2025 Pine Flat Road Race - Men’s Cat 4
Race: 2025 Pine Flat Road Race - Men’s Cat 4
Date: February 16th, 2025
AVRT racers: Matin Massoudi, Jack Lund, Wil Gibb
Top Result: Wil Gibb (12/18)
Course: This course has a lot of variety. It begins with some out and back rollers for 25 miles before a 10 mile descent → flat section. Starting at mile 40, the road starts gradually ramping up, until you reach the main feature - a 3.5 mile climb (https://www.strava.com/segments/635567). This 3.5 mile climb averages 5.5% but gets steeper as you go, up to 10-11% (https://pjammcycling.com/climb/1766.Wildcat-Grade). This is also the most sun-exposed portion of the course. After this climb, there is a 6 mile fast descent with some rollers as well. The finish of the race is on a 0.5 mile kicker at 9.4% - basically a slightly “easier” version of Moody (https://www.strava.com/segments/31080757).
Strava: https://www.strava.com/segments/1008724
Nutrition: Two bottles of 100g carbs courtesy of Skratch Super-High Carb mix from The Feed, 100g carbs from Power Bar caffeine gummies, 60g carbs from Trader Joe’s dried oranges.
Race recap:
There was a lot of anticipation going into this race, because Jack and I felt we could work to give Matin a shot at victory. As you’ll see, sometimes the best laid plans don’t always work out.
The first third of the race is an out and back section with some rollers and amazing views. Nothing happened until the turnaround, when one of the riders took the slowing peloton as an opportunity to break away. This was easily covered however, and Jack and I took some turns on the front because we wanted to make sure to be in a good position for the descent. Since I was particularly nervous about getting dropped on a fast, possibly technical descent I’d never done before, I opened up a gap on the final climb that another rider was able to match. The two of us took the descent together before being caught on the flats. My effort here was probably a mistake as the descent wasn’t as technical as I thought and it would have been easy enough to catch back on if I got dropped.
Once on the flats, two unaffiliated riders started floating away as the front of the peloton slowed – almost as if they were blocking for the break. It took a few minutes for a paceline to organize, but eventually we were humming along and cut the deficit to the break in half.
I noticed that not everyone in the group seemed super comfortable with a rotating paceline, and the speeds on the receding line varied a lot, sometimes requiring harder braking. Unfortunately, Matin and Jack got caught up in one of these events and crashed. I stayed back to make sure they were ok, before eventually carrying on with two other riders who crashed but were relatively unscathed. Despite being delayed for 20 minutes, I was able to catch a few of the other riders – giving credibility to the idea that Matin may have been able to win the race. Given our history with pacelines, next year he might just have to win it from the break.
Thanks for reading!
Wil Gibb