Race Report: 2026 Cal Aggie Criterium - Men’s P/1/2/3

Race: Cal Aggie Criterium - Men’s P/1/2/3

Date: January 31st, 2026

AVRT racers: George Wehner, Paul Levy, Michael Bektas, Jon Wells, Jack Liu

Top Result: Michael 7th

Course: Flat 1.1 mile course at Land Park in Sacramento. One technical chicane in the middle of the lap.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/17243927551

Nutrition: 500ml water + Maurten 320 (80g carbs)

Race Recap: written by Michael

We came into this race really confident. We had the largest team and there were no other significant teams who could realistically control the race. Unfortunately, this ended up being more of a curse than a blessing.

The plan was to send a lot of moves up the road to break the field down and then line it up with two to go and sprint. This didn’t exactly happen. Given we were the only big team, everyone else knew to attack us and go for a break. If moves did get up the road without us, we got no help in bringing it back. After a very aggressive first half of the race, a strong break of 4 got up the road…without us. 

The break went out a long way, getting half a lap of a gap at one point. With nobody else helping, we were just burning through ourselves in what felt like a futile chase attempt. Morale was fairly low as we were all pretty tired and it looked like we weren’t even going to compete for the win. Suddenly, with two to go, the break was only 10/15 seconds ahead. Their rotation must have broken down as they started to play games before the finish. Seeing that revitalized the boys, and so began a warp speed lead out to try and catch them. Coming into the final chicane, George was going crazy on the front to try and close the last few seconds with me two wheels behind. I came by with a lot of speed in the final corner to try and hero-sprint from way too far out and catch the break but they were just a little too far. I got passed by a few others who launched at a more logical point from the line. I figured it was more worth trying to win than defend 5th.

This taught us a lot about the responsibilities that come with showing up with a bigger team than everyone else and I’m looking forward to refining those tactics throughout the season.