Race Report: Kentucky Open Road Race Series #2 - Men’s 3/4

Race:   Kentucky Open Road Race Series #2 - Men’s 3/4

Date: May 4, 2025

AVRT Racers: Kevin Kauffman

Best Finish: Kevin Kauffman - 5/11

Course Description: Two laps of an approximately 30mi loop in the rolling hills of Northern Kentucky. There is a short 1mi neutral descending rollout, then the lap starts with shallow rollers before a quick U-turn and steep 200’ pitch up to a higher set of rollers that continue for 15 mi. These end with a smooth descent that takes you down to very long flats that round out the lap. The race ends back where it started, up a steep two-pitch 200’ climb which acts as the final separation point.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14367009762 

Nutrition: Carb and caffeine mix on the start line. 3x~90g bottles, 2x20g gels on the ride.

Recap: 

The day started off in heavy rain, which was set to continue for the duration of the race. Thankfully while the roads were pretty rough, the corners were relatively shallow so traction wasn’t a huge worry. Registration was already pretty light probably due to weather and conflicting local races, which shrunk even more by the time we hit the start line. I moved away from Cincinnati last year so I still knew a number of people in the race, including my old team Nexigen Racing, but only had one old teammate in my field. Looked like it was the strongest of the registrants who showed up with no team representation so with the weather and odd course profile it was set to be a tough race. 

Going in, my plan was to treat the race as one of attrition, force hard efforts on the flats and hope to cover snaps into and over the short climbs as needed. On lap 1, the first climb indeed hit hard, and quickly exposed the group. One rider, Will, took a flyer over the top of that climb and was out solo, gaining up to a 10s gap but it was clear the group had the advantage. I yelled for us to slow the chase to let him burn out as he seemed rather content with his 10s gap but we ended up closing in less than 20 min later. In that time, I was able to mark another rider from Miami University (Ohio) who was another clear engine, doing the majority of the pulling in that duration. By the time the group came back together, we had lost a few riders who dropped off on the rollers. 

Lap 2  continued much like the first, with pretty inconsistent pulls in the rotation. I continued to do a fair bit of work in the rotation until we hit the first climb of the lap, where Will attacked again. I expected that he was fatigued from his attempt on the prior lap. Once he slowed and the presumably fatigued Miami rider bridged the gap, I let him go assuming our remaining group of 4 was motivated enough to go 2v4. That was a lesson in not underestimating your competition. I took some pretty heavy pulls to close and didn’t get enough support in the chase. It was clear the group had decided to race for third. 

In the remainder of the race, I skirted this line of riding hard (into head-crosswind… oops) and trying to save a little for the finish in hopes of the chase tiring. One of us four wasn’t taking any pulls but was accelerating on each roller. In hindsight, I should have flat out stopped riding until he took rotations because I knew if I didn’t, he’d just conserve to take the finishing climb. Surprise surprise, I didn’t do that, kept the strong rotations for half a lap, then tried a few surges in the finishing tailwind flats leading into the final climb but couldn’t break the elastic. I was able to hang for the first half of the final climb, but got kicked on the kicker. Rolled in for 5th. 

Overall a great experience in old haunts, and was incredibly appreciative of my former team Nexigen Racing for hosting me in their tent and van, and even especially supporting me in the feed. And shoutout to Ryan on the old team for taking his first p/1/2 win! You guys are real gems. It was also fun to get some recognition and love of the Alto Velo jersey from other racers. Midwest nice and southern hospitality at its finest.