Race Report: 2026 Berkeley Hills Road Race - Men’s Cat 3

AVRT racers: Adam Beliveau, Jeremy Besmer, Jack Lund, Vasyl Stokolosa, Keegan Worcester

Race: Berkeley Hills RR Men’s Cat 3 2026

Date: 4/18/26

Top Result: Jeremy 13th

Course: 4 laps of Berkeley Hills. Main kickers are Mama Bear, its babies, and Papa Bear

Nutrition: 2 1 Liter Bottles with 150g malto/fructose.  And three gels worth about 25g each

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/18163604853

Race Recap:  

(Written by Jack): This is usually a highlight race in the NorCal season and we had a team with some firepower of 6 guys.  We had all agreed that we wanted Wil to be our protected rider as the course seemed to suit him very well.  Unfortunately in the morning we awoke to texts that he was violently improving his W/kg (🤮).

The first lap was uneventful until the main feature of the circuit: the bears.  The field took Mama Bear briskly, then went ballistic on the Papa, >5 W/kg for me.  I found myself gapped by about five seconds from the field here.  Not a great sign to be in the red zone so early and having to chase back.  Luckily Adam and Vasyl were in a similar spot to me and we chased back on the downhill and were able to reach the field without too much trouble.

On the second lap Vasyl was able to get away on a solo break. The team was super happy to see this.  We were able to sit in and save energy and disrupt the chase whenever possible.  The field was not too interested in chasing back except for one rider on the front.  We would come to find out that this was a lapped rider (due to a mechanical) and he was participating in the chase of Vasyl.  In my opinion this is really unsportsmanlike.  You should not be allowed to affect the race strategy (and chase my teammate) when you’ve done 20 miles less than us… you’re essentially a satellite rider.  After (loudly) voicing opposition to this, the rider dropped out.  It’s unfortunate that this happens, but policing other riders is sometimes necessary.  I’m usually very mild-mannered but yelling costs 0 watts so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

We would continue on through loops three and four, continuing to go nuclear on the bears.  The pavement was quite poor in spots, but marked well with orange spray paint.  When we got to the last round of bears to the finish, I was spent and got dropped from the group.  Jeremy had the best placing of us, coming 13th – admittedly, the rest of us are not exactly W/kg-maxxers.

It was a tough and attritional race and our team worked together well to keep things interesting.