Race Report: 2024 Patterson Pass Road Race - Men’s P/1/2

Race: Patterson Pass Road Race - Men’s P/1/2

Date: 8/4/24

AVRT Racers: Grant Miller, Nathan Martin, Andrew Ernst, Cam O’Reilly, Flo Costa

Top Result: 5th- Nathan, 6th - Grant

Course: 4 laps of this. One long climb on Patterson Pass Rd, one shorter climb on Flynn Rd, a ripping descent, finishing on a short, punchy climb. There was an extremely strong west to east wind.

Nutrition: 3 bottles of mix, 4 gels

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/12063598154

Race Recep (written by Nathan): 

Two things would decide the race today, the strong wind from West to East, and the temperature. It wasn’t going to be as hot as past years, but proper nutrition and cooling would be extremely important as always.

The first two laps were rather uneventful, aside from Erik from Dolce Vita taking an extremely early flyer the first lap and would stay away for a long time. The chase to bring him back at the end of the second lap and on the third climb really started to pick up from Mikes’ Bikes, but he would still have a decent gap when we summited the climb the third time.

On Flynn Rd, we’d get some surges, but it would be on the descent right after the Flynn Rd climb where things popped off on the third lap. As we neared the sharp left-hander where S Flynn Rd becomes N Flynn Rd, Tobin Ortenblad came ripping down the side and took the corner really fast. There was a ripple effect through the group, as some people took it easy some fast, and some gaps opened up right as we hit a pretty strong headwind.

The group fractured pretty quickly, with a small group including Tobin, Andrew, and some other strong riders immediately starting to work. Grant and I were in the second group behind, rotating and taking pulls because we know even though Andrew was in the group ahead, there were multiple Mikes’ riders and Erik was still up the road.

Their gap on us increased the entire time down Altamont Pass Rd, but once we turned onto Midway Rd, it started to come down and we ended up catching them right before our last time through the feed zone.

At this point the lead group was about 20 riders or so, which is pretty normal for Patterson given it’s always a race of attrition.

Last time up the climb, there would be some additional attacks, including from Flo, but because there was such a strong headwind on the climb, it made it nearly impossible for anything to stick. 

The real deciding moment of the race came on the Flynn Rd climb. Just near the top, Tobin attacked, and with him went Mattheus from Mikes. I was in the next group behind them with 3 others. I would try to work with them, but my legs were getting pretty cooked chasing the lap prior, and I got dropped about halfway down Altamont Pass Rd and rolled in solo for 5th, Grant just behind me for 6th.

Overall a tough race as usual. I think we did well surviving the attrition, but it would have been perfect to have Andrew plus one or two more of us in that group that got away on the second to last lap, so we didn’t have to chase, but otherwise some great work from the team.