Race: Berkeley Streets Criterium WP/1/2

AVRT racers: Rachel Hwang

Race: Berkeley Streets Criterium WP/1/2

Date: 4/19/26

Top Result: Crit - 4th Rachel, Omnium - 3rd

Course: 4 corner crit, one side slightly uphill, other side downhill and headwind. Horrible corners on the downhill side 3rd and especially 4th.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/18178825874#kudos

Race Recap:  

As we lined up I realized it was Coalition with 5 (the team from Seattle I learned about), Terun with 3, one Super Sprinkles girl, and me.  I went into it pretty nervous today because this felt like a race I should win.  I don’t know Rachel too well, but everyone else I knew I had a fair shot at a sprint finish with.

Anyways, the race started and Coalition, with the majority of the field, attacked.  The different people on Terun traded chases and I would follow behind them.  I didn’t want any breakaway actually forming but also didn’t want to do any chasing knowing that there were other teams - Coalition and Terun - who would do the chasing for me.  

On one of the laps I was third wheel behind Sofya and a girl on Coalition.  We went through the last corner and the Coalition girl must have hit one of the cracks in the ground because she went flying and tumbling, all right in front of me.  She tumbled a few times, first to the right, then to the left near the curb.  It was actually kind of scary to watch and she let out a bit of a scream that did not sound comforting.  As she tumbled left and right I thought “uh oh I’m going down” and I couldn’t figure out where to go cause she was tumbling everywhere.  I can’t brake fast enough and she was next to the curb but I managed to stay upright and unclipped and squeezed through the curb side, then had to chase the group ahead of me.

After a few attacks, another girl on Coalition attacked and this time no one chased.  For a second, I sprinted to chase, but then realized, ‘Why am I chasing her? She’s not in contention for omnium.’  Sara looked at me and told me to chase, knowing that she and her teammates have already chased quite a few times and I followed.  I turn to Sara and say, “Is she in the omnium?” to which Sara replied, “Maybe 5th or 6th?” I think for a second and say, “Eh, she’ll run out of fuel.”  I wasn’t saying this to be mean but more so from experience seeing how previous races have played out when AV was the majority of the field and knowing people on my team were just attacking to keep it interesting, and also after the RR yesterday seeing how Rachel was the only one on Coalition who could likely keep away.

I was right.  After half a lap or so, we caught back up.  This went on a few more times, except I noticed when Sofya attacked, sometimes Sara would follow, and every time Sara attacked, Rachel would follow.

I don’t know how it happened but then suddenly it was me Sara and Rachel in a breakaway.  For a minute I thought about not doing any work and bringing the field back so that I could try to outsprint the other two.  But then I realized no one in the field was going to chase so I started helping out.  We traded fair pulls, each of us trading on a long leg so each of us rotated pulling up or down.

Then we saw the field in front of us and the pulls became just easy riding.  Sara tried getting me to pull harder again to which I ignored because I see the field in front of me, I know we’re safe.

With a few laps to go, Sara starts attacking on the uphill to which I sit right behind her.  She’s not getting away.  Then on the last lap we lap the field on the first two corners with the field on the inside and Sara attacking on the outside.  I’m still on her wheel, but then on the downhill, Rachel attacks to my right and I’m taken by surprise.  This was too close to when I was planning on going in front of Sara.  Rachel’s cornering isn’t great, and I’m not comfortable kissing a wheel through those two corners specifically, which the pavement is terrible, especially after that crash with the person right in front of me.  Because of this, the gap between Sara and I got even larger as we went through the last corner, and the sprint wasn’t long enough for me to get around Sara, and Rachel was able to get around her for the W.

I was really angry with myself after we crossed the finish line because I totally could have done better.  Otherwise it overall was not a bad race and a lot more chill compared to the races with constant attacks from Jamie who got 2nd at Redlands TT btw.  Then someone I knew in the audience gave me a nice cold beer which cheered me up a bit.

Nutrition: 1 bottle of Torq hydration, 1 caffeinated Torq gel at the start line.  Go buy Torq everyone and you can win too. I am not paid to say that… semi sort of.