Race Reports
Race Report: 2024 Bariani Road Race - Men’s 35+ 1/2/3
Race: 2024 Bariani Road Race- Men’s Masters 1/2/3
Date: March 17, 2024
AVRT racers: Nat Green
Top Result: Nat (11/26)
Course: 4 laps of a 20-mile course for about 80 miles total. The course is mostly flat or mild rollers, with a short hill on the back stretch before a right hand turn onto a section with terrible pavement, and then a (sandy/gravelly) left hand turn shortly before the finish that pitches down and then right back up. Wind was not a major factor this year, at least for early start times. Weather was chilly, warming up by the later laps.
Strava: Morning Ride | Ride | Strava
Nutrition: Two bottles of Skratch mix and a bunch of gels.
Recap: I was racing solo for AV in a field of 26. There were a number of strong teams, including ThirstyBear (Blaine Ashley, Brian Schuster, Michael Claudio), WHS (five strong guys), and a few teams with two riders (CoreTechs, Data Driven Athlete, Creative Blue). There were also a number of strong individual riders, including Will Riffelmacher (Olympic Club), Tony Little, and Alex Yermolovich (PenVelo), among others.
My usual strategy when racing alone is to conserve energy as much as possible, and stay smart about covering attacks by only going if multiple teams are represented, and even then following others who are covering rather than doing it myself, if possible. There was a different course last year, so I hadn’t done this longer loop, so I was hoping to use the first lap mostly to scout the course rather than to go hard. There were attacks right from the gun, however. Some were quite threatening, but all were brought back.
Eventually, however, a group got away near the beginning of lap 2. It included riders from ThirstyBear and WHS, so those teams stopped working, and the pace really slowed. A few individual riders tried to get a chase going, but we couldn’t really get a sustained paceline going and it seemed like the break was gaining time. About halfway through the second lap, a Data Driven Athlete rider went up the road to chase solo. I decided to follow him a minute later or so, and Alex Yermolovich quickly jumped, as well, and he and I caught the Data Driven Athlete after about five minutes. The three of us worked well together for the next lap or so, averaging about 25 mph and keeping the break at maybe 1-2 minutes up the road, but not gaining really gaining much ground, and the pack was slowly catching up to us.
They caught us near the end of lap 3. The break was not in sight at that point, and I assumed they were gone and we were racing for sixth, but improbably we ended up catching them with 2-3 miles to go in the race. That meant that the almost everyone was together going until the final hill and final turns. I tried to move up during the hill, but with the centerline rule in effect, it was very difficult and I really needed to have been farther near the front before then to have a chance. I was able to move up several positions during the bumpy and somewhat chaotic stretch right before the final left turn. I was maybe 8-12 going into the final corner, and ended up 11th.
Overall it was a good early season race and excellent training in a fast group (80 miles at about 25 mph). I was also happy with our hour-long chase effort in the group of three. Nevertheless, racing solo is very hard because you really have to pick and choose which moves you cover, since you only have so many matches to burn, and have to get lucky to get in the right one, so I’m hoping to get some teammates out there with me at some point this season.
Nat
Race Report: 2024 Snelling RR Men’s P12
Race: Snelling RR Men’s P12
Date: June 8th, 2024
AVRT racers: Andrea Cloarec, Cameron O'Reilly, Grant Miller, Nathan Martin
Top Result: Grant (6/46), Nathan 9th
Course: The original Snelling course - 11.7 miles of rolling farm roads with decent to bad pavement. The final sprint is 300m after a tight right-hand turn.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11607408999/
Nutrition: Started with three frozen bottles with 80g of carbs. Got a few bottles from the feed with 60g of carbs and had 3 guu gels with 25mg of caffeine and one 150mg SIS gel
This year Snelling was postponed from its usual spring date to June. The weather forecast didn’t look pretty, with highs in the 90’s. While it wasn’t as bad as I expected, the heat played a huge factor in the race. We planned to try and beat the heat by having frozen water and ice socks in the feed which were a life-saver. Thanks to Nathan’s dad Roger and Drew for helping out! I started the race with three frozen bottles, two of which I shoved in my jersey to keep me cool.
The race started out with two riders slowly rolling off the front. Our plan was to be represented in any breaks, but not to overcommit and burn ourselves out. Cam jumped across later in the lap and soon two more riders did. At this point Dolce and ourselves were represented, but the biggest teams of Mikes, Voler, and Terun were not. I figured they would organize a chase or launch a counter-attack but for the rest of lap one and most of two nothing happened. At this point the break probably already had a 2 minute advantage when Mike’s called for a pee break which the field obliged. Once we were moving again, the break probably had another minute advantage.
In the next 30 minutes all the teams who weren’t represented made attempts to get across to the break which Nathan and I covered. It was pretty hard and there was one moment where I thought the elastic would snap but Voler stopped pulling and the field came back. The pace stayed pretty fast through the headwind but no major attacks went. As we turned into the cross/tailwind section again Ryan and Miles from Voler started ruthlessly attacking the field. Every time one of them got brought back the next would go. Nathan and I did our best to cover each attack, but eventually a small group with Ryan started to go away. I knew that could be the last chance to get across so I asked Nathan to try to close the gap with me in the draft. We started bridging across and there were only a few riders left in our draft. Eventually I attacked with one other rider until we caught the second break. At that point everyone sat up and the field came back, again. At this point I felt like this was the only time to make a counter-attack, but I was pretty tired and the break was nowhere in sight. I felt like if I attacked, no one would come and I would just slowly overheat in no-man’s land before getting caught, so I decided to just sit in. Andrea also had a mechanical during this part and was out of the race.
At this point Voler started to organize to chase, but all of their supporting riders were pretty gassed from the attacking. The pace stayed steady for about an hour, but we couldn’t gain any time on the break. As we came into the last lap, we started catching riders popped from the break including Cam. Even though we weren’t represented anymore, we only had two riders left while Mikes, Terun, and Voler all had 3 or more. The break was still more than 3 minutes up the road, so we decided not to help chase and wait for a late race break to race for best of the rest.
As we hit one of the rolling parts, a group with several Mike’s and Voler riders started rolling away. I jumped across and joined them but the pace immediately dropped and the field started coming back. We turned into the crosswind section and the group started taking hard pulls and I pulled through one or twice to see if we could keep our gap. The field came back and a Mike's rider immediately attacked. I saw that no one moved to cover them so I jumped and bridged across with one rider. The group sat up and I thought this might be the move so I put in one hard pull but the others were pretty gassed. As we made the turn, a reduced field caught us.
The last 10 minutes of the course are a pretty fast false-flat tailwind section and we kept a high pace. There’s one significant kicker followed by some rollers and a tight gravely turn before a final right-hand turn and 300m to the finish line. I fully expected Ryan to attack the kicker so I kept him in my sights but no major moves went there. Nathan made a perfectly timed attack as the pace slowed and forced Mikes and Voler to chase. I followed as Ryan attacked right into the gravely corner and watched him ride off the road into some gravel, somehow managing to keep the bike upright. This attack brought back Nathan and I immediately tried to counter-attack, but Ryan and Eamon were in my draft so I sat up and the field came back.
At this point Eamon jumped off the front solo and Ryan started pacing to keep his lead in check. As we approached the last turn, Nathan found me and yelled for me to get on his wheel. I managed to slot in around 5th wheel from the front which was perfect. We made it through the turn cleanly and then half the guys just sat up. I navigated through them and jumped onto the Terun sprinter, but the pavement was super bumpy and my chain almost bounced off, so I couldn’t come around him. I rolled across for 3rd in the sprint, but 6th overall since there were 3 guys up the road.
Overall I felt the team executed really well. We were represented and raced to our plan, we just didn’t account for the other teams not taking the break seriously. We also prepared for the heat and managed to perform well. Thanks to everyone in the feed zone for helping out!
Race Report: 2024 Sea Otter Classic Gravel Race
Race: Sea Otter Classic Gravel Race
Date: 4/20/24
AVRT racers: Grant Miller (Pro/Elite), Andrew Ernst (Age group)
Top Result: Grant 10th, Andrew 16th/1st AG
Course: Two laps of a punchy parkour featuring mostly fast rolling gravel with a few technical pinch points. The main technical feature is a 2.5 minute segment called 3 sisters which features huge rollers where you climb and descend 10% pitches. The rest of the course is mostly fast-rolling doubletrack gravel interspersed with a few road sections.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11225772456
Nutrition: Two big bottles filled with 120g of carbs, two 150mg Caffiene SIS gels
This year the Sea Otter Classic featured a real gravel race. In past years the race was the same as the mountain bike course but only for one lap. While some people would say that’s their idea of fun, going through a bunch of sandy, bumpy singletrack on a gravel bike just makes me wish I was on a mountain bike. The course this year was updated to a fast-rolling and punchy course where you’re either climbing, descending, or drilling it on the flats. We did 2 laps which rounded out to about 46 miles of racing.
I was two weeks out of taking a week off and other than a quick recon after the road race, I hadn’t touched my gravel bike since doing a 150 mile ride in March. My bottom bracket was in subpar condition and I was still running 38mm pathfinders. To summarize - I didn’t have high expectations for the race. When I got to the start line alongside pros and lifetime GP contenders, I could already see I was probably running the smallest and least knobby tires which was not a good sign.
The start was really early (7:50am) and while my legs could pedal, my brain was not quite ready for the intensity. We started on the Laguna Seca raceway and immediately started drilling it up the raceway climb. I could’ve fought more for position, but tried to slot in around 10th wheel to get a nice draft on the upcoming descent. I knew it would get strung out turning onto the dirt but didn’t think the race would blow apart. On the descent, one of the pros went to the front and drilled it. We averaged 30mph and hit 42 at one point as we flew down the gravel descent.
I quickly found myself spinning out from my 42/10 and watched the field slowly pull a few seconds ahead. I had ridden the course two days earler with my 46t chainring and struggled to make it up some of the steeper pitches, so I’d switched down. It turns out that this probably hurt my race since now I couldn’t even keep up on the fast bits.
We immediately turned into the only technical bit of the course on 3 sisters and while I could still see the leaders, I just didn’t have the confidence to rip this section of the course. In total I lost about 20s to Rob Britton and maybe 10s to the next group, but that was all it took when the race was full throttle. As we came out onto the road I quickly caught and joined a chase group but we never saw the leaders again. For the rest of the lap I worked with two other guys before dropping one. Heading into the final climb I started upping the pace and popped the other guy. Now I just had to do the next hour by myself and hopefully catch someone.
The rest of the race went by pretty quickly. I just tried to keep pedaling as hard as I could the whole time and try to ride cleanly through the corners. Unfortunately, I lost so much time to the groups up the road on the first lap that I never caught anyone. Since the course had a lot of rolling and fast sections, I was just slower than a group rotating.
At the end I rolled in for 10th place. I was really happy with the effort, it just would’ve been nice to race with someone on the second lap. I averaged 19mph for 2.5 hours on a course with almost 6,000 feet of elevation and I still finished minutes behind the leaders. That just shows you how fast the pros are. If I had to do it again, I’d probably go with a) a finely tuned drivetrain and b) wider ties with a bit more traction to help with clearing loose gravel corners at 30+ mph.
Race Report: 2024 Lake Sonoma MTB – Women’s Pro
Race: Lake Sonoma MTB – Women’s Pro
Date: April 27, 2024
AVRT racers: Kelly Brennan, Rachel Hwang
Top Result: Rachel 5th/8, Kelly 6th/8
Course: starts on a road for ~2.5 miles, then two loops in the mountains.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11278392485
Race Recap: (Rachel Hwang’s perspective)
The race was a mass start, with a 2.5 mile road climb to stretch out the herd, before bottlenecking onto the single track. The first third of the loop was just brutal. The climbs were insanely steep, and singletrack. With so many people competing to get up the hill, and as it was singletrack, if one person got off their bike, most of the people following had to get off. I was trying so hard to keep up to the people in front of me in the first two thirds of the first lap that I wasn’t even mad about getting off and walking to catch my breath.
Anyways, it was a madhouse in the beginning of the ride and everyone was gunning up the hill on the pavement. We hit a bottleneck as we hit the single track, and because it was so steep in many areas, we got off and walked a lot because so many people were also getting off causing a traffic jam. I was trying to keep up with a girl and was yo-yoing for a good bit before she dropped off near the end of the first lap. The second lap was a lot more tame as people had spread out. It was still hard because of how punchy the climbs were. At some point over half way past the second lap I hear “Go Rachel!” and realize Kelly is right behind me! We finish within a few minutes of each other.
This was fun but the hills were really punchy and I went too hard at the beginning and did not pace well at all. The downhill was singletrack and had lots of brake bumps at times.
Nutrition: 1 bottle of water with a stick of liquid IV, and a Cliff Double Espresso flavored shot on the start line right before the race.
Race Report: 2024 Dash for Cash Crit - Men’s 2/3
Race: 2024 Dash for Cash Crit - Men’s 2/3
Date: June 1, 2024
AVRT racers: Grant Miller, Andrea Cloarec, Drew Mathews, Jon Wells
Top Result: Jon Wells, 7th of 65
Course: 0.8 mile loop through an office park in Pleasanton. The rectangle course manages to have just 3 corners (barely) with the last one a gentle sweeping bend. Theres no significant vertical so a headwind down the bottom straight into the final corner was the only course feature of note.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11550693271
Nutrition: a pre race Redbull and 60g flow bottle during the race
Race Recap:
Gameplan coming into the race was for the boys to get some upgrade points. Myself, Grant, and Andrea were all licking our chops for a chance to score points without the cat 1s around. There were a few big teams in Mikes and Dolce but teamwork in cat ⅔ races can sometimes be suspect. We wanted to be sure we were present in any moves that contained the big teams since composition is really important for a break to work on this sort of course with no features. I was gonna be our guy if it came down for a sprint and we were planning for a super late lead out on the headwind side of the course given our small team size and the tough wind.
We were very well represented in all of the moves. Grant and Andrea spent a lot of the race off the front but nothing ever stuck. One group of 4 (including Grant) probably had the longest tenure off the front but their gap never grew past 15 seconds.
The race came down to a very hectic last couple laps. The race was not particularly fast and the course was very wide so lots of guys thought they still had a chance which makes for very sketchy conditions (foreshadowing? Keep reading to find out!). Mikes tried to have their guys lead it out at the front but the pace was really never high enough so there was a ton of swarming in the last few laps. We were all a bit separated with 2 laps to go so I decided to just surf wheels at the front by myself and if I found a teammate for the last lap, great. Otherwise, I’d be in a good spot to go solo.
Coming around the last lap, I committed to riding the inside of the lap because I wanted the inside line for the last corner and be on the downwind side for the final sprint. Unfortunately everyone had the same idea so it did get pretty physical on the inside. I found myself about 4rd wheel on the inside line coming up to the last corner, just when another train of riders tried to go even further inside than we already were. There wasn’t enough room for everyone and there ended up being a huge crash in the last corner. I had to grab some brake but managed to stay up. Only 4 guys were ahead of the crash and got a clean sprint out of the last corner which left everyone who stayed on their bikes sprinting from a near stop after the crash and I was able to still manage a 7th place on the day. Very happy to not hit the pavement and stoked to grab a few more upgrade points!
-Jon
Race Report: 2024 Berkeley Hills Road Race - Men’s P/1/2
Race: Berkeley Hills Road Race - Men’s P/1/2
Date: 4/27/24
AVRT Racers: Grant Miller, Nathan Martin, Andrew Ernst, Nico Sandi, Greg McCullough, Andrea Cloarec, Cam O’Reilly, Jon Wells
Top Result: 5th - Nathan
Course: 5 laps of this. First quarter is rolling/flat with a steep and fast downhill, turning onto a road with a small kicker before another fast downhill. There’s then ~4 miles of false flat before hitting the main feature of the route, the 3 bears. Mama bear is first, about a 2 minute climb, then Papa is about 3 mins, last is Baby, less than a minute.
Nutrition: 3 bottles of mix, 2 gels
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11278289390
Race Recep (written by Nathan):
Our plan heading into the race was to have Nico for the final climb if it came down to a bunch sprint and me to go in any late breaks on the last lap.
On the first lap, a break of about 7 went, with Andrew and Jon in it for us. It had some strong solo riders like Devin Wilson and Victor Perez. Voler had Ryan Gorman in the break and Mikes had two as well.
One of the Mike’s riders would have his saddle break, so when TMB in the main group saw this, they tried pretty hard to bridge on Lap 2. This is when Grant would be able to bridge up to the break, riding with a TMB attempt. On this lap as well, Nico got a flat and Greg stopped to help him, unfortunately pretty soon after they stopped attacks started flying and the group really picked up some pace, so they couldn’t catch back on.
Lap 3 saw some bridge attempts from Voler, but nothing stuck and the group mostly stayed together.
Lap 4 TMB was not liking the break composition and started rotating on the front to bring the group back together for Mattheus. They burned through 3 guys and at the start of Lap 4, we caught what remained of the break on San Pablo Dam. After we caught the break, a few counter attacks would go, but nothing serious, and the group stayed together until after the fast descent on San Pablo.
After turning onto Castro Ranch, Ryan would send a massive attack on the small kicker and would quickly get a 30 second gap. Mikes was all gassed from chasing, most of the AV members left were in the break all day and also gassed, so there wasn’t a real chase effort and Ryan was able to stick this move solo to win. AV rotated a bit to chase, then Mike’s rotated a bit. Maybe if we had immediately worked together from the second he got a gap, but who knows.
The group stayed together until the bottom of the final climb up Papa Bear. I had a decent position in 5th wheel going into the climb, and from the bottom Voler’s climber just gunned it. I was pretty much right at max effort from the bottom, as was everyone else, and was only able to make up one wheel before the top to finish 5th overall.
Overall I think we were a little disappointed to not improve on last year’s 3rd place. Nico and Greg flatting out definitely didn’t help, but that’s just bike racing. I think it was another good learning experience for us, and a lot of fun to be racing against two other full strength teams on a tough course.
Race Report: 2024 Tour de Bloom - Women’s P123
Race: 2024 Tour de Bloom - Women’s P123
Date: May 2-5, 2024
AVRT racers: Louise Thomas
Result: 26/40 for GC
Tour de Bloom is a four-day event featuring five distinct stages. The race kicked off with a hilly road race, followed by a flattish (but windy) road race on the second day. Day three had both a morning time trial and an evening criterium, and wrapping up the final stage was another mostly flat road race that culminated in a tough hill finish.
Initially, we planned to send a full women’s squad, but due to various circumstances, I was the sole representative. This was my P123 stage race debut and my first time going against pro teams, so my primary goal was simply to survive. It was great to have Jen Tave from Terun also join, making it a fun mini Nor Cal squad.
Stage 1: Joe Miller Road Race
Course: The course was in two parts, the first being four laps of the “Golf Course Loop”, which was 8.4 miles with ~450 ft of elevation on each lap. The second and distinguishing part of the race was Joe Miller Rd, a 5-mile climb at 5.7% which we did a couple of times before finishing at the top of the climb the second time around. In total, the course was 45 miles with 4,600 ft of elevation.
Result: 22/40
Recap: Before the race, I was genuinely worried that I wouldn’t even make the time cutoff to finish the stage since this was the first time I’d ever been in a race with pro teams. My main goal was to maintain my position in the middle of the pack and expend as little energy as possible to stay in the race for as long as possible.
The event began with a neutral roll-out. The race official informed us that once the support vehicles were in place behind us, the race would start with three honks from a van. That never happened, but at some point, I realized we were halfway through the Golf Course Loop and assumed the race had started.
The peloton mostly stayed together on the Golf Course Loop, which featured a few rolling hills that weren't tackled too aggressively. The first big attack was actually on a downhill, which was a bit unexpected but maybe not a bad strategy because it was followed by a sharp turn that the pack had to slow down for, followed by a straightaway with sprint points. The sprint was intense; I was just trying to hold onto wheels but even that was a struggle. Luckily the pace slowed as soon as the sprint was over and no one counter-attacked, so the group came back together again and I was able to find a place in the pack again. The next laps of the Golf Course Loop were much the same: up and down the rolling hills, trying to hold on for dear life during the sprint, then recovering as the group bunched up.
Next came Joe Miller Road, a 5-mile climb at a 5.7% gradient. Almost immediately, someone attacked and I was flung off the back. The follow cars passed me and I questioned what the hell I was even doing in the race. However, I kept pushing and gradually gained positions, first overtaking some solo stragglers and then a group of five or six riders. I never caught the main peloton, but passing others on the climb boosted my confidence. It seemed like my 20-minute power was holding up, even if I couldn’t match the initial attack.
I teamed up with some new friends to work with for the descent and straightway before climbing Joe Miller the second time. At least most of them were friendly. There was once woman who told me to “do some work or get the fuck off my wheel” while we were going uphill and I was struggling to keep her pace after we’d dropped the others in our small group. She ended up dropping me too, unfortunately.
I then solo’d up the rest of the climb, almost catching that woman at the top, coming in at a respectable 22/40. Jen secured an impressive 3rd place, which was an awesome result.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11319348586
Nutrition: a couple of bottles of malto and a couple of bags of gummy bears during the race
Stage 2: Waterville Road Race
Course: 56 miles of rolling hills with ~3,300 ft elevation, but honestly the main feature of the course was the wind.
Result: 27/39
Recap: With winds of 15-20 mph, the name of the game for this race was hiding in the pack. Initially, I was successful, maintaining a good position for the first 7 or 8 miles. Then, in a new experience for me, the moto pulled us all to the side of the road to wait for the masters men to pass. Usually, fields get neutralized during such passes, but this was the first time I had to come to a complete stop. I’m guessing they did it because they didn't want the fields passing on an upcoming corner - it wasn’t ideal, but I felt like it was a better decision compared to Valley of the Sun where they didn’t neutralize anyone in a dangerous spot, resulting in most of the women’s field getting taken out.
After we were allowed to resume, there was a series of corners with attacks at each one. The first couple were manageable for me, but on the final corner, I got spat off the back. Next was a long (~4 miles), slightly uphill stretch where I could see the peloton ahead but couldn’t close the gap. It was super frustrating. I was working with another woman from Valkyr Cycling, but even together, we weren’t making progress. Further back, a group of 4 or 5 riders was gaining on us, so we decided to sit up and wait for them rather than waste our energy.
The rest of the race was fun but not very race-like. With the bigger group, we formed a nice paceline and caught another solo rider ahead. Our group consisted of three women from Coalition Cycling, three from Valkyr Cycling, a Red Truck Racing rider (who eventually dropped off), and me. Everyone else seemed to know each other and work well together, so I was happy to join the rotation. With the strong cross-wind, we even got the chance to practice echeloning, which Greg had just given us and the guy's team a crash course on at the AirBnB the previous night.
In the end, we stayed together until the finish but never caught the peloton. I considered attacking a few times, but the strong winds would have made it nearly impossible to stay away solo, and I wanted the group to continue cooperating to finish in the shortest time. Overall, it was a fun ride, but not much of a race after getting dropped.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11325521613
Nutrition: malto and gummy bears
Stage 3: Palisades Time Trial
Course: 8-mile time trial. Mostly flat with a lump near the start/end
Result: 32/36
Recap: Apparently, it doesn’t rain much in Wenatchee, but it rained almost all day for this race. This caused a dilemma for warming up - it was debatable whether riding in the rain would make me more or less warm, so I settled on sitting in the car and eating snacks until half an hour before my start time. Even when I emerged from the car, it was hard to get a good warm-up because the only available road was where everyone was parked, forcing me to constantly dodge cars and stop for people coming and going. A portable trainer definitely would have been useful here.
When it was time to go, I felt pretty good (if a little cold from standing around in line), but after the initial adrenaline wore off, my power just wasn’t there. The last time I did a time trial, I was able to hold 260-270W, and I hoped to match that, but fatigue from the previous days (and maybe the less-than-optimal warm-up) left me stuck at around 245W for most of it. I ended up being passed by two people, but both had actual time-trial bikes with disc wheels compared to my endurance bike with clip-on bars, so I’m kind of okay with that. As a side note, disc wheels do make a really nice “WHOOSHHH” sound as they go by.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11332408999
Nutrition: nut and fig bars beforehand and a malto bottle during warmup
Stage 4: Wenatchee Twilight Crit
Course: 0.5-mile four-corner crit in downtown Wenatchee. The short side of the course had a ~5% gradient, with cobblestones on the descent that were still wet from earlier in the day. At the finish line there was a beer garden with lots of spectators, which made for a fun atmosphere.
Result: DNF 😥
Recap: I was pretty embarrassed by my performance in this one, but shit happens. As we lined up to start, the official announced a $400 cash prime for the first lap - a sure-fire way to make it interesting from the start. When the whistle blew, everyone sprinted up the hill on the first turn and kept the pace high for the entire lap. I thought it might slow down for subsequent laps, but that was just wishful thinking as everyone attacked the hill again and again. Unfortunately, short hill sprints aren’t my strong suit, so each lap I found myself dangling off the back and having to catch back on again until I was dropped completely and then pulled a couple of laps later. Maybe if I came to Egan more often I would be better at that sort of thing.
In the end, it was mostly my pride that suffered. The results showed a gap of 1 minute, which meant I was still allowed to compete the next day and my position in GC didn’t change too much.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11334848012
Stage 5: Plain Road Race
Course: 51 miles with 2,600 ft of elevation. The first 50 miles took us through a flat and scenic loop beside Lake Wenatchee, before finishing with a 1-mile climb at 7.5%
Result: 26/33
Recap: Given my poor performance in the crit the day before, I was determined to redeem myself in the final stage. On the bright side, I hoped that getting pulled early in the crit meant I’d be slightly less tired than everyone else for this race.
After our neutral roll-out, the pace was much more forgiving than it had been on previous days, so maybe people were tired after all. At one point, someone attacked and everyone just let it go. I wasn’t sure whose job it was to chase, but it definitely wasn’t mine.
A few more attacks went, with people chasing them this time. I felt like I was starting to get the hang of predicting attacks and looking to the front to see them in real time, rather than reacting to the riders directly ahead of me. I also used momentum to move forward a few positions when riders were caught, rather than braking as the pace slowed. Maybe I was also just feeling more comfortable because the attacks weren’t as intense as on previous days.
At some point, people started randomly braking, and there were calls of “DANGER FLOOF!” Unfortunately, I’d been so focused on keeping my position in the pack that I completely missed it - a bear had walked across the road right in front of us. Crazy.
As we approached the feed zone, someone else attacked. I wasn’t planning on getting water anyway, but that wasn’t cool. Echoing my thoughts, someone else yelled after them, “That’s a dick move and no one likes you!”
Attacks were coming left, right, and center in the lead-up to the final climb. We’d caught the rider who went off the front at the start, and none of the other attacks had stuck, so now it was anyone’s game. I stayed with it until the start of the climb and then was dropped again as the stronger riders attacked the hill, but I was happy to make it to the final mile with the pack this time. Jen absolutely crushed it again, coming in 5th for the stage and 6th in GC.
Thanks for reading!
- Louise
Race Report: 2024 Berkeley Hills Road Race - Men’s Cat 4
Race: Berkeley Hills Road Race — Men’s Cat 4
Date: April 27, 2024
AVRT Racers: Zack Berger, Jack Larkin
AV Club Guests: Matin Massoudi, Richard Red
Top Results: Matin (7/38)
Course: Roughly four laps of an 18.7 mi loop with 1,650 ft of elevation gain each lap for a total of ~74 miles and ~6200 feet including the neutral rollout. The main feature of the course is the “Three Bears,” which is a sequence of short climbs in the second half of the loop. “Mama Bear” is the first and takes about 2-3 minutes to climb; “Papa Bear” is the second and takes about 3-4 minutes to climb; and “Baby Bear” is the third and takes less than a minute to climb. There’s a short descent between Mama and Papa and a longer descent between Papa and Baby. The rest of the course is mostly flat with some rolling hills.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11277989965
Nutrition: 4 Gu gels, 2 bottles of water with 1 scoop of Tailwind Endurance Fuel and a ½ cup of Carbo Gain (~80g carbs).
Recap [by Zack]
Based on the course structure and our experience in cat 4, we guessed that a break would not stick and the race would come down to the final effort up Papa Bear. Whoever had the sticking power could contest the finish. This directly informed our strategy: Matin and I would take it as easy as possible during the race until the final push up Papa Bear. Jack and Richard would cover moves throughout the race to support Matin and I.
Lap 1. We maintained a chill coffee ride pace to the 3 bears. On the way there I noticed that the backside of the course was narrow with not much room to move up. At Mama and Papa bear we smashed a 5-5.5W/kg pace, leaving ~25 riders for the next lap. Although I was near the front at the top, I fell back on the descent (because 45mph scares me). Unfortunately, Jack got a mechanical and Richard didn’t make it through Papa bear.
Lap 2. I found Matin and we quickly strategized. I’d follow any moves, otherwise we’d both sit in to the best of our ability and go for broke at the end. At one point on Castro Ranch Road a strong Dolce Vita rider began to move up solo — I followed him and very quickly the field reabsorbed us. Then on the backside, Chris Ritchie (friend of the team) and I sat at the front doing <150W and chatting.
Lap 3. Similar to the last lap, I fell to the back by the end of the descent. This worried me since I knew it would be hard to move up on the narrow backside, and that positioning would be vital for the final climb. By this point, I didn’t believe I had the power to win — I was sick earlier in the week and wasn’t excited about suffering on Papa Bear. I worked for the entire lap to make up positioning, and before Mama Bear, passed by Matin and told him to get on my wheel. I was happy to work for him since he’s been crushing it on the Egan ride lately. By the time we were at the foot of Papa Bear, Matin was well positioned, two bikes back from the front.
The climb began at a blistering pace of 6.5W/kg. Pretty soon a young rider attacked. The person in front of me didn’t connect to the attack. I went right to try and get around him, but quickly found myself in the wind without the gusto to push harder. I ended up in a similar position at Cantua Creek — out of the draft on the right side of the road, pumping watts, and falling behind. At the time, I didn’t have the motivation to go harder. I beat myself up over this after the race. I need to practice some self acceptance and remember that we’re really out here to have fun.
Matin, on the other hand, managed to connect to the front group and push it for 7th place, an amazing result for his first cat 4 outing!
Race Report: 2024 Wilmington Grand Prix - Men’s 2/3
Race: 2024 Wilmington Grand Prix - Men’s 2/3
Date: May 18, 2024
AVRT racers: Jon Wells
Top Result: Jon Wells, 5th of 62
Course: 0.8 mile rectangle in downtown Wilmington, DE. The home straight is a slight uphill and then turns downhill into corner 1 which is quickly followed by corner 2. The back stretch is slightly downhill until right before corner 3 when the road quickly drops down, right into the tightest corner on the course. The road also goes into a short, slightly steeper section of uphill between corners 3 and 4.
Nutrition: a pre race Redbull and 60g flow bottle during the race
Race Recap:
This crit is a fairly technical course, particularly with the tricky downhill corner 3 into the uphill. It very physical in a normal year, with usually less than half the field finishing on the lead lap. This year had the added addition of rain. It had rained lightly all morning and throughout the race, making the downtown course with lots of road paint markings quite slippery.
My plan was to race at the front all day with the technical nature of the course combined with the rain. Additionally, I don’t know who the strong individuals and teams are since I don’t race on the east coast regularly. Considering this, I didn’t plan to instigate many moves coming into the race, but wanted to be on top of anything that felt dangerous. This race usually does not come down to a field sprint, so I had to be alert to moves going.
I managed to line up on the front row so I don’t think I was ever actually outside of the first 15 wheels all race. The first half of the race I just patrolled the front, including following a few moves which never stuck more than a lap or so. Many laps coming out of corner 3 and 4 there would be gaps opening from people cornering slowly that would often be the start of a move. Many of these “moves” were incidental gaps that folks didn’t want to push on with. I would often pedal a few seconds longer on the backside to slot further up coming into corner 3 so the acceleration out would be easier to manage.
By around halfway, it was clear who the 5 strongest guys in the race were and folks started trying harder to force a break to stick. The strong guys were antsy to chase everything down, even making huge accelerations from the front. I spent some energy in this portion of the race making sure that I didn’t miss out on any moves. After one move was chased back, I found myself closing on the front with lots of momentum into corner 3 so I took the corners full tilt and hammered the hill that lap and found myself off the front by myself with 6 laps to go. I decided to put some energy in to my solo move and ended up staying off the front until 2.5 laps remaining. Once I was brought back, I slotted back into the top 5. There were no big teams so the pace was not super high. There were also only around 20 people left in the field who were all looking a little tired. Eventually, a guy sent a flyer with one lap to go that would end up being the race winner. On the downhill backside of the course, I spent some energy to slot into 3rd in the field into the last two corners. Once guy came past me in the final sprint (I was only a little tired from my solo flyer) so I ended up with 5th overall (4th in field sprint). Overall I am very happy with this result (and associated upgrade points) and the whole weekend of racing!
-Jon
Race Report: 2024 Monkey Hill Time Trial - Men’s 2/3
Race: 2024 Monkey Hill Time Trial - Men’s 2/3
Date: May 17, 2024
AVRT racers: Jon Wells
Top Result: Jon Wells, 1st of 8
Course: 2.8 mile loop in downtown Wilmington, DE. This is a rolling, twisty, sometimes cobbled time trial that finished with a ~45 second steep cobbled climb known as Monkey Hill. This course was originally raced on as part of the Tour DuPont and Tour de Trump back in the 80s and is still running today. There is a huge block party, including live music, food trucks, and beer garden on the hillside that starts in the afternoon and continues all race!
Nutrition: a pre race coffee loaded up with maple syrup
Race Recap:
This short time trial is on the Friday afternoon before the Wilmington Grand Prix, held about a mile down the road but they are run as two independent races without any sort of overall. The course starts at the top of the hill with a few high speed corners before taking a tight right turn onto a bone jarring cobbled descent. This is followed by a minute long climb, right into another quick descent. Then there are about 3 minutes of gently curving flats before a sharp right hand turn back onto the cobbles for the finishing climb up Monkey Hill. My plan was to blast the two hills as hard as possible and just be aero with some decent watts on the flat parts in between. I was really excited for this course since I think it suits me very well with its multiple VO2 efforts combined with a few technical sections.
Everything went pretty much exactly as I planned! I caught sight of my 30 second man when we came onto the flat section and ended up catching him as we turned onto the hill. This ended up being perfect timing as the two of us raced side by side up the hill in front of the electric crowd! I crossed the line in 6:38 (well under my goal of 7 minutes!) with a time good enough to win the cat ⅔ race. My time also would have placed me 2nd overall in the pro race!
-Jon
Race Report: 2024 Go Fast Upland Crit - Men’s 2
Race: 2024 Go Fast Upland Crit - Men’s 2
Date: May 12, 2024
AVRT racers: Jon Wells
Top Result: Jon Wells, DNF of 8
Course: 0.5 mile loop at Upland Memorial Park in Ontario, CA. The short course featured 9 corners (!!) on a slight hillside (maybe 1%) that made for very dynamic racing. The course still had very good flow despite all the corners once you found the groove.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11397513844/
Nutrition: a pre race Redbull and 60g flow bottle during the race
Race Recap:
I found myself in LA this weekend with my road bike so decided to go give this SoCal crit a try. I was very excited for the technical course and the cat 2 only field! The race was very professionally done with an exciting announcer, lead car, and was even live streamed online! Unfortunately, the race also fell on Mother’s Day, which seemed to keep a lot of folks home and made field sizes smaller than usual for SoCal racing.
The cat 2 race only had 8 starters. The 9 corners in a half mile loop made it race kind of like a cyclocross race where you were pretty much always going full gas and punching it out of corners as hard as possible. There were 3 of us (myself included) who all took massive digs at the field until it started to split up after about 15 minutes. Unfortunately, as the move of the day was going, I managed to get a flat tire which ended my race. Upon further inspection afterwards, I had put a huge gash into the sidewall of my one week old tire (Enve SES tubeless - paper thin sidewalls, do not recommend) that I was unable to fix. Unfortunately I did not have a replacement tire with me so I was unable to line up for the Pro/1/2 race later in the day.
-Jon
Race Report: 2024 Berkeley Crit - Men’s Pro/1/2
Race: 2024 Berkeley Crit - Men’s Pro/1/2
Date: April 28, 2024
AVRT racers: Jack Liu, Jon Wells, Nathan Martin, Cam O’Reilly
Top Result: Jack Liu, 7th of 45
Course: 1 km rectangle at Ohlone Park in Berkeley. The course was a long rectangle on city streets with so-so pavement throughout. The long home stretch was uphill with the backside running downhill while both short sides were flat. Corner 1 and 2 were slower being at the top of the hill with 3 and 4 being much faster. Some of the worst pavement was on the inside of corner 4.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11288072455
Nutrition: a pre race Redbull and 60g flow bottle during the race
Race Recap: (Jon’s POV)
Hate reading? You can watch my race recap here (and of course smash that subscribe button): Last Lap Drama @ Berkeley Crit!
This crit was day 2 of the Berkeley omnium, which had some serious prize money in the pro races for the overall. Nathan was our best placed overall rider with his 5th place finish from the day before. Since Nathan did not feel confident about field sprinting, our plan was for him to try for a breakaway. The tight corners and slight hill on the course had helped lots of breaks stick throughout the day. Plan B was for Jack to lead me out in the field sprint.
Mikes Bikes and Voler had the largest rosters on the startline, both with 8 guys. We were the next largest team, but only with 4 riders which gave us a little bit of freedom. The race started aggressively, with Mikes and some strong individuals throwing lots of attacks and counters. Nothing stuck until about 10 minutes in when Nathan snuck off the front with a Mikes rider. Voler had a chance to bridge to this move, but they let it roll, effectively signaling their intentions to field sprint with Ryan after his win the day before.
Nathan and Chris (Mikes rider) worked together off the front and held a gap of around 15-20 seconds for most of the race. Back in the pack, Voler lined up their whole team on the front to keep a paceline and hold the break in check. After some initial jockeying to slow the break, Mikes settled in behind Voler and all of the smaller teams (us included) settled in behind Mikes.
Nathan and Chris ended up putting up quite a fight, holding off the entire Voler roster until 2 laps to go. They had burned through all of their guys except Ryan and Max in order to make the catch happen. Mikes countered over the break getting caught with a solo rider which kept the pace high as everyone tried to grab positions with the race now reset. Jack and I found eachother around the top 10 wheels at this time as well.
The plan for the last lap was for Jack to lead me out full gas down the backside into corner 3 and then I would sprint. As Jack started moving up down the right side (inside) on the back stretch, there was a huge crash on the left with both remaining Voler riders going down hard (check out the video!). I grabbed some brake to stay upright and lost momentum. To add further insult, the guy in front of me in the last corner dropped his chain and caused me to brake again, turning a great last lap opportunity into a 12th place. Jack ended up carrying more momentum through the crash and held on to 7th.
-Jon
Race Report: 2024 Golden State Race Series - Circuit Race Men’s Cat 3 & P123
Race: 2024 Golden State Race Series - Circuit Race Men’s Cat 3 & P123
Date: May 5, 2024
AVRT racers: Drew Mathews
Course: A 2 mile flat circuit with 8 turns. A mix of looping corners, fast square corners, and straightaways, all with wide roads. Classic business park circuit.
Nutrition: Many homemade oat + maple syrup energy balls before each race. Cat 3: no bottle / gels during race. P123: 1 bottle with electrolytes (1 packet Lyte Balance unflavored electrolytes) + 60 g organic tapioca maltodextrin, 2 Untapped plain organic maple syrup packets (27 g each).
Recap: (written by Drew)
First off, I have some relevant news to share. I got the test result a few weeks ago that I am rid of Lyme disease and the other tick borne infections I had. I was diagnosed almost four years ago in June 2020. The Sea Otter road and circuit races were the first races I did with that news. Sea Otter road race was the hardest race I’ve ever done and the highest level I’ve ever performed, but being the day after I got the news, I still had not ventured off the very limited diet I’ve been on since I was diagnosed. After the Sea Otter circuit race Saturday morning, I jumped straight in the deep end. I went to a wedding on the east coast while Berkeley Hills was going on and ate histamine and salicylates (look it up) galore. I even ate from restaurants in the airport (ridiculous). The week after I got home from the wedding, two weeks after I had gotten out of jail, the cops showed up at my door to give me my ankle monitor and tell me I was still on parole. I started reacting to foods with higher levels of histamine again, and I had to backtrack and figure out how to properly start eating normal food.
At the same time, things were coming a lot more easily on the bike. Interval sessions - way more easy to get done and finish strong. I had carbs in my bottles for the first time ever on a bike ride. I ran into David Domonoske on the same ride and told him that, and he replied “That’s insane.”
The race came Sunday morning, and as for most races this spring for me, the underlying goal has been to show up and be able to perform. Symptoms from mast cell activation syndrome (caused by Lyme & the cause of the histamine reactions) improve with exercise, so I knew that I’d feel better for the P123 race in the afternoon.
The team California juniors were the largest team in the Cat 3 race, with a couple Work Health riders and maybe another team with 2 or 3. The first half of the race passed, and I was happy to settle in and realize I was there, part of the race, and able to perform. Breakaway attempts went often. Primes helped encourage riders to sneak off the front. I went with a couple breakaway attempts that were brought back fairly quickly. Halfway through, a breakaway of six went 5-10 seconds clear of the peloton. A chase group of 4 riders established itself between for about a lap. I helped close the gap to the chase group, and eventually the breakaway was brought back with 10 minutes to go in the race. A bit strangely, no one countered, so I figured everyone was feeling the prior 35 minutes of breakaway and chase efforts.
I didn’t want things to come down to a sprint. My sprint is getting much better, but I knew without a lead out I wouldn’t win. I wasn’t in this race for minor placings either. My overarching goals for these spring races were to show myself that I belong in Cat 3 and figure out ways that I can win races. Thus, I was happy to make some high risk moves and see how they paid off. I had learned from my AV mentor in Cat 2, Jon Wells, that in Cat 3 and 4, late moves can be effective because teams trying to keep things together until the sprint aren’t always organized or on top of chasing back moves, at least not as organized in P12. With that in mind, I tried my luck with some late flyers. I attacked on the final straightaway before we crossed the start/finish line for one lap to go, and I was brought back pretty quickly. Things stayed together through the next couple of corners until a few more riders attacked with a little more than ½ a lap to go. I stayed in the group until a few moments after the initial attack a couple chasers went, and I went with them to try and bridge. Things were coming back together, so as soon as we bridged, I gave it one more try and went over the top of them. I was swallowed up after the next corner, and I knew I had burned all my matches. I rolled it in behind the group, but I was happy with committing to a strategy and risk in order to try and win (and learn).
Between races, I napped in my car, had some food, chilled on the grass and watched other races while the organizers bumped some tunes, and with a couple hours before the P123 start, went for a ride along the American River. The bike path along the American River is really nice, offers beautiful scenery, and is a 15 minute pedal from the race course - would recommend. It’s also where the Friday TT took place.
The last race of the day came. This was my first P123 race, so I told myself before the start that the goal was to make it with the group til the end. In order to accomplish this, I would need to save as much energy as possible, so I should have stayed in the wheels the whole time. In the past after I’ve told myself this, I’ve never actually behaved, and true to form, in the second half of the race, when I was feeling good, I went with a couple breakaway attempts.
The race was a good learning experience and gave me a lot of confidence. It wasn’t on another planet of difficulty from Cat 3 - it was just a bit faster, and I needed to be more energy efficient and more conscious of keeping on the wheel in front of me. The tactics were the same as I had learned in Cat 3 and 4, just more organized. Voler Factory was the main team there - Mike’s Bikes and our squads were both elsewhere, and they clearly wanted to bring it down to a sprint. Every breakaway attempt, one of their riders followed, made it in the group, and sat on the wheel in front of them until the group was brought back. There weren’t any big crashes. One guy went down at the start finish around the halfway point, and the race was neutralized by the moto for half a lap when we passed him the next time we came around the course.
After 45 minutes, the duration of the cat 3 race, halfway through this 90 minute race, I was truly realizing this race was a long one at a high pace. Fueling was therefore important, and this was where I came undone. I had one bottle with 60 g of carbs in it and two maple syrup gels, and I finished my bottle a little after halfway. I had a gel right while the race was neutralized as well.
While the race was neutralized, I had a second to catch my breath, appreciate that I was a part of this race, and feel inspired to try my luck in some moves. I tried to go with a couple of breakaway attempts after the race restarted, but they were brought back quickly just as had every other attempt prior. During this time, I made my way to the top 20 wheels for half a lap or so and for the first time got to appreciate what I’ve heard on Norcal Cycling YouTube videos for a while now - it was so much easier towards the front. We carried a lot more speed through corners and saved more energy, versus at the back, I was spiking above 600 watts after every corner. I tried to get into a move after this and then shuffled further back to recover, but being up there was a really good learning experience.
In the final 20 minutes of the race, the pace ramped up a bit. I was further back in the pack with 15 minutes to go, and I had one of those uh-oh moments where I knew it was over for me. I had that “my legs are about to stop working in 30 seconds” due to under-fueling moment, and I scrambled to gulp my last gel down. The fire had already gone out though, and I lost the wheel in front of me and fell to the last wheel in the pack. I lost the wheel, tried to catch back on after the pack seemed to have slowed before the last corner of the course, and then realized it was over.
All in all, it was a good Sunday at the Golden State Circuit race. Two high level races and a nice ride along the American river was a sweet way to spend the day, and I gained some good fitness, learning experiences, and confidence. Thanks for reading and perhaps learning some Lyme disease related jargon.
-Drew
PS Only dinguses (dingii?) forget to take their saddle bags off
Race Report: 2024 Winchester Circuit Race - Men's 2/3 and 3/4
Race: Winchester Circuit Race - Men's 2/3 and 3/4
Date: May 11, 2024
AVRT racers: Drew Matthews, Henry Mallon
Top Result: Henry 4/23 (2/3), Henry 1/16 (3/4)
Course: 5 laps of a roughly 4.5-mile circuit with about 350 feet of elevation gain each lap. The main features are a safe but very fast descent and an undulating punchy climb to the finish that includes two sections above 15% grade.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11387541824 (2/3), https://www.strava.com/activities/11388742484 (3/4)
Nutrition: One bottle with 80g Skratch for each race.
2/3 Race Recap (Written by Henry):
This was my first race in a field with Cat 2s, and Drew’s second, so our plan was to let the larger teams control and try to survive until the finish. If we were both there at the end, Drew would help me with positioning going into the final climb.
Both Dolce Vita and PenVelo brought a team of four riders and used their numbers to keep the pace hard. Their presence on the front and high pace on the climbs discouraged all attacks and breakaway attempts.
My highest 5-minute power for the race came on the second lap during the main climb. This is where Drew wasn’t able to stay with the group and decided to pull out. With temperatures already in the mid-80s and hard surges on the climbs, this was definitely a super tough race.
Going into the finishing climb on the final lap, I was able to position myself in about 6th wheel. When we hit the first steep pinch at about 15%, someone attacked and two people followed. I spiked my power to about 500W for 20 seconds, but they quickly had a 5-second gap. I knew this was the race-winning move, but I didn’t fully commit and trust myself with half the climb still remaining. I think I made a similar mistake at Berkeley Hills RR (and Sea Otter to a lesser extent) where I didn’t respond to the first attack and then ended up chasing in the wind. Going into future races, I need to decide in advance to give it everything and follow the decisive attack, even if that risks blowing up.
After the top three got away, the group was shattered and I was next up with two guys on my wheel. I considered keeping the pressure up and trying to close the small gap to the leaders, but I didn’t want to tow the others on the flat and slightly down section of the climb. After freewheeling the short descent before the final 15% kick to the finish, I launched my sprint early at 200m to go and held off the other two for 4th. Overall, I was really happy to survive a tough race and still have a decent sprint at the end to win out of the second group. Also, it was encouraging to see that the next best-placed Cat 3 in the race was 7th, which gave me some confidence going into the 3/4 race later in the day.
3/4 Race Recap (Written By Henry):
The 2/3 race earlier was a big effort (I set a new all-time peak HR of 208 bpm), so I wasn’t sure how my legs would feel after waiting in temps approaching 90° for about three hours between the races. Drew went for a spin between the races and said he was starting to feel a bit better. So, our plan was for me to conserve energy while Drew chased any threatening breaks. Most notably, PenVelo had three riders—Charlie was our biggest concern for a breakaway, as we assumed he’d be trying to set things up for Leo and Niko, who are excellent climbers.
Contrary to the 2/3 race, the pace started leisurely with no teams controlling. Charlie (PenVelo) did try sneaking off the front a few times, but Drew was all over it and the group always came together very quickly.
On the gradual incline just before the fast descent, a TMB rider swerved and crashed himself into the curb. I was able to scrub most of my speed, but I still ran into the back of his bike and unclipped. I didn’t fall, but I did have to get off my bike to move around him and get going again.
I knew the group wasn’t working hard, so I stayed calm and made it back before the base of the main climb without exerting too much energy.
Last year, Drew successfully broke away in the 4/5 field at this race by attacking over the top of the climb going into the final lap. As we started lap four, Drew tried a similar move and got away solo. He stayed away for a few minutes, but no one attempted to bridge and the group eventually caught him.
As we crossed the finish line into the final lap, Charlie went to the front and ramped up the pace. Drew was on my wheel and just barely couldn’t hang on over the top. I considered dropping back to help him reconnect, but Charlie kept on the gas over the top, and the gap expanded. This group now contained five riders including all three PenVelo guys.
Even though I knew Charlie would likely attack to force me to chase and set up his climbers Leo and Niko, I still missed the moment when he snuck off the front. Once I realized he had a gap, I knew it was my responsibility to chase. Charlie is a great time trialist (he soloed Bariani RR from the first lap), and he would definitely win if I hesitated. With Leo and Niko sitting on, I wanted to close the gap on the rollers where there’s less draft and they would at least be doing some work. The fifth rider in the group was Peter (Team California Juniors), and thankfully he didn’t hesitate to take some pulls with me.
I put in a hard dig on the final roller before the long descent and caught Charlie just as we crested the top. The timing worked out really well because I think PenVelo would have counterattacked if I had caught him at any other point.
After the descent, Charlie stayed on the front and pushed enough to keep any chasing groups behind. When we reached the first ramp of the finishing climb, Charlie upped the pace and then pulled off. Leo paced the front until the final 200m steep ramp when I came around and started sprinting. This was surprisingly my best-ever five-second power of 977W, which usually isn’t worth a whole lot. But at the end of two hot races and at 15% grade, it was enough to hold off Niko and win the race.
Overall, I thought this was a really fun and safe race course with fast descents and steep, punchy climbs. There are no technical features and the pavement is nearly perfect. And, the circuit race format is a great opportunity to race multiple times or try racing with a higher category for the first time. I would definitely encourage everyone to come out to this race next year!
Race Report: 2024 Golden State Series Circuit - Women’s 3/4/5
Race: 2024 Golden State Series Circuit - Women’s 3/4/5
Date: May 5, 2024
AVRT racers: Hannah Chen, Janene Ostrow (guest racing)
Top Result: Hannah Chen (1st/5 cat 4, 2nd/7 overall)
Course: Nontechnical counter-clockwise 2.3 mi office park circuit, wide road with 10 easy corners and smooth pavement. Sunny conditions with a headwind on the 3rd section running parallel to the freeway before the finish.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11341597915
Nutrition: Banh mi for lunch :) Pre-race: Plain water and 1 Gu courtesy of The Feed. No water during the race.
Race Summary: I finished yesterday’s crit ahead on the sprint table and calculated that I just needed to win one out of the two sprint primes against Elisia(Terun) to get the green jersey. With the improved weather we had more women racing today (yay!), including a strong Cat 3 rider and fellow AV-er Janene.
Nothing happened on the first lap and I was happy moving places amongst the front and middle of the paceline. Some time during the 2nd lap a gap started to form and before I knew it three people in front of me were off in a break, including my sprint rival. As we came past the start line, I heard a bell. They announced back-to-back prime laps AND the lap card only showed 3 to go. Oh no! They were within eyeshot and I needed to catch them no matter what. I started chasing. It took me almost the full lap to finally bridge.
The last 200m of the circuit is a long S-shape with a left-right turn before the finish. I knew I needed to be first to the turns before the sprint but…couldn’t (prime order: Trang, Elisia, me). I used the next lap to recover and everyone played nice switching quick pulls. When it was my turn, I realized I was on the headwind stretch, aka the most important time to not be tired, and did the laziest pull then soft pedaled. I positioned better on the last turn and was able to get in front of Elisia for the prime. Final lap was a similar story: recover & position. I was feeling confident starting the final sprint but suddenly I got squeezed in! I slowed, scooted around and went as hard as I could, but it wasn’t quite enough.
Lessons learned:
Don’t feel guilty for not pulling.
Need to learn to sprint/time a sprint. I think I followed too closely going into the sprint and didn’t pay attention to my left side which is how I got squeezed in.
Closing thoughts: I was on the fence to race this weekend because of the low sign up numbers but am very glad I did. It was small enough that I could practice awareness during the race; I felt pretty anxious in the pack during the previous bigger races. The pace and competition still challenged me. Lastly, the new experiences were worth it, such as learning to get ready and race in the rain (it’s not as bad as you think it’ll be!), making a rough race plan and actually following through with it, feeling confident in cornering, and my first podium 🙂. The weather Sunday was amazing too.
Race Report: 2024 Berkeley Streets Criterium – Women’s 3
Race: Berkeley Streets Criterium – W3, Master’s 40, 50, 60+, Collegiate A/B
Date: April 27, 2024
AVRT racers: Louise Thomas, Rachel Hwang, Steph Hart
Top Result: Rachel 1st
Course: 0.6mi rectangle, slight incline on the front side, slight decline on the back side
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11287098546
Race Recap: (Rachel Hwang’s perspective)
I’ve ridden with Steph and Louise multiple times at this point, and in many crits, so felt comfortable going into this race with them. As always, Louise and Steph were going to attack and make the crit interesting and try leading me out for the sprint.
The course was pretty simple – a rectangle, with the start/finish side on a slight incline, up to 3.7% according to Strava, and the backside a similar profile decent. In addition, the front side had a headwind, while the back had a tailwind. Very quickly into the race, I realized the strategy (at least my strategy) was to draft up the hill which made the incline barely noticeable, and coast and draft down the back side which meant no pedaling at all.
Also, very quickly into the race, people were pushing the pace already. A few girls switched off attacking which picked up the pace of the ride. While I let most other people chase the attacks, I wedged myself into 4th or 5th spot each time so as to not get dropped off the back. The only attack I did was on lap 5 for the prime which created a small break and a girl followed behind. While we did switch off for a lap, I knew I wanted to reel the group back in as I could tell my throat was closing up. On that note, Louise did come up to me near the end of the race asking how I was doing to which I responded, “I’m feeling pretty tired, I’m going to save my energy.”
Louise and Steph also attacked a couple times, and were lifesavers for chasing down attacks for me. I just wasn’t feeling 100% this race and am so glad I had teammates there.
Around 2 laps to the end, Louise said she would try to lead me out. On the final lap, she got trapped against the gutter and couldn’t get into position to lead me out. Going into the first corner on the last lap, I couldn’t find Louise, and it was time for me to get into position. Generally, my tactic is to get in 3rd or 4th position going into that last corner, but recently I’ve felt pretty confident in my sprint that I decided to go for it out of that last corner. It’s a pretty long sprint so that decision was not smart by any means.
Nutrition: 1 bottle of water with a stick of liquid IV, and a Cliff Double Espresso flavored shot on the start line right before the race.
Race Report: 2024 Winchester Circuit Race- Women’s Cat 4
Race: Winchester Circuit Race- Women’s Cat 4
Date: May 11, 2024
AVRT racers: Kristin Hepworth- 1st
Course: The course is a ~4.5 mile road loop with excellent pavement and a series of rolling hills. There are only two 90° turns on the course. Though steep in some sections no hill is longer than a couple minutes, and are all followed by fun, fast, and safe descents, so momentum can be carried into the next climb. The biggest descent (segment title “Tuck and Lol”) is a bit over 1 minute and is fast! A series of undulating climbs (~350ft gain total) takes you up to the finish, which is located roughly half way up the steepest and longest climb.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11386719689#3224412165218688092
Nutrition: Oatmeal 3-hours before the race. One Ucan energy gel 10 minutes before the race. The race is only an hour, so I didn’t eat anything during. One bottle of water during the race.
Recap
The race started with a 3 minute neutral roll up the steep hill from the parking lot to the course. The group of eight riders stayed together for the 1st lap. I was the only AV racer in the group with two teams represented. The biggest team was Super Sprinkles with 4 riders. A couple of the sprinkles took turns attacking on the first two laps, but I was fairly confident they were just trying to tire out the group. I tried to play it smart and conserve my energy while keeping my eye on any moves that may stick. I tried to always be second or third wheel from the front without doing any work. I was trying to read the group dynamics and identify which riders may be protected and concluded that it was Sophia from Super Sprinkles based on the process of elimination on who appeared not to be attacking or covering any moves by a Sacramento Golden Wheelmen rider who appeared to be working for her teammate.
Just before the last climb of the 2nd lap, Liz from Super Sprinkles attacked hard and looked like she had interest in getting away. This threw me off a bit because she was not the presumed protected rider I had marked. No one seemed motivated to chase her down and I became increasingly uncomfortable as I watched her get further away. I decided it was too risky to let her go and since I didn’t have any teammates I knew I needed to either take the bait and chase her down or make my move to join the break. I bridged up to her before the top of the climb but I didn’t know if she would be willing to work together to stay away. She kept up the pace and I followed her wheel to the crest of the hill. We had a meaningful gap from the field and I was feeling pretty jazzed.
On the first descent of the third lap I got out in front of her because I was feeling good and wanted to increase the gap and test out her willingness to work with me. She stayed right on my wheel despite my efforts to move and get her to take a turn. When I looked back for the field I couldn’t see them, but I knew they couldn’t have been too far back. Because of the nature of the course (hills and turns) I knew they could catch up if I wasn’t pushing harder. On the final climb of the 3rd lap, I picked up the pace to try to shake Liz off my wheel. It worked and I was now in what looked like a promising solo breakaway.
I descended quite a bit faster than Liz and was able to increase my gap. I completed the 4th lap in a solo breakaway. (It was a really cool feeling to have the motorcycle guy following only me – it was a constant reminder that I was where I needed to be.) When I looked back I could see Liz farther behind me on parts of the course that were more open, but she was not close enough for me to feel threatened. She picked up her pace nearing the final climb and decreased the gap. I rolled over the finish line first, Liz finished ~30 seconds later and the field finished a minute or two after her.
I was glad that I chased Liz down when I did and was able to stay away – at the time I wasn’t sure if it was the right move. In retrospect it’s clear that it was the right move, especially given my strengths and not having teammates to help. I had a chance to have a friendly chat with many of the women after the race. I was honored to hear that the super sprinkles team had marked me and had strategized to wear me down with their attacks. Their plan A was to wear me down and their plan B was to have Liz breakaway if I didn’t chase. It worked out and this race was yet another learning experience that I am grateful for.
Fun times!
Berkeley Hills Road Race- Women’s Short Race
Date: April 27, 2024
AVRT racers: Hannah Chen, Chris Davis, Rina Fujieda (guest rider), Steph Hart, Kristin Hepworth, Robin Kutner, Claire MacDougall (racing collegiate), Katie Monaghan, Emily Selman, Niky Taylor, Louise Thomas, Katarina Zgraja
Top Result: Kristin Hepworth 1/23 (Cat 4) 6/51 (overall), Niky Taylor 2nd (Cat 2) 7/51 overall, Chris Davis 1st (50+)
Course: Roughly 1.8ish laps of an 18.7 mi loop with 1,650 ft of elevation gain each lap for a total of ~34 miles and ~2800 feet. The main feature of the course is the “Three Bears,” which is a sequence of short climbs in the second half of the loop. “Mama Bear” is the first and takes about 2-3 minutes to climb; “Papa Bear” is the second and takes about 3-4 minutes to climb; and “Baby Bear” is the third and takes less than a minute to climb. There’s a short descent between Mama and Papa and a longer descent between Papa and Baby. The rest of the course is mostly flat with some rolling hills.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11278213549
Nutrition: One Ucan energy gel at the start line, ½ stick of vermont maple syrup during the race, and two bottles of water (1 bottle had a scoop of Perpetuem malto mix)
Recap: This was a huge local women’s race! P/1/2/3/4/5 and Masters all raced together totaling 51 women. I had been training for and targeting this race as an A race. The team decided the day before that Robin, Katie, and I would be the protected riders in the cat 4 field and Louise would be the protected rider for the cat 3 field. All other AV racers were racing to help. I had a really late flight back into town the night before and only got 4 hours of sleep, I didn’t know how much that would affect me or if the adrenaline would be enough. I missed the pre-race strategy meetup in the morning but managed to chat with Niky as we were waiting for the rollout to begin. My goal was to be more aggressive/assertive with my placement during this race and stay up in the front third of the field. Last year I wasn’t focused on positioning and got too far back. Niky’s health wasn’t great going into this so she was racing to help teammates this year and I knew I could count on her wheel. The race officially started at the corner of Bear Creek and San Pablo Dam roads following a neutral rollout from the Orinda Bart station. I was pretty far back at the official start line, but Niky and I got to the front within the first half mile. Emily and Chris controlled at the front for most of the descent which was awesome, and then Hannah and Katarina took over on the back flat stretch. Really great domestique-ing by all of them!
The field stayed together until the first mama bear climb where one rider attacked. I pushed hard to keep up. At the top I thought I went too hard and wouldn't be able to recover in time to do it again on papa bear. It was then that I looked back and realized we had a gap from the field and I was in a break with Niky and 5 other riders. We were the only AV riders in the break. We took papa bear at a more steady pace and I was feeling recovered. At the top Niky and I made eye contact and I gave her a big smile to communicate that I was feeling great and I was ready to go for it.
From Louise in the chase group: Going up mama bear Shannon Pidd attacked. I tried to hold on for dear life and stayed with her over the first hump of mama bear (getting a new 2 min power record in the process) but then blew up on the rollers and dropped back as Niky and Kristin bridged up to the breakaway. A chase group formed with me (Louise), Claire, and five or so other riders but there wasn't much of a coordinated effort to chase. Since Niky and Kristin were up ahead I sat in and let the others do the work, but then no one else seemed to want to work either.
Our breakaway stayed together on the fast descent after papa bear. When we got back to San Pablo Dam road our pace slowed down and I started to worry that we would get caught. Just then Niky yelled out that we needed to pick up the pace or we would get caught. Niky knew she wouldn’t have the energy to finish the race at full gas, so she asked me if I would prefer for her to 1. work hard on the front to pick up the pace to keep the gap, but then not have her for the climbs or 2. allow the field to catch us, but she could help me up the climbs. I chose option 1. Niky rotated with a couple other riders to pick up the pace and I tried to conserve my energy by mostly sitting in.
From Louise: In the chase group we also slowed down, so there wasn't much to worry about. On San Pablo Dam Rd another group, which included Steph, caught up to us increasing our numbers to 12 or so. Me and Steph chatted briefly about what the game plan should be, but decided it was better for Kristin and Niky to stay away and so sat in for a fairly relaxed second lap.
When Niky felt like she had given it all she had, she encouraged me to follow Shannon Pidd because she wasn’t working at all. After mama bear I didn’t see Niky anymore and thought she was done, but she recovered and caught up and got in front of me to lead me out again. Near the base of the final climb/papa bear the group took off fast. I had waited too long to kick and the rest of the group attacked past me. I gave it my all and I rolled over the line 6th/51 and Niky came in shortly after 7th/51. I was the only cat 4 in the break, so the first one across the finish line. I learned so much from watching and following Niky during this race and I experienced first hand what teamwork felt like as a protected rider. I learned how to be assertive, position myself better and how to really be selfless and help/protect a teammate. It was sooo much fun!
Race Report: 2024 Berkeley Hills Road Race - Men's Cat 3
Race: Berkeley Hills Road Race - Men's Cat 3
Date: April 27, 2024
AVRT racers: Maxime Cauchois, Henry Mallon, Jeremy Besmer
Top Result: Henry 3rd, Maxime 5th
Course (from Fraser’s 2023 report): Roughly four laps of an 18.7 mi loop with 1,650 ft of elevation gain each lap for a total of ~74 miles and ~6200 feet including the neutral rollout. The main feature of the course is the “Three Bears,” which is a sequence of short climbs in the second half of the loop. “Mama Bear” is the first and takes about 2-3 minutes to climb; “Papa Bear” is the second and takes about 3-4 minutes to climb; and “Baby Bear” is the third and takes less than a minute to climb. There’s a short descent between Mama and Papa and a longer descent between Papa and Baby. The rest of the course is mostly flat with some rolling hills.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11278238684
Nutrition: 3 bottles with 80g drink mix each and 1 gel.
Race Recap: Written by Henry. Our plan going into this race was to support Jeremy. His training has been targeting this race, with excellent power at threshold and 2-4 minutes that’s key for the hills on this course. Despite having food poisoning the previous week, we all felt confident that Jeremy could win the race.
For the first two laps, we maintained a comfortable position near the front going into the climbs. The pace was hard at about 5-5.5 w/kg, but the climbs were all short and fairly draftable, especially Mama Bear where it felt like a slight headwind.
Each time after Papa Bear, everyone who made the front group of ~20 completely sat up. For nearly 40 minutes from the top of Papa Bear after lap 1 to the base of Mama Bear on lap 2, we slowed to a recovery ride pace (I averaged only 128W). I think everyone wanted to conserve energy for the climbs and didn’t expect a breakaway to make it to the finish. This dynamic meant that everyone dropped on the climbs made it back easily.
On lap 3, Max and I went to the front on Mama Bear and Jeremy asked us to push the pace. Max later told me that he was pulling at about 380W (6-6.5 w/kg), and I was only doing about 330W on his wheel, despite weighing a similar amount. After Max pulled off, I paced the flat middle section and the second part of the climb. Despite our efforts, the group was still large going into Papa Bear.
Once down the descent for the final time, a few riders attacked and quickly formed a strong breakaway. Unfortunately, we weren’t in this group. For the next ~30 minutes, there were many surges and attempts to bridge, including big efforts by Jeremy and Max up Garbage Hill. Finally, Charlie from PenVelo went to the front and singlehandedly brought the breakaway back for his teammates. On this lap before Mama Bear, we were ~7 minutes faster than the first lap.
I think everyone was either tired from the chase or thinking about the finish, so Mama Bear was relatively easy. We took the opportunity to position ourselves near the front and gameplan for the finish. Jeremy told me to focus on positioning myself and follow Jack, an Alto Velo teammate riding for Stanford in the combined field for this race. Jack is an experienced rider and a great finisher, so I quickly jumped on his wheel.
Going into Papa Bear, I put myself in about 5th wheel hoping that Max and Jeremy would be behind. Surprisingly, no one wanted to pull and we rode the first 90 seconds of the climb at an easy tempo. Then, an El Cerrito High School rider attacked and got a huge gap. Three other riders responded and I ended up chasing just behind them. I looked back and saw some orange/blue behind me and figured Max or Jeremy must be there. We were gaining on the next group of three until they started sprinting at the 100m sign. I crossed the line in 5th place overall and 3rd in Cat 3. Unfortunately, Jeremy wasn’t feeling the best after being sick last week. So, Max was on my wheel at the finish and hung on for 5th in his first Cat 3 race!
I think we had an excellent overall strategy going into this race. But, we could have adapted better as the race progressed based on how we were all feeling. For example, it probably would have helped our chances in the punchy finish if Mama Bear and Papa Bear were paced harder on the last lap. Also, missing the breakaway that formed at the beginning of the last lap meant we had to spend a lot of energy that could have been saved for the final hills. Still, it was a super fun race, and awesome to come away with two top-5 finishes!
Henry
Race Report: 2024 Sea Otter Circuit - Women’s B/C/Masters/Collegiate
Race: 2024 Sea Otter Circuit - Women’s B/C/Masters/Collegiate
Date: April 20, 2024
AVRT racers: Louise Thomas, Hannah Chen
Top Result: Louise 5/22
Course: 30 min circuit race on Laguna Seca Raceway. Each lap is 2.2 miles, featuring a 0.55 mile climb at 5.6% and a fun corkscrew descent. The road surface was the best I’ve ever ridden on.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11226553219
Nutrition: a few sips of malto/fructose mix. It was such a short race that I probably didn’t even need that
Recap (Written by Louise): Having never done the circuit race at Sea Otter before, I was excited to try it this year. With such a big festival area, the first challenge of the day was getting parked, registered, and finding my way around to the circuit race. It definitely felt like mountain biking was the main focus of the event with a couple of the help desk people not even knowing where the circuit start line was.
Eventually I managed to find my way to the start where Hannah was also waiting, and after a shortened warm-up we lined up along with all of the women from all of the categories (apart from elite/A). It was nice having such a big group but difficult to see who you were actually competing against.
The first lap was pretty easy. Since we didn’t get any practice laps it seemed like everyone was just scoping it out and enjoying being on the super smooth track (would highly recommend trying it). The descent was also a lot of fun with banked corners that you could lean into and pedal through. Not everyone was taking them smoothly though so positioning was still important; unfortunately Hannah was forced to brake multiple times after being stuck behind another rider on the downhill, and then waste energy to catch back up.
On the second lap, a couple of the collegiate racers attacked on the hill and I went with them. We ended up with a breakaway of five; three of us from the B’s and the two collegiates. We were taking turns on the front to stay away, but coming up to the start/finish line I felt like we were going too slow with other racers still in sight behind us, so I told Shantelle to rotate off the front so I could push the pace up a bit. That was a critical error. I stayed on the front until the start of the climb, at which point the others attacked and I got jettisoned off the back. Note to self: don’t do more work than necessary, and definitely don’t do more work than other people who are stronger than you.
For the final lap and a half I hung out in no man’s land, unable to catch back up to the breakaway but far enough away not to get caught myself, and finished the race solo. Hannah then finished not too long after. I definitely should have played it smarter, but honestly it was still so much fun; it’s not very often you get to race on a race track like that.
