Race Report: 2026 Berkeley Streets Criterium - Men’s Masters 35+ Cat 3/4

Race: 2026 Berkeley Streets Criterium - Men’s Masters 35+ Cat 3/4

Date: April 19, 2026

AVRT racers: Michael Matthews

Top Result: 2nd

Course: 0.6 mile long rectangular 4 corner Criterium. Steady/slight uphill (tailwind on the day) through the start finish. Fast slight downhill (headwind on the day) before the last 2 quick corners. The penultimate corner can be slightly off-camber. Last Corner has quite a few bumpy sections.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/18176161408

Nutrition: Normal breakfast + 40g carbs in bottle for pre/during.

Event Recap: Comically awful start off the line - double-unclip and a dropped chain. Luckily a quick fix and I was able to catch up with the field by corner two. I was running last into corner three and four before burning a match to jump from last-to-first in a twenty-person field on the start-finish straight. Exhale. Then, I settled in for a few laps near the front minding the Red Peloton squad. They had five riders and I did not have teammates. The pace at the front caused a split and I started yelling to push the pace with about six total riders, because we had a chance with Red Peloton having three riders present. After rolling for about two laps with this group Colby, myself and one Red Peloton rider were the only ones working. Colby called on me to come with him and leave this group due to lack of cohesion. We shot off together with ~25 mins left in the race. We worked (hard) well together through to the end, expanding and then maintaining a gap equivalent to about half-to-three-quarters of the long side of the course. In the last lap on the downhill straight I moved into the lead position, I wanted to lead into corner four and lead the sprint. I forced us onto the left side of the road so I could keep him over my right shoulder. I hesitated to kick off the sprint, and a split second later he went and I was unable to keep up and lost the sprint by a bike length. In hindsight, I should have forced a longer sprint right as we finished the last corner. For my first Cat 3 race, second place and points is still a big win on the day!