Race Report: Santa Cruz Classic Criterium - Women’s P/1/2/3

Race: Santa Cruz Classic Criterium Women’s P/1/2/3

Date: March 24, 2024

AVRT racers: Gina Yuan, Niky Taylor, Rachel Hwang, Whitney Post

Top Result: Rachel 4th, Gina 6th

Course: 60 minutes around a 0.78mi crit course.  Triangle course: first corner is a hairpin turn downhill, followed by a decent into the second corner, and a gradual 4-5% climb into a 2% climb to the finish.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11031625246

Race Recap (written by Rachel):

Stiff competition this weekend, Denver Disruptors, Butcher Box, Terun, Fount, Monarch, and others including Alto Velo.  My goal this race was to cover some attacks (as I'm not expecting much left for a sprint at the end), and to learn how to draft better in the group and do less work.

There were a few primes in the first half of the race, setting a seemingly fast pace for the race.  I covered a few attacks, and remember two well.  The first was when a Terun rider and two others pulled ahead, and Alex on Terun started slowing down the pack.  I was right behind her, and as I saw and felt the speed slow, realized I needed to chase.  I chased down the group which brought others with me to gap the bridge.

The second was past the corner into the uphill sprint finish.  Somehow, I was pretty far up the front.  Dani from Denver Disruptors attacked up the hill and I chased her down.  As we neared the finish line, she looked back and slowed down.  That's when the announcer said "prime" and I realized she attacked for the prime, not necessarily for a break.  As she passed the line, I slowly chased after her until I was behind her.  She tried to get me to pull, but I looked down at my Garmin, and we were only 22 minutes in. My goal was only to chase down attacks, not stick in a break as I'm pretty sure I would burn all my matches and get dropped later in the race.  She said some words to try to guilt me into pulling but at that point I was slow pedaling waiting for the field to catch up.

Following some sprints, I felt the wheezing coming back and decided to sit in the field the rest of the race.  That's also about when Niky came up to me to ask how I was doing, and knew I should probably conserve my energy for a sprint at the end.

The entire race, I was on the outside line, and slowly, lap by lap, the field migrated to the edge, and I got stuffed in the gutter almost every lap.  This would come back to bite me.

Near the end, Whitney told me to mark Dani, and with 2 laps to go, Niky told me to get behind her.  These were great exercises for me to find and stick to someone's wheel.  Because before they came up to me, I was figuring out in my head how I could get in and stay in a good position through the last few laps, with a history of ending up in the back every time I tried to stay in the front.  Niky kept looking back and I kept losing her only to get back on her wheel on the straight aways.  With one lap to go, she led me out, and as I stayed behind her, people started coming up and around from all over.  As we turned the last corner into the climb, I get on Niky's wheel, but then get stuffed into the gutter and shut out by the Butcher Box girl and couldn't get around.  I lose a few critical seconds but manage to navigate around some people to an open area.  The line up now was Alex and Dani far enough off the front they weren't even in the picture, two girls - Butcher Box and Terun - in front of me, and then me.  As I navigate out of the gutter and around the riders, the two I am looking to beat is the Butcher Box and Terun girl.  I had the power to pass Terun, but could not beat Butcher Box, placing 4th.  Gina was close behind and sprinted for 6th. It was an about ~0.17mi sprint uphill from the corner to the finish line.

I'm very happy how this race turned out.  Up until this point, I never thought I had the fitness in me in a P123 race to be able to make it to the end with enough left to sprint.  I do constantly wonder how the race would have turned out if I was in better position coming out of that corner, but I'm very happy with the outcome and very grateful for the effort Niky put into pulling the last two laps.

Nutrition: 1 Clif shot double espresso, 1 bottle liquid IV during the race