Race Report: 2026 Cat’s Hill Classic Women’s P123 and Collegiate 1/2/3

Date: March 21, 2026

AVRT racers: Louise Thomas, Rachel Hwang, Robin Betz, Sophia Hu

Top Result: Louise 8/13

Course: one hour of a 0.9-mile L-shaped course, with a punchy climb that reaches 23% at its steepest point

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/17809809345

Written by Louise:

Cats Hill is a lot of fun to watch, but the hill repeats are brutal when you’re racing it. And this year, all of the heavy hitters came out to play - Terun had a full squad, including some strong recruits from outside NorCal, and Jaimie Chapman and Alex Obrand were riding solo but never to be underestimated. Given the competition and attritional nature of this race, our plan was mostly just to survive for as long as possible.

The race started out hot. People weren’t sending full attacks, but the group set a good pace up the hill each time. After a few laps, a Terun breakaway went on the back stretch after the hill, and Rachel chased after it, with the rest of the pack on her wheel. I was towards the back and saw Jen Tave pull away to the side of the pack and start accelerating. Thinking she was going to try to bridge up, I jumped on her wheel. Turns out she was just trying to slow Rachel down (makes sense as her teammates were in the break), and she got in front of Rachel and started slow pedaling. I still had some momentum from jumping on her wheel, so I used that to slingshot past and continue the chase. After pulling for most of the lap, we finally caught the break just before the hill. Unfortunately, bringing it back together used up my one and only match for the day, and I then got popped. It was frustrating to get dropped so early in the race, but at least I felt like I contributed something.

Rachel managed to stay with the group for a bit longer, until she also fell off. We then regrouped and turned it into a team time trial/hill intervals with a cheer squad until we were lapped by the peloton. I managed to jump on the back of the pack as they came past and then hung out at the back of the group for a few laps, trying to stay out of the way because I wasn’t 100% sure about the rules of rejoining after being lapped. At Santa Cruz Crit the next day, it turned out I wasn’t the only one confused about those rules.

Another attack went, and I was dropped once again. This time, I found Sophia and rode with her for a bit. At the front of the race, Ellexi and Camille, both from Terun, won the race from a breakaway. I was very far from that, but at least it was a nice day for riding with teammates, and the atmosphere from all the Alto Velo spectators always makes for a fun day. Thank you to everyone who came out and supported!!

Photo credit, in order, to Adam Meyer, Joe Atmore and Dirk Bergtstrom (x2)