Race Report: 2025 Bariani Road Race – Men’s Cat 3

Race: Bariani Road Race - Men’s Cat 3

Date: March 16th, 2025

AVRT racers: George Wehner, Kevin Kauffman, Ryan Dyke

Top Result: George 4/34

Course: 4 laps of a 20-mile, mostly flat course with a short hill about 3km before the finish. Winds were very high on this day, around 15-20 mph from SSE; the final climb and finish line were both into a block headwind.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13901966058 

Nutrition: I ate a packet of Skratch energy chews (40g carbs, 50mg caffeine) on the start line, then during the race I drank 3 full bottles with 90g carbs each (30g fructose, 60g maltodextrin) and ate another pack of Skratch energy chews.

Recap: (Written by George) Going into the race, our plan was to have Kevin and Ryan cover moves and keep me sheltered, while I waited for the sprint. I was hoping for a hard race that significantly reduced the group and left everyone with tired legs. Dolce Vita and Terun were the main teams we were looking out for, as Dolce Vita brought 5 riders and Terun brought 3, and both teams have seen some early season success this year.

As soon as the race started, it became apparent that the race was going to be quite attritional due to the high winds. The long stretch of road on the northern part of the course was a ripping right-to-left crosswind in which it was nearly impossible to find shelter. The race was also extremely fast during the tailwind sections which made things very difficult. During the first two laps, I stuck towards the middle of the pack, which was probably too far back as I was mostly unsheltered during the crosswind section. People were getting dropped left and right – we lost about half the field within two laps, including Kevin and Ryan.

On lap 2, a breakaway with two riders got off the front, one of them being Chaz from Data Driven Athlete who had won Snelling two weeks prior. They gained time on us for a full lap and were about 1.5 minutes off the front at the start of lap 3. However, people realized they were still catchable, so the pace increased significantly and the race got even harder: this would end up being the fastest and hardest lap of the entire race. I didn’t want to get guttered, so I moved towards the front to contribute to the chase and get into an echelon formation with the other chasers; while this meant I had to spend some time on the front, it was worth it because I got the benefit of the echelon when I wasn’t on the front. We ended up catching the break near the end of lap 3.

After we caught the break, everyone was cooked and no one wanted to pull. I was pretty much coasting in the draft during the headwind section, and even the tailwind section was relatively chill. However, once we got onto that long crosswind section again, people started ripping the pace and trying to gutter the field again. I was hanging on for dear life at this point. By the time we turned right into the headwind, the field was down to about 10 people. Things calmed down during the stretch before the hill as everyone wanted to save their legs. 

Once the road turned up, it was full gas, and pretty much a contest of who’d be the last one to crack. A Team California rider and a Hot Tubes rider were pushing the hardest. I was surfing wheels and ended up on the wheel of Aubery, a strong solo rider who I thought would be able to hold onto the pace, but he lost the wheel near the top of the climb so the two frontrunners got away. I was in a chase group with Aubery, Sean from Mike’s Dev, and Jeff from Dolce Vita; however, no one wanted to sacrifice their race to catch the riders off the front, so the gap blew out and we were racing for third. I was sitting 2nd wheel behind Aubery until about 150m before the finish. I had a solid sprint, but Sean came around me at the line for 3rd, meaning I got my second 4th place result of the season in as many races.

4th wasn’t the result I was looking for, and at this race it meant I was out of the prize money, but it’s still a solid result for a hard-fought race. I’m really looking forward to getting out there and trying to get on that top step in the near future.