Race Report: 2025 Snelling Road Race - Men’s P/1/2
Race: Snelling Road Race - Men’s P/1/2
Date: 3/1/25
AVRT Racers: Henry Mallon, Nathan Martin, Flo Costa, Cam O’Reilly, Max Rye
Top Result: Nathan 3rd
Nutrition: 2 900ml bottles with ~150g of carbs each, 1 ~600ml bottle with ~100g of carbs, plus a couple gels and a neutral water
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13763729120
Recap (written by Nathan):
Snelling is a fun one, usually the first ‘big’ race of the year with a field of 50-60+. This year was no different. Usually it’s decently attritional with a small group winning it, so we were aiming to be in that group.
First few laps were people trying to get in a break, we did a good job covering moves and making sure we always had people represented. There was one scary moment where every team was in a move except us, but we quickly bridged it back together with no worries.
On lap 4, the elastic finally snapped and I got in a move with 4 other riders with decent representation from the other teams. We would work together well, getting time on the main group.
However with about 2 laps to go, a bridging group broke away from the main group with the goal of getting up to us.
They would end up catching us with about a lap to go, bringing the final group to about 15 riders or so, with teammate Cam in the group.
As we hit the final lap, we mostly stayed together, but Cam was able to put in a monster dig as we turned towards the top of the course and quickly get a gap.
Other riders had to put in a decent amount of work to catch him, and it would have been great if I had the legs to counter him after he was brought back, but I was just really cooked at that point.
With about a km to go, I had myself positioned well on the CycleSport train, but I lost the fight for the wheel and quickly found myself about 7th wheel. Hitting the final corner I had some group to make up. I managed to pass a few people to get into 3rd place, but first and second were way too far up.
Overall a decent result. A bit better positioning in the final km might have set me up better, but I’m not known for my finishes on flat ground anyway to pretty decent I’d say!