2025 Winters RR - Women’s Masters/3/4/5
Race: 2025 Winters RR - Women’s Masters/3/4/5
Date: 8/24/2025
AV racers & result: Hannah Chen, 13/24 (overall)
Course: Two laps of a 24 mile loop. Mostly flat but with a ~3.5mi climb (Cantelow), and narrow twisty descent. There’s also a short uphill gravel stretch that is very doable on 25mm tires.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15582696025
Nutrition: pre-race beet shot (do these work? I dunno) and gel; 1 sugar bottle, 1 skratch bottle, 3 feed zone waters (shoutout @bottle.grab/Drew!), 2 ice packs; and 2 more gels. I forgot to put salt in my sugar bottle and got a cramp in both legs…
Shameless Plugs:
Are you interested in racing next season? Then come out to one of the following recruiting rides. Both start at 9am Summit Bikes on Cal ave in Palo Alto.
9/13/25 FTWNB-only recruiting ride
9/28/25 open to all recruiting ride (with men).
Come out to Women’s track day on 9/20 at the Hellyer Velodrome in San Jose, open to all WTFNB! REGISTER HERE. This is where I learned to ride a fixed gear bike; the track is extra fun and the friends you make there are even better. If we get 5+ AV women riders out, they will waive our registration fees. You can rent a fixie from them. There’s a beginner session clinic in the morning and then racing in the afternoon. Afterwards, there will be freeeeeeeeee pizza from Pogonip (very, very yummy)!
Race Summary:
We combined masters women and 3/4/5 at the start of the race so there was a big field. It was cool to see many teams represented (Sprinkles and Eclipse with 5 each, Lamorinda with 4, and other matching jerseys from Davis, Chico, SGW). I hoped all the other teams would tire amongst themselves battling it out, forget about me, and let me draft/not work.
The first lap was uneventful until we hit the gravel section before the feed zone and the climbers went bye bye. The front group had a few sprinkles; I was in the back of the 2nd group with a mix of sprinkles & eclipse. Funny story: at the feed zone Josie (eclipse) got ice, I was very jealous, but then it fell off her back during the climb. At the top of the climb, Stephen (Gabby’s husband) was handing out ice and when I tried to take one he respectfully responds, “Sorry this ice is for eclipse team only”. But Steeeeephen, I thought we were friends? No worries - my pal Josie tells me I can have half her ice. She gets her ice and then…accidentally drops it. Lol.
We were a group of 5 after the descent. TURKEY. Random 2x turkey crossing scared the crap out of me, and a group of men decided to rush past us at the exact same time. A while later Eva (eclipse) and a Lamorinda rider caught up to us.
As the weakest and lone rider with no teammates in the front group, I had high incentives to get a paceline working. However, this was a complete disaster. Hats off to the Lamorinda rider for being so unbelievably good at not communicating, repeatedly ignoring all six of us trying to teach her how to do a rotating paceline, and coming up with so many novel ways to screw up a paceline. I should’ve given up and conserved energy after it was clear she couldn’t/wouldn’t learn rotations. The biggest mistake I made was when Christina (eclipse) slow rolled at the front so her teammate Eva could break away. I figured we would catch her on the climb/descent but did not realize we would lose so much time dealing with the Lamorinda rider.
I was tired and mentally spent by the time we hit the gravel section again. It was so hot! I took 2 @bottle.grab at the feed zone. Nathan’s dad saved me with a bag o’ ice (thanks). Despite this relief, I had no more suffering left in me and got dropped the 2nd time up Cantelow. At the top of the climb I broke out my best Tiny Tim impression to guilt Stephen into giving me ice, and it worked! Thanks Stephen.
Back onto the flats after the descent I could see Josie and Christina 10 sec up in the distance but they’re like “hahaha sucks for you bye”. Friends no more. I later learned that sweet Christina attacked her own teammate because she’s ruthless like that. Respect. The remainder of the race was lonely: I practiced my TT, got leg cramps, and ran out of water, but no one else caught me at the finish.
After the race I went to the Its-Its outlet store and got a strawberry Its-Its :)