Race Report: Snelling Road Race W3/4/5/Master’s
Race: Snelling RR W3/4/5
Date: March 1, 2025
AVRT racers: Chris Davis, Louise Thomas, Maeve Roach, Rachel Hwang, Robin Kutner, Sam Dewees, Steph Hart
Top Result: 1/31 Rachel, 3/31 Louise, 5/31 Maeve, 6/31 Steph
Course: 50 miles total, 4x 11.4 mile laps with a 5 mile moto start
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13763587090
Race Recap: Rachel Hwang’s Perspective
Our team strategy was to have me as a protected rider to get my last remaining upgrade points to cat up, and have the rest of the team attack and counterattack, make the race more exciting.
Right off the bat, Louise attacked, and given the race had just begun, no one chased. For the first lap Louise was out there on her own, a few same people tried bridging, but made poor attempts and were uncoordinated. In addition, Robin did a great job of riding in the front of the pack discouraging others to chase, or sitting 2nd wheel behind those who tried to chase, and refused to pull, once again disrupting any chase attempts.
One lap in, the race was turning into a coffee ride, and Steph decided to attack. Maeve and I followed thinking we could break off from the larger group, join Louise, and have a 4 person team break. That failed horribly as the rest of the pack was right behind us. Although we never want to chase our teammates down, my thought here was to have a sprinter and a teammate in the break to ensure a win at the finish line. Instead of slowing down once again as we should have done, Steph continued pushing the pace until we caught up to Louise, at which point she had about a one minute lead. While we should not have chased down our own teammate, the field was not cut in half, and people were getting tired.
For the next lap, some attacks were made, none successful, chased down each time. As it was the same few people chasing, probably those stronger in the pack, they were getting tired. Then for a bit, attacks stopped, and the ride started becoming a coffee ride once again. I chatted with Robin, saying it was getting boring, that I want to attack but I should keep my energy, and that’s when Robin said she could attack. She did just that, which set off a chain of events leading to the eventual win. As Robin attacked, others chased, and I followed drafting behind the others. As Robin was brought back in, Sophia counterattacked, Louise chased, and I jumped on Louise’s wheel. Mile 23. I have never been in a successful break, and thinking strategy, always play it conservatively, and as the protected rider, didn’t think I should pull. Because I’ve never been in a successful break, I was also very skeptical of a break sticking for 25+ miles. As the three of us struggled to figure out how to keep the break, with Sophia and Louise trading pulls, I could see the two of them struggling, and asked Louise if I should pull. She said, “maybe a little.” A fourth girl, Kelly, had bridged up to us, and that point, had been maybe a minute in a successful break, already longer than I had expected. With four people, I decided to give it a good go and with the help of Louise was able to get the four of us to rotate and take quick turns pulling. I would count in my head up to 10 slowly before flicking my elbow and moving aside for the next person to pull.
Robin’s perspective in the main pack: with our protected rider in the break, Maeve and Steph and I patrolled the front of the peloton to interrupt attempts at paceline organization. After a few miles, the break was out of sight. Steph attacked at one point on a roller in favorable wind conditions, and nobody chased her down. When she was maybe 30sec ahead, Maeve then attacked (looking around to make sure she hadn’t brought any opponents with her), and turns out she was able to bridge to Steph. Strong!!
We traded pulls for the remainder of the ride, with the moto informing us our lead of 30s, 1min, and 2min. I felt pretty fresh, and really wanted the break to stick. As the pace would drop a little, I’d pull a little longer, yell some encouraging words, and especially up the hills, keep a strong pace and pull us up, but trying to be careful not to push the pace too much as I needed the other 3 for a successful breakaway through to the end.
As we entered into the last lap, I was trying to gauge how the other riders felt. Louise told me she didn’t think she could keep that pace much longer, even though she was killing it and I couldn’t tell, and Sophia and Kelly had strong but short pulls, so couldn’t tell how they were doing.
Robin’s perspective in the main pack: now we had two AV groups up ahead, and it was just me in this chase group (plus the Chris/Sam group somewhere behind). Having shed a few riders to the front groups and off the back, the riders around me started rolling turns. I didn’t want to just sit on the back of the rotation because then I’d be too far from the front to respond to anything. So I sorta sat in the middle of the rotation and when riders noticed the next person wasn’t pulling through, they’d glance back, see it was me (and understandably roll their eyes!), and create a mini-rotation in front of me. It felt like a sneaky move, but it was successful, since we then lost sight of Maeve and Steph. This was my first time majorly defending teammates up the road.
With less than 3 miles to go, we turned a corner, with me and Sophia in front, and the next time I looked back, Louise and Kelly had dropped off. I wasn’t sure how many miles were left so looked over at Sophia wondering if we should go ahead or wait for them. They were getting farther behind so we decided to work together to the end. I later learned from Louise that she purposefully slowed her and Kelly down so that I’d only have one person to sprint against. As Sophia and I were on the last stretch of road before the last turn, we traded pulls, and Sophia moved aside for me to pull, then said, “It’s the last corner.” I replied with, “I know” and decided to pull the rest of the way. But Sophia wasn’t sitting right behind my wheel and I wasn’t sure why she wasn’t maximizing the draft, then I speeded up a little, and as soon as we hit the corner, I sprinted. About 15 seconds later I look back and she’s still far behind but don’t let off the gas. Another 15 seconds later I look back again and she is nowhere near catching up, so I slow roll through the finish line.
Robin’s perspective in the main pack: with all my teammates up the road completely out of sight, I was free to race for myself. There were ~10 of us and I knew the last stretch into the finish had corners, sand, a bottleneck, potholes, and would be a sprint – not great for me. I attacked the field 3k out trying to shed some people and knowing I’d have time to recover. That didn’t achieve anything – not sure what else I could have done at this moment to improve my potential in this group (any suggestions?). With some trepidation about the “road features”, I approached the finish in poor position but managed to catch a couple riders who faded during the final sprint. It was great to see that the cat3 teammates whose position I had defended finished extremely well!
Sam’s perspective: This was my first road race, so my intention was to follow the team plan to control the pace and help Rachel win in a sprint finish. I used the first lap to observe the dynamics and get comfortable riding in a pack. Louise attacked early, so I tried to stay with the group in a decent position and prepare myself for attacking later on in the race, if necessary. Unfortunately, I learned after the first lap that positioning is critical at all times during a race, especially if there are rolling hills, and anticipating pace changes is key to staying in a good position. The first lap ended with an uphill stretch which was followed by a downhill section, a right hand turn, and another uphill stretch, and it was at this moment that a rider attacked and I found myself unable to respond quickly enough and lost the front group. Fortunately, Chris and several other riders lost the group as well, so we formed a chase group and rode together for the remainder of the race, trading pulls. Chris developed a strategy for our group: prevent the chase from bridging back to the front group so we kept some competition away from our teammates. She also lead me out at the end of the last lap for a sprint finish, and I managed to edge in front of the other riders, ending my race on a higher note. While it was not the race I expected, I had a good experience overall and learned lots for future races!
Nutrition: 1x 24oz Fluid Fresh Citrus drink mix, 1x Torq gel per hour (2x non-caffeinated, 1x caffeinated). My second bottle flew out of the bottle cage on the first lap from the bumpy roads.