Race Report: Land Park Crit W3/4/5/Master’s/Juniors

Race: Land Park Crit W3/4/5/Master’s/Juniors

Date: March 15, 2025

AVRT racers: Louise Thomas, Sam Dewees, Kat Zgraja, Katie Monaghan, Steph Hart

Top Result: 1/50 Steph, 3/50 Kat, 6/50 Louise

Course: Flat oval course (~1.1 mi) with a chicane, headwind into the finish line

nutrition: espresso gu ~5 min before the start

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13892978235

Race Recap:

From Steph’s perspective in the break:

The start of the NCNCA womens series brought out 50 (!) women in the combined 3/4/5 masters/jr field- largest field of the day outside of the men’s 1/2/3 race. As soon as lap one, several solo attacks went off the front, but everything was brought back quickly. The chicane section was pretty sketchy with this large of a field, which was a good reminder to be in the front of this section to avoid crashes. In the third lap, Lousie attacked before the chicane section, and when the field brought her back, I countered and got a bit of separation heading into the headwind section. No one appeared to chase, and after a few laps solo I was holding a 30-45 second gap. From there I spent the next 35 minutes humming radio shack to myself off the front while riding a little below threshold (noting Bariani was the following day so I didn’t want to totally trash myself), and managed to stay away for the win.

From Katie’s perspective in the field: 

This was the best race of the year. Steph got away early and then Louise, Kat and I quickly assembled to the front of the peloton to slow down the field. I heard a few girls shout at us that we were purposely slowing it down and that felt super satisfying. There was a lot of racing between Steph’s break and the final laps that included some sketchy corners, a little bumping elbows and small attacks. 

With three laps to go, I notice I’m the only AV jersey I’ve seen in the main peloton for a bit. I think to myself did I suddenly get the fitness of a god and somehow am the only one who stayed with the group?! Believe it or not, this is definitely not the case, Louise was sitting at the back plotting with Kat exactly what she wanted for a sprint. 

With about 5 laps to go Louise rides up next to me and goes “okay Kat wants a 10 second sprint, one of us is taking through the first two corners and chicane and one of us is taking through the final corner. Which do you want?” Katie “uhhhhh, idk??” The pace picks up again and we split. 

Entering into the final lap, I see Kat has gotten herself to the front. I’m probably mid to back of the back. Louise comes around me and gets in front of Kat. Again Katie thoughts “woah, cool, okay Katie time to make yourself useful” so I come around the outside the peloton and get in front of Louise to start hammering for the final lap. 

To my surprise, I think I was putting down some pretty good power because I stayed there for about 75% of the final lap. I was super excited to finally to get to take the left before the chicane like I wanted to instead of the accordion effect on all the other laps. I just redlined some and listened to Louise’s encouraging words behind me go “come on Katie, you’re doing great, one more corner, come on, you’ve got this” I’m currently seeing stars but how the heck to let the nicest person in the world down at that point? Shy of the final corner I pull to the side and Louise pulled around me and I slow pedaled to the finish. 

Kat’s perspective in the sprint:

After Steph’s attack, Louise, Katie, and I worked to prevent the group from catching. It was pretty effective. Based on the course visibility, we could see Steph noticeably getting away. About 4 laps to go, we now started to focus on the field sprint. Louise came up to me and we discussed strategy. We ended up deciding that Katie and Louise were going to lead me out for the field sprint. Louise rode up to Katie to tell her to start getting to the start of the pack on the second to last or beginning of the last lap. We assembled ourselves pretty well. Katie came to the front of the group right at the bell lap and pulled like a beast until just after the chicane. Then Louise was right behind her and put the power down. There was a girl who managed to grab Louise’s wheel, so I was 3rd wheel in the leadout. Closely after the final turn (~400m to the finish?), Shannon Pidd pulled out from behind me. I quickly grabbed her wheel, and then it was a race between me and her to the finish. I was gaining on her, but the finish line did arrive quicker than I expected, so I ended up being maybe 6” behind her. I guess I need to start practicing my bike throw.  All-in-all a great effort, the pace on that last lap was epic, and our teamwork really worked out quite well. I just need to work on executing that field sprint win in future races :)

photo credit: Daniel Alvarez