Race Report: Tour of America’s Dairyland Tosa Village Classic

Race Report: Tour of America’s Dairyland (ToAD) Tosa Village Classic

Date: June 29, 2025

AVRT racers: Robin Betz

Top Result: Robin 17/34 in 2/3 race

Course: 0.96mi bowtie. Corner 1/2 was cobblestone crosswalks with a nasty curb right on the outside pinching in at the exit of corner 2. Uphill through corner 3 (30ish sec in the big ring) then a downhill into the only left hand corner (which I will refer to as The Corner), which was very very fast. Next two corners were benign with some bad pavement on the back stretch, and the final corner was pretty sharp.

Strava:
https://www.strava.com/activities/14954919203

Race Recap:

I was very glad to be racing at 10:25am today instead of the previous days’ time of 2:30pm as it was already 83 °F outside. I also showed up early enough that I could ride the course for about 8 laps as part of my warmup, which was really important. I was almost hitting 30mph down the hill at easy warmup pace, and The Corner was pretty scary at speed. I did as many reps of it as I could, realizing the key is to lean the bike super hard and not target fixate on the outside curb (where padding had been ominously but helpfully placed on the barriers). You really had to trust the bike and ignore all your instincts screaming at you to brake mid-corner. In the group this could pose a problem so I planned on really digging deep on the hill to be near the front and recovering afterwards.

I’ve befriended another team (the one for whom I gave a leadout on day 3) and their host mom gave me an ice sock which was life saving. It turns out if you invite me to the beach and then feed me dinner I absolutely will close gaps for you in races. Later we toured the Miller factory and went to the cheese store which was also great.

I staged well and the start was decent, with me being in the front third of the group. In lap 3 about 5 riders were strung out on the front with the rest of us blobbing behind on the hill, but then all 5 of them were crashed out at the bottom of The Corner and we were neutralized at the start line.

After catching my breath a bit we restarted, and people were a lot more cautious into The Corner. I was able to move up confidently whenever it slowed and at one point was on the front at the line and got a shoutout in the broadcast. That lap I was third wheel going into The Corner and realized that I really didn’t want to push it and end up flying home covered in road rash, and actually got gapped by the two riders in front of me and had to flick the field through with my elbow to help. I continued to get gapped here most laps, which may surprise you because you know I love to corner and descend, but I just didn’t want to risk it.

I played it very conservatively from then on and for the most part the field was polite too. We were either single file or two by two, and I always made sure to be on the inside so no one could slide out into me. This was wise as some people did get taken out that way on a later lap.

They started showing lap cards with 11 to go and a lot of the field has been attritted. I’m still in and can still move up reliably and even make up spots on the hill! I even survive the sprint lap with some serious tailgunning.

Unfortunately I’m near the front into the last corner when someone somehow crashes there and I see the omnium leader run into her bike and have a perfect mental snapshot of her flying through the air, arms outstretched (she didn’t break a collarbone but “only” needed stitches on her chin). This happens right in my exit line for the corner so I brake hard, avoid it successfully, but am a bit freaked out by the picture and don’t have the quick thinking or the legs to sprint back up to speed.

I keep the field in sight for a while and give it a good TT, counting down the laps and getting some quality cheers and encouragement from spectators and course marshals. Knowing that I am physically and mentally cooked I take The Corner slower than I did on some of my warmup laps.

It indeed was a big race of attrition as I finish 17th! It was so nice to be rewarded with a top 20 for my efforts after so many hard days. I might need a lot of tries, but I am slowly starting to put it all together.

Overall, I was 29/48 in the overall omnium, having got points every day. While this wasn’t the result I wanted or anticipated going into it, I’m proud of myself for showing up and trying. Every day I identified something to improve and executed on that, and that’s all that you can really ask for.

I’m not sure if criterium racing is my strength. Physically I can definitely work more on repeated accelerations— while local group rides are good practice for bunch skills, they’re only hard for maybe 5 minutes at a time and then I can sit in and recover. Mentally, I am very risk averse, which is probably fundamentally incompatible with success in this discipline. Still, I want to keep showing up and improving and thinking what I want to get out of cycling. Stay tuned— it’s very possible I forget how hard this all was and do it again next year!