Race Report: 2025 Cal Aggie Crit - Men’s Pro/1/2

Race: 2025 Cal Aggie Crit - Men’s Pro/1/2

Date: February 1, 2025

AVRT racers: Jon Wells

Top Result: Jon Wells, DNF

Course: 1.1 mile loop in Land Park, up in Sacramento. The course runs clockwise around a loop with a single chicane and one final corner. The rest of the course is one long bend that works around the loop. No real elevation but the wind would be a major course feature.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13514965483/ 

Nutrition: a pre race Redbull and 60g flow bottle during the race 

Race Recap:

Coming into this race, I was flying solo as the wind and rain had kept everyone else home. There were only about 30 people in the field and only Mikes and Terun had more than 3 riders on any team. I was expecting a break to roll at some point with both of them represented and then the rest of the field would lose motivation to chase as the break rolled away. In anticipation of this happening (Spoiler alert, thats exactly what happened), my plan was to only cover moves with those two teams represented.

The race got off to a rather slow start as everyone felt out the wet corners on the first lap. It had rained pretty hard all day but was just a drizzle once racing had started. The wind was still blowing pretty hard, probably 20mph, right in your face down the home straight. You had to be constantly alert to the wind direction when making moves as it could cost you lost of extra energy to attack in the wrong place.

I pretty easily covered a couple moves in the first 15 minutes that had both big teams, but on the third move when a counter went over the move I was in, I was tired from attacking and really not in a good spot to respond. As I tacked onto the back of the field, the move at the front had shattered the field into groups of 3-4 riders due to a combination of the crosswind section, wet corners, and big attack. Unfortunately the group I was in at the very back never made it back into the race and we got pulled. 

Ultimately a group of 6 stuck together from that final surge when I was dropped, and it included 2 Mikes and 2 Terun riders, leaving almost no firepower in the remaining groups to chase. Glad to have racing back for this season and certainly looking forward to the next one for some redemption.

-Jon