Race Report: Regalado Road Race - Men’s Cat 3
Race: Regalado Road Race - Men’s Cat 3
Date: June 7th, 2025
AVRT racers: George Wehner
Top Result: George 4/13
Course: 4 laps of a rolling 17-mile course. Pavement was generally decent, although there were a few short sections of rutted-out gravel on Tim Bell Rd (about a third of the way through the lap).
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14727121710
Nutrition: I drank 4 full bottles during the race with 85g carbs each (40g fructose, 45g maltodextrin), as well as 2 bottles from neutral feed of just water. Due to the heat, I used a more diluted mixture than my typical 110g bottle.
Recap: Going into the race, there weren’t any major teams to worry about - Terun had 2 riders (and one of them had a mechanical in the first 20 minutes of the race), but every other person in the race was solo. Given the hot weather and wind forecasted for the race, I thought the race would be attritional, so my game plan was to hang on and contest a hopefully reduced sprint. As I didn’t have any feeders, I carried two of my four bottles in my pockets; everyone on the start line looked at me like I was crazy, but I knew I’d need them.
For the first lap of the race, nothing too eventful happened. There were a couple attempts at solo breakaways from the field, but they got caught by the field without too much hassle. I contributed as little as possible to setting the pace at the front, but with such a small field there was nowhere to hide, so I was still working even while “sitting in.” Near the end of lap 1, Kevin from Lamorinda Cycling started his own solo move and gained about 1.5 minutes on the field over the course of the next lap, because no one was motivated to chase.
Towards the end of lap 2, people started to feel that Kevin’s move might be dangerous, so people started rolling attacks in an attempt to create a chase group. Eventually, a group of 3 got off the front, with Alex from Terun, Oliver from Team California, and Aidan from LGBRC. I then got to the front of what was left of the field to chase the chase group, but in doing so I inadvertently rolled off the front. I realized then that the rest of the field was either too tired or otherwise unmotivated to chase, so I tried to solo bridge up to the chase group. Jeffrey from Dolce Vita had a similar idea and caught up to me a couple minutes after I started my effort, and we worked together for the next 15 minutes, finally catching the chasers a few minutes after they caught Kevin.
This group of 6 worked together well for the remainder of lap 3 to gain even more time on the “field,” but towards the end of that lap we realized that there were no large groups behind us to chase us back. Early into lap 4, someone (I can’t remember who) finally attacked the group, officially beginning the cat-and-mouse games. After the gravel sectors, things calmed down a bit, because everyone was too fatigued to attack and no one wanted to pull the others to the line. That final lap of the race ended up being the slowest by far.
Once we made the final turn onto Warnerville Rd with 3km left in the race, things got exciting again. Aidan attacked coming out of the corner, and while following his attack I felt my quads start to twitch, warning me that I was about to cramp. Aidan’s move was shut down quickly, though, as everyone except Jeffrey was able to follow. With about 1.5km to go, Oliver attacked. This time, no one followed, as everyone was cooked and nobody wanted to sacrifice their own result to chase back this move. Aidan launched an early sprint, starting at about 250m to go; I tried to follow but ended up getting gapped, and Kevin came around me as well. With about 25m left in the race, Kevin sat up thinking his 3rd place was secure, but I was close behind. I tried to pip him at the line with a bike throw, but I was just a couple inches short and ended up with my third 4th place of the season.
I’m a bit sad that the bike throw wasn’t quite enough, but 4th is still a good result. I definitely feel like I gave myself the best chance possible to win. My aggressive hydration plan definitely paid off: heat has been my kryptonite in the past, but drinking six bottles allowed me to perform well despite the hot weather. This was also a great leg tester for the Baker City Cycling Classic later this month, and the result definitely boosted my confidence going into that race.
