Race Report: 2025 Patterson Pass Road Race - Men’s Cat 4
Date: August 3, 2025
AVRT racers: Phillip Maier, Vasyl Stokolosa
Top Result: Phillip (5/12)
Course: The race consisted of two laps, each approximately 22 miles with 2,200 feet of climbing. The course starts with a 3.9-mile climb up Patterson Pass Road into an absurd headwind, which makes the 5.4% average gradient seem deceptively easy. A fast descent on decent pavement leads to the Flynn Road climb (2.2 miles at 4.3%, though a false flat lowers the average gradient). After Flynn Road, there is one very technical, slow corner followed by about 12 miles of fast, straight descending on mostly excellent pavement with some small "kickers." The race ends on a heavy crosswind section, culminating in a 0.44-mile, 6% kicker to the finish line.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15334216299
Nutrition: Two bottles with carb mix and one neutral water from Nathan’s dad and my sister in the feed zone (along with some helpful ice socks!).
Recap: (written by Phillip) Vasyl and I are both heavy diesel engines (85kg+), and we were hoping to use this to our advantage. We expected the race to be largely attritional due to the headwinds, heat, and elevation gain. Our plan was to stick together until after the final climb when the course flattened out, and then team time trial our way to victory.
Things started out very chill, and the peloton stuck mostly together on the first lap. We were chilling at 3.5 w/kg for 22 minutes, followed by an even chiller 10-minute effort up Flynn. I think everyone wanted to get a sense of the course first.Despite ample warnings about the technical corner after Flynn, someone blasted straight into the dirt. Otherwise, the descent was fast and relatively carefree.The real race started on the second lap. About five minutes into the climb, an unaffiliated rider broke away from the pack, followed closely by a chase group of three. The rest of us (including me) were caught a bit off guard; it was so windy we were mostly heads down with our shoulders hunched.This turned out to be the decisive moment of the race for three reasons:
I didn’t attempt a serious bridge, as I assumed my weight would help me catch the chase group on the descent.
Vasyl had disappeared. (I found out later he had a stomach bug and couldn't hold any fuel down. Moral of the story: Diesel engines need their fuel!)
Even without bridging, the effort ended up being a brutal FTP test (3.9 w/kg) for 22 minutes—something I need to train more with the LKHC season approaching!
After deciding not to bridge, I stayed with the remainder of the peloton (four riders) as we chased the three-rider chase group, which was chasing the solo breakaway. At the start of the flat section, I promptly dropped my chain on a hard right-hander.I spent 30 seconds fixing it and then, sadly, spent the next hour fighting headwinds trying to catch the peloton. I did manage to catch them on the final descent and then promptly spent all my matches to create a gap and time trial away from them to the finish. No sprint was needed for 5th place.I think a lot was learned in this race, most importantly: Keep your head up and pay attention! If you don’t notice when a break goes, the price to catch it goes up every second.