Copperopolis OR utter annihilation!
Copperopolis Road Race
April 7th, 2006
Cat Elite 4 (or not so elite as the case maybe )
Field ~90
Place ?
Copperopolis. I've heard numerous stories about this race for a few years now. Some descriptions tossed around when referring to Copperopolis are: tough, bad pavement, lots of climbing, mountain biker's course, etc. As I've heard these descriptions over the years, I've always thought to myself big deal. I'm a mountain biker, cyclocross racer and have always been considered a bit of a climber. So, no broken pavement or threat of climbing is going to scare me. Bring it on!
(damn I got layoff the beer, look at that gut..sheez)
We’ll the time finally came to test myself against the infamous Copperopolis. Saturday the 8th of April was the day of reckoning. Unfortunately, the hellfire and damnation that was doled out was not against the race course nor competition in the Elite 4 field. Instead the tables were turned and I suffered utter annihilation!
Ben, Ammon and I headed up to our hotel inValley Springs Friday nite. We arrived and got settled by about 12am. Cutting our sleep a bit short considering we had to be up at 545 to make the 20 minute drive to
Race day, we didn’t have a whole lot of between us and the frick’n hotel lobby didn’t upon ‘till 7am. I had a few packets of oatmeal and few bananas pilfered from the hotel lobby. Combined with the cranberries Ammon had and some crappy hotel coffee we had ourselves a little make-shift meal. We slugged down the coffee and powered down the oatmeal and we were off to reg.
Arriving at reg, the parking lot…errr…I mean the cleared out tractor parking was already starting to fill up. We found ourselves as level spot as possible and set out to get reg’d, potty’d and warm up. Grabbed our number no problemo and then decided to avoid the already long potty lines. Even though they had a few porto potty’s set up around the parking area, there just never seems to be enough of these things. Thankfully the hotel had facilities that were easy to share amongst only 3 people.
The next order of business is to hop on the trainer. Meredith told me over and over, and she made me repeat it too, that I had to get a really good warm up, because as soon as the field hit the climb they would take off. I managed to get in 30 minutes of spinning, but could still feel a bit of muscle soreness from the previous weeks racing and workouts. It seriously took me until Thursday for the soreness of my first mtb race to settle down. Of course I’m a glutton for punishment and that didn’t stop me from doing the morning ride in Palo Alto on Tuesday followed by some hilly mountain biking on Waterdog weds nite. But I digress….
The whistle blows and I’m somewhere in the middle of the 90 person field. It’s a neutral roll out till we hit the turn which leads to the first broken pavement section. From the moment we made the first left hander the pace picked up. I started trying to move my way up in the field before the climb. However I could already feel the Paris-Robouix section going to work on my legs. The more I pushed the more my legs ached. At that moment I knew this was going to be a very, very hard, very, very bad race for me.
Race profile - 4600 ft of climbing
We hit the first climb. I accelerate to pick up a few spots and then sit and spin. The road is narrow, the pavement is bad and the racers are antsy. One guy rolls off the pavement into the dirt, luckily he makes it back onto the pavement without dabbing, he must race cross is my first thought. Soon after another rider goes into a gutter. The pace quickens, my legs complain. We crest the first climb and I am steadily moving backwards. My legs burn and my ego aches.
At this point about 30 or so riders have been dropped and I am struggling to hang on to the group that remains. I put my head down and time trial my way back to the group. Ben looks back and seems me struggling a bit. He sits up and soon I’m on his wheel as he accelerates to take me back. I push and my legs refuse, I push harder, my legs budge a bit and move me forward. It’s not fair, it sucks to have to push so hard for so little distance gained. I’m f*cked.
We hit the flats and I tucked myself into the pack to recover. I feel great. Maybe my race isn’t doomed. I move around in the pack. I’m chat’n with Ben, recognizing a few familiar faces. Then the pace quickens. I move near the front of the pack. Nobody wants to pull into the head wind. So the pack slows. A few riders start coming up the side, I glance to me left and I see Ben. I jump on his wheel and we move to the front. We take a few pulls each and then pull off the front.
By now we are nearing the second climb in the race, not as long, but steeper. The pack accelerates and I accelerate, but some how I’m going in the opposite direction. The last thing I hear from Ben is don’t die on my know bitch. Damn it….I’m dying a slow and painful death as I watch the pack ride away from me. I curse my legs over and over and force myself to keep spinning.
Thus the Copperopolis TT begins. I spent the rest of the race chasing trying to get back on. Every climb my legs complained, but on the flats I was a time trailing machine. At one point I could see the pack in the distance. As I motored past numerous cracked riders, I thought to myself, if can keep the pack insight I can catch them. As I made my way towards the second climb I caught a rider would seemed to still have a bit of life left in him. I said to him, the pack is just up ahead, if we work together we can catch them. He said I don’t have much left. I said hop on my wheel and I’ll pull us to the pack, just give me a rest here and there.
Off we went. The guy did great. He stuck on my wheel far beyond his mental limits and then he even pulled my for a few minutes. Unfortunately, when we hit the second climb I knew he was done as he faded away. I waved thanks and continued to motor. The pack was out of sights thru the winding climbs as I made my way up to another few riders.
As I came up on a 3rd pillar guy I said let’s go, we can catch them. He shrugs and says they have 1 minute and half on us. I said so what let’s go. I pulled him, he pulled me. He was way stronger than I was but more mentally broken....whereas I was mental strong, but phsyically broken. shyte...racing really, sucks sometimes, but I tell you what, it's races like this that make you tuff.
And so the story goes for the next couple laps I kept chasing and powering and fighting the good fight to catch on. I saw the frick'n pack in the distance each lap and each lap I had less juice in my legs. I tell you what though, the descent on each lap was almost worth the pain and suffering. I'd power up the last bit of a climb and then hammer on the pedals as hard as I could to kick start the descent. Wow, I hit 40+ on those descents and was even able to throw in a few pedal strokes here and there to keep up my speed. While the bike took a beating, I felt fine.
As I went up the climb one last time, 3rd time not being a charm here at all, I see Meester Hernandez, come flying by me with a Discovery guy in hot pursuit. I yelled out get'em Mike. Remember the old michael jordan commericals....man, I want be like this Mike! As I continue my trudge up the hill about 20 guys in the master category come swarming buy. Me and the 3rd pillar guy just moved over to the right to let them pass.
Soon my friend Glen comes buy, I can tell he's hurting, but he's still moving faster than I am. I accelerate and try to grab on to his wheel. I was unsuccesful, but at least it gave me a short burst of motivation. I hit the flat section by the lake and bury myself in the TT position again. At this point it's clear to me that I will never catch the pack, now I'm just getting in good training and teaching myself unless for bad training. How many times do I have to learn the lesson about how important recovery is....damnit!
Well and that's that. My first experience at Copperopolis...oi, next year I'll be doing 4 laps as a 3. However, it's nothing a double cheesburger and a few beers couldn't make me forget at some crazy little hick Bar and Grill.
Up next, SOC Road race friday and SOC MTB sunday. In between, lounging, loafing, snuggling, easy spins and lot's of stretching!
Thanks for reading!
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