Race Report: 2026 Pine Flat Road Race - Women’s P/1/2/3/4

Date: February 15, 2026

AVRT racers: Sophia Hu

Top Result: 2/6 in the combined women’s field, 1 of 1 in the W/P/1/2/3 field

Course: 62mi / ~4k ft. The course starts with a 22 mile out and back on rolling roads, then heads down into a flat valley until mile ~45, where the main climb begins. The main climb (“Wildcat”) is ~3 miles at 6% and gets progressively harder with the final mile averaging 9%. Another fast descent leads into the final climb (“Wildcat Junior” - 1.5 miles at 5% with a steep ramp to the finish line). This was the prettiest road race I’ve ever done, and a fun contrast to the flatness of Cantua Creek the day before. I’d highly recommend it if Velo Promo puts it on again in 2027. Weather: sunny, probably 50-60F and low winds.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/17410421063 

Nutrition: 200g of high-carb drink mix, 3 Maurten gels. I wasn’t sure if there’d be a feed so I brought two big bottles (there ended up being a neutral feed during the main climb).

Race Recap: 

Since I already drove out for Cantua Creek, I decided to do day-of registration for Pine Flat even though nobody had pre-registered in the W/P/1/2/3 race. My friend Haley was racing it and the weather was looking very wet in San Francisco, so I figured it’d be a good scenic training ride. They ended up combining the fields so I raced with the Women’s 4/5 field.

Haley and I threw a few attacks on the rollers heading out but they got brought back on the descents. On the way back, Haley attacked on a longer uphill roller. Jean, another rider, bridged and I sat on her wheel and counter-attacked. Haley bridged to me and the two of us rotated for the rest of the rollers, and through the initial descent to the valley. At this point, Jean bridged up to us but we couldn’t see the rest of the field. I was happy with a third person joining, so I could recover a bit before the main climb. The three of us rotated for the next 20 miles.

At a steep roller approaching the main climb, Jean dropped off. When the climb started (on aptly named Watts Valley Rd) I resolved to try to hold Haley’s wheel as long as I could. This turned out to be 1 minute. After getting dropped, I paced the rest of the climb in tempo to not completely redline. I was fairly sure we had enough of a gap, but in case I got caught, I wanted to save some energy for a sprint. 

The rest of the race was uneventful since I was riding alone. The descent after the main climb had a few cattle grates that surprised me, but was straightforward otherwise. Nobody passed me and I finished 2nd place. I knew Haley is a very strong climber from training rides, so this was basically how I thought the race would go. I was a little more fatigued than I thought I’d be by the climb, so I will work on incorporating some 15+ minute climbs at threshold effort during long rides. 

This was a really fun weekend of racing. Now it's time for recovery before TBC :)