Race Report: 2025 Berkeley Hills Road Race - Men’s P12
Race: 2025 Berkeley Hills Road Race Men’s P/1/2
Date: April 26, 2025
AVRT racers: Leo Minami, Henry Mallon, Max Rye, Nathan Martin, Andrew Ernst, Cam O'Reilly
Top result: Erik 3/57
Course: 18.7 mile loop with several short, punchy climbs, some rough pavement in parts but generally fast, not technical, with one fast descent
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14295583958
Nutrition: Started with two bottles of malto/fructose mix, 4 gels. Many thanks to Roger (Nathan’s dad) and Drew for the awesome (and much appreciated) feeds during the race!
Recap: (by Erik and additional comments from Cam)
Because I moved to California in June of last year this was my first chance to race BHRR. I had heard a lot about the race and was targeting this as a priority for the year. While not a pure climber’s race (more for puncheurs than diesels like myself), the parcours did seem to suit me well and I was stoked to be racing as part of such a strong team. Our crew included riders who could motor on the front, pull back a break if needed, and hit the last climb hard. We were well-prepared to be one of the strongest teams there and we raced like it.
We had a short neutral roll-out to make our way to the actual start. It was COLD and starting with a jacket was definitely necessary. The attacks started pretty much off the bat. My hope was to make the break for the day and was able to get into a strong break that was well-represented with Cycle-Sport (Chris Riekert), POA (Finn Mitchell), Mike’s Bikes (Blake Macheras), VFR (Mike Morton), and Noah Shelton riding unattached (though I think he mostly races cyclocross on the UCI circuit).
The group worked well together and we managed to get a gap over two minutes. The course suits a breakaway provided there is not a concerted effort to bring it back given the meaningful climbs and the ability to be out of sight relatively quickly.
Back in the peloton, the pace slowed dramatically as soon as it was clear the break was gone. With all teams either represented ahead or not strong enough to pull it back, riders looking to go across wanted to make sure they didn’t give the rest of the field a free ride. This meant we went absolutely ballistic up Mama Bear and Papa Bear every lap as riders like Cole Davis (Project Echelon) attacked with long efforts up the entire climbs. AV was always represented in the front group when it split, though most riders were able to come back each time given the pace let up on the descents.
One interesting dynamic that played out a couple times on the flatter sections was both CycleSport and Mike’s launching pairs of riders across. With the gap to the break at 4+ minutes, they would try and form a chase with one of their smaller climbers (presumably their protected rider for the day) and one of their larger domestiques as an engine to bridge the gap to the front break. On a course like BHRR with an extended downhill and flat section between the climbs, this was a great strategy. While none of these ended up with the right team composition and were all chased back by the field before they could establish too large of a gap, it was really cool to see these kinds of tactics at play.
My tactical error came in the penultimate lap when I tried to break away from the breakaway. My thinking had been that (a) the group had been slowing and people were tired, (b) I didn’t trust my legs against some strong guys on the final climb as I’m not a punchy rider, and (c) the presence of only one rider per team in the break meant there was a possibility of people sitting up and playing games. I managed to get about a 30 second gap over the top of papa bear and held it through the flattish section of the course but was caught just after the big right turn off San Pablo Dam road.
After I was caught the attacks came left and right and Chris fell off pretty shortly thereafter. The five of us continued to hit each other as hard as we could though nobody could totally shell the pack. Coming into papa bear everyone was pretty beat and it ended up being a drag to the end. I couldn’t stay with Noah (1st) and Finn (2nd) but managed to outkick Blake for third.
We had thought that the rest of the field was far in the distance, though actually they were just behind us! Nathan had a beast of an effort the final time up papa bear for 5th overall, ahead of Cole Davis from Team Echelon.
I’m still kicking myself for the tactical error but overall I can’t recommend the race highly enough and couldn’t have asked for better conditions or support from the team!
