Race Report: Cat’s Hill 2025 - Women’s Cat 4/5 & Collegiate D

Race: Cat’s Hill - Women’s Cat 4/5 & Collegiate D

Date: March 15, 2025

AVRT racers: Hannah Chen, Katie Monaghan, Samantha Dewees 

Top Result: Hannah Chen (8/19) Katie Monaghan (9/19)

Course: 40 minutes around a 0.90 mile course.  L shape with 6 corners and a punchy 0.05mi/ 35ft climb at avg 11.8%, max 20% grade followed by a gradual descent to the finish

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13957443896

Nutrition: PB& banana sandwich for breakfast, Mott’s Gummies right before the race cause I’m cheap and sugar is sugar

(From Katie’s point of view)

I have so many thoughts about this race. First of all, I LOVE it. Second of all, I HATE it. 

Quick context, let's start with this race in 2024: It was one of my first races last year. I had broken a rib in a crash about ~8ish weeks earlier descending a wet 84. Being the really responsible physical therapist that I am, I naturally pushed the limits of what I should have been doing physically. However, I showed up to the race and it was actively raining. Between the wet surfaces, my recent injury and my genuine fear if I was going to even be able to make it up the hill, I was mentally not in it from the start. I got dropped early, suffered a lot and averaged about 16.5 mph for the course.

Come 2025, I was super eager to give another crack at this course. I felt way more confident that I could get up the hill after having a year of Egan under my belt. 23% grade sprints were no longer so intimidating. Thank you Egan!! I had messaged in the women’s slack prior to the race looking for tips about shifting before entering the hill. Last year I granny geared up for it every lap and knew if I wanted to be competitive, this wasn’t going to cut it. (For context, I only had a 28 in the back so it wasn’t the granniest of gears). However, I also knew I wanted to avoid the dreaded chain drop. Kristin had suggested getting into your little ring after the speed bump on the straight away prior to the left. Noted.

Race starts. Time for hill repeats! The first few laps I think I was re-figuring out the hill – “Okay shift early, but try to have lots of momentum still. Get out of the saddle, pray to god and repeat.” I was doing pretty well and keeping up with the front 5-6 of the group. This hill really was 1000x easier than last year. I also found that I was 1000x stronger on the slight downhill and corners from last year. Most laps I would enter the hill first to second wheel and end up 5-6th at the top of the hill. Some things never change and I only climb hills so fast. However, I wasn’t trashed and was finding it very easy to get myself back to the front of the group on the downhill without expending really much energy at all. Therefore, I would make sure to enter first to give myself any advantage I could on the climb. 

5 laps to go and I’m very much still in it. I started shifting later and later into my little ring throughout the race because it was helping me keep better speed and momentum entering the climb. 4 laps to go, the shift again happens later and suddenly I’m spinning out. The dreaded chain drop. I unclip and let out a healthy array of expletives. Ryan D runs up to me and encourages me to start my run up the hill to get my chain back on. (Thank you Ryan!) However, I knew my race was pretty much over at this point. 

I got to the top, pulled my chain back on and expressed to anyone who was willing to hear that I really was previously in the race. I finished out the race but at much less intensity to come in 9th. I had a few friends from undergrad and my track club who came to watch, which was super nice of them. Following the race, one of them told me that they overheard someone say I was the most amusing person to watch. I think this was because I proceeded to spend my final four laps chitchatting all my laments as I climbed the hill. If I can’t be the fastest, at least apparently I’m somewhat funny. 

Very disappointed to have dropped my chain but I could tell I made a lot of progress in my cycling this past year. My average speed was faster (19.8 mph), I hit 30 second power PRs and the downhill corners were exhilarating and fun rather than scary. Sometimes it’s about progress not perfection and I’m okay with that. 

I also want to say a huge thank you to everyone in the Alto Velo community who came out to watch! Especially if you bothered to come early to watch the women’s 4s or 3s. It’s super fun to have people cheering for you on the sidelines and we all really appreciated it. 

Photo Credits: Will Gibb