Race Report: 2025 Portland Crits, Mens Pro/1/2
Race: 2025 Portland Crits - City Blocks, Mens Pro/1/2
Date: August 16, 2025
AVRT racers: Jon Wells
Top Result: Jon Wells, 28th of 37
Course: 0.43 mile loop with SIX corners around a downtown park in Portland, OR. The L-shaped course is super tight with basically constant corners, riding a bit like a go cart track. No elevation and kind of bad pavement in spots.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15495985548/
Nutrition: One bottle of 90g carb mix and a prerace redbull
Race Recap:
Went up to Portland Crit not really knowing how fast the field would be since it was mostly PNW guys and only a couple out of staters but assumed it would be no faster than a local California race. I think this may have been a good assumption, but this is like their biggest crit weekend of the summer so everyone was extra amped on it and there was pretty fast racing all weekend.
I knew this course would be a race of attrition given the super tight and technical course so I wanted to start and stay near the front. I did manage to line up front row but then I also managed to do such a bad job of clipping in that I got shuffled all the way to the back. Immediately I tried to start moving up, but the final stretch is the only place where this is possible since the rest of the course is so turny and tight. You knew immediately going into corner 1 if it was going to be a chill lap or if the guy in front of you braked at all then you knew you were in for a hard dig to close down the gap he had made.
Ultimately I wasn’t strong enough to come around all the gaps that started opening up from literally lap 1. It ended up being a very hard race, with only like 10 guys remaining in the group and not getting pulled at the end. Was fun to see NorCal guys in the mix but pretty bummed I didn’t get to do the whole race with them. Definitely lit a fire for the next days race though!
-Jon
Race: 2025 Portland Crits - Lloyd Park, Mens Pro/1/2
Date: August 17, 2025
AVRT racers: Jon Wells
Top Result: Jon Wells, 20th of 41
Course: 0.8 mile loop with “four” corners around a shopping center in Portland, OR. The first corner was combined with this tricky low speed chicane to make it a little more technical. One side of the course went through a tunnel with slight hills into and out of it.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15495985594/
Nutrition: One bottle of 90g carb mix and a prerace redbull
Race Recap:
Day 2 of Portland Crits was around a shopping mall on another pretty technical course, with a super tight chicane into a downhill corner that made an otherwise wide open circuit pretty challenging. I wanted to race from the front again today, which I did a much better job of this time. This race was also the OBRA state championship so there were more guys out today.
Race was pretty aggressive from the start with moves constantly flying. I kept myself first 10 wheels to make the tight chicane easier and also follow anything that looked dangerous. My criteria for jumping in a move was it having an expeditors and POA rider plus Ama Nsek (former Natty Champ). I jumped across to a couple such moves in the first 50 minutes but nothing really stuck.
At this point, there had just been a break that got brought back into the mix and the guy riding in 6th position took a big fall in the tight chicane. I was 2nd wheel behind him and had to slow down to avoid crashing. This crash split the first 5 riders off the front (including Ama and the dangerous teams) and we ended up never seeing them again. I chased very hard and was in a pretty serious group of 4 trying to bridge for the next few laps but we never made it across. By the time the field sprint came around, I had already spent all my bullets trying to get up the road so I just rolled in with the group. I was pretty bummed to be feeling so good all race and then have the move of the day just be an unlucky split after a crash.
-Jon