Race Reports
Race Report: 2024 Golden State Series Circuit - Women’s 3/4/5
Race: 2024 Golden State Series Circuit - Women’s 3/4/5
Date: May 5, 2024
AVRT racers: Hannah Chen, Janene Ostrow (guest racing)
Top Result: Hannah Chen (1st/5 cat 4, 2nd/7 overall)
Course: Nontechnical counter-clockwise 2.3 mi office park circuit, wide road with 10 easy corners and smooth pavement. Sunny conditions with a headwind on the 3rd section running parallel to the freeway before the finish.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11341597915
Nutrition: Banh mi for lunch :) Pre-race: Plain water and 1 Gu courtesy of The Feed. No water during the race.
Race Summary: I finished yesterday’s crit ahead on the sprint table and calculated that I just needed to win one out of the two sprint primes against Elisia(Terun) to get the green jersey. With the improved weather we had more women racing today (yay!), including a strong Cat 3 rider and fellow AV-er Janene.
Nothing happened on the first lap and I was happy moving places amongst the front and middle of the paceline. Some time during the 2nd lap a gap started to form and before I knew it three people in front of me were off in a break, including my sprint rival. As we came past the start line, I heard a bell. They announced back-to-back prime laps AND the lap card only showed 3 to go. Oh no! They were within eyeshot and I needed to catch them no matter what. I started chasing. It took me almost the full lap to finally bridge.
The last 200m of the circuit is a long S-shape with a left-right turn before the finish. I knew I needed to be first to the turns before the sprint but…couldn’t (prime order: Trang, Elisia, me). I used the next lap to recover and everyone played nice switching quick pulls. When it was my turn, I realized I was on the headwind stretch, aka the most important time to not be tired, and did the laziest pull then soft pedaled. I positioned better on the last turn and was able to get in front of Elisia for the prime. Final lap was a similar story: recover & position. I was feeling confident starting the final sprint but suddenly I got squeezed in! I slowed, scooted around and went as hard as I could, but it wasn’t quite enough.
Lessons learned:
Don’t feel guilty for not pulling.
Need to learn to sprint/time a sprint. I think I followed too closely going into the sprint and didn’t pay attention to my left side which is how I got squeezed in.
Closing thoughts: I was on the fence to race this weekend because of the low sign up numbers but am very glad I did. It was small enough that I could practice awareness during the race; I felt pretty anxious in the pack during the previous bigger races. The pace and competition still challenged me. Lastly, the new experiences were worth it, such as learning to get ready and race in the rain (it’s not as bad as you think it’ll be!), making a rough race plan and actually following through with it, feeling confident in cornering, and my first podium 🙂. The weather Sunday was amazing too.
Race Report: 2024 Berkeley Streets Criterium – Women’s 3
Race: Berkeley Streets Criterium – W3, Master’s 40, 50, 60+, Collegiate A/B
Date: April 27, 2024
AVRT racers: Louise Thomas, Rachel Hwang, Steph Hart
Top Result: Rachel 1st
Course: 0.6mi rectangle, slight incline on the front side, slight decline on the back side
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11287098546
Race Recap: (Rachel Hwang’s perspective)
I’ve ridden with Steph and Louise multiple times at this point, and in many crits, so felt comfortable going into this race with them. As always, Louise and Steph were going to attack and make the crit interesting and try leading me out for the sprint.
The course was pretty simple – a rectangle, with the start/finish side on a slight incline, up to 3.7% according to Strava, and the backside a similar profile decent. In addition, the front side had a headwind, while the back had a tailwind. Very quickly into the race, I realized the strategy (at least my strategy) was to draft up the hill which made the incline barely noticeable, and coast and draft down the back side which meant no pedaling at all.
Also, very quickly into the race, people were pushing the pace already. A few girls switched off attacking which picked up the pace of the ride. While I let most other people chase the attacks, I wedged myself into 4th or 5th spot each time so as to not get dropped off the back. The only attack I did was on lap 5 for the prime which created a small break and a girl followed behind. While we did switch off for a lap, I knew I wanted to reel the group back in as I could tell my throat was closing up. On that note, Louise did come up to me near the end of the race asking how I was doing to which I responded, “I’m feeling pretty tired, I’m going to save my energy.”
Louise and Steph also attacked a couple times, and were lifesavers for chasing down attacks for me. I just wasn’t feeling 100% this race and am so glad I had teammates there.
Around 2 laps to the end, Louise said she would try to lead me out. On the final lap, she got trapped against the gutter and couldn’t get into position to lead me out. Going into the first corner on the last lap, I couldn’t find Louise, and it was time for me to get into position. Generally, my tactic is to get in 3rd or 4th position going into that last corner, but recently I’ve felt pretty confident in my sprint that I decided to go for it out of that last corner. It’s a pretty long sprint so that decision was not smart by any means.
Nutrition: 1 bottle of water with a stick of liquid IV, and a Cliff Double Espresso flavored shot on the start line right before the race.
Race Report: 2024 Winchester Circuit Race- Women’s Cat 4
Race: Winchester Circuit Race- Women’s Cat 4
Date: May 11, 2024
AVRT racers: Kristin Hepworth- 1st
Course: The course is a ~4.5 mile road loop with excellent pavement and a series of rolling hills. There are only two 90° turns on the course. Though steep in some sections no hill is longer than a couple minutes, and are all followed by fun, fast, and safe descents, so momentum can be carried into the next climb. The biggest descent (segment title “Tuck and Lol”) is a bit over 1 minute and is fast! A series of undulating climbs (~350ft gain total) takes you up to the finish, which is located roughly half way up the steepest and longest climb.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11386719689#3224412165218688092
Nutrition: Oatmeal 3-hours before the race. One Ucan energy gel 10 minutes before the race. The race is only an hour, so I didn’t eat anything during. One bottle of water during the race.
Recap
The race started with a 3 minute neutral roll up the steep hill from the parking lot to the course. The group of eight riders stayed together for the 1st lap. I was the only AV racer in the group with two teams represented. The biggest team was Super Sprinkles with 4 riders. A couple of the sprinkles took turns attacking on the first two laps, but I was fairly confident they were just trying to tire out the group. I tried to play it smart and conserve my energy while keeping my eye on any moves that may stick. I tried to always be second or third wheel from the front without doing any work. I was trying to read the group dynamics and identify which riders may be protected and concluded that it was Sophia from Super Sprinkles based on the process of elimination on who appeared not to be attacking or covering any moves by a Sacramento Golden Wheelmen rider who appeared to be working for her teammate.
Just before the last climb of the 2nd lap, Liz from Super Sprinkles attacked hard and looked like she had interest in getting away. This threw me off a bit because she was not the presumed protected rider I had marked. No one seemed motivated to chase her down and I became increasingly uncomfortable as I watched her get further away. I decided it was too risky to let her go and since I didn’t have any teammates I knew I needed to either take the bait and chase her down or make my move to join the break. I bridged up to her before the top of the climb but I didn’t know if she would be willing to work together to stay away. She kept up the pace and I followed her wheel to the crest of the hill. We had a meaningful gap from the field and I was feeling pretty jazzed.
On the first descent of the third lap I got out in front of her because I was feeling good and wanted to increase the gap and test out her willingness to work with me. She stayed right on my wheel despite my efforts to move and get her to take a turn. When I looked back for the field I couldn’t see them, but I knew they couldn’t have been too far back. Because of the nature of the course (hills and turns) I knew they could catch up if I wasn’t pushing harder. On the final climb of the 3rd lap, I picked up the pace to try to shake Liz off my wheel. It worked and I was now in what looked like a promising solo breakaway.
I descended quite a bit faster than Liz and was able to increase my gap. I completed the 4th lap in a solo breakaway. (It was a really cool feeling to have the motorcycle guy following only me – it was a constant reminder that I was where I needed to be.) When I looked back I could see Liz farther behind me on parts of the course that were more open, but she was not close enough for me to feel threatened. She picked up her pace nearing the final climb and decreased the gap. I rolled over the finish line first, Liz finished ~30 seconds later and the field finished a minute or two after her.
I was glad that I chased Liz down when I did and was able to stay away – at the time I wasn’t sure if it was the right move. In retrospect it’s clear that it was the right move, especially given my strengths and not having teammates to help. I had a chance to have a friendly chat with many of the women after the race. I was honored to hear that the super sprinkles team had marked me and had strategized to wear me down with their attacks. Their plan A was to wear me down and their plan B was to have Liz breakaway if I didn’t chase. It worked out and this race was yet another learning experience that I am grateful for.
Fun times!
Berkeley Hills Road Race- Women’s Short Race
Date: April 27, 2024
AVRT racers: Hannah Chen, Chris Davis, Rina Fujieda (guest rider), Steph Hart, Kristin Hepworth, Robin Kutner, Claire MacDougall (racing collegiate), Katie Monaghan, Emily Selman, Niky Taylor, Louise Thomas, Katarina Zgraja
Top Result: Kristin Hepworth 1/23 (Cat 4) 6/51 (overall), Niky Taylor 2nd (Cat 2) 7/51 overall, Chris Davis 1st (50+)
Course: Roughly 1.8ish laps of an 18.7 mi loop with 1,650 ft of elevation gain each lap for a total of ~34 miles and ~2800 feet. The main feature of the course is the “Three Bears,” which is a sequence of short climbs in the second half of the loop. “Mama Bear” is the first and takes about 2-3 minutes to climb; “Papa Bear” is the second and takes about 3-4 minutes to climb; and “Baby Bear” is the third and takes less than a minute to climb. There’s a short descent between Mama and Papa and a longer descent between Papa and Baby. The rest of the course is mostly flat with some rolling hills.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11278213549
Nutrition: One Ucan energy gel at the start line, ½ stick of vermont maple syrup during the race, and two bottles of water (1 bottle had a scoop of Perpetuem malto mix)
Recap: This was a huge local women’s race! P/1/2/3/4/5 and Masters all raced together totaling 51 women. I had been training for and targeting this race as an A race. The team decided the day before that Robin, Katie, and I would be the protected riders in the cat 4 field and Louise would be the protected rider for the cat 3 field. All other AV racers were racing to help. I had a really late flight back into town the night before and only got 4 hours of sleep, I didn’t know how much that would affect me or if the adrenaline would be enough. I missed the pre-race strategy meetup in the morning but managed to chat with Niky as we were waiting for the rollout to begin. My goal was to be more aggressive/assertive with my placement during this race and stay up in the front third of the field. Last year I wasn’t focused on positioning and got too far back. Niky’s health wasn’t great going into this so she was racing to help teammates this year and I knew I could count on her wheel. The race officially started at the corner of Bear Creek and San Pablo Dam roads following a neutral rollout from the Orinda Bart station. I was pretty far back at the official start line, but Niky and I got to the front within the first half mile. Emily and Chris controlled at the front for most of the descent which was awesome, and then Hannah and Katarina took over on the back flat stretch. Really great domestique-ing by all of them!
The field stayed together until the first mama bear climb where one rider attacked. I pushed hard to keep up. At the top I thought I went too hard and wouldn't be able to recover in time to do it again on papa bear. It was then that I looked back and realized we had a gap from the field and I was in a break with Niky and 5 other riders. We were the only AV riders in the break. We took papa bear at a more steady pace and I was feeling recovered. At the top Niky and I made eye contact and I gave her a big smile to communicate that I was feeling great and I was ready to go for it.
From Louise in the chase group: Going up mama bear Shannon Pidd attacked. I tried to hold on for dear life and stayed with her over the first hump of mama bear (getting a new 2 min power record in the process) but then blew up on the rollers and dropped back as Niky and Kristin bridged up to the breakaway. A chase group formed with me (Louise), Claire, and five or so other riders but there wasn't much of a coordinated effort to chase. Since Niky and Kristin were up ahead I sat in and let the others do the work, but then no one else seemed to want to work either.
Our breakaway stayed together on the fast descent after papa bear. When we got back to San Pablo Dam road our pace slowed down and I started to worry that we would get caught. Just then Niky yelled out that we needed to pick up the pace or we would get caught. Niky knew she wouldn’t have the energy to finish the race at full gas, so she asked me if I would prefer for her to 1. work hard on the front to pick up the pace to keep the gap, but then not have her for the climbs or 2. allow the field to catch us, but she could help me up the climbs. I chose option 1. Niky rotated with a couple other riders to pick up the pace and I tried to conserve my energy by mostly sitting in.
From Louise: In the chase group we also slowed down, so there wasn't much to worry about. On San Pablo Dam Rd another group, which included Steph, caught up to us increasing our numbers to 12 or so. Me and Steph chatted briefly about what the game plan should be, but decided it was better for Kristin and Niky to stay away and so sat in for a fairly relaxed second lap.
When Niky felt like she had given it all she had, she encouraged me to follow Shannon Pidd because she wasn’t working at all. After mama bear I didn’t see Niky anymore and thought she was done, but she recovered and caught up and got in front of me to lead me out again. Near the base of the final climb/papa bear the group took off fast. I had waited too long to kick and the rest of the group attacked past me. I gave it my all and I rolled over the line 6th/51 and Niky came in shortly after 7th/51. I was the only cat 4 in the break, so the first one across the finish line. I learned so much from watching and following Niky during this race and I experienced first hand what teamwork felt like as a protected rider. I learned how to be assertive, position myself better and how to really be selfless and help/protect a teammate. It was sooo much fun!
Race Report: 2024 Berkeley Hills Road Race - Men's Cat 3
Race: Berkeley Hills Road Race - Men's Cat 3
Date: April 27, 2024
AVRT racers: Maxime Cauchois, Henry Mallon, Jeremy Besmer
Top Result: Henry 3rd, Maxime 5th
Course (from Fraser’s 2023 report): Roughly four laps of an 18.7 mi loop with 1,650 ft of elevation gain each lap for a total of ~74 miles and ~6200 feet including the neutral rollout. The main feature of the course is the “Three Bears,” which is a sequence of short climbs in the second half of the loop. “Mama Bear” is the first and takes about 2-3 minutes to climb; “Papa Bear” is the second and takes about 3-4 minutes to climb; and “Baby Bear” is the third and takes less than a minute to climb. There’s a short descent between Mama and Papa and a longer descent between Papa and Baby. The rest of the course is mostly flat with some rolling hills.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11278238684
Nutrition: 3 bottles with 80g drink mix each and 1 gel.
Race Recap: Written by Henry. Our plan going into this race was to support Jeremy. His training has been targeting this race, with excellent power at threshold and 2-4 minutes that’s key for the hills on this course. Despite having food poisoning the previous week, we all felt confident that Jeremy could win the race.
For the first two laps, we maintained a comfortable position near the front going into the climbs. The pace was hard at about 5-5.5 w/kg, but the climbs were all short and fairly draftable, especially Mama Bear where it felt like a slight headwind.
Each time after Papa Bear, everyone who made the front group of ~20 completely sat up. For nearly 40 minutes from the top of Papa Bear after lap 1 to the base of Mama Bear on lap 2, we slowed to a recovery ride pace (I averaged only 128W). I think everyone wanted to conserve energy for the climbs and didn’t expect a breakaway to make it to the finish. This dynamic meant that everyone dropped on the climbs made it back easily.
On lap 3, Max and I went to the front on Mama Bear and Jeremy asked us to push the pace. Max later told me that he was pulling at about 380W (6-6.5 w/kg), and I was only doing about 330W on his wheel, despite weighing a similar amount. After Max pulled off, I paced the flat middle section and the second part of the climb. Despite our efforts, the group was still large going into Papa Bear.
Once down the descent for the final time, a few riders attacked and quickly formed a strong breakaway. Unfortunately, we weren’t in this group. For the next ~30 minutes, there were many surges and attempts to bridge, including big efforts by Jeremy and Max up Garbage Hill. Finally, Charlie from PenVelo went to the front and singlehandedly brought the breakaway back for his teammates. On this lap before Mama Bear, we were ~7 minutes faster than the first lap.
I think everyone was either tired from the chase or thinking about the finish, so Mama Bear was relatively easy. We took the opportunity to position ourselves near the front and gameplan for the finish. Jeremy told me to focus on positioning myself and follow Jack, an Alto Velo teammate riding for Stanford in the combined field for this race. Jack is an experienced rider and a great finisher, so I quickly jumped on his wheel.
Going into Papa Bear, I put myself in about 5th wheel hoping that Max and Jeremy would be behind. Surprisingly, no one wanted to pull and we rode the first 90 seconds of the climb at an easy tempo. Then, an El Cerrito High School rider attacked and got a huge gap. Three other riders responded and I ended up chasing just behind them. I looked back and saw some orange/blue behind me and figured Max or Jeremy must be there. We were gaining on the next group of three until they started sprinting at the 100m sign. I crossed the line in 5th place overall and 3rd in Cat 3. Unfortunately, Jeremy wasn’t feeling the best after being sick last week. So, Max was on my wheel at the finish and hung on for 5th in his first Cat 3 race!
I think we had an excellent overall strategy going into this race. But, we could have adapted better as the race progressed based on how we were all feeling. For example, it probably would have helped our chances in the punchy finish if Mama Bear and Papa Bear were paced harder on the last lap. Also, missing the breakaway that formed at the beginning of the last lap meant we had to spend a lot of energy that could have been saved for the final hills. Still, it was a super fun race, and awesome to come away with two top-5 finishes!
Henry
Race Report: 2024 Sea Otter Circuit - Women’s B/C/Masters/Collegiate
Race: 2024 Sea Otter Circuit - Women’s B/C/Masters/Collegiate
Date: April 20, 2024
AVRT racers: Louise Thomas, Hannah Chen
Top Result: Louise 5/22
Course: 30 min circuit race on Laguna Seca Raceway. Each lap is 2.2 miles, featuring a 0.55 mile climb at 5.6% and a fun corkscrew descent. The road surface was the best I’ve ever ridden on.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11226553219
Nutrition: a few sips of malto/fructose mix. It was such a short race that I probably didn’t even need that
Recap (Written by Louise): Having never done the circuit race at Sea Otter before, I was excited to try it this year. With such a big festival area, the first challenge of the day was getting parked, registered, and finding my way around to the circuit race. It definitely felt like mountain biking was the main focus of the event with a couple of the help desk people not even knowing where the circuit start line was.
Eventually I managed to find my way to the start where Hannah was also waiting, and after a shortened warm-up we lined up along with all of the women from all of the categories (apart from elite/A). It was nice having such a big group but difficult to see who you were actually competing against.
The first lap was pretty easy. Since we didn’t get any practice laps it seemed like everyone was just scoping it out and enjoying being on the super smooth track (would highly recommend trying it). The descent was also a lot of fun with banked corners that you could lean into and pedal through. Not everyone was taking them smoothly though so positioning was still important; unfortunately Hannah was forced to brake multiple times after being stuck behind another rider on the downhill, and then waste energy to catch back up.
On the second lap, a couple of the collegiate racers attacked on the hill and I went with them. We ended up with a breakaway of five; three of us from the B’s and the two collegiates. We were taking turns on the front to stay away, but coming up to the start/finish line I felt like we were going too slow with other racers still in sight behind us, so I told Shantelle to rotate off the front so I could push the pace up a bit. That was a critical error. I stayed on the front until the start of the climb, at which point the others attacked and I got jettisoned off the back. Note to self: don’t do more work than necessary, and definitely don’t do more work than other people who are stronger than you.
For the final lap and a half I hung out in no man’s land, unable to catch back up to the breakaway but far enough away not to get caught myself, and finished the race solo. Hannah then finished not too long after. I definitely should have played it smarter, but honestly it was still so much fun; it’s not very often you get to race on a race track like that.
Race Report: 2024 Copperopolis Road Race - Men’s P/1/2
Race: Copperopolis Road Race - Men’s P/1/2
Date: 3/30/24
AVRT Racers: Grant Miller, Nathan Martin
Top Result: 6th - Nathan
Course: 5 laps of this. Very poor pavement throughout the climb and descents on the course.
Nutrition: 4 bottles of 60g malto+20g gatorade, 3 gels
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11072056992/
Race Recep (written by Nathan):
Our plan going in was basically to have Grant and I sit in and let the course take its toll on people. We figured we’d have decent endurance and be able to put in some attacks late to break things up further.
Lap 1 I went to the front on the climb and started doing just below threshold, mostly because the pavement was bad and I wanted to be at the front to see anything. Unfortunately, right at the top of the climb, I got a puncture, so I had to stop to plug it.
I caught back on quickly, but my tire still felt low, so I stopped again and then had to do about ten minutes at tempo since people were attacking after I stopped. A break of about 5 or 6 went during this time, Tobin Ortenblad was probably the biggest threat in the group.
The descent was fast and very bumpy. I was running 32s, but still took it quite cautiously, having to burn a bit of a match to catch back on at the bottom.
Lap 2 was more of the same, with the pace pushed on the climb a bit. Grant also suffered a puncture and stopped to grab a quick pump in the feed zone.
At the bottom of the descent and start of lap 3, Tim McBirney from Mike’s Bikes attacked, so I went with him. I just sat on his wheel, since I knew he had a teammate in the break, so me doing any work would be silly since I would be basically giving Mike’s a perfect breakaway.
On the climb, we were joined by Ryan, Gavin, and two more Mike’s riders. We rolled turns the rest of the lap.
On the lap 4 climb, Gavin started putting in some digs, which I was able to follow but my legs were definitely starting to feel it. At the top of the climb, the group was reduced to Tim, Ryan, me, and Gavin. After the climb, we started to catch some members from the original breakaway.
After the lap 4 descent and start of lap 5, Ryan started to put in some digs and I was unable to follow. I got shelled from the group as did James Yang from Dolce Vita, who was in the original break, so we worked together for the rest of the climb and on the flats at the top. He would drop me at one point on the flats, and I worked solo for the rest of the race.
Overall it was just a super grueling race. It was a good test of endurance, nutrition planning, ability to conserve energy, and mental toughness. Ultimately us each getting flats and having to chase back on didn’t help, but I think we learned a lot.
Golden State Crit and Circuit Races 2024
Race: 2024 Golden State Series Criterium - Women’s 40+ P123
Date: May 4, 2024
AVRT racers: Chris Davis
Top Result: Chris Davis (4/4 for 40+)
Course: Clockwise 0.9mi office park loop. Flat, smooth, 3+ lane road with five wide, gentle turns. Rain had stopped by the time we raced, but the roads were still very wet with puddles.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11334665129
Nutrition: Fluid Performance and Beet Elite Powder
Race Summary:
I signed up for this weekend a month early in hopes that it would be well attended as it usually is. The rain put a kabash on that. Turn out was super low and those that did sign up shifted back and forth from P123 to 40+. There were eight of us total, split evenly between the two fields offered (P123 and 40+). The race started out with a bang since Shannon Gaffney has plenty of bullets to shoot. Every lap or so she would attack the field with Karen from Chico quickly following. They both had signed up in the P123 so I was sure to jump on that train, hoping for a break. After about eight attacks and the last of the primes, the pack settled into conserving for the sprint since nobody could get away. My derailleur was making my chain jump in the back cogs when I applied pressure so I was nervous about standing up to sprint the whole race. Therefore, I did not even sprint for the finish and came in 8 out of 8. After the race I took my bike to VeloFix to have a look. The mechanic tried a couple of adjustments, but was obviously limited in what he could with my DI2 shifting given he was working out of a van. I took a couple of sprints afterward to see if it was better and the chain did not jump so I thought I would be good to go for Sunday’s Circuit.
Photo Credit: Greg Beliera
Race: 2024 Golden State Series Circuit - Women’s 40+ P123
Date: May 5, 2024
AVRT racers: Chris Davis
Top Result: Chris Davis (4/4 for 40+)
Course: Counter Clockwise 2.9 mi office park loop. Flat, smooth, 3+ lane road with ten wide, gentle turns and a chicane. Bright sunny day, but chilly!
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11334665129
Nutrition: Fluid Performance and Beet Elite Powder
Yeah this was pretty much Groundhog’s Day! Same people, same time, but different course. The circuit course is fun because there are about 10 turns with a chicane. I thought it would go better for me since my bike was not skipping. I sat in and decided to try something after Shannon fired off all her shots. With just one and half laps to go, I decided to motivate Shannon while some of the Masters were having a conference. I was able to get a jump, but was chased down and my chain jumped AGAIN! So no sprinting for this race either. Therefore I came in last again, but was able to stay with the pack until the last KM. Yes, my bike is with my mechanic now. It was great seeing Hannah Chen there racing like champion!