Costa Mesa Grand Prix/ PRO SCNCA District Championships
Race: Race #1:Women 4,5/ Masters 35+ Race #2: Champ Pro W 1/2-3
Date: August 1st, 2026
AVRT racers: Cat 3: Orthja Efinger
Top Result: Race#1: 🥇 1st Place Masters 35+ Cat 3 | Race #2: 🥈 2nd Place Cat 3 (overall 9th place)
Course: Flat 4 corner 1 mile loop, full on headwind from 1st to 2nd corner and a cross-headwind (is that a thing?) from 4th to 1st corner. Race #1 was 40min and Race#2 was 60min.
Nutrition: Oats for Breakfast as always, liquid nutrition in bottle for race #1. A $14 Turkey Sandwich during lunch break (wasn’t even that big for the price) and a gel (50g carbs) before race #2. Unfortunately I didn’t have another pouch of liquid nutrition so just water for race #2.
Race Recap (Written by Orthja)
Race#1:
TLDR; pretty boring, skip to Race #2
The first race in the morning was the Masters 35+ Cat 3 race, combined with Cat 4 and 5 riders. The race was 40 minutes long, and with only six racers showing up, we all raced together in the same field. The race started kinda slow, and I was getting bored, so I started picking up the pace and pushed for a while to see who could hang on. One other racer joined my effort, and in no time we were down to a group of three riders for the rest of the race.
With two laps to go, I started scheming my attack. On the last lap, I launched halfway through the course after we came out of the headwind section, with less than 1 km to go. It worked out well, and I managed to stay away and take the breakaway all the way to the finish line. That was not too bad I thought.
Race #2:
The second race in the afternoon was a whole other story. I was super nervous racing in a combined Cat 1/2/3 field without a team. One of my friends from San Diego, who's also a Cat 3, was racing without a team as well, so we agreed to combine forces.
The race started super mellow for the first couple of laps, but once the prime laps started, the pace picked up like crazy, especially between the last corner and the first corner. I just tried to stay on wheels and not waste energy pulling anyone. I kept an eye on the other Cat 3 racers, and whenever I saw one of them go, I tried to stay with them.
I got unlucky a couple of times following the wrong wheel and ended up with racers who didn't want to pull at all, so I was the one bridging the gaps. There were two teams constantly throwing attacks, and at some point halfway through the race there was a breakaway of about 4-5 riders. I was NOT one of them. 😄
I ended up pulling more than I wanted to, and a few minutes later there was another attack. My friend was able to get on it, but I was toast at that point, and the two of them got away. As mentioned above, my friend is also a Cat 3 so my mission for the rest of the race was to get back to her because who wants to be the first loser?! Also, I was disappointed that she didn’t wait up for me. As if she wanted to win or something…
I found myself in the third chasing group with three other riders and tried like crazy to catch back up to my friend. After pulling for two laps, though, I realized I wouldn't be able to sustain that effort for the rest of the race, so I started encouraging the others in the group to take some pulls. They weren't eager at all to get back to the second chasing group, and one rider didn't do any pulls whatsoever, which pissed me off (and the other riders in our group too). They didn’t understand that I was in a hurry to catch up with my friend, must have been due to my accent I guess😄
With two laps to go, I stopped pulling entirely and let the others do the work. Since everyone else in my little group was Cat 1 or Cat 2, I knew I had second place among the Cat 3s locked up, so I just focused on staying with the group and making sure we didn't get caught by the rest of the field.
In the end, I came away with a second place in the Cat 3 field and 9th overall in the combined Cat 1/2/3 race. I also managed to get two prime laps (they had some for Cat 3 only), so that was cool because I got a bunch of cash. Finally I am making money riding my bike. Yei!