Race Report: 2025 “Oakland” Grand Prix, Mens Pro/1/2
Race: 2025 “Oakland” Grand Prix, Mens Pro/1/2
Date: September 14, 2025
AVRT racers: Jon Wells
Top Result: Jon Wells, 12th of 38
Course: 0.95 mile loop with six corners around the Shea Center in Livermore. It is almost the same as all the early bird courses but with an additional U-turn added by the parking lot, making the course much more technical
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15814715509
Nutrition: One bottle of 90g carb mix and a prerace redbull
Race Recap:
Due to some unfinished construction on the original course, the Oakland Grand Prix was moved out to the Shea Center in Livermore at the last minute. Instead of the usual early bird course, you went straight through the old corner 4 and took a U-turn before turning left into the usual finish line. The previous course was pretty straight forward, and even boring at times, so I was pretty excited about the addition of a technical feature. But I think the U turn kind of ruined any flow you could find on the course and wasn’t enough to make up for the easy remainder of the course.
The field was slightly smaller than usual but still had some solid hitters including Mikes Bikes out in force with maybe 8 riders, then Terun had a few guys, and Ryan Gorman racing alone. Mikes made it clear from early on that they wanted a break to go and they wanted at least 2 guys in it. This often forced Ryan to follow and make big bridges, leading to a pretty surgy race.
My plan was to follow any moves with Mikes and Ryan, as I didn’t think there would be enough guys left in the field to chase. Moves went all race and I followed a few massive bridge attempts from Ryan plus a couple from Mikes guys trying to stack moves with several riders. I think if Mikes had been content with just one guy in a move, then something would have stuck earlier, but they kept trying to bridge to their own moves and would bring others with them.
Around 5 laps to go I decided I was content with a field sprint, just trying to float near the front and no longer following moves. A move snuck off around 2 to go with 2 mikes guys and one Terun, leaving only Ryan to chase. I found myself on his wheel at one to go, waiting for him to hit it. Eventually he did, and it strung out the field big time, but the gap to the leading trio was slightly too big. They just held off the field and former AV racer PA (now Mikes) took the win. I found myself around 12th and really went nowhere in the field sprint with tired legs from trying to get into breaks all race.
-Jon