Race Report: 2026 Golden State Race Series Criterium and Circuit Race - Men’s P/1/2

Race: Golden State Race Series Criterium and Circuit Race - Men’s P/1/2

Date: May 2nd and 3rd, 2026

AVRT racers: Paul Levy, Michael Bektas, Keegan Worcester

Top Result: Michael 5th Crit, Michael 8th Circuit Race

Course: Unremarkable office park laps. Wide roads, easy turns.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/18353006847 Crit

https://www.strava.com/activities/18366536455 Circuit Race

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

Race Recap: Written by Michael. 

This weekend’s success was fairly unexpected, but all my best results seem to come that way. 

The weeks prior were very frustrating on the bike. I had adjusted my fit over a few months into something unsalvageable and had to get an “emergency” bike fit to stop every ride feeling awful. I had been wildly missing my numbers and was pretty exhausted from moving down to the peninsula. I expected so little from this race; I didn’t check who else was going, nor did I look for any course descriptions or videos ahead of time.

Crit

When I arrived with my newly fitted bike and saw the wide, flat road ahead of me, I realized it could be my day. I prefer the more “meathead” style of racing, where raw power numbers can prevail over skill, and this was definitely that kind of course.

Our plan was simple: don’t let the people who always end up on the podium get in any moves without us, and make things happen in the sprint. Various attacks went up the road from the usual suspects of Terun, CycleSport, Mike’s Bikes, etc but none had a truly threatening combination to warrant anything more than us taking turns to check the moves.

The final lap came, and I was in the top 10 wheels, exactly where I wanted to be. Terun lined it up on the left side of the road, and I kept myself towards the middle of the road to avoid getting boxed. Another train came from the right as the left side slowed down, allowing me to jump onto it and take the second-to-last corner in 5th wheel. To the surprise of nobody, Alex Akins did the ‘1500W for 10 seconds’ thing again and won. I was able to stand up and sprint for the first time in forever (shoutout bike fit) to protect 5th place.

Circuit Race

Given the previous day’s success, we essentially had the same plan for the Circuit Race as we did for the Crit.

To everyone’s apparent surprise, an early move went up the road and stuck it the whole way. We spent the race waiting for the teams that we knew couldn’t win from that break to pull it back, but it never came.

With the win gone, we hunkered down for the sprint. The last 200m included a small but consequential chicane that would be taken at over 40mph. I knew I needed to be first into that chicane to take the sprint. The last km came, there was no team control and plenty of washing machine effect as everyone knew they wanted to be first into the last corner, but nobody wanted to burn the guys they had left to make it happen. Alex and I were side by side and both jumped at the same time. In hindsight, I probably should have fully committed and forced myself to the front since that was my plan the whole time. Instead, I figured I would take his wheel into the chicane and try and come round (something nobody has done all season). I let myself enter the last corner in second place, resulting in second place in the field sprint, 8th overall. This was definitely my best final minute legs that I’ve had all season, which was really encouraging.