Race Report: 2025 Land Park Criterium Men P123 35+

Race: Land Park Criterium - Men's Cat P123 35+

Date: Saturday March 15, 2025

AVRT racers: Erik Levinsohn

Top Result: Erik Levinsohn (1/38)

Course: Ovoid ~1 mile circuit with one tight S curve, significant headwind on N stretch and tailwind on S stretch. Flat as a pancake.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13893245466

Nutrition: One gu. I can’t eat during crits so just ate a big breakfast and hoped for the best.

Race recap: It’s been a tough start to the year with some busy days at work and illness throwing a wrench in racing plans. This weekend I had planned to do Bariani though with some changing family plans over the weekend it looked like the best window to get in a race was the masters crit.

I hate crits. My strengths as a cyclist are time trialing and climbing and flat pack riding doesn’t exactly tick those boxes. However, this seemed like a good chance to get in some racing practice and finally don the AV kit for the first time as a racer.

Patience is not a virtue of mine and the first lap of the race was slow enough that I figured sending an attack on lap 2 was at least worth the thrill and the possibility of animating the race. After attacking all out for a minute or so there was a substantial gap. I hadn’t really planned on trying to stay off the front the whole race but that became the new plan.

Having primes every few laps and a relatively small group off the front chasing was I think pretty key in terms of being able to stay away. A larger group chasing or a more steady effort from the pack and I think I would have been caught. In the end, I was able to stay away for the rest of the race.

It’s my first year as a masters racer and while I plan to do mostly P12 races, it was fun to have the chance to try out something different and finally get started with some racing for the year.

Photo Credit: Daniel Alvarez | Enjoy Cycling

Photo Credit: Daniel Alvarez | Enjoy Cycling