Race Report: 2024 Golden State Series Criterium - Women’s 3/4/5
Race: 2024 Golden State Series Criterium - Women’s 3/4/5
Date: May 4, 2024
AVRT racers: Hannah Chen
Top Result: Hannah Chen (1st/3 cat 4)
Course: Clockwise 0.9mi office park loop. Flat, smooth, 3+ lane road with five wide, gentle turns. Cold and wet but not too windy; it rained all morning and did not let up until after our race finished.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11334665129
Nutrition: Pre-race: Plain water and 1 Gu courtesy of The Feed. No water during the race.
Race Summary:
I wanted to use this race to practice efficient cornering and getting comfortable moving in a pack. Unfortunately the horrible weather conditions made for an even smaller than expected field.
The first lap was slow as we were all a bit cautious to see how fast to take the wet corners. Within minutes my socks and gloves were drenched. Anna pulled first, Elisia pulled a bit, then I dutifully took my turn. They rang a bell for a sprint prime and Anna suddenly started gunning it. It felt premature. We casually increased pace before passing her and rounding the final corner for a sprint-off.
The remainder of the race consisted of me/Elisia taking turns pulling and racing the last two corners for the sprint prime (four total). I only heard 3 prime bells, so I was surprised to hear a bell and see the final lap card go up. I surged hard, never looked back and when I hit the finish line, no one was behind me.
The race director gave us the option to shorten the race by 10 minutes. We all agreed we wanted to do the full 40 min, but perhaps the race was so uneventful that they eventually did cut us off a short.
Lessons learned:
Pedal through every corner. The road was so wide that cornering wasn’t an issue at all and most importantly I never used my brakes.
Pay attention to lap cards! Afterwards Elisia shared that she thought we had 5+ minutes left and was still racing after our final lap, may be why she didn’t chase me.
I wish I thought of this: put your feet in bags inside your shoes to avoid sloshing socks in the rain.
