Race Report: 2024 Davis Flatlands Circuit Race - Men's P123
Race: 2024 Davis Flatlands Circuit Race - Men's P123
Date: April 7th, 2024
AVRT racers: Flo Costa, Jon Wells
Top Results: Flo (5/36)
Course: 90 min circuit race (11 laps) next to UC Davis. Pretty flat loop with one bumpy “roubaix” section with tons of potholes. The rest of the course has pretty good pavement. Main factor here is the wind; on this day it was a fast tailwind finish with some crosswind on the northern part of the course.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11131287085
Youtube: Cool video by teammate Jon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWZaXSfxjAA
Nutrition: Drink mix in the bottles and a couple gels.
Race: This was a pretty cool venue set up by the UC Davis bike team and I was excited to race this course. Obviously it was pretty flat, which meant a sprint was likely, but there weren’t a lot of teams represented which could lead to interesting dynamics. My plan for this race was to feel out the field and conserve energy in the first ⅓ before committing to a game plan. In hindsight, the lack of big teams meant I could have been more aggressive at the beginning. Speaking of teams, the main teams represented here were Dolce Vita and Voler. The main guy to watch out for was Alex Akins, who surely was the best sprinter here.
At the very start of the race, a Voler rider attacked and was followed by a Dolce rider. They managed to get a pretty good initial separation, but I wasn’t immediately concerned because we were a decent sized field and everyone was fresh. Over this first lap, the gap got bigger and bigger and was quickly over 30 seconds. No one in the field seemed super alarmed - shit.
Over the next couple laps I tried to rally people to chase, but couldn’t organize a chase. This meant the only option was to try to bridge across, hopefully with some help. So for the next few laps I would attack in the crosswind and get a small gap, only to be caught by Alex with the entire field chasing him. It was actually kind of funny, because every time Alex would attack the entire field sprinted all out to follow and otherwise would do zero work to chase the breakaway. It must’ve been tough for Alex to be so marked, but good tactics by Voler and Dolce.
Alex and I were the main protagonists, but nothing was sticking very long, and meanwhile the two breakaway riders were smoothly rotating. At some point, Jon had a really nice counter attack and nearly caught up to the leaders. Unfortunately he was chased back and I tried to counter, but the entire field kept following.
With 2 laps to go, another solo rider put in a mini attack and rolled off. This time no one chased. The field was allergic to the wind. Super frustrating. At this point, with nearly 1 lap left it looked like the break would stay away, so I reluctantly got ready to sprint. I was still feeling good, so Jon kindly agreed to help in a leadout.
A couple flyers went on the backside straightaway and Jon did a nice job keeping the pace high to not let them get away. I tried staying in the top 10 wheels, sheltered from the wind. With about 800 meters to go, Alex launched an attack into the final turns before the finish. This was the move to follow, so I put in a big dig to get on that train. At this point I was slotted in third behind a Dolce rider, who was directly behind Alex. With the tailwind finish, we took the final corners very quickly and opened up our sprints pretty far out. I managed to pass the Dolce guy and came up right behind Alex to secure 5th.
A decent result in the end, but a really frustrating race with the group dynamics. I felt really good on the day so it was tough to see the original breakaway stay away with another guy easily rolling off the front. That’s bike racing I guess. Still a fun day playing bikes, I’d definitely recommend this race.
Thanks for reading!