Race Report: 2025 Santa Barbara Road Race - Men’s P/1/2

Race: Santa Barbara Road Race - Men’s P/1/2

Date: 1/25/25

AVRT Racers: Henry Mallon, Nathan Martin

Top Result: Henry 16th

Nutrition: 2 600ml bottles w/ 100g of carbs each, 1 900ml bottle with 150g of carbs, took in ~100g/h

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13452992482

Recap (written by Nathan): 

Big field for an early season race, over 55 starters. Strong riders included Chris Blevins, pro MTBer, John Borstelmann, pro gravel racer, Jason Saltzman, former pro road cyclist, and a bunch of other names. There weren’t a ton of huge teams, most had 2-3 riders, so it was going to be a dynamic day.

I rolled off the front literally in the first mile and would spend ⅔ of the day in the break. I joined a small group that included Will Hardin, crit racer and YouTuber extraordinaire, and a few other strong riders.

We quickly got a 2 minute gap and started to really roll through with each other, even though we still had 3 hours to race.

First two laps were us just rotating, then just after the start of lap 3, Chris Blevins would bridge up to us as would John Borstelmann later, so we had a really strong group.

We would rotate really well for about a lap, then people started getting tired and skipping turns, this was a January race after all, and being in the break that long really wasn’t too fun.

We got caught just after the start of lap 5. I tried to put in a dig on the climb to get some separation, but it was to no avail and we got swept into the peloton.

On the start of the last lap, before the main climb, I made sure I was in good position as it was a bit of a crosswind on the climb and anything could happen. Sure enough, Chris Blevins would attack with a couple other strong riders and get a gap, which I would close down and stitch the group back together.

Going into the final straight, I was near the back with Henry, and decided to move him to the front and into good position. I took a decent pull up the side, bringing Henry into the front wheels, but my mistake was peeling off about 500m from the bottom of the final climb, where the finish was.

Henry would get swarmed a bit going into the climb, but still pull out a good finish given the depth of the field, and in his first P/1/2 race.

Overall a fun January race, was good to test the legs early and work on some positioning.