Race Report: 2026 Berkeley Streets Criterium - Men’s Pro/1/2
Race: 2026 Berkeley Streets Crit - Men’s Pro/1/2
Date: April 19, 2026
AVRT racers: Michael Bektas, Leo Minami, Jack Liu, and Jon Wells
Top Result: Jon Wells, 17th of 43
Course: 1 km rectangle at Ohlone Park in Berkeley. It's a long rectangle on a slight incline, going uphill on the finishing straight. Not crazy technical, I pedaled every corner at some point. But some bad pavement, especially in the fast, downhill corners 3 and 4.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/18179072091
Nutrition: a pre race Redbull and 100g flow bottle during the race
Race Recap:
Pre race plan was to follow breakaways with both Terun and Cyclesport since they were the two biggest teams (sound familiar? We love super teams). We weren’t going to initiate but wanted to cover everything with them since they both had threats for winning the day and winning the overall for the weekend, which had some substantial prize money so people were very interested in.
Race started fast and stayed fast. It was very strung out the entire time and there were very few opportunities to grab more than one or two wheels at a time. There were some small moves but nothing was being given a leash by Terun as they sat on the front making it uncomfortable and hard to get away.
We did a pretty good job during the race of riding near the front in good positions. I regularly found myself around Michael and Jack during the race. My favorite spot was to move up into turn 3. The group would always brake way more than necessary and I would just stay off the breaks and look for room down the outside to carry extra momentum. I also really like staying on the pedals through corner 1 and into corner 2 for taking positions.
With around 10-15 minutes left in the race, a big group fractured off the front, like almost 10 guys. It had Terun and cyclesport, but Nathan (RR winner from day before and Terun’s overall threat) had totally missed it. There was just enough hesitation and Cyclesport guys that didn’t want to pull that the group got a gap. By the time the group locked back into the pace, the gap had pried open to maybe 10 seconds. I thought for sure a group of 10 wouldn’t cooperate and would fall apart, getting swept up by the field. But I think they had just the right mix of teams and motivations for GC vs the crit results to keep them going to the finish.
I felt really comfortable in the chaos during the closing laps at the end of this race for the first time this year. Unfortunately all the placings were up the road. We didn’t really do much in the field sprint, I ended up just nabbing Michael at the line for 17th, earning myself the right to write the race report. Stay tuned for next time when we’ll be sprinting each other for the dubs instead!
-Jon