Oakland Grand Prix Race Report from Carissa Y (2021)

On Sunday I raced the Oakland Grand Prix in downtown Oakland with Women’s Category 3/4/5. It is literally the end of the season and everyone is either super fit or exhausted (or both). I was excited about the race too since it’s right down the street from where I live and it’s way more fun to race in the city streets than some suburban business park.On Friday after the wtf ride I did my first recon, and was fairly shocked by how bad the road conditions were, potholes, cracks, and uneven pavings. I almost missed the hairpin turn too as it was labeled “one way” and was way too tight for any “normal” cyclist to be crossing. After 20 something laps around the course and specifically the chicane on both Friday and Saturday, I had a rough strategy for which line I wanted to take and how I wanted to approach the hill. Namely - I was going to try to get to the front, take my own preferred line, rejoin the group on Webster, go hard up the hill, soft pedal and try to recover down the hill, rinse repeat.Just like life, races don’t always go as planned, so many variables go into the actual race day. We were delayed by an hour because of the remaining cars on the course so the weather really shifted aka higher temperature. As soon as the race started, I realized the chicane isn’t the scariest part because everyone was taking extra precautions, but an annoying hurdle that everyone had to deal with. In men’s 4/5 race, the field was so big that the people in the back were basically stopped fully to get through the corner (which means you could still be waiting in line while the front group is already pedaling past 24 hour fitness). Same in my race, I wasted a lot of momentum and time to wait to get through the chicane, granted my field was way smaller. On the other hand, my hill attack plan had a 180 degree turn when everyone was drafting and recovering on the uphill, and sprinting on the flats and downhill. I wasn’t fully prepared to spring on the downhill (bad habit), so the positioning was really difficult for me as soon as we came out of the Website St climb.Overall, the race was fun but difficult. The course itself was brutally honest to one’s strategizing abilities and fitness, in the sense that it didn’t really allow any slip-ups and one had to be on their toe getting ready for attacks and re-positioning at all times. On the other hand, I felt really lucky to be racing with Cat 3 racers who are strong and came from diverse disciplines, some of which have done tens and half a century of races. Everyone had great climbing and sprinting strength, so the ability of staying focused and pushing it through really made a difference. Although I stayed with the pack for the entire race, I felt somewhat powerless to get myself into a better position, and ended up hanging in the back of the pack. On the second to last lap a few racers made contacts and went down, which made a little impact on the race. I think I could’ve got myself in a better position and not let the gap open up in the last lap if I didn’t hit the pothole by the chicane, or more gears to sprint down the hill, but I was happy with my performance overall given my very little experience with racing compared to the other racers in my field. And just like Oakland is a city that keeps it real, OGP is one of the races that even one crack or pothole could send you to the back.Last but not least, thank you to everyone who came out to support! It was great to hear your name called out at almost every corner of the race pics: Meeting Arielle irl for the first time; BIPoC racers represent at OGP!

Race Report from Carissa