Race Report: 2025 Redlands Downtown (Amateur) Criterium - Women’s P123

Race: Redlands Downtown (Amateur) Criterium - Women’s P123

Date: 4/13/25 

AVRT racers: Thialor Mize 

Top Result: Thialor Mize - 9th 

Course: Shorter course than the stage race one. 5 corner crit. Decreasing radius curve at the top that people tended to clip a pedal on if they were running cranks longer than 155mm. Two turns in the middle that set up nicely like a S turn. Final turn was off camber and set up into a short sprint. 

Nutrition: Rice/jam/yogurt for breakfast. Root beer in the bottles for maximum chaos. Two SIS gels. A tylenol afterwards chased with a nice iced caramel mocha. 

Report: Today I learned you can physically push yourself ~too~ hard! Without teammates, I found myself covering a lot more than usual. Unfortunately, that included a massive attack by the legendary Lauren Stephens herself about 6 or 7 laps to go. I dangled there for a lap or two before getting caught and reabsorbed, and then dug deep to stay floating near the front, but my legs were pretty spent from going off the front and trying to respond. Eventually Lauren was caught as well and the field settled into a brisk pace. My friend Ruth (guesting for United) launched a savvy move 2 laps to go that put me on the back foot. I found myself around 10th wheel and the pace was just too high to make up places in that technical of a crit. I'd bring home 9th on the day, and a wicked migraine that lasted for a couple days. Fortunately for me, there was a cat cafe with good coffee and lots of cute kitties in a dark place to rest for a while afterward, and I got to watch my partner protect his GC rider and bring home yellow for his team in the pro race afterward.