Race Report: 2026 Santa Barbara County Road Race - Men’s P/1/2

Race: Santa Barbara County Road Race - Men’s P/1/2

Date: January 24, 2026

AVRT racers: George Wehner, Tom Perkins, Henry Mallon

Top Result: Henry 5th

Course: A neutral rollout leads to six laps of a 14-mile course (86 miles total, ~4,000 feet). Fast rolling county roads with mixed surface quality throughout, including a short climb early in the lap (the hardest section is about 2 minutes at 5%). The course ends by turning right onto a short kicker to the finish. 

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/17166932674 

Nutrition: 2 x 1L bottles, 2 x 650ml bottles, 1 x 150mg caffeine gel = 425 grams of carbs (~130g/hour). 

Race Recap: Written by Henry. 

Bike racing is back! With just three of us for Alto Velo, our plan was to play off of the teams with more numbers. I’d look more actively for a breakaway. George and Tom would stay patient. In the final lap, we’d formulate a plan to position the freshest of us for the finishing kicker. 

I watched break formation from the front and decided to follow a few others bridging across to an established group ahead with hitters from all the strongest teams. Once on the short climb, I took the front to close the final 20 seconds and form a break of about a dozen. According to Strava, this effort was a few watts off my best ever 5 minute power and the highest HR (205!) that I’ve seen in quite some time. One big learning for me from riding my first P/1/2 break is that you have to be comfortable with making an enormous effort early with the likely outcome of that effort being for nothing. You have to risk losing the race for a chance at winning. 

The break cooperated seamlessly, aside from some serious tomfoolery on the climb initiated by Logan Unger and Ryder Ritchie of SpeedBlock-Terun. Most laps there were huge surges in the upper crosswind section. I was inches from getting popped a few times there. I don't have the ability to snap close big attacks and get in the draft quickly, so I have to grind them back over 30+ seconds, which sucks. 

The climb on the penultimate lap was especially painful. You know it’s about to hurt when you’re already pushing 500W and guys are riding away like you’re standing still. Logan and Ryder took turns attacking and I found myself closing them with other guys in the wheel. I made it across by the smallest of margins what felt like 10 separate times.

The course ends with a few miles of fast tailwind and a short kicker to the finish. In this section, Logan and Ryder started throwing haymakers. These punchy efforts on the flat are probably the hardest type of effort for me. My bread and butter is long sustained climbing where I can sit upright and breathe, not alternating between 600W and 0W while bent over in a pretzel. After a handful of times sprinting full-gas across gaps, we briefly came together and Logan just sauntered away. And we all just watched, fully on the limit and unable to respond. Andrew Carr quickly pulled away with Ryder in his wheel. The rest of us were too shattered to hold a draft and rolled in with gaps between us. 

Sometimes I hate bike racing. The sitting around and waiting. The argy-bargy in the bunch. Getting steered into a gravel shoulder by an ex-pro sprinter for 40th wheel with 50 miles to go. 

Today I remembered why I love it. Proper full-gas racing where the strongest wins and we all finish empty. 

Anyway, that’s a lot of talk for fifth in a local January race…

Signing off,

Henry