Race Report: 2026 Snelling Road Race - Men’s Pro/1/2

Race: 2026 Snelling Road Race - Men’s Pro/1/2

Date: February 28, 2026

AVRT racers: Jon Wells

Top Result: Jon Wells, 16th of 28

Course: 12 mile lap starting in Snelling, CA. P/1/2 did 7 laps plus the neutral for 84 miles total. There is a little bit of elevation, including a small roller that the finish is on top of, but overall it is a flat race. Pavement is pretty bad throughout, but road was closed so we got both lanes for whole course which was very nice!

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/17558757297/ 

Nutrition: a pre race Redbull and 2x 120g flow bottles during the race plus two caffeinated honeystinger gels

Race Recap:

At least half of the field was associated with either Cyclesport or Terun and I was racing solo. My initial plan was to sit in and save matches for the last couple laps when the real race would likely happen. However, once the race started, it was apparent that there were very few people (small teams but mostly individuals) interested in chasing a break that had Terun and Cyclesport once any move with the two of them would roll. Considering this, I decided around the end of the first lap that I instead wanted to try and get into a break with both teams represented since it seemed like we would have a good chance to roll away. 

Shortly after the second lap started, a move with Terun and Cyclesport rolled with a couple other individuals. The field all looked at each other and let them start establishing a gap. After another individual made a big pull at the front of the field, I took a well timed counter over the top of his pull and was able to get a gap with 2 riders on my wheel. One of the passengers was a Terun rider who I thought may not work with me but he actually helped us bridge across and after a pretty hard ~5 min effort, we made the front group 7.

As soon as we arrived, the other Terun rider attacked and only 4 of us were able to cover it, creating a new lead group. We rotated pretty well together and felt like we kept good speed. We sat out front for about 2 laps, stretching our gap to about 90 seconds at its largest. Eventually, we were brought back on the biggest climb towards the end of the lap since Cyclesport was not happy with having only one in the break. On the climb, Terun and Cyclesport would counter again, getting the eventual winning group off the front. I sat in the peloton trying to recover from a pretty decent effort I’d made over the last hour. 

The group didn’t work together very well at this point once the break was gone. Each lap when we would hit the hill, one or two people would attack and get separation, trying to bridge across. In total, 9 guys finished in front of the remaining peloton. I rolled in with the remnants of the peloton. I tried to sprint for 10th but my legs cramped up so badly when I stood to sprint that I had to settle for just rolling in with the group.

Overall I felt proud of how I raced. I’m glad that I rolled the dice trying to make a break happen and got to roll off the front, but obviously would hope for it to stick. Can’t wait for upcoming races with a squad where I’ll have a teammate in the counter move that goes over me coming back!

-Jon