Race Report: 2025 Early Birds #3 - Women’s Cat 4/5
Race Report Writer: Alex Cameron
Race: Early Birds #3 - Women’s Cat 4/5
Date: Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025
AVRT racers: Alex Cameron, Hannah Chen, Elena De La Paz, Sam Dewees, Robin Kutner, Brenda (not sure of her last name!)
AVRT mentors: Robin Betz (head mentor!), Louise Thomas, Ari Fischer
Top Result: We did 4 practice races (5 laps each) and did not closely keep track of results, although Hannah did win the 3rd practice race!
Course: 1km square, flat loop with four right turns. Headwind strong on one stretch.
Strava: Segment here
Event Recap: At this week’s Early Bird clinic, the focus was riding safely in different formations and group shapes as the peloton speeds up and slows down throughout the race. While using the skills we had learned from prior weeks (riding in drops, protect your front wheel, ride predictably, outside-inside-outside corners), we practiced riding bunched up in a group, then transitioning to a double paceline, and finally transitioning to a single, strung out paceline all the way to the finish.
We broke out into smaller groups to practice these drills. The different drills were:
Double paceline, practicing a continuous rotation, and learning how to communicate in these pace lines (calling out “clear” to the rider on your inside to come over from the inside to the outside line at the front of the group, calling “last” to the rider on your outside so that they know you’re the last in the pace line and can safely transition from the outside to the inside line)
Single pace line, practicing all of the above.
Bunched up group > double pace line > single pace line > finish, all within one lap
Finally, we did 4 5-lap practice races at higher speeds. We were able to use the skills we just learned and, most importantly, keep ourselves and everyone else safe as we completed the races.
This was my first weekend where I got to do the practice races, and I felt so much more comfortable than I expected. It has been so helpful to have these clinics to learn so many skills in a controlled environment. It has made me feel so much more confident going into the practice races, because I feel like I know what to expect, and how to keep myself from crashing out.
We had a really good group of women in these practice races, so there was a lot of trading the lead, and especially Super Sprinkles were planning and launching attacks throughout. I had a ton of fun trying to stay in the lead group. A couple times, I was able to get on Hannah’s wheel and stay with her - she tried to launch me at one point but my legs were so dead and I wasn’t able to sprint to the finish! I had a small scare coming around one of the turns, where I thought I could pedal through but we were going too fast, so my pedal caught the ground and gave me a little jolt. That was pretty freaky, and was a good reminder to stay calm and be smart.
Overall, it was another great Early Bird with a great group of AVRT 4/5 ladies, along with Louise, Robin B and Ari mentoring! We did a group ride prior to the clinic and practice races but were only able to do an out and back instead of the full loop due to time constraints. Excited for next week’s Early Bird focus - sprinting!
