Race Report: Dash for Cash W1/2/3

Race Report: Dash for Cash

Date: June 1, 2025

AVRT racers: Steph Hart, Robin Betz, Louise Thomas, Rachel Hwang

Top Result: 1/12 (Steph), 3/12 (Rachel)

Course: Relatively boring, flat 4 corner crit, 95 degree afternoon

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14656512113

Race Recap:

(from Steph’s perspective):

The race had a combined field of 20 Cat 1/2/3/4 riders (12 in the 1/2/3 field)- Alto Velo had the most riders of any team, and also likely the strongest riders, so the expectation was that we’d need to control the race. The plan was for Louise and I to launch attacks to tire out the field, and if things worked out, stick in a break. Robin planned to lead out Rachel in the field sprint if she wasn’t in a break. 

I attacked from the start of the race with Rachel on my wheel, hoping we could both sneak into a break. I was able to string out the field, but wasn’t able to achieve separation from the bunch (unfortunately Robin missed her clip and got dropped from the field during all of this chaos). After the pace eased up, Louise counter attacked but was brought back by the field within half a lap or so. Lap 3 was a prime lap, and pretty much all the strong sprinters in the field went for it, including Sofya on Terun and the other Sophia on Super Sprinkles. Following Louise’s pre-race advice, I counter attacked the prime finish, and was able to get away solo. About 5 minutes later Sophia bridged up to me and we spent the bulk of the race rolling turns as a break of two (although given the 95F weather, we were getting slower and slower as the race went on). I was doing more of the work in the break (and even had to cheer Sophia on a bit), but figured that I had a better chance of staying away working with her than trying to ride solo. Sophia is a better sprinter than me (actually, everyone is a better sprinter than me….), so in the closing laps of the race, I had to figure out where to attack to try to drop her before the finish. I settled on attacking with two laps to go, hoping the 4 minutes remaining in the race were enough to discourage her from chasing. After I attacked, I was able to hold a little above threshold for the final two laps, and finished for the win ~10 seconds or so ahead. 

(Louise’s perspective from the field):

Steph’s opening attack did create some early separation – for the first couple of laps, a group of 6-7 riders, including Steph and Rachel, opened a gap. I could see the field would likely close it down, so I sat in and let others do the work. We caught them by the end of lap two, and I immediately launched a solo counter-attack. It wasn’t particularly effective, but at least it kept the pace high.

Once Steph made the break with Sophia, Rachel and I got to relax. That’s the beauty of having fast teammates. Occasionally, someone would put in a hard pull at the front for a lap, but no organized chase materialized, so we just sat in and enjoyed the lovely 95-degree heat.

With a few laps to go, I pulled up to Rachel to plan how I could help for the field sprint. She’d identified Sofya as a strong sprinter and decided to follow her wheel instead of our original lead-out plan. Figuring the best help I could give was to string out the field, I hit the front on the final lap – positioning myself ahead of Sofya with Rachel on her wheel. I hammered it until just after the final corner when Rachel came flying past to take the field sprint win.