Race Report: 2025 Santa Cruz Classic Criterium - Men’s Cat 3

Race: Santa Cruz Classic Criterium – Men’s Cat 3

Date: March 23, 2025

AVRT racers: George Wehner

Top Result: George 7/25

Course: 45 minutes of clockwise laps of a 3/4 mile technical course. The course begins with a tight, downhill hairpin about 150m after the start which leads into a long straight that starts narrow but gets wider. Then, there are two wide 90 degree right turns in immediate succession leading into a narrow, slightly uphill section. After this, there is an off-camber right turn with a few drain covers in it, then a 400m climb that starts at around 5% but gradually levels off going back to the start/finish. 

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13966863509 

Nutrition: I had a packet of Skratch energy chews on the start line. During the race I just drank water.

Recap: After my race here last year ended prematurely due to a crash, I came into this race with a score to settle. As a solo rider, my plan going into this race was to let others do the hard work and wait for the sprint. Cycle Sport, Dolce Vita, and Team California each had a few riders, so I felt that chasing any moves was their responsibility and not mine. I also had marked Kyle from Cycle Sport, Sean from Mike’s Bikes Dev, and Caiden from Cal Poly as the biggest threats in the sprint. Additionally, as this was a hard course, I knew it would be important to stay close enough to the front to avoid getting caught behind any splits, but also far enough back to avoid doing the work myself.

For most of the race, I focused on staying close to the front and conserving energy to the best of my ability. I wasn’t taking very good lines through the hairpin, but I was able to regain the lost positions on the wide part of the straight before the two 90 degree turns. I was also refamiliarizing myself with the lines through the corners, and I found some great lines through the final off-camber right turn. During the first 3/4 of the race, I stayed aware of the situation at all times but was quite passive.

With about 5 laps to go, my strategy shifted away from conservation of energy and towards getting into the exact right position to launch the sprint. At around this point in time, a breakaway with two Team California riders and another solo rider went away, but the field was not particularly motivated to chase this back. With 2 laps to go, a Dolce Vita rider and a Cycle Sport rider launched an attack to chase, so I followed their move. Pretty soon after, they elbowed me through, and I obliged; however, upon looking back, I could tell our move was getting shut down so I turned off the gas and filtered back into the group. 

On the final lap, I took a bad line through the hairpin, but I quickly recovered positions and ended up in about 7th wheel going into the final corner. I took an amazing line in the last corner, which allowed me to move up into 5th wheel. From here, it was full gas to the finish line. I had a suboptimal draft up the hill as I was a little bit to the side of the rider in front of me, which may have forced me to do more power than was necessary (around 800W) up the hill. As it flattened out with about 200m to go, Caiden launched his sprint on the left, and I launched on the right. I probably sent it too early though, as two more Team California riders passed me right at the line (Caiden had daylight on all of us and I probably couldn’t have beaten him unless I was on his wheel when he launched). As there were 3 off the front, this left me with a 7th place result.

I had hoped for better going into the race, but I felt like I executed pretty well on my strategy. I definitely have some room for improvement in the smaller details, but I just need to continue to work on these things. I also got another upgrade point as I continue to whittle away at my cat 2 upgrade.

I also recorded some GoPro footage of the race: https://youtu.be/4YH5MafsmSw