I made my way up to Northern CA, deep in farm country in the central valley without the
team (but with Jake as support) to race the 32nd annual Copperopolis Road Race. The course
description detailed a good amount of climbing and a technical descent on a VERY rough road.
Given my desire to improve my descending skills, I figured that I would need the practice.
The morning started off very cold (cold enough for me to leave my Champion System
arm warmers on!) and there was a decent sized field of many strong women and teams. I staged
myself directly at the front of the field and held second and third wheel throughout the first
climb of the first lap. I nearly missed the first turn of the race, which I suppose is an official trait
of mine at this point. On the first climb (a long, steep, twisty climb on a narrow rough road),
there were a few attacks from Steven’s and one promising looking attack from an Optum
woman. My third wheel position allowed me to easily cover Optum’s attack and when the course
evened out, I was pace-lining in a break of seven. Somehow, the Optum woman who initiated
the attack that led to the break was not in the break. Our group at this point, consisted of three
Steven’s women, three NOW women and the woman in blue. I did my share of the work and
mentally prepared for the technical and nasty descent ahead.
On the descent, I did not get dropped (yes!), but sadly I flatted at the base of the descent.
I waved down support and started to chase with a very heavy back wheel. My goals were two-
fold at this point: 1) not get caught by the pack or any chasers (there were some strong riders
back there); 2) catch the break-away group before the feed zone on the second lap. Mission
accomplished with a somewhat tired pair of legs!
The main climb on the second lap saw a few attacks, for which I was too tired to cover. A
woman from NOW and the woman in blue broke away. I held on to the main break group and
worked to catch the two up the road. I knew that our pulls were not strong enough, given the
NOW woman’s strength, and I was pretty sure that the woman in blue was strong by her
performance thus far. The NOW woman had a mechanical issue just before the descent on the
second lap which allowed us to pass her. I hoped that this meant her two teammates in the break
would start working so that we could catch the woman ahead (hitherto, the bulk share of the
work in the break had been from the two Steven’s women and me). This didn’t exactly pan out
to my hopes, but Steven’s and I did our parts and the NOW women jumped in occasionally. As
we completed the second lap, I reached down and realized that I had lost a bottle, and sadly this
bottle contained my GU Brew with electrolytes. This proved to not be an issue because, as
always, I had my chomps!
Somewhere on the final big climb, we lost one of the Steven’s women behind us and the
two NOW women started to pull through more reliably than in the second lap. We stayed
together on the climb (although, in retrospect, I should have attacked here), our break-away/
chase group down to four. On the rollers before the descent, I sat on the front, working hard. I
was hoping to catch the woman in blue and slower pulls from the rest of the break would not
allow that. Once again, I should have attacked to make them work, but I thought that I could use
the company on the descent to a) work on descending around people; b) to draft. This plan was
flawed.
NOW attacked hard and Steven’s and I worked hard to catch her. We both knew that this
attack would be followed by a counter from her teammate. We caught her before the descent and
I moved to the back of our group (I felt particularly unsafe because my back break was wide
open and I wasn’t coordinated enough to close it) and slowly I allowed a gap on the descent. I
had to work hard at the base of the descent and the second to last kicker (which should have been
my launching point to attack before the finish) to catch back on. NOW attacked again and I
attacked at the base of the final kicker before the finish. I managed to sprint third out of our
break-away/chase group, giving me a fourth place finish for the day. Copperopolis was a fun,
albeit ROUGH and hand-numbing course (that was no match for my SuperSix), a great group of
women riders, and a great learning experience. I was pleased with the experience, particularly
given my flat tire and hard work!
No comments:
Post a Comment