Race Report: 2026 Winchester Circuit Men’s P123
Date: 05/09/2026
AVRT racers: Andrew Ernst, Leo Minami, Kevin Kauffman, Jack Lund
Top Result: Andrew (8th)
Course: 6 laps of a 4.5 mile rolling circuit. Rollers into a straight, fast descent followed by a longer tiered climb. Finish is halfway up the climb. Beautiful course, great pavement, no sketchy corners.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/18444612018
Nutrition: Lots before. Just water during the race
Recap:
After the 2/3 race, my initial thought was “there’s no way I can do this again today.” But after a 90 minute spin, a bowl of cereal, cookies, and a coca cola, I was feeling fair enough to line up for a second race.
It was great having multiple teammates in this race. Props to Jack and Kevin for suiting up to race against Lachlan Morton.
Once again, the pace was quick from the gun. My goal for this race was to always stay sheltered to conserve energy and respond to the most threatening moves. Aubery from Terun accelerated over the top of the last roller which led to a split on the descent. I again found myself off the front, but this time with two strong riders, Jason Tang from Dolce Vita and Aubery Longeau from Terun. We all had teammates in the peloton so it seemed like a decent team representation. Jack, Kevin, and Leo did their best to disrupt the whole peloton from latching on.
We kept the pace high throughout the climb, but there were too many strong and motivated riders in the peloton for a 3-man break to get away so early. We were caught by 7 riders through the rollers, and our breakaway no longer a breakaway. Looking around and the strength of riders in the group, many of whom hadn’t raced earlier in the day, I resorted to Plan A: “sit in and conserve energy.”
The pace rarely lulled from that point onward. Guys would attempt to get a gap on a roller and the group would pull them back rather quickly. The smaller guys would push the pace up the main climb every lap, stretching us out significantly, but we always came back together before the descent. I did my best to sit in the back and benefit from the draft, slingshotting my way toward the front as we went over each roller.
Coming into the final climb, my plan was to position myself mid pack, so I had time to respond to attacks, but also benefit from some of the draft on the flatter sections. Zach Ooi from Dolce tried to get away with 1k to go but was quickly overtaken when the punchy guys decided to go with about 800m to the line. I didn’t have much left to go after them but made sure to stay ahead of the couple riders behind me. I rolled in 8th again
Not a great result, but I was happy with how things went overall. To podium in this race, you really need to train at anaerobic and VO2 max intensity. Maybe next year!