Race Report: 2025 San Ardo Road Race Masters 35+ 3/4

Race: 2025 San Ardo Road Race Masters 35+ 3/4

Date: August 16, 2025

AVRT racers: Shai Traister, Joseph Garcia

Top Result: Joseph Garcia (13/16)

Course: Three laps of a 23 mile clockwise loop comprising a headwind way out and tailwind back. A ~5 minute twisting rolling climb with short steep ramps and otherwise shallow gradient. Rough pavement in parts, most notably on the narrow bridge on the backside of the course and consistent massive horizontal cracks across the road on the backside of the course. 

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15483432207

Nutrition: 2 bottles with skratch during the race, one gel

Recap: (written by Shai)

I could ride the 50+ race, but I felt good leading into the race and there were only a handful of racers pre-reg'ed, so I decided to "level up" and race the 35+ race.

During warm up I realized that the pavement was pretty bad with horizontal cracks on the road which made it pretty bumpy. I had a small procedure ~10 days prior and the bumps were uncomfortable so I decided to lower the air pressure on my rear tire. I was running tubeless so I assumed it would be fine.

On the start line I pointed to Joe the two riders in the 805 race team as the team to watch for. Based on the pre-reg numbers I knew at least one of them was very strong.

Race started at a good pace and I tried to be near the front. When we hit the first few hills, 3 riders rolled off the front - with one representative of the 805 team. Initially I wasn't too worried because it was a 63 miles race and I thought it would for sure be brought back - this is cat 3 after all, and everyone still had fresh legs...

In the back it was a complete chaos - Myself and 3-4 others pulled on the front, some others tried to attack and get away, while the majority of the field were sitting on and not helping at all. On top of things, the other 805 racer was sitting on, and blocking any attempts to form some cohesive efforts. For the first 10-15 minutes we kept the front group within 20s, and one time it got down to probably less than 10s, but never quite managed to close it.

I tried to encourage others to pull by yelling at people to pull through - and I got yelled back "it's a race, you can't tell me what to do". and I'm like: "really? it's a race? are we all racing for 4th?"

I tried to attack several times and join moves that attempted to drop the dead weight in the group. Then I looked back and saw the 805 guy (who otherwise was just sitting in the group) was bringing it back together. 

After a lap the motor came to us and told us they were 2:45 ahead of us, and I knew this was it. When we got to the hills on the 2nd lap one of the riders set a hard pace which dwindled the group, and then the 2nd 805 racer attacked trying to go for 4th place. We shut it down but that got the group to about ~6 riders.

Race continued and just before the famous bridge with the horrendous pavement I felt that I was having a flat in my rear wheel. I pulled off and realized it was. I don't know why it didn't seal, as this was a relatively new tire that I installed just a couple of months before, but it's possible that the sealant dried up a little. Also I don't know if that was because I lowered the tire pressure (most likely not). This was my 2nd time racing San Ardo, and last time I also flatted - had 2 flats before the race even started. Bad luck.

Anyway, after waiting on the side of the road I saw Joe driving on the front of 3 other riders. Sag car arrived and picked me up.

I still had some cold bottles with Skratch so I went to the feed zone and handed them over. Saw Joe again on the front of his small group.

Bummed for DNP, but even more bummed for missing that winning move at the beginning of the race.

Never make assumptions in a race!