Race Report: 2025 Tour de Murrieta - Men’s Cat 2/3
Race: 2025 Tour de Murrieta Crit - Men’s Cat 2/3
Date: March 5, 2025
AVRT racers: Jon Wells
Top Result: Jon Wells, 5th of 54
Course: 1 mile loop through historic downtown Murrieta. The L-shaped course had 6 corners making for a slightly technical course. Wind picked up during our race making for some solid crosswind sections.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14091768089/
Nutrition: One bottle of 90g carb mix during and a pre race redbull
Race Recap:
Plan coming into the race was to react to moves without being too much of an instigator since I don’t really know the Socal typical teams and individuals to watch plus I was racing by myself. It would be nice to be in a break but I was also fine sprinting for scraps if a move went since I was just looking for a few more points to secure my cat 1 upgrade.
Nothing of note happened the first half of the race as I just tried to stay near the front and follow moves that were easy to cover or looked threatening. Eventually, a move of 2 got some separation and the field didn’t do much to control the gap, even with several big teams missing it. Turns out the break had Dave Zabriskie’s kid in the move and he is quite strong (shocker!). There was no real concerted effort by the field to chase and the gap felt bridge-able the entire time. I made one real effort to go across solo in the crosswinds and helped with some pulls at the front to manage it but at some point around 5 to go it became clear that was the move of the day and we were now racing for 3rd.
I planted myself right near the front starting around 3 to go. Came into the last lap around 5th wheel but with no big teams it was very hectic. The long back stretch was a real drag race into the last 2 corners. I came into the last 2 corners sitting 3rd and opened up my sprint out of the last corner, which is still probably 30 seconds to the line. I came around both guys who were in front of me but also had 2 guys from behind pass me so finished right where I came into the last corners in 3rd in the group. Was good enough for 5th on the day and I now had enough points for my cat 1 road upgrade!!!
-Jon
Race: 2025 Tour de Murrieta Circuit Race - Men’s Cat 2/3
Date: March 6, 2025
AVRT racers: Jon Wells
Top Result: Jon Wells, 12th of 60, 8th in GC for weekend
Course: 3.5 mile loop through historic downtown Murrieta. The L-shaped course had one particularly tight corner, some slight elevation on the back side, sections of poor pavement, and pinch points going from having the entire road to just one lane.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14106054899/
Nutrition: One bottle of 90g carb mix, one ice bottle, and 2x caffeinated honey stinger blocks
Race Recap:
Since I had finished with my cat 1 upgrade points the day before, I was out to have some more fun and race aggressively on day 2. The GC prize money was pretty weak so I had no vested interest in that.
Race started pretty fast and stayed that way the entire time. I took many swings at trying to get away from the group, starting from almost at the gun. I tried in the bad pavement sections, out of the tight corner, and on the slight rise at various points in the race but nothing was really sticking. I think everyone was very onto any breaks happening since we had all missed the move the day before. There were still several of us that tried quite hard to make it happen. I think we needed something to make the course harder like some crosswinds from the day before.
As it came down to the closing lap, I spent some energy to be near the front. Unfortunately, on the back side when it pinched down to one lane I got squeezed to maybe the third row as we rode shoulder to shoulder across the whole lane. Eventually, out of the last corner I was finally able to squeeze free and opened up a pretty long range move. This got me into an ok position for the sprint, but it was really too late. The finish line was less than 100m out of the last corner so I really needed to be going sooner. Regardless, I still got up to 12th on the finish after racing pretty hard all day. Was good enough for 8th on the weekend GC. But the big weekend win was getting my cat 1 road upgrade!!
-Jon