Race Report: Berkeley Hills Road Race WP/1/2

AVRT racers: Rachel Hwang

Race: Berkeley Hills RR WP/1/2

Date: 4/18/26

Top Result: RR - 4th Rachel, Omnium - 3rd

Course: 4 laps of Berkeley Hills. Main kickers are Mama Bear, its babies, and Papa Bear

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/18163504544/segments/3480689441314078132

Race Recap:  

We lined up, 11 of us total, 5 from one team from Seattle I have never heard of before and subsequently have not raced with before.  The knowns, Sara and Shannon both based on track record can out power me at the end of a long RR.  Jamie un-registered the night before which Sophia told me right before staging and gave me some hope to today’s race, but also made me realize this was about to be a very boring race.

So I channeled my inner Jamie and Steph and decided to attack today.  From all the races this year, every race with attacks I was able to place decent because then it was just a race of power.  And from last races I did with Sara and Shannon I believed I could out power them.

Well.  Maybe not.  

I still wanted to be smart so I didn’t want to do any unnecessary pulling, so I waited until Mama Bear to attack, and each lap I did.  First lap I committed and even got my best 2 and 3 minute power, but they were right behind me.  Every little baby kicker on Mama Bear I attacked with the intent of trying to drop them, also with the hope they wouldn’t chase given how other races went but they stayed on me. I kept the power up through Papa Bear in hopes of tiring people out but then also noticed how draftable and long that hill was which wasn’t good for trying to drop people.  As people caught up, I heard people panting and that was enough to let me know it was working.

My strategy was if I can’t drop them, at least tire them out, because in races where people attacked and I wasn’t as strong as them to keep up, I would eventually get shelled off the back or be too tired to sprint at the end.  I also knew if I was feeling tired, they more than likely were too.

Second lap I attacked again this time with less force.  

Third lap I didn’t want to waste any more energy so I just did a small effort up the hills without intent of attacking or dropping people.  I did drop my chain in the little ring so moving forward was very careful with how I shifted.

Last lap on one of the first little hills I felt my leg cramp and put myself to the back.  There’s 5 of us now.  2 on the Seattle team, Shannon, Sara, me.  I keep myself in the back as long as I can but as we approach Mama Bear everyone tries to position themselves in the back.  I’m worried about cramping and dropping my chain.  As soon as Mama Bear starts, I attack, this time, with full intention of dropping everyone.  I went as hard as my legs would let me and they were hurting so bad but I just kept pushing as if it were one of my intervals.  I kept looking back and a gap was forming but it wasn’t a large gap, and the gap wasn’t growing by a lot.  I still had a decent gap at the top of Mama Bear, and when the first little kicker after Mama Bear started, I looked back and saw what appeared to be individuals going up the hill.  That gave me some confidence as I thought I had torn the group apart, but at the start of the second little kicker I look back and they not only seemed to be coming closer, but there were multiple of them.  Knowing the course was about to have a pretty big downhill before Papa Bear and Papa Bear being long and draftable, I knew I would not be able to make it to the line before they did, so I decided to let them catch up so I could save my energy and potentially out sprint them to the line.

They, Sara, Shannon, Rachel, caught me on the last little kicker.  We descended as a group, and started going up Papa Bear.  While it didn’t seem as if we were going fast, my legs were so toast.  I kept telling myself to keep it up with them on this last climb, but as soon as they started putting down just a little bit more power, with Sara attempting in the front, I just couldn’t keep up.  I saw them slowly sink away into the distance as I just tried to pedal up that hill across the finish line finishing 4th.

I’m glad I tried attacking because now I know I can’t drop them and better understand my limits.  I do however keep wondering if I had not done all that attacking, if I would have beat them across the finish line.  But based on the few other road races I’ve done and attacky crits, if the group finishes together and the last few minutes are hard, I don’t have enough power and tend to finish pretty poorly in the group.  So I’m not sure the outcome would have been different, but now I don’t know.

Nutrition: 2 bottles of Torq hydration, one with an extra scoop of The Feed electrolyte mix. 1 gel per lap with clif blocks one lap graciously handed to me by Steph at the feed zone provided by Leo