Race Report: 2025 San Ardo Road Race Men’s Cat 3
Race: 2025 San Ardo Road Race Men’s Cat 3
Date: August 16, 2025
AVRT racers: Drew Mathews (DNP)
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.
Nutrition: Eggs + oatmeal breakfast. 3x90g carb bottles during the race (60 g malto, 30 g blue agave powder) with ~ 250g Redmond’s Re-lyte electrolyte each
Recap: (written by Drew)
I slept poorly the week leading into the race, and the night before the race, I couldn’t sleep at all. I was happy once 4 am rolled around and was able to say screw it and make my way to San Ardo.
I had done some intentional heat training the two weeks leading in after riding in mostly thermal bib tights during my first summer in San Francisco. However, upon rolling into San Ardo, it was raining. Da heck, was not expecting that.
I set up the Bottle Grabs in the feed zone and made my way to the startline. There were around 15 Cat 3 riders in the field, and we combined with the two Cat 4’s since their field was so small. There were two or three junior teams with two riders each, the Moonshine team had three riders, and otherwise everyone was solo.
I rolled off with the group in the drizzle, eating the spray from the tire in front of me that I hadn’t tasted in some time. The group was content with rolling in zone 1 for the first third of the first lap. Folks rotated some pulls, and I did a few after feeling good and mingling at the front, mostly in zone 2 figuring it wouldn’t hurt me. The drizzle disappeared soon.
Two of the Moonshine riders took over at the front for the most part after the first third of the first lap. There were some rolling attacks that got brought back halfway through the first lap. One of the cat 4 riders went, and I chased him after forgetting that he was inconsequential to my race. He later went again, and the other cat 4 rider chased, leaving us Cat 3’s to not worry about who’s who as much.
After some more rolling attacks without any sticking, one of the Moonshine guys went and got a 20 second gap. He dangled out there for a bit, and several of us took up a chase at the front without making a dent.
We rolled through the feed zone after the first lap, and I went towards the back while taking some gulps from a neutral water bottle. I stuck at the back after the underpass after the feed zone and as we rolled into the climb, one of the junior riders (who ended up winning the race and also hadn’t seen the wind until that point) attacked hard on the first steep kicker. I was caught off guard and was the last rider in the group, and I fought hard to stay on the wheel ahead of me. The rider two ahead of me came off and I lost contact after trying to come around him. I tried to stay steady after the power spike and come back to the group, and I held it around 5-10 seconds for the majority of the climb. After tiring out and realizing I wouldn’t make it on my own, I waited for the rider behind me, who was strong but had done a lot of work on the front on the first lap.
We rolled together at 25 mph and felt like we would reel the group in. After 10 minutes, we spotted a group not so far in the distance and doubled down. The group came closer and closer, and just as we made contact, we realized it was not our field - womp womp. I was cooked at that point after making a big effort to make it back and decided to sit up after not seeing another group in sight.
Weirdly, the woman at the front of the group we had passed asked us to work for her, to which I said no. She drafted off of the other Cat 3 rider and I for around 10 minutes despite my audible displeasure, and then when I tried to shake her, she attacked off us. Not okay? That was my interpretation.
I was determined to finish the race, but I had some issues that prevented it. I started chafing, perhaps from being wet at the start of the race, and it got so painful that I could not pedal. I also started to have some pain in my left calf. I was very disappointed to pack it in after the second lap.
Turned out I had taken off a large chunk of skin from the chafing, so it was understandably really painful, and being tired and sleep deprived lessened my ability to deal with it. I got some Mexican food post race with some P12 boys, and after asking, every single one said they use chammy cream. Lesson learned. The calf pain turned into some sort of muscle strain that left me hobbling around and unable to exercise for a few days after.
I was really disappointed with this one. I’m coming off a year long gap from racing and have changed my approach to training and racing to be a lot more conservative and intentional with my energy. Nonetheless, I had targeted this race and wanted to do well. My takeaways are that no one has an ideal lead into a race (for instance with sleep, nutrition, taper, training, whatever) and that I have to race with what I’ve got on the start line. With these un-ideal circumstances and things that you can’t control, racing a lot gives me a lot of opportunities to have my day, so I’m looking forward to getting back into a consistent race schedule.
-Drew