Race Report: Winters Road Race - Masters 50+ 4/5
Race: Winters Road Race - Masters 50+ 4/5
Date: August 31, 2025
AVRT racers: Shai Traister
Top Results: Shai 1 / 8
Course: Two laps of a 24 mile loop. Mostly flat but with a ~3.5mi stair-stepping climb (Cantelow), and narrow twisty descent. There’s also a short gravel slight uphill stretch that is very doable on road tires.
Nutrition: Two bottles with Skratch, two gels
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15575232027
Recap:
We had a small group of 8 riders. Right on the start line there was a junior rider who was the only rider in his category, so one of the officials said "go and race with these guys", and he got added to our field.
The race started off pretty chill, with the small group riding mostly easy on the flats and taking turns / rotating through until we got to the climb. On the climb the pace picked up and I hoped to repeat the strategy from Patterson Pass where I caused the group to split on the climb and continue with a smaller group. So I set a hard pace - maybe too hard - and got a gap on the group. I went down the descent, looked back and so no one. I continued riding and kept looking back to see where the group was. No one in sight.
Knowing my FTP, I knew it would be challenging to go solo for such a long way, especially on a flat course like that. I thought that there was some chance there could be a "group B" dynamic and the group would not cooperate, so I decided to give it a go and see what would happen. I set on what felt like a good tempo, kept my head down and rode. I would look back from time to time on straight stretches and I could see the group in the distance. I kept going.
One of the times I looked back they were getting close (~15s). At that point I should have sat up and gone back to the field, but instead I kept going and managed to stretch the gap again. I continued riding solo, with the gap yo-yoing a little.
I was finally caught just before the 2nd climb (after an entire lap OTF). Obviously, I was pretty cooked so went to the back of the group, but watching out for any attacks. 2 guys were pushing the pace so I moved up to ride with them. Luckily this was a stair-stepping climb so I managed to recover a little bit and when we hit the last and steepest part of the climb I decided to attack again. I jumped, got a separation, but couldn't keep up the power. Continued up the climb with whatever I had left and the junior rider caught up to me. We rolled down the descent and started working together on the back side trying to stay away from the 2 chasers behind.
Despite working well and taking turns, we got caught by one of the chasers about 2-3K from the finish. Pace slowed down and we traded some turns as I shifted my focus to the sprint ahead. We rolled through 1K and at about 500m to go there was a small riser. I decided to give it a go.
I jumped, and started sprinting. Legs were screaming in pain, on the verge of cramping. I looked behind, the junior rider was on my wheel and the other rider behind him. I continued with everything I got left, and was passed by the junior rider. Someone collapsed right on the finish line so they diverted us to the other side of the road which was confusing. I managed to cross the finish line just ahead of the other rider in my field.
Stoked for the win!! Yay!
In hindsight - it was probably the wrong decision to go solo OTF so early. Speaking to the other riders after the race they told me they were cooperating well, and they kept me dangling OFT. Instead I should have waited for the 2nd lap and attacked from the bottom of the climb to create as big of a separation as I could and then try to keep it all the way to the line.
