Race Report: Slug Circuit – Cat 3/4/5 35+
Date: April 5, 2025
Field Size: 10
LGBRC Racers (finishing position):
- Salvatore Talarico (5th)
- Brian Paden (6th)
- Vu Nguyen (10th)
Reporter: Brian Paden
Course:
11 laps on a scenic but hilly 3-mile loop through the UC Santa Cruz campus. Excellent pavement, non-technical layout—you might not even touch your brakes the entire race. Each lap features a roughly 5-minute climb (@5w/kg) followed by a fast, straight descent.
Recap
Early in the week, registration numbers were low, and the LGBRC crew were scheming ways to drop the other riders. But when Bjourn from Team CycleSport and William (who won Pine Flat earlier this season) signed up Friday night, our tactics quickly shifted to: “Let’s just try to hang on.”
The race rolled out with a cautious climb out of the parking lot. On the first descent, I actually had to brake in the draft as the lead rider was just coasting. Since I wasn’t confident I could survive Bourn’s inevitable attack, I figured I’d at least have a little fun before getting dropped. The words of Ricky Bobby came to mind: “I wanna go fast!”
So I moved to the front and started gently pulling on the descent. As we hit the base of the climb for the first full lap, I pushed a hard tempo to get the field’s heart rate up. By the top, I was feeling a little cross-eyed, but still holding steady.
Coming into the second descent, I figured I’d already burned my best matches, so why not? I launched into a sprint to gap the guys on my wheel. By the bottom, we’d already lost half the field. Salvatore was still with us — awesome, since he had the best chance of surviving the full race.
I managed to keep the pace hot for a few more laps, but eventually the cracks began to show. That’s when William launched his move up the hill, joined by Bjourn, German, and Salvatore. I made a half-hearted attempt to follow, but knew my race was over. I settled into a tempo workout pace for the rest of the race.
Salvatore hung in tough and finished 5th — strong ride. It was a fun day, and I’m already looking forward to taking on that course again in August.
—