Race Report: 2026 Cat’s Hill Classic, Men’s P/1/2

Race: Cat’s Hill Classic Criterium - Men’s Pro/1/2

Date: March 21st, 2026

AVRT racers: George Wehner, Michael Bektas, Jack Liu, Jon Wells, Leo Minami

Top Result: George 27/59

Course: 0.9 mile L-shaped course with a short, steeeeep (23%) hill after turn 3 and a fast descent between turns 5 and 6.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/17809487211 

Nutrition: Had a couple Red Bulls and fig bars in the hours before the race. During the race I just drank 950ml water w/added sodium.

Recap: This was my first time doing Cat’s Hill in the P/1/2 field, and I’d never done well any of the previous times I did Cat’s Hill, so I knew I was in for a tough one. It was hot out too, to add to the difficulty. My goal was just to survive until the end and try to help out a teammate if possible.

Michael and I lined up super early, so I was baking in the heat for about 10 minutes before the race. It was worth it though - when the whistle blew, we got shot out of a gun, and the first 10 minutes were super hard. I was trying to cover some early moves, but quickly gave up on that as I realized I just needed to focus on survival.

Things settled a bit, but the race was still hard. I was probably doing 600-700 watts (67!) on the hill every time. I found that taking the outside line going into the hill and keeping as much speed as possible made the hill a lot easier, and I usually ended up gaining a few spots on the hill as a result. This was necessary, as especially in the second half of the race, people were dropping off the back like flies and I needed to make sure I stayed in the group. Breakaway attempts were happening throughout the race, but I didn’t try to get into any, and nothing really stuck.The last couple laps are where things really blew up. With about 2 to go, the leaders really accelerated hard and the group splintered. I was still pretty far back at this point, and I was stuck behind a couple gaps. I managed to close one of them, but I was really tired at this point and had run out of water, so I wasn’t able to close everything and finished about 15 seconds behind the front group. Michael and Jack were in a similar position to me and finished a little behind me.

The placement itself isn’t really much to write home about, but I still feel proud of just finishing that race. Cat’s Hill is a legendary race and known for being really hard, and I definitely held up better than I expected. It was also great to see a lot of AV club members at the race cheering us on - thanks for showing up, it means a lot!