Pleasanton Dash for Cash - Men’s Cat 4/5

Race: Pleasanton Dash for Cash - Men’s Cat 4/5

Date: Saturday June 6, 2026

AVRT racers: Kyle Martin, Suhith Rajesh

Top Result: Kyle Martin (5/24), Suhith Rajesh (10/24)

Course: https://www.strava.com/segments/610286

Prototypical 4 corner office park crit, no elevation, could pedal through most corners. Weather was uncharacteristically cool (normally it is 20 degrees hotter), one side of the course had a headwind, was not really a solid place to break away.

Strava Activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/18816551739

Nutrition: Starting Thursday I tried to hit between 6-7g of carbs / kg of bodyweight and had a Gatorade a few hours before the race—totally carbed up; this worked well for me and I felt super strong. 

Recap (written by Kyle):

I’ve heard it said that one should do a long warm up for a short effort and a short warm up for a long effort. Whatever the truth is, for this race I did a long warm up based on this Cycling Collective article and thought it went really well actually. Here’s the warm up distilled into intervals.icu format for future generations: 

Activation Warm Up
- 12m 50% Easy spin @ race cadence ~95-100rpm (familiarity, not power)
3x
- 3m ramp 55-100% Smooth build to threshold, no surges
- 90s 0% FULL STOP — zero watts, zero cadence
2x
- 30s 110% Controlled opener, NOT a max sprint
- 90s 50% Easy spin
- 3m 50% Spin to the line

The higher categories of this race feature a “dash for cash” each lap which, unbeknownst to our particular race, was off; I’m not sure if this is the norm or a function of some condition that wasn’t met at the organizer level but the men’s 4/5 race was not dashing for cash each lap like the others. The organizers forgot to tell us we weren’t racing for cash so we certainly raced like it. 

Mentally I divided this 45 minute race into three sections: 1. Opener, 2. Holding on, 3. Positioning for the Finish. Here’s a power-per-lap breakdown of my race: 

(Image courtesy of the Strava MCP with Claude—my HR is normally this high, no worries there)

Opener (~laps 1-5): 

I wanted to open the race and try to go for a prime and quickly realized that if I wanted to do anything in the final that I would need to race more conservatively.

Holding on (laps 6-18):

This part of the race was mostly me trying to learn the cornering better, watching other racers, and deciding if I should chase someone back running off the front for a sprint. Towards the end of the race (around lap 15) I was feeling great and wanted to make the race harder to give Suhith a good spot for the sprint finish, I suppose this was a sort of defensive strategy to prevent attacks. Initially I had told Suhith I would just go to the front and set a 20 or 15 min power best, but my Garmin kept showing the live segment and blocking my numbers—so I was forced to race by feel instead of numbers. In the end I found it was better to ride by feel than get tied up mentally in the numbers of it all. 

(Me pulling the group with Suhith sitting in) 

Positioning for the finish (laps 19-24):

The pace in the final few laps picked up significantly and I got off the front and recovered in the pack. Suhith ended up several wheels ahead of me and I was trying to catch back up and lead him out. Coming into the final corner I realized our leadout plan wasn’t going to happen. Coming out of the final corner I saw everyone opening up their sprints, and sat in as long as possible before opening my own sprint in the final 50m. Suhith started his sprint maybe a bit too early and finished in tenth; whereas I waited and passed several wheels to finish fifth.

Full race footage available, but starting from the final corner!

While barely a podium, I was delighted with this result, fearing that I'd finish last like I had the week previous in Regalado due to a muscle cramp.