Race Report: 2024 Santa Cruz Classic Criterium - Men’s Cat 3
Race: Santa Cruz Classic Criterium – Men’s Cat 3
Date: March 25, 2024
AVRT racers: George Wehner
Top Result: George DNP/29
Course: 45 minutes of clockwise laps of a 3/4 mile technical course. The course begins with a tight, downhill hairpin about 150m after the start which leads into a long straight that starts narrow but gets wider. Then, there are two wide 90 degree right turns in immediate succession leading into a narrow, slightly uphill section. After this, there is an off-camber right turn with a few drain covers in it, then a 400m climb that starts at around 5% but gradually levels off going back to the start/finish.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11030417386
Nutrition: I had a gel about 20 minutes before the race and another gel on the start line. During the race I just drank water.
Recap: I also have a YouTube video about this race which goes into a bit more detail, if people are interested: https://youtu.be/eVOH8_XVz_k?si=sx02Afx5GJOczkLG
It was actively raining in the lead-up to the race, and I was shivering on the start line. I knew this meant that this would likely lead to more separations in the field and a more attritional race. Also, I knew to be careful in the difficult corners (hairpin + final right hander) as a crash seemed likely. In hindsight, I probably should’ve backed out of this race, but this is a course that suits me quite well and my legs felt good despite racing Cat’s Hill the day before.
There were a few teams with 3 riders, but no team was big enough to take control of the race, so I wasn’t too concerned about other teams’ tactics. I didn’t have any teammates in this race, so I adopted a strategy of sitting in and conserving as much energy as possible, making sure to stay in front of any splits, and wait for the sprint against a hopefully reduced field. To do so, I tried to move up where I could do so for little energy – the easiest spot was the wide part of the straight before the two 90 degree right turns – so I could start the climb far enough up to safely sag.
For the first 30 minutes or so, this strategy worked quite well. Aside from my own suffering due to the cold, wet weather, and a couple riders crashing in the hairpin about 20 minutes into the race, nothing too notable happened. Going into the final 8 or so laps, I felt really good, and honestly thought I could win the race if it came down to a sprint. The race was getting harder, but I still had no trouble keeping up on the climb.
With 5 laps to go, a small split opened up a few wheels ahead of me going through the start-finish line. The gap started to grow pretty quickly, so I got to the front going into the two 90 degree right-handers and started pulling them back. In the narrow section, I let two Big Orange riders (one of the 3-person teams in the race) in front of me so they would help chase, and I slotted back in.
Immediately after this, the rider I had just slotted behind took a bad line through the off-camber right turn, slid out on a drain cover, and left me with nowhere to go but into his bike. I went over the bars and landed pretty hard on my right arm. I got up and thought about getting back in the race, but my arm was in pain so I decided against it. Free laps had just ended, so this ended my race.
Fortunately, I was unhurt aside from some scrapes and bruises. My bike seemed intact at first, then later I found a small defect inside the frame, but after Summit thoroughly checked my bike they declared it was safe to ride. My helmet took some minor damage, so I replaced it immediately. Honestly, the part of this that felt the worst wasn’t the road rash or the helmet damage, it was the fact that I had to DNF a race I honestly thought I could’ve won or at least podiumed. But that’s bike racing, I suppose.