman (middle/end of the stacked Pro Mens category in all events).

Course:

Day 1 - XC course (26.5 miles. 4000ft of climbing): Biking up an 8 mile gravel road in 100 degrees. Single-track to Baby Heads (not as bad as it sounds). Through a river. More single track to meet Butcher trail. Then, the course does Third divide and First divide.

Day 2 - DH Course (14 miles. 500ft of climbing. 5000ft of descending): Slightly different descent from the XC day. Single track to a brief chunky gravel road. Through the famous waterfall. Across the bridge and up “cramp hill” to Third and First Divide. A good time is under an hour.

NOTE: The upper section of the courses are windy, flowy, semi-technical and fun. The lower section (mainly First Divide) is flat, technical, and has some exposed sections. In this lower section, it is especially important to stay vigilant on the trail and stay within your comfort zone (i.e. no shame in walking!). There is nothing crazy hard on the course, but the consequences of falling in some areas can be very high…

There is no cell reception anywhere on the course. After having our own close call and seeing an emergency response during this event, I would highly recommend carrying a satellite communication device…

Bike Setups: The bike setup is really important for this event because you have to race the same bike with the exact same components both days. Our bikes were approximately 26.5lbs.

Kelly and Riley: Specialized Epic Evos

Alex: Santa Cruz Blur TR

Strava: XC: https://www.strava.com/activities/9458003312; DH Time Trial: https://www.strava.com/activities/9465173263

The Downieville Classic is a bike party in a small town! Coming into this race, we were all a hot mess. Alex broke his rear wheel while pre-riding the course. Riley’s rear shock was constantly losing pressure. I held a ton of anxiety about the exposure on the course because a friend had a scary fall off a retaining wall on First Divide during our pre-ride 3 weeks earlier (she is okay! We walked out. But we were very lucky).

Riley and Alex quickly got their bikes back in shape, and I decided to approach this weekend as an “event” rather than a race. My goals were to: (1) stay safe and (2) have fun. I was debating whether to race clipless or in my flat pedals. Ultimately, I decided to race in my flats. Flats are my comfort food.

XC Day: I immediately felt out of shape while climbing. I figured this was the altitude (7000ft). About half-way up, the 100 degree heat and sun felt intense. At the top, there was a party! A DJ was playing and volunteers were ready to cool us down by pouring water on our backs! I was probably 2nd in my age group at the top.

The initial descent was more technical than I was expecting due to the blind-ish rock rolls. I messed up one of them and got in my head. I started trying to go slower and I lost one position here.

Continuing the descent, “Baby Heads” was much more reasonable than I expected. I felt fast and controlled throughout the chunky, loose descent. The remaining descent to the bridge was technical. I remember thinking “this is hard”.

At the bridge, I felt myself getting hungry. I passed everyone in sight on the 5-6 minute climb to briefly stop at the top to inhale a gel (it’s hard to eat on single-track!). I wanted to maintain my nutrition for the next two sections because I was really anxious about Third and First Divide. I hadn’t ridden Third Divide before and First Divide has some significant exposure. I took these two sections really slow - I lost a position here - to (1) stay safe and (2) have fun. It was helpful to realize that Third Divide was fine and I actually felt pretty comfortable on First Divide. I decided to commit myself to doing these trails at full-speed the next day.

DH Time Trial Day: The organizers were starting people 30 seconds apart at a predetermined time.

Riley went first! Unfortunately, he flatted on Butcher before the waterfall. He lost about 5 minutes plugging, applying CO2, and later using a pump. He decided that he will run tire inserts the next time he does this event. He finished in 57 minutes.

Alex was next! He had a clean run and clocked in at 54 minutes. Unfortunately, the podium guys did their runs around 52 minutes, so this bumped him to 6th place overall. Shaving off a couple of minutes may be possible with a little more aggressive passing and some more pre-riding.

For the DH Time Trial, I was the first woman in my category so if any woman passed me, I would know that they were going faster than me.

On the upper section of the course, I made a couple of mistakes in taking poor lines that cost a little bit of time. With some more pre-riding, I believe I can do this section a lot faster. I passed my first rider on the waterfall by using my cyclocross skills to run my bike. I passed a couple more riders on the descent to the bridge. On the climb to Third Divide, I sprinted up the hill, knowing this would be a place that I could make up time.

About 2/3rds down Third Divide, an emergency response crew was stopping riders. They had a guy on a backboard with a very serious injury (broken femur and pelvis) and were trying to walk him out to the road. I was effectively stopped for about 2 minutes. While waiting, two women pulled-up behind me - ack! My competition was right there! Before the “wall”, the crew stepped off the trail and asked us all to pass quickly and quietly.

After Third Divide, I used the stretch of gravel road to First Divide to try to put a gap on the two women. I started First Divide strong, but eventually the woman on the pink bike caught up to me. She was very technically sound and a great rider. I let her pass when I got off my bike to walk the first exposed section. I walked a few more exposed sections, but threw down power everywhere else. Ultimately, I’m stoked that my time on First Divide was good. While I’m still not a fan of exposure, I’m proud of myself for facing that fear head-on this weekend and doing the trail safe and fast.

In all, my time was 1:05:38. Without the stoppage time, my time would have theoretically been 1:03:48, but this wouldn’t have changed my podium placing. Next time, my goals are (1) do this race clipless, (2) continue working on my climbing tech + exposure and (3) go under an hour some day.

Overall, the Downieville Classic is a bike party! It is a famous and loved event because of the fun trails and all the support, music, entertainment that goes into it. It holds up to the hype and is a 10/10 weekend!

Our key learnings are:

• Book a campsite when the dates are announced (It’s easy to move campsite dates or to cancel. If you wait until you actually register, they’ll be sold out).

• Use tire inserts if you descend hard.

• Take Friday off and come up on Thursday night (more shuttling, pre-riding and hangout opportunities = less stressful Saturday morning).

Race Report: 2023 Tour of America’s Dairyland - Women’s Cat 2/3

Race: Tour of America's Dairyland

Dates: June 19-24, 2023

AVRT Racers: Gina Yuan

Tour of America's Dairyland (ToAD) is an 11-day crit series in and around Milwaukee, WI. Each race showcases a different community, with local businesses setting up tents, restaurants offering tables with front-row seats to the action, and residents hosting block parties. There are many cash prizes and primes, as well as omnium prizes based on intermediate sprints and overall standings. I raced P/1/2 the first day, and then 5 out of the 6 races of the combined Cat 2/3 and 15-16/17-18 juniors omnium on the remaining days, for 6 days in a row total. I had so much fun racing these large fields and drinking all the free Kwik Trip chocolate milk.

Day 1 (June 19): De Pere P/1/2 (Strava), 10th/22

Course: Squiggly uphill on a parking lot ramp with a fast downhill corner into the start/finish.

I still get scared racing national-level P/1/2 races, so my goal for this race was to feel like I belong and assert myself in a position to sprint at the end. I actually managed to do so, inserting myself ~6th wheel on the backside of the course and keeping that position through some technical turns into the start/finish straight. However, the other women had been ripping that downhill corner all race in a beautiful and humbling way, and I didn't dare to follow in the final lap. I lost the wheel and a few people sprinted past me at the end, but considering I'm often tail-gunning, I was very happy to have accomplished my primary goal.

Day 2 (June 20): West Allis 2/3/juniors (Strava), 7th/44

Course: Flat L-shaped course with several 90-degree turns.

The morning of the race, I stopped by The Bread Pedalers, a bakery created by Sky & Sam Schneider (L39ION pros and West Allis Natives) to buy a cookie and take a picture with Sky. I'm going to channel my inner master's racer and say that the race felt sketchy with the larger field and all the juniors. But we raced the same people every day and it got better. After Kelly's epic race control at the Collegiate Nationals Crit where I really should have been parked 2nd wheel behind her, this time I wanted to be much closer to the front going into the final corner. I was looking for leadouts to follow in the final lap, and there were two teams of two ranked higher than me in Race Predictor doing just that. I haven't often participated in leadouts, but this one was fast and I can see why they work. Alas, I was unable to follow their wheel through the final corner and took a bad line, and lost a few positions at the end. However, I felt great moving around the field during the race, especially in the final lap when I almost caught my wheel in a crack and dropped back, but easily made up a lot of positions.

Day 3 (June 21): Mount Pleasant 2/3/juniors (Strava), 2nd/44

Course: Longer course around a park with some sweeping turns and hills on the backside.

I'm not a true sprinter and this course felt good for breakaways, especially in retrospect. The start of the race saw a break with two girls, from United and Twenty24, both strong riders with several teammates. I thought about trying to bridge but it was early in the race and the field was quite fast, which meant they were motivated to chase. A $100 prime came up, which really motivated the field. The announcers can be mean to the break like that. We swallowed the break and now three other riders were off the front going for the prime. The race had been fast and I was still tired, which meant everyone else was too, so I attacked.

I become that person in the breakaway, "We got a gap!" "30-second pulls!" "Nice pull!" It reminded me of my Cat 4 breakaway days. One of the riders was a junior, and the other two were District Taco teammates and sprinter-like. They all seemed quite tired. The announcer announced the sprint omnium lap for the break. Instead of resigning myself to not be a sprinter, I went for it and got it! We regrouped and the break got a $50 prime. Did the announcer have a change of heart? My break mates started reasoning about how we should all keep the paceline going and split the prime at the end. I bargained to keep the paceline going but only if I could be at the front and keep the prime. They actually agreed.

Thinking about the end-game, the District Taco girls had been sweeping up the primes in other races so they definitely seemed like sprinters, and one of them seemed to have recovered well since establishing the break. The junior seemed shy? I took a bet on a flyer on the final hill, but it was still pretty far from the finish. A District Taco girl caught me in the final 100m but I dropped the other two! This was wild. I not only placed 2nd in the race, I somehow also ended up in the pink cow leader's jersey AND the sprint omnium jersey. Not for long though haha.

Day 4 (June 22): Bay View 2/3/juniors (Strava), 18th/44

Course: Like a weird bowtie, a technical course with many corners of varying degrees.

This was a downtown crit with big-screen TVs broadcasting the events on the backside of the course, and lots of beer. All week I had been grappling with the realization that I can still get so much better at cornering, and this course really brought it out. I also don't have that same sense of fearlessness I used to have since sliding out on a descent a few months ago. It has been interesting to think about the situations where I gain and lose positions through a corner, the most efficient way to get through a corner, where it makes sense to move up in a straightaway if a corner is just going to come up, the impact of a little gap. I finished solidly mid-pack, but I'm still learning a bunch of tactical and technical skills I can work on in every race.

Day 5 (June 23): Shorewood 2/3/juniors (Strava), 5th/45

Course: Almost a square, four-corner crit except for the little wiggle before turn 2.

ToAD is amazingly well-run. I started the day with a Women's/NB ride with ToAD-sponsored pastries from a local coffee shop. The host housing program is awesome too. Our host, Samara, was so welcoming and knowledgeable. She knew a friend who lived on the course, and they hosted a watch party on their lawn. Every time I passed their house, I'd hear dozens of people shouting my name and ringing real Wisconsin cow bells.

I tried to repeat Mount Pleasant and went for a breakaway immediately after a prime. I was off the front for 2 or 3 laps solo. A rider came up to me after the race and told me she tried to bridge to me, but then they announced a $100 prime for the field! As the field caught me for that prime they announced another $200 prime. The announcers must have fun with this.

Since pretty much all of these crits had been ending in bunch sprints, I created a formula for navigating them. Before the race, I decide when I want to move up (2 laps to go), where I will launch my sprint no matter what (typically after the last corner), and which position I want to be in then (still not sure). I flowed through the pack pretty well in the last lap, even shooting a gap between two riders that was pretty slick. I entered the final corner wide but launched a proper sprint not boxed in by the riders around me, getting 5th. I've really come to appreciate the art of the field sprint from following pro racing more closely this year. I imagine I'll look like that one day.

Day 6 (June 24): Downer 2/3/juniors (Strava), 19th/46

Course: A four-sided triangle, apparently.

My host was good friends with the owner of the Wisconsin Cheese Mart, so we made sure to stop by and buy 5 lbs of Wisconsin cheese to bring home. I was familiar with this group I'd been racing for so many days now, and became a zombie going with the flow of the crit. Close this gap here, sprint out of this corner here, oh it's a prime lap get ready for this. The rider who tried to bridge up to me yesterday proposed that we look for opportunities to get in a break today and work together. I loved that idea. Unfortunately, the corners were not as technical as expected and the edges of the triangle were long and straight, so it didn't really pan out. Racing less than an hour every day was more tiring than expected. I found myself boxed in in the final lap, called it a week, and rolled it in grateful for all the hard and safe racing in my field this week.

Race Report: 2023 Watsonville Crit - Men’s E4/Novice

Race: 2023 Watsonville Crit - Men’s E4/Novice

Date: July 8, 2023

AVRT racers: Logan Allen, Drew Matthews

Top Result: Logan Allen 7/48

Course: 1 km loop through the neighborhoods of Watsonville, CA. The course is fairly technical with 5 turns and a slight hill up to the finish.  Additionally, there are significant gutters that run through the middle of turns 1 and 2

Strava: https://strava.app.link/jRqiCQtcrBb

Race Recap:

Coming into the race my goal was to stay in position near the front of a large field with novice riders on a technical course and an outcome that could easily be influenced by crashes. 

The race began fast and I was first into the initial corner. I used the momentum to gain separation from the field. I was 10-15 seconds off the front of the group for 3 laps in an effort to stay clear of any corner sketchiness and to push the pace of the race so less experienced riders would be forced to drop. 

Around the finish line on lap 3 a VeloKings rider made his move to counter mine and kept pushing through the technical section. I drift back and slide into the peloton draft to catch my breath. He gained about 20 seconds of separation very quickly and once I reintegrated to the peloton I do not think the field was entirely aware there was still a rider up the road. The pace stayed high within the selected field but the solo rider did a great job metering his effort and taking smooth corners to stay away. 

30 minutes pass with several bridge attempts by various groups including Drew and I. It becomes clear that the rider won’t be brought back before the field sprint finish. The final 3 laps are very scary as the race officials did not pull lapped riders and the pace picked up quickly. At this point, the peloton was down to about 20 people. The group was strung out and some riders were not taking the best lines around corners. I move up two more wheels in the final corners and put down a decent sprint finish to take 7th.

-Logan

Race Report: 2023 Watsonville Crit - Women's P/1/2/3

Race: 2023 Watsonville Crit - Women's P/1/2/3

Date: July 8th, 2023

AVRT racers: Gina Yuan (DNF/7)

Course: 1 km loop through the neighborhoods of Watsonville, CA. The course is fairly technical with 5 turns and a slight hill up to the finish.  Additionally, there are significant gutters that run through the middle of turns 1 and 2.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9414888370

There were only 4 people pre-registered for this race, including me and Lora, and Lora had texted me saying she wasn't feeling well. I showed up anyway because you never know who will register day-of, and lo and behold, there were 4 more riders from Terun. I went from thinking about how I'd attack the small but mighty field to wondering how to respond to whatever strategy Terun went for.

The race was essentially attack after attack from Terun. Hannah (Cal Poly rider who just upgraded to Cat 3) was also pretty strong and we were taking turns covering every move. With a small field, it was a fairly smooth if hard ride around the course. It was also fairly simple to be in whatever position I wanted to be, which was a Terun wheel. I was feeling pretty good about the race and my legs, and all of Terun's attacks had dropped a few people from the field including their own riders. The final group only had 3 people: Hannah, and Alex and Kate from Terun. Unfortunately, I got a rear flat going over a gutter 40 minutes in and that was the end of my race. This is the first race-ending mechanical I've ever experienced, so I can cross that item off my bucket list. Overall a fun course and hope to be back next year to finish the race.

Race Report: 2023 Watsonville Crit - Men’s P123

Race: 2023 Watsonville Crit - Men’s P123

Date: July 8, 2023

AVRT racers: Jack Liu, Conor Austin, Matt Carvell, Colin Karpfinger, Jon Wells

Top Result: Jon Wells, 11th of 60

Course: 1 km loop through the neighborhoods of Watsonville, CA. The course is fairly technical with 5 turns and a slight hill up to the finish.  Additionally, there are significant gutters that run through the middle of turns 1 and 2

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9415313100 

Nutrition: Pre-race Red Bull chug plus a double scoop (60g carbs) bottle of Flow Formulas during the race.  Try it for yourself with code “Jon15” for 15% off here.

Race Recap:

Watch my race highlights here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp-OD3P0To8 Be sure to smash those like and subscribe buttons!

Game plan coming into the race was to stay in good position near the front of a large field on a technical course which suits a breakaway and to cover moves with the big teams represented (Mikes Bikes and Project 74). 

Things got underway with a motocross style hole shot into turn 1 as everyone knew the importance of positioning on this course.  Attacks were fast and furious from the start and we all did an excellent job covering moves in the first ~15 min of the race.  

Unfortunately, the first dangerous move that we really missed out on ended up being the move that stuck.  A group of 3 including Mikes Bikes, Project 74, and Voler snuck away.  Their teammates did a great job sitting on the front of the peloton slowing down the chase and making bridge attempts even harder.  With them occupying the first several positions, attacks had to be launched from even further down the group on a course with few places to move up.  

Once the break was gone, there were some efforts to chase but no big organization amongst teams that had missed out.  The pace was kept high enough that we were never lapped on such a short course but not high enough to bring them back.  Bringing back that group on a course with so many turns was a big ask once the gap had gone out.

Coming into the finish it was super important to be in a good position since it's challenging to move up on this course.  I found myself around maybe 15th with 2 laps to go with Mikes Bikes and Project 74 setting the pace for a field sprint.  Was able to slide up single spots at a time through corners in the last 2 laps and ended up taking 8th in the field sprint for 11th overall.  

-Jon

Race Report: Lake Tahoe MTB Race

Lake Tahoe MTB Race - 4hr open/pro

Rider: Alex Rusoff

Result: 3rd

Date: 6/17/23

This race format involves completing somewhere from 4-6 laps on a 11 mile course. Riders try to complete as many laps as possible but can't start a new lap after the 4-hour mark. In the past two years only one rider managed to reach 6 laps.

My main goal was to practice adhering to a planned pacing strategy. The course was slightly modified from prior years due to the remaining snow so rather than targeting historical lap times I was going off of mph (13.5mph or sub 50 minute laps). On this pace I was planning on completing 5 laps just past the 4 hour mark.

The course only has 1,100 feet of climbing per 11 mile lap which is more comparable to a typical road course than mountain. As a result, there is a lot of flattish rolling miles with the exception of one ~12 minute climb in the middle of the lap. The trail was about equal parts passable double track and single track. There weren't any challenging features except for one brief rock garden, a few snow drifts to blast over and a couple shallow stream crossings.

6-8 riders slowly created a gap from me on the first climb. It wasn't clear which of these were racing the shorter 12 and 36 mile events (all distances mass started together). I resisted the temptation to chase wheels. The established power target felt very sustainable and I was a little bit surprised to see a ~47 minute first lap.

Over the first three laps my power drifted a little bit but I was managing to stay on pace because I was figuring out how to carry speed through the course. At the end of lap 3 I dropped my first hydro pack and grabbed my 2nd (both ~3 bottles). It was also around this time that I was noticing a lot of soreness in my right hip flexor.

By the start of the fourth lap my hip flexor was quite sore but not in an acute cramping kind of way. I figured I would just push through it. I wasn't really able to tap into my full pedaling power because of this weird limitation. I'm hoping this was a bike fit related issue, which I have since tweaked, but it will take a full gas event to test. My power dropped pretty markedly in laps 4-5 but not catastrophically.

As I started the 5th lap I passed someone stopped in the feed zone. This turned out to be the race winner, who was working on a mechanical. He passed me so powerfully ten minutes later that I thought it must have been one of the relay teams or something. I'm sure he got a ton of motivation when he briefly lost the lead. I figured that I had now dropped off my 6 lap pace just enough that I should go all in on 5 laps so I killed off what was left of my fuel and opened it up. I never caught second place and saw that he pretty much bonked on his 6th lap. If I had managed to pace fast enough to get a 6th lap maybe I would have caught him - who knows.

Successes

• All laps at or under target pace

• No dramatic fall off in power

• Kept up on fueling and hydration strategy

• No technical mistakes in course navigation, timing issues, or crashing

• 209w raw average for 4 hours is pretty high given amount of coasting and elevation

Race Report: CCCX race 4 - Women cat 1

Race: CCCX. The 4th one in the 2023 series.

Date: June 25th, 2023

AVRT racers: Niky Taylor

Top Result: Niky 1/3

Route: In Fort Ord, 6 laps around a 4ish mile course for a total of about 26 miles. It started on a paved climb, then turned into the main course and we started the laps. Notable features included: sandy turns, a few punchy climbs, one particularly punchy gravel road climb, a flat exposed stretch where drafting was ideal, a feed zone, the start/finish line.

Recap: My friend Nathan (not AV Nathan) has been inviting me to try XC mountain bike racing for a few months now. I got a new mountain bike (Julianna Wilder, thanks Summit) and felt like trying something new. So I decided to give CCCX a shot.

At the start I met the two other women racing cat 1. They were in different age groups than me but since there were so few of us we decided to race each other. The officials said go and I failed to clip in twice in a row. I got my shit together and caught up to the group right before we hit the dirt, barely edging past the other two women for a position right behind Nathan. He dropped me almost immediately. But I was in first position of the cat 1 women.

I spent the first two laps killing myself and treating this like a cyclocross race: throw myself everywhere and sprint the whole thing. Then it occurred to me that most cyclocross races I’ve done are like 6-8 miles and this one was 26 miles and I was like whoa buddy better slow it down.

So I chilled out and ate some and tried to recover a bit. Some cat 2 guys caught me. Then one of the other cat 1 women, Michelle, showed up. We got to a short punchy gravel climb and I went all out to drop her. One guy, Mike, hung with me. I felt pretty good and started sending it again. Then Mike came around and was like “hey want a wheel?” and I was like oh wow, I did not even think about drafting since we’re on mountain bikes but now that you mention it that’s a really good point.

I got on Mike’s wheel but he was pretty fast and I was much less comfortable drafting on a mountain bike than a road bike. So after a few near crashes, a lot of brake checking myself, and probably no actual energy saved, I was like ok I’m good and he dropped me. Bye Mike.

I was learning a lot and also really tired from trying and failing to stick with Mike. Then Michelle caught me again and I was like ahhhh go go go and dropped her. 

Bernardo caught me around 3 laps to go. I got on his wheel and it was a lot easier to draft someone who I’ve ridden with before. So then I just unapologetically drafted Bernardo for a couple laps. Thanks Bernardo. Sorry I didn’t pull, I was maxed out just keeping up. I lost Bernardo’s wheel while we were passing someone. Then he finished and I still had one more lap. 

Last lap I sent it as hard as I could which was not very hard because I was super tired. I had no idea how far back Michelle was and I knew that if she passed me that would be the end because I was toasted. But I managed to hold my lead and take the win!

This was really fun. Also really hard. I learned a lot about what XC racing is. I liked the course and the people were all super nice. I liked doing the laps and trying to pick better lines each time around. I could definitely improve on handling, and getting more comfortable on my bike and this type of terrain would help save a lot of energy. In particular I’d want to work on my cornering. Overall I had a really great time trying something new and out of my comfort zone and would recommend CCCX to anyone interested in trying out some low-stakes local XC racing.

Nutrition: I ate 2-3 bloks and drank a bottle of water and in the future would definitely run 2 bottles with skratch or something

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9334819135

Race Report: Baker City Cycling Classic - Men’s P/1/2

Race: Baker City Cycling Classic - Men’s P/1/2

Date: 6/23/23 - 6/25/23

AVRT Racers: Austin King, Cam O’Reilly, Deven van Greuningen, Grant Miller, Greg McCullough, Nathan Martin

Top Result: GC: 1st - Nathan, 5th - Cam, Stage 3: 5th - Deven, Stage 4: 1st - Nathan, 5th - Cam

Nathan wrote the report, with Deven writing the crit stage report

Stage 1: Catherine Creek Road Race - 6/23

Course: 71 miles of rolling road with an unexpected gravel sector. Wind played a large factor. Feedzones at miles 23 and 48.

Nutrition: Malto and Skratch, about 250 calories, and 200 calories of hammer perpetuem. 2 gels and 1 larabar. Got a team bottle at the feed at mile 48 with another 250 calories or so.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9321719464

Summary: Our plan going into Stage 1 was to have Grant and I be protected with Cam, Austin, Greg, and Deven responding to anything dangerous. The fact that there was no time bonuses basically meant we were fine with a group finish, since we were looking to really make a difference on Stages 2 and 4. Austin and Deven would also be on the lookout for a good placing if it came down to a sprint, but we wouldn’t do a lead out or anything in order to save legs.

However, as per usual, we quickly scrapped our carefully thought out plans as Cam got into a break at mile 5. The break started with an uncommitted group of three riders but then gained momentum when two more jumped across. The break then had representation from two large teams (AVRT and George’s Cycles) as well as strong solo riders, and was missing two other large teams (Pacific Automation and Expeditors), putting pressure on them to maintain the pace. While he was off the front, Grant and I mostly relaxed in the group with Austin, Deven, and Greg responding to and shutting down any dangerous bridge attempts from strong teams. However, the group mostly stayed together, with the only two Pacific Automation riders making the bridge.

At the halfway point, we had an unexpected gravel segment. Not like normal gravel, but it was like someone just dumped gravel on an already paved road, which was clearly visible in some parts. It seems this wasn’t a usual feature, chatting with those who did the race previously.

On the other side of the gravel, Expeditors sent their train near the front and started to work, but looking back on the data the break continued to gain time on us even during this part, so they weren’t working very hard. Greg, Deven, and Austin did some big work here to get everyone to the front so that when attacks started flying, we would be in a good spot to cover things.

At the base of the climb, Expeditors’ GC man, Max Ritzow, launched a hard attack, and a few of us followed his wheel, with Grant having to bridge a bit to catch on to the group. As Max slowed up, people from the break continued attacking and Grant and a few others fell back into a second chase group just behind.

Cresting the hill and passing through the feed zone, my Dad shouted that Cam’s group was 4 minutes up the road. This may have energized my group, as they began to work hard together. My job was to simply sit on and surf wheels while they rotated, not giving any work. However, this proved a little difficult as there were some gnarly crosswinds after the feed zone climb, meaning I still did a fair bit of work.

The riders in my group were strong and Cam’s group had been off the front for hours now, and we caught them with around 6 miles to go. As this happened I yelled at Cam that I was with the group.

Eventually I found myself on the front with about 5 miles to go. We had some wind from the right and I rode the centreline in an attempt to gutter some riders, which was a mistake on my part as I was guttering Cam as well. When I pulled off, Mark Tucker was right behind me and attacked. Two riders went with him, the rest of the field hesitated, and he got a gap.

When we hit the flat last 5k, he had a solid gap with one rider, dropping the other, and we motored to try and catch them. The group sat up for a second and I tried to attack, but there was a pretty strong headwind and I made no ground. Instead, I opted to work on the front to try and close down as many seconds as possible.

I stayed on the front until the line and a few guys sprinted around me for 3rd place. I ended up finishing 6th and Cam finished 13th, with us both getting the same time. 

Overall we were happy to have two of us in the break, with a couple minutes separating our group from the next solid group of riders, and only about 35 seconds down on Mark Tucker.

Stage 2: Baker City Time Trial - 6/24

Course: 11 flat miles with a slight downhill start. Some chipseal along the backside of the course.

Nutrition: Gel 15 mins before

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9327271599

Summary: I was excited for the TT, when I did Tour de Bloom I had a rather lackluster result so I was excited for a bit of redemption. It was a bit hard for me to estimate what I could do since we were at a bit of altitude and I was on a relatively new bike frame, but I was still confident.

I went a bit hard out of the gate for the first 5 minutes and paid for it during the middle sector, averaging well below my target power. I found my rhythm about 15 minutes in and had a good last 8 mins of my effort.

I’d finish 10th on the day with Cam just behind in 13th. I was now down over a minute on Mark Tucker and Cam down about a minute and 15 seconds. We didn’t lose any GC position so we were ultimately alright with our efforts.

Stage 3: Baker City Downtown Criterium - 6/24

Course: Flat L shaped course.

Nutrition: Clif Blocks before the start and sipping on a Malto bottle before/during. 2 GUs during and mostly water during the race.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9329001132

Summary: I (Deven) was the only one to race the crit as it was not towards GC. This was due to rain during the day and delays. The race was ultimately shortened and we started with only 30 laps to go. This would make it super fast and aggressive throughout the entire race. My plan was to sit in and wait for a sprint, unless there was a threatening move I could possibly bridge up to. 

Attacks started almost right away and were quickly being covered by others. This worked great for me. I made sure to just stay in the draft and sit in. most attacks would go on the finish straight into turn 1. I was SUPER confident in all of the turns so was able to close any little gaps with just taking faster lines. 

There was a large break forming about halfway through with all the major teams in it as well as Mark Tucker. Decided to make an effort to get across in the most technical section of the course (turns 2, 3, and 4) was able to close them but the field was not happy with that and the break was reabsorbed. 

Once we hit 3 laps to go I was in a good position near the front. There was a break of 3 up the road but we were close enough to catch. We ended up getting super close to them  on the last lap through turn 2, 3, and 4. This is whe I knew it was time to go. A few of us launched on the back straight going into turn 5, I think I was 4th or 5th wheel out of the last turn right as we were catching the break. I gave it everything on the finish straight. Had a decent sprint and we were able to catch 2 of the 3 up the road. One was able to stay away and I was able to get 4th in the field sprint and 5th for the race. 

Was happy with the result. Legs were definitely starting to feel the fatigue from my previous racing earlier in the month and the RR the day before and the TT from that morning. 

Stage 4: Dooley Mountain Road Race - 6/25

Course: 100 miles 7k feet of climbing. Two small climbs, three medium climbs, and a 25 minute climb to finish things off. Very nice pavement, some wind. Feedzones at miles 45, 72, and 95.

Nutrition: Started with a team bottle of malto and gatorade (~250 cals) and about 500 calories of perpetuem. Drank about 80% of both bottles before the first feedzone, where I grabbed another team bottle and a neutral bottle. Also ate 2 gels and about a lara bar and a half.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9334817871

Summary: I was down 1:01 on 1st, 0:45 on 2nd, and 0:29 on 3rd after the TT. Cam was 0:13 behind me, so we had two cards to play on the final stage which really suited us. It was a long stage and a lot could happen, but we knew that our best chance would come if Cam and I could make something happen in a reduced group on the final climb. Cam and I were to be the protected riders, trying to save as much as we could, while Grant, Greg, Austin, and Deven would do any and all work to bring back breaks, sit on dangerous moves, help us get good positioning in the field, etc.

As such, the first 28 miles were very uneventful for me. I stayed near the back of the group with a few other GC guys for the first 15 miles, then when they started moving up before the first climb at mile 18, I moved up as well. Grant tapped out a solid pace up the first small climb to ensure nobody tried anything, and we all stayed together. After this climb, a group of 4 slipped off the front, but no other teams were worried since they weren’t GC threats, so nobody was chasing just yet.

When we started getting pretty close to the first medium climb of the day, Deven helped move me up to the front. Next thing I knew, however, Deven was on the front, right at the base of the climb, and drilling it. I was working a bit to stay in his draft, but still this meant the group was staying together and no attacks were going. However, I knew that when Deven eventually sat up, there might be an attack. Sure enough, as he sat up, an attack went, but it was from Cam! He went and a few others jumped on his wheel, I let gaps open and forced other people to try and close gaps to them.

We spent the rest of the climb catching up to Cam’s group and caught them before the top, but no counterattack followed and we all rolled over the first climb together.

Similar story between climb 1 and 2, I stayed in the draft and was protected, same as Cam. On climb 2 Greg and Grant did work at the front to keep the pace controlled and make sure no bridge attempts went to the break, which now had a gap of about 4 minutes on us. Regardless, nobody was super concerned about the break, and we rolled through the first feedzone and continued on.

At mile 52 we hit our second small climb, nothing super interesting happening, then at mile 58 we hit our last medium climb, with Team George’s sitting on the front and pacing us up the climb. Each climb, again, I was moved into position by someone and kept very well protected.

At mile 70 we turned into a valley and the race started to get a bit faster. 3 teams, Team George, Pacific Automation, and Gene Johnson, started working to bring the break back. Austin was also on the front doing lots of work from here onwards. He was eating wind and working with these guys so the rest of us could stay fresh for the climb.

We hit our last feed zone around mile 78 and it was a bit of a mess. We came through it at 30 mph, lots of bottles everywhere, I stayed well to the left and didn’t grab a bottle since it wasn’t worth risking hitting something.

Around mile 85 Greg, Grant, and Austin started to move Cam and I towards the front. Our plan was to have Greg and Grant each do 4-5 minutes as hard as they could on the front at the start of the climb to keep the group strung out and drop anyone we could. Then, I would attack from about the 20-22 minutes left mark, since my stomach was absolutely turning at this point and I thought I’d not have it in me to finish. My attack would hopefully set up Cam to go and get enough of a gap to get as much GC time as possible.

As we hit the start and Greg started hammering the front, I was still a bit of a ways back, having lost Greg’s wheel in the chaos of people trying to get into position. Austin saw this and pulled anchor, got me on his wheel, then towed me up just before Cam’s wheel. I tried to fight a bit with Expeditors to get in their train, but ended up just having to eat a bit more wind to get in front of Cam and he let me in. It was also right at this point we caught the break from the beginning, they did a huge effort being off the front for nearly 90 miles.

I sat in as Grant did his turn on the front, Greg having done his job. There was a big switchback where we were planning to have me go from and as Grant sat up right around the turn, I went for my move. I knew I’d have to go hard from the gun to try and get a gap then I could settle into a tempo, but when I looked back after about 30 seconds the gap was already closing. There was an Expeditors rider on the front doing a ton of work, and behind him another Expeditor’s rider and a George’s rider. I was averaging well over 400w so he was exceeding that as he was gaining on me. The chase was extremely hard on these riders and each one of them was forced to pull off after their efforts, leaving these teams’ GC riders less protected. 

Once I got caught, it was part of a well reduced group, with mostly GC riders and one or two of their teammates if they had any, as well as Cam. As I settled into the group, letting my heartrate get back under control, I noticed there was no counterattack of any kind. If other teams wanted to win GC, they needed to get a time gap, they couldn’t just sit in because there was no time bonus for winning the stage. I figured I might as well attack again to try and set Cam up since everyone was gassed, so off I went.

Again, the same Expeditors rider started to bring me back after about a minute or so, and I eased off the power. After easing off for a bit, I looked back and noticed the gap was about the same, so they had eased off too, and nobody was rushing to close the last bit. Cam yelled at me that there was still a gap and to go, so I threw another acceleration and started to dig in.

The minutes ticked by and the gap between me and the group was growing. Eventually they were a turn or two behind me and I started thinking about the stage win. After about 9 minutes I hit a ‘3k to go’ sign and focused now on getting as much time as I could. The second, third, and fifth place GC riders were all in the group behind me, so I was aiming to put enough time in to at least get on the podium.

I tried to hold my power as best I could, but we were now well above 5,000 ft of elevation and I started to feel it, easing off a bit, but still crossing the finish line strong. I had gotten myself a 0:49 gap on the group behind me, meaning I had finished with a time gap of 0:04 on second place who was the virtual GC leader at the bottom of the climb, resulting in me just barely edging onto the top step of the podium. Cam would finish 5th on the stage and 5th overall, notably not sprinting at the end to try and give me as much cushion as I could, which clearly was important given how close it was.

Overall this was such a cool experience. It truly was a full team effort, the amount of work everyone did was staggering. I really owe the squad a lot for this win. Super grateful for everyone, and a huge shoutout to my Dad who came out as well and worked the feed zones for us both road stages, without which we’d probably have been toast. It feels great to get an awesome result for our second stage race this year, hoping we can keep this momentum going!

Alto Velo PRACTICE Popup Crit!

PRACTICE Pop up Crit is here!! All Alto Velo members are invited to join the inaugural practice Thursday night crit on July 13 at 6:15 at Windy Hill in Portola Valley. Meeting and gathering in the parking of Windy Hill on Portola at 6:15. Riders will self select between group A or B and will be sent out at 6:45. The course will be start at Portola/Windy Hill and turn onto Mtn. Home>Whiskey Hill>Sand Hill Loop 3 times with a finish on Portola at the Firehouse sprint: Pop up Practice Crit.. The final stretch on Sandhill turning into Portola through the Firehouse Sprint will culminate the practice crit.  Marshals will be stationed on the course for safety. Greg B. will be at the intersection of Portola and Mtn. Home for the left turn and Gina Y. will be the marshal in the town of Woodside. If you have questions please contact Chris at: cdavisbike@gmail.com.

This is a practice event for Alto Velo members only, for now. If you aren’t already a member and want to participate, please join today: https://www.bikereg.com/altovelo2023.

Looking forward to seeing you there!!

Review: Princeton Carbonworks Peak 4550 Rim Brake

The following review was written by Nico Sandi. Alto Velo would like to thank Princeton CarbonWorks for their generous sponsorship. If you’re not a 2023 Alto Velo member, join today and take 45% off any wheelset!

Hey Alto Velo,

I ordered a set of Peak 4550 (rim brake!!) with White Ind hubs earlier this year. I was hesitant to order expensive carbon wheels because I have had bad experience braking using carbon wheels.

These wheels have far exceeded my expectations! I rode them in all weather and road conditions, training and racing.

Winning the Elite Open Men at La Ruta del Lago aboard a set of Peak 4550s

The tubeless setup is super easy on these. No need for tape. Just put valves, tubeless ready tires (it can be a little bit hard to get them on), sealant and inflate. They also keep the tires inflated for a long time which means you don’t have to re seat them. My only problem initially was that air was escaping through one of the drain holes. I just put extra sealant, shook it up and it was good to go!

I also rode these wheels a lot in then rain. The braking track was better than expected when wet. It is still carbon and wet carbon is not wet disc brakes. You have to learn how to handle them going down steep wet roads. But I can say that I felt safe and the wheel braking was responsive.

These wheels are marketed as lightweight and that made me think they would be weak and breakable. The opposite. These wheels are indestructible. I rode them on chunky gravel and cobbles, bad pavement and potholes. No problem. I also traveled internationally with them and either the airlines were extra careful or I packed them well or they are just hardy wheels. No scratches or issues.

White Ind hubs can be a little tricky to service. But reading the manual and having the right tools let me fix some minor issues I had with them. Nothing huge. Just a little bit of play that was easily fixed.

And of course these wheels just perform amazingly! I feel light climbing, super aero on flats, they feel fast and responsive accelerating, and they provide snappy handling sending it down descents.

Nico

The Peak 4550s (and their White Industries hubs) can take a serious beating

Race Report: Cascade Gravel Grinder

Race: Cascade Gravel Grinder - Open Men

Date: May 12-14, 2023

Written By: Flo Costa

Result: 17/59 GC

Course: Three-day gravel stage race in the Central Oregon Cascades.

Stage 1 TT - 3.6 mi / 430 ft - https://www.strava.com/activities/9059959947

The first stage was a short gravel TT, with a 2 mile climb followed by a descent to the finish. The original TT course was completely snowed out this year, so the organizers ended up falling back to this course only a few days before the race. Although I didn’t get a chance to pre-ride the new course, the pacing plan was simple: all out 10 minute effort up the climb and rip the descent with whatever’s left. I stuck to this plan and felt pretty good the day of the race. My legs felt solid on the climb until I reached the snowy and muddy section at the top. This is where I think I made some mistakes, as the first half of the descent was a slalom through snow patches which my hypoxic self was a bit hesitant to bomb through. After that it was a techy but dry descent to the finish. My finishing time put me in 19th on the day, with less than a minute separating 5th and 20th place. I was happy with my effort, but knew I held back a little too much on the descent.

Stage 2 - 58 mi / 3600 ft - https://www.strava.com/activities/9066685799

Day 2 began with a 7 mile paved descent before starting the gravel, which consisted of a few short climbs through the ponderosa pines looping back towards the long 7 mile climb to the finish. As predicted, things were a bit cagey in the descent as the mass start group of 100+ riders jostled for position before the gravel. This is where being a roadie paid off ;) . I entered the gravel in the top 10 wheels before things went ballistic. We immediately began a VO2 effort up the first climb which left me wondering how this would affect me 3 hours later. I told myself it would ease up eventually (it didn’t) and kept hammering for the next 10 min before getting distanced from the top group of 8 or so riders. At the top of this climb we entered a mile-long section which was 50% snow slush and 50% ice. Since no one could tell which was which, this was an absolute slip n slide with people falling left and right. I hopped off the bike and ran a few parts, but boy was this fun. I felt good and continued pushing a hard pace hoping to find a group of stronger riders I could work with.

About an hour into the race I had found a group of 4 or 5 guys that were all riding pretty well. I kept putting the power down and motivated everyone to work together. I had settled into a nice rhythm of hammer hammer hammer, eat eat eat. At some point one of my bottles had jumped out, but I wasn’t too worried since I had packed a bit of extra food. With this group, we were fighting for a top 12 result, which would’ve been great in this stacked field. After a little over 2.5 hours my earlier efforts caught up to me and I got distanced from the group. This kicked off my downward spiral towards implosion. I began the long 7 mile climb by myself and couldn’t up the pace. My legs wouldn’t respond. I got passed by riders one by one but was all out of energy. I hobbled to the finish in 23rd place and lost almost 10 minutes to the guys I was with. This was the first time I’ve ever blown up like that in a race, but it was a great lesson to stay within my limits. Despite not getting a great result, this was still a super fun stage.

Stage 3 - 80 mi / 6300 ft - https://www.strava.com/activities/9073229930

The third stage was the queen stage with 5 main climbs that were 15-45 min long. This stage would be the last opportunity to make up time, and I was determined to not let myself blow up. My legs felt fatigued from the day before, but as soon as the race started I was ready to roll. For the first few miles before the climbing began the pace was surprisingly chill, dare I say sustainable. Sadly this didn’t last too long and as soon as we hit the first climb things got spicy. As things ramped up I made sure I followed the front to stay in good position as the bunch thinned out. Unlike yesterday, I was careful not to burn any matches this early and dialed it down before going too deep into the red. I eventually got caught by a small group of riders and together we made it to the top of the first 8 mile climb. After ripping the first descent we began climbing again, but this time things got broken up as we each settled into our own paces. We started passing riders that had pushed too hard on the initial climb, and it felt really good to still be in control of my effort.

The next couple hours were definitely some of the best gravel riding I have ever experienced. The roads went from perfectly packed dirt, to firm gravel, to loose gravel, to even looser gravel, to rocks, to sand, to snow, to mud, and back to dirt. The whole nine yards. Like a buffet but for gravel. All while cruising through the forest at the feet of the snowy Cascade mountains with beautiful blue skies. What an amazing place to suffer.

I continued pushing my steady pace, mostly alone, and was able to pass other riders here and there. Somewhere along the way I lost another bottle, but was able to stop at an aid station to grab more water, sugar, food, and pickle juice, the last of which relieved me from  an imminent cramp. The final hour felt endless. My legs were tired, but I still had enough energy to keep pushing all the way to the line. I finished in 17th place on the day and moved up to 17th in the general classification. I was happy with how I paced the day and glad I was able to regain some time in the overall results.

Summary

This was my first proper taste of the American gravel scene and it was quite a humbling experience with the likes of Ian Boswell, Peter Stetina, and Rob Britton lighting things up at the front. With such a strong field it felt nice to have no pressure on myself and just race my race. Over these 3 days I learned a lot of important lessons about gravel racing. I had approached the race as a tune-up race for the five-day Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder in late June and walked away knowing exactly what I needed to work on to improve for this next race. 10/10 would recommend.

Race Report: 2023 Regalado Road Race - Men’s P/1/2

Date: 6/4/23

AVRT Racers: Conor Austin, Austin King, Nathan Martin, Grant Miller

Top Result: 3rd - Conor

Course: 4 laps of a flattish/rolling 17-mile loop. Per usual in NorCal road races, there were sections of rough road full of potholes and loose gravel. East to West winds that were not insignificant and it was HOT.

Nutrition: Overnight oatmeal pancakes, cheerios, banana and a couple slices of toasted gluten free bread slathered in peanut butter at 5:30am. 4-5 Salted Lime Gu gels throughout combined with Gu Roctane Drink mix in two 24 oz bottles. Grabbed a few neutral feed waters on laps 2 and 3 to douse myself with or sip from.

Race Recep (written by Conor): Our plan coming in was to have Grant, Nathan, and me make this an active race while Austin sat in to be ready to sprint to victory if everything was together in the end. We wanted to make sure we were represented in any moves that went up the road but otherwise force others to bridge and chase.

As we passed the neutral feed for the first time on lap 1, Grant saw ahead in the distance that the road pitched upwards and he launched the first move of the day. That man loves a good incline. There were some efforts to bridge across to him but all Grant’s move did was force others to burn matches early. Attempts to bridge across to Grant eventually brought him back about 8 miles later, at which point Nathan put in a dig of his own on the rougher section of the course with a PenVelo rider, Eugene. Nathan’s move up the road really forced a lot of solo riders and the other teams to work harder than they probably planned to. Everyone knew that Nathan and Eugene could stick it out until the end so there was some urgency for others to try and shut their move down.

Nathan and Eugene were eventually brought back about halfway through lap 2 at which point Eugene went ahead again with a rider from the Ride Bikes Bro team. The rest of the peloton continued to remain disorganized in chasing and solo bridge attempts kept flying, which for us was great. Austin, Grant, Nathan and I remained active in trying to latch onto any attempts to cross the gap that was growing. Eventually we did try to organize a “chase” to try and launch one of our guys across in a crosswind section of a course. It was clear we weren’t going to get much help and after trying to have Grant get some daylight off the front unsuccessfully, we began to sit in a bit to conserve energy. It was at this point we missed a solo move by a rider from Olympic Club who was able to get across on his own. After the three riders up the road began to get over a minute on the field, Austin asked Grant, Nathan, and me to start rotating turns to bring them back after passing through the neutral feed for the last time on lap 3. 

We weren’t getting much help from others so each time I rotated back I would shout out for some help and take a look around to see who was sitting at the end of our three-man train. As we came into the rougher and more technical section of the course I noticed Ryan Gorman of Mike’s Bikes lurking and suspected he might attempt to get away in the more technical sections. Knowing that he would wait for the moment that best suited him, the next time I hit the front I launched away so that we wouldn’t miss his move. Whether Ryan was actually planning to go or not, I’m not sure. I was sure that the field was beginning to wither in the heat and that we would be better off being more offensive at this point than continuing to burn ourselves in our three-man rotation to bring the whole field together.

Ryan and I pushed on and eventually were joined by James from Dolce Vita. About 5 minutes later I looked around and the peloton was nowhere in sight, but the break was coming within shouting distance. Once we caught them we invited them to hop on the train and pressed on as a 6-man break with about 25 miles to go. A few riders dropped off and the heat was getting to all of us. We eventually came back to the westernmost portion of the course on the final lap where I knew someone (Ryan) would try to take advantage of the crosswind to solo away. Sure enough, as we rounded the second to last big corner 3(ish) miles from the finish, Ryan made his move and left the remainder of us cramping trying to bridge up to him. The remaining four of us in the break at this point all rolled in one by one with myself coming 3rd.

Overall, it was a hot but fun day. Our communication as a team was fantastic throughout the day. Now, I’m looking forward to a break in the season and long rides under the midsummer sun!

Race Report: 2023 Regalado Road Race – Men’s 3/4

Race: 2023 Regalado Road Race – Men’s 3/4

Date: June 4, 2023

AVRT racers: Andrew Ernst, Jeremy Besmer, Michael Fryar, William Hakim, Brian Shreeve, Drew Matthews

Top Result: Andrew 1(/41), Jeremy (5/41)

Course: 4 laps of a flat/rolling, 17-mile loop. There was a mix of good and bad pavement, with the worst on Tim Bell Road (southbound), a mile or so of which required dodging gravel and potholes. The finish was on a mostly flat section heading east on Warnerville with a decent tailwind. The bottom half of the course (westbound and northbound) had small rollers and moderate cross/headwinds.  By the end of the race, temperatures were nearing 90F.   

Strava:  https://www.strava.com/activities/9203417880

Nutrition: Started with two bottles (one with water and one with 75g GU Roctane) and picked up two bottles from the neutral feed. Also consumed 4 Wiggle gels. Total calorie intake was 700kcal for the 2.5 hour race.

Recap (by Andrew):

The week leading up to the race, Jeremy did an excellent job designing a race plan based on everyone’s fitness level, personal goals, and team goals. With minimal climbing, we felt this would be a race better suited for the sprinters. We planned to soften the field with early attacks in the first 2 laps by Drew and myself. We really wanted to ensure Velo Kings was putting in work so EJ would have less support late in the race. Michael and Jeremy were planning to cover attacks, Will was our late-race breakaway man, and Brian was our dedicated field sprinter.

The race started smooth but quick, with EJ and Mitchell from Velo Kings controlling the front during the tailwind section. Jeremy and I moved up behind them. As we turned onto Tim Bell, I put in my first attack which strung out the field through the pothole section. This successfully caused a bit of chaos and forced everyone to work as we were riding with the tailwind. Jeremy called out for somebody to attack in the crosswind section just before turning onto Warnerville (NW corner of the course). We did just that and I found myself in a group of about 12 riders that weren’t too set on staying away from the field. Regardless, it kept the tailwind section fast and forced everyone to work.

The remainder of the second lap was pretty relaxed until Jeremy put in an attack at the NW corner of the course again. As solo riders began bridging up to him, I followed one rider through the gap and counterattacked as soon as we hit Jeremy’s group. Four riders followed, one of whom dropped back to the peloton immediately after bridging. This group included someone from each of the major teams in the race (Velo Kings, Dolce Vita, and Mikes Bikes). With this composition we figured our respective teammates in the field would disrupt any chase attempts to allow the break to succeed, which is exactly what happened.

The four of us kept a good rotation going through the third lap and managed to gain about 2 minutes on the field coming into the start of the fourth and final lap. I focused on taking in plenty of fluid and nutrition. The moto told us that the field wasn’t chasing anymore, but I bullied the other riders into continuing to push the pace. I knew I had a better chance of winning if I attacked them while they were tired vs letting the race come down to a sprint. On the final hill on Claribel into the headwind, about 7 miles from the finish, I ramped up the pace enough to gap the other three riders. I didn’t fully commit until about a mile later when I saw my lead increasing. I managed to stay away for the win. I owe a huge thanks to the team for disrupting an organized chase attempt from the peloton. I definitely wouldn’t have had the same result without a solid team effort.

Meanwhile, back in the field, the third lap was relaxed, with AV and Velo Kings controlling the pace and disrupting occasional chase attempts. Going into the start of the fourth and final lap, the moto ref told the field that the gap to the breakaway was 2 minutes. That was likely to hold through the finish, so the field would be competing for 5th place. (Due to the Mikes Bikes rider in the breakaway riders flatting during the final few miles, the field sprint ended up being for 4th rather than 5th). Knowing that beating EJ in a field sprint was unlikely, the AV riders in the field planned to launch a series of attacks in the last few miles of the race. This would force Velo Kings to chase and disrupt their attempts at setting up a lead out for EJ.

The plan worked. Michael attacked coming out of the penultimate turn (onto the crosswind section) and got a small gap. EJ put in a hard effort to close and dropped his teammates in the process. Anticipating this, Jeremy followed close on EJ’s wheel, and then counterattacked as soon as EJ caught Michael. Jeremy got a gap which he held through the final turn (onto the tailwind section) with 2 miles to go. In response, EJ and three other riders broke from the field to chase Jeremy. The group of four caught Jeremy with 800m to go, but Jeremy hopped onto the back of the group. Things got strategic from there and ended up with the five of them staring each other down with 200m left. EJ then put out his classic 1500+ W sprint, and Jeremy did his best with his 900 W sprint and stayed in EJ’s draft as long as possible while putting a gap on the other riders in this group. Jeremy rolled in for 5th place just a couple bike lengths behind EJ who ended up 4th.  

We executed our race plans well which landed two AV riders on the podium. A successful day!

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)!

Race Report: Regalado Road Race – Men’s 30-34/35-39 1/2/3

Race: 2023 Regalado Road Race – Men’s 30-34/35-39 1/2/3 (Masters District Championships)

Date: June 4, 2023

AVRT racers: Andrea Cloarec

Top Results: Andrea, 1st overall

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: https://www.strava.com/activities/9203550362

Nutrition: Two bottles with 80g Malto in each, 2 sleeves of Gu Block, 1 Maurten gel. Total of 90g carb/h

Recap:
Cam asked to the cat 2 guys who could join in the masters race. As I was the only 30+ who had planned to do the race, I felt that it was for me =)
So I was happy to go for that race, and would be a good training. The field was very small, only 4 riders in the 30-34, and 6 in the 35-39, for a total of 10 guys racing this.
After the first lap, not a lot happened, the guys let me at the front most of the time, quite annoying. So I started to push the pace on every roller to start getting people tired.

Beginning of the second lap I decided to get the race hard for everyone as absolutely no one wanted to go in front of me. So I kept attacking from the front at every small hill for 10-15 minutes. After that, I used the roller part to put a good tempo at the front for another 10 minutes. At some point, I saw that the 35-39 guys had stopped following, and only 2 guys from the 30-34 were behind me.
I saw that one of the guy was quite tired, so I told the other guy to follow me while I attack so we can drop the Velo King guys. We quickly dropped him, but directly after, while taking a fast turn, the guy who followed me took the turn too wide and got a flat because of bad pavement.
After quickly looking for him, I saw his race was over. And the other 30-34 guy joined me. As I saw he would not do anything, I directly pushed the pace to drop him.

From here, I knew I had around 2 hours left. So I decided to go on training mode, tempo, setting the power to 300W and just go.
Everything went well…. Until I passed a group of women just before a left turn, that I got into way too fast, specially with a bumpy road on that turn. So I realized I could not avoid the crash. I made the best to reduce the damages: Avoid the barred wires, avoid the rocks, and avoid the big pole. To just crash into the bushes.
I quickly got up. I had to straight back my front wheel, open my rim brakes (as my wheel was bent…), the left lever was upside down and totally unscrew so I couldn’t touch it for the last hour. I put back my chain on and started back my effort to finish the race. Forgetting to pick up my glasses that I lost in the fall.
I finished 5-10 minutes ahead of the other racers.

For the 70 miles, 2h45min, I averaged 280W with a NP of 300W. So it was a good training day!
Even if the fall let me with a nice bruise under the eye, and a painful knee for a few days after that.

Masters 30-34 should not exist, we are still young =)

Andrea Cloarec