Race Report: 2025 Pescadero Coastal Classic - Men’s E3
Date: July 12, 2025
AVRT racers: Wil Gibb, George Wehner, Kevin Kauffman, Drew Mathews
Top Result: Wil Gibb (4/18)
Course: ~72 miles, 3 ascents of Haskins climb which the race finished on. After a neutral rollout from Pescadero High School, the race begins on Stage Road with two short climbs separated by fast descents. A right turn off of Stage leads to 7.5 miles of gradual 1% uphill with a few punchy rollers. Next is a right turn onto Pescadero Road with a short uphill/downhill before turning right onto Pescadero Creek Road for the final Haskins climb (1.6 miles at 7%).
Strava: https://strava.app.link/SZFcKJGPYUb
Nutrition: Two bottles with 120g carbs each, 90g gel, two neutral feed water bottles
Recap: Written by Wil
Going into this race as the biggest team, we felt the expectation would be on us to set the pace and control attacks. Drew and Kevin offered to patrol the front to do just that, with George and I sitting in as much as possible for the climbs. Thanks to their work, there were no significant attacks on lap one, though the pace was still high. Pescadero’s reputation for being attritional was on full display, with the group’s fastest times being set on the first lap and getting slower throughout the race. This meant that at the first Haskins climb, the group already splintered, leaving George, myself, and about ten other riders to chase a break of two that had a small gap rolling over the top of the climb. Sadly, I dropped my (Shimano!) chain at the crest of Haskins and had to get off the bike to fix it. My efforts then switched to chasing back to George & the main group on the descent.
Once I got back to the group, there was no sense of urgency to chase back the two ahead, especially since the largest remaining team (Sycip) was represented in the break. The pace on Stage was again high, and Drew was still able to help the team with very well placed water in Bottle Grabs. Unfortunately, George got boxed in behind slowing riders in this feed zone and had to burn matches chasing back down Stage and up 84. This meant that at the top of the second Haskins climb, our group had narrowed to 8 and I was the sole AVRT rider remaining. Worse yet, there were four Teslas ahead of us on the Haskins descent whose autonomous driving software clearly were not connected to Strava, as they slowed us down significantly. When they finally turned off the road, their sharp braking forced me to take evasive action into the ditch, though I miraculously stayed upright (kudos to AVRT team camp gravel ride?!).
After this Musk-driven misadventure, it was clear we would only be racing for the final spot on the podium. There were no real attacks since people were trying to save their legs for Haskins. My goal was to be in a good position for the climb, though I made the mistake of being in too good of a position (the front). Instead of varying my cadence and power trying to slot back, I decided to just set a hard pace I knew I could keep to try and discourage attacks. Since no one came around, every so often I attacked out of the saddle to see if I could distance myself. This made-up (ill-advised?) strategy brought the group from eight to four riders. Coming around the final bend, I knew the climb flattened so I launched one final (too early) sprint, and a Team California junior rider came around me by a bike length to take first from the field.
This was a hard but fun race, and I’m especially grateful to all of the amazing volunteers who made this event possible. Also huge thanks to photographer Christophe Testi who captured so many moments of this race. See below for one of them – me attacking (or leading out?) the remaining riders during the final moments of the race.
