Race Report: 2026 San Ardo Road Race - Women’s P123 California State Championship
Race: San Ardo Road Race - Women’s P123
Date: Saturday Aug 15, 2026
AVRT racers: Louise Thomas, Steph Hart
Top result: Louise - 1/4
Course: 22-mile loop, mostly flat with a few rolling hills in the first 4 miles. According to the course notes “good to fair paving”. I’m not sure how many years it’s been since that pavement was good, but it’s definitely longer than I’ve been racing.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/19757553909
Nutrition: two bottles during the race, each with 60g malto/fructose mix, and a handful of gummy worms.
Recap (written by Louise):
TLDR:
Lap 1: attacked and counterattacked with Steph
Lap 2: got in a breakaway with Haley
Lap 3: went for a solo breakaway to win the state championship
Usually NorCal and SoCal are separate districts in bike racing, but this year, for the first time in known history, the powers that be decided to hold a combined California State Road Championship. Whoever won San Ardo would be the undisputed champion of the entire state.
Given that, I was hoping a few more racers would show up. They did not. So at the start line there were just four of us: myself, Steph, Haley Hagerstrom, and Kate Wilson. I’d never raced either Haley or Kate, but I knew Haley had been putting up some strong results in the 3/4/5s, while Kate, the lone SoCal racer, had a jersey with national champion stars on the sleeves.
As the only ones with teammates in the race, it was up to me and Steph to set the pace. I didn’t get up early to do a 60-mile coffee ride on shitty pavement, so I attacked as soon as we hit the first rollers. Steph followed suit, and we settled into our usual routine of attacking and counterattacking. Each time, Kate was hot on our wheels, but whenever she ended up on the front she’d soft-pedal. Haley was happy to let Kate do most of the chasing, so it was hard to tell how strong she actually was.
After about 45 minutes, we finally got a combination to stick. Steph attacked twice, then Haley attacked (the first non-AV attack of the race) and I countered. Suddenly I found myself off the front with Haley on my wheel.
Kate is a track national champion, and I was trying to avoid the scenario of arriving at the finish with her still on my wheel. So I was happy with the break composition, and Haley and I agreed to work together.
We traded pulls for the whole second lap. Then, coming through San Ardo to start lap three, I heard: "Hey, I think you've got a puncture."
I turned around to see Haley’s face covered in sealant. Sorry about that.
The tire was holding air and had stopped spraying, so I decided it was probably fine for the rest of the race.
The first four miles of each lap have the best places to attack, and if I didn’t want the race to come down to a sprint, I figured this was my best chance to get away. Essentially, there are two ways to win a bike race: outsprint everyone at the end, or work really hard to drop everyone before then. Unfortunately, I’m not a sprinter, which means putting in an hour+ effort rather than a 10-second one.
I drafted Haley into a dip in the road, used the momentum to slingshot past her, and powered up the next riser.
Then it was head down for 20-odd miles, trying to keep my power up and my heart rate down.
I kept looking back, and for most of it I couldn't see Haley anywhere. Every few miles it got tempting to let the power drop a little. Then I'd think about how it would feel to get caught in the last mile after all of this, and push harder instead.
Somewhere in there I caught and passed the Cat 3/4/5 women and got to cheer on Kathay. It's always nice to see your teammates out on the road, even when you're in a different race.
Every time I looked back I was hoping for an empty road. Once I didn't get one, and spent a nervous few minutes before the riders behind me resolved into a group of P12 guys. With a couple of miles to go, I looked back and saw a single rider I was fairly sure was Haley.
After almost an hour alone off the front, I crossed the line to win a title that until this year didn't exist: California State Road Champion. Haley crossed less than a minute later.
After the race I checked my tire and found three separate punctures. Thank god for sealant.
Photo credit to Greg Beliera for the first two pics.