Race Report: Pescadero Road Race, Mens 50-54 123

Race Report: Pescadero Road Race, Men’s 50-54 123

Date: July 11, 2026

AVRT racers: Shai Traister

Top Result: Shai (16/18)

Course: ~72 miles, 3 ascents of Haskins climb (1.6 miles at 7%). After a neutral rollout, the race begins on Stage Road with two punchy climbs separated by fast, technical descents. A right turn off of Stage leads to 7.5 miles of false flat uphill. Next is a right turn onto Pescadero Road with a short uphill/downhill before turning right onto Pescadero Creek Road for the final Haskins climb.

Nutrition: Two bottles with scratch in each, one protein cookie, one gel

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/19274715839

Recap:

As I was warming up before the start of the race I was told that our start time was getting pulled in by 20 minutes, and that we’d race with the 35-50 age groups. That would have been nice since we had other AV racers in the 35+ field, however, after lining up some people said not everyone got the memo and would miss the race so they pushed us back. That meant no teammates, but also racing with the 60+ field which were only doing 2 laps. oh-well.

On the first lap, the group took the first Stage climb at a manageable pace, and the 2nd one at a quite hard, which resulted in some gaps in the field as we turned onto highway 84. On 84 I found myself at the 3rd group on the road. Pace was high as everyone was trying to catch up before the Haskins climb. Eventually we caught the 2nd group, with the front group still up the road. 

Haskins was also hard (esp. after the high efforts so far), and I couldn’t quite keep up with the group. I was probably ~15s back, which I was hoping to close on the descent. I was with 2 other riders, but on the descents they started passing cars on the opposite lane going into blind corners. Initially I followed by then decided it was too much risk and slowed down. I tried catching the two riders, but with no one else to work with in the headwind I was losing ground. A few riders came from behind and I joined them.

Passing by the high school was very tempting to drop out, but I decided to stick with it and continue. 2 Penvelo riders dropped from the group. We got to Haskins the 2nd time, which meant it was the 60+ riders last climb to the finish. They started lightning it up and I couldn’t follow. Continued solo at a pace I could manage. 

On Stage road I looked back and saw the 2 Penvelo riders. This gave me motivation to stay away - pretty strange what can give you motivation in these situations, but it did. Continued riding “heads down”, and looked back from time to time to make sure my gap wasn’t coming down. Got to Haskins, and then I saw some riders in front of me (again motivation). I passed several of them, but they were all Novice riders. Rolled through the finish line.

Not a great race - racing with cat 1-3 is definitely another level than the 3-4s and something to get used to. At least I am happy that I didn’t quit and gave it everything I had.