Race Report: Winters Road Race M 35+ 3/4
Race: Winters Road Race 35+ 3/4
Date: August 23rd, 2026
AVRT racers: Ryan Dyke
Top Result: Ryan 17/30
Course: 2 laps of a 24 mile course with one decisive climb
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/19888818465
Nutrition: 1 bottle with 200g carb mix, 1 bottle of water, and a bottle of water taken from Keegan Worcester at the aid station (Thank you!)
Recap: Conditions for this race were pretty great, if only a little hot towards the end of the day. In the men’s 35+ 3/4 it seemed like there were some big hitters, but I haven’t been racing much this year so I decided to mess around and see how everything panned out.
The first section of this race is very flat, and our group crawled along at around 16mph except for a few attacks. It seemed like everyone was apprehensive about the climb on the first lap, and in my case that nervousness would be well-founded.
As the group hit the climb, the pace shot up instantly. I was able to stay with the main group for about half of the 3.5 mile climb, but after a while I had to watch them ride up the road helplessly. I decided to ride at my own pace and see if I could make a catch later in the race. In previous years, I had done that exact thing.
After the descent, I slowly collected a group of 5 other dropped riders and we worked together to maintain a high pace that should have brought back the peloton. What we didn’t know was that the climb had shattered the main group and there was one front group and a chase group that was about the same size. With one group working hard to get ahead and another struggling to get back to the front of the race, their pace overall stayed high long enough to get back around to the climb again.
At the climb, our group resigned ourselves to racing amongst the 6 of us. We cooperated until about 4 miles to go, at which point a couple of guys threw attacks that were brought back. In the end, I found myself on the front with 200m to go, so I did a bit of a leadout for the guy who got 16th and rolled in second in our group.
Overall, this race was a great example of how you can have fun and go hard even if you get dropped. I had a great time getting to know the guys in my lanterne rouge group and I look forward to racing with them again but in the main field this time.
My advice for future racers on this course is to take the climb seriously but understand that this race is flat or downhill for the majority of the course. As a result, you can succeed here as a climber or a sprinter as long as your strategy and timing work out. No matter what, have a good time and make sure you talk to the other racers even if they’re not on your team!