Race Report: 2025 Snelling Road Race - Men’s Cat 3
Race: Snelling Road Race - Men’s Cat 3
Date: March 1st, 2025
AVRT racers: George Wehner
Top Result: George 4/26
Course: 5 laps of a rolling 20-km course with generally mediocre pavement that became quite bad on the back half of the course, especially Figmond Ave and Fields Rd.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13762331893
Nutrition: I ate a packet of Skratch energy chews (40g carbs, 50mg caffeine) on the start line, then drank 3 full bottles during the race with 90g carbs each (30g fructose, 60g maltodextrin).
Recap: I was racing solo, so my plan was to let the major teams dictate the flow of the race, be very selective with what moves I followed, and conserve as much energy as possible for what likely would be a field sprint. Dolce Vita brought 7 riders, and Terun had 4 of their own, so I figured those two teams would be responsible for controlling the race. As I couldn’t follow everything, I planned to only follow moves that had both Dolce Vita and Terun represented.
Things were going according to plan for the first 1.5 laps - the race was pretty hard, but nothing too out of the ordinary. I was mostly trying to sit in and conserve energy, sagging the rollers and letting others burn their matches. However, I sagged a little too far, and towards the end of lap 2 I ended up behind a split where about 10-12 riders went off the front, including 3 Dolce Vita and 2 Terun riders. I got to the front of the second group, but I was being left out to dry by the other riders (Dolce Vita was blocking others from joining the effort), and the gap blew out to about 45 seconds as I filtered back.
I didn’t want to give up, but I also didn’t want to give anyone a free ride, so I attacked the group hard enough to snap the elastic. Two others followed, and we quickly caught another rider who had attacked a minute earlier, forming a group of 4 chasers who were all committed to bridging to that front group. It took us a hard 20-25 minutes of chasing, but we successfully bridged the gap and joined the front group about 2/3 of the way through the 3rd lap.
I was pretty gassed after this chase effort, so I focused on conserving energy at least until the final lap. For most of lap 4, this front group was still very dynamic, with plenty of attacks flying, but I stayed calm and sat in as much as I could. At the start of the final lap, there was a brief period of calm, as I’m pretty sure everyone else in that front group was as cooked as me, but my strategy was still to conserve energy. About 3km from the finish, Zac from Dolce Vita sent a flyer, but I just let this go as I figured we’d probably catch him and it wasn’t my responsibility to chase. That said, I made sure to stay close to the front, and I was positioned in 5th or 6th wheel going into the final corner. Because of the sketchy pavement, I was a bit timid and let a small gap open through the corner, which isn’t ideal with 400m to go. We caught Zac just before the line, and my sprint still ended up being good enough to place 4th, missing out on 3rd by just a bike throw.
I think I raced a pretty good race, but there are definitely a couple things I need to improve on. First, with the race being as hard as it was, I probably should’ve been more careful with sagging to avoid the split, although this is easy to say in hindsight. Second, I think being more confident through that final corner would’ve helped a little bit. The guy who won, Chaz from Data Driven Athlete, was very assertive through that corner, and that got him into perfect position to take the W. That said, I’m happy with my result – it’s never a bad day when you win $7 and a Velo Promo T-shirt.
