Race Report: 2025 Pescadero Road Race - Men’s P/1/2

Race: Pescadero Road Race - Men’s P/1/2

Date: 7/12/25

AVRT Racers: Hunter Wilson, Erik Levinsohn, Greg McCullough, Cameron O’reilly, Henry Mallon, Nathan Martin, Andrew Ernst, Leo Minami

Top Result: 2nd - Nathan

Course: 3.8 laps of the Pescadero RR course. Starting in Pescadero, heading out to Stage Rd for 2 short climbs, turning onto highway 84 for a false-flat stretch before hitting Haskins, a 6-8 min climb. Technical and fast descent follows, before a slight downhill drag back to Pesky.

Nutrition: 4 bottles of mix

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15093463167

Race Recep (written by Nathan): 

Our race plan was to setup me for the finish, while putting pressure on other strong riders by getting in breaks and sending people up the road.

The race got off to a hot start, Jovanni Stefani would light things up the first climb on Stage Rd, this wouldn’t split the group at all but definitely set the tone for what would be a hard race.

84 would see some more attacks, but nothing stuck and the group stayed together the first time up Haskins, for a relatively tame ascent of the climb.

Second time on Stage Rd, some fireworks would start, with strong riders like Sean Bennett throwing attacks, but nothing would stick and we’d stay together to 84.

The second time up Haskins would be much harder than the first, with the group really splitting up over the top and me being in a small separation with Erik and some others, with me asking Erik to keep it fast on the climb for me. However, we would get caught after the descent.

Before Stage Rd the third time, a group would go with Andrew in it that got some daylight. The rest of the peloton would do the first Stage climb not too hard, but the second climb was more difficult, and when people sat up I decided to attack to try to bridge to Andrew’s group.

I got a good gap and held it on the descent, but I could see Quinn on the front chasing and keeping the gap steady once we hit 84, and the group in front was too fractured at this point to work, so ended up coming back into the fold of the field.

On 84 the attacks continued, a break including Blake from Mikes’ Bikes and Erik went up the road, which was good for us.

Hitting Haskins the third time, Sean Bennett would launch a big attack, trying to bridge. Quinn, Tim, and I followed, and this was the hardest ascent of the race, with the three of us catching the group that went on 84, with the exception of Erik who was still up the road.

As the group was brought back into the fold of the peloton and Erik was caught, the last ascents of Stage Rd were pretty tame. On 84, PA for Mikes would do a mega pull nearly the entire way to Haskins, making this tailwind section very hard and dropping a lot of people from the field.

On Haskins the last time, Mikes would be on the front setting a steady, but not hard, tempo. I knew that Quinn has a good kick, so my best bet at a win would be riding the climb as hard as possible.

So I accelerated, and most of the field followed, but soon Sean would counter attack and the small selection would be made. It was me, Tim, Sean, Quinn, Tobin, and a couple u23 riders in this group. After Sean attacked, I countered his counter and just held a hard pace on the climb. In hindsight, not the best move, as this climb is fast and thus very draftable, but it’s what I needed to try to beat Quinn.

As we approached 500m to go to the finish, Tim came around me to keep the pace high for Sean. Hitting 200m to go, Quinn kicked and I tried to follow, but was nowhere near close enough, coming across in second.

Overall a bit bummed to come so close, but super happy to get a podium at state champs. The team did a ton of work, it was amazing, hopefully next year can get the win here!