Race Report: Patterson Pass Road Race 35+ 1/2/3

Race: Name of the race as well as the category, ex: Sea Otter Road Race - Men's Cat 3

Date: August 2, 2026

AVRT racers: Paul Levy

Top Result: 11th/16

Course: 65 miles, 3 laps. There is a ~17-24 minute climb (steep with rollers) that begins the lap, followed by a very fast descent which leads into an 8-9 minute climb (steep with rollers), followed by a long false flat downhill drag. The lap/race finishes on a 0.5 mile uphill drag kicker. 

Strava:https://www.strava.com/activities/19574347070

Nutrition: Two large bottles to start with ~100g carbs each and two neutral bottles from laps 2 and 3

Recap (written by Paul Levy): I’m not the greatest climber, but I try not to let that stop me from participating in races with big climbs. Even so, I usually show up to this particular race assuming I’m not going to hang once it gets really spicy on the climbs. With that in mind, I usually want to try and put in efforts earlier in the race - attacking, trying to follow attacks, just generally keeping the pace up - anything to avoid sitting quietly and conservatively in the back assuming I’ll be getting dropped later anyway. Admittedly, this mindset probably contributes to making my late race fears a self-fulfilling prophecy. I spent a lot of the first lap accelerating after turns or over the tops of climbs to string the group out, poking the group and keeping the pace high, and tried to follow some moves by other people. I was having a lot of fun but knew I couldn’t do this the whole time. I rode lap 2 much more conservatively. Then on lap 3 the group splintered on the big climb and I couldn’t hang. I ended up by myself most of the final lap, one of the last people to finish all three laps in my category. Maybe next year I’ll try a different tack if this race still exists with VeloPromo potentially calling it quits. This course can be a bit stark this time of year with the bone dry hills, but it still has a rolling beauty and feels like a genuine road race course with a lot of character: big climb, screaming descent, (usually) wind driven backside rollers (not very windy this year though). Hopefully it’s still around next year.