Pedalling Squares

Copperopolis Road Race, April 10, 2004

Description:
4 laps of a challenging ~22 mile circuit. You start with a little climb through the feed zone and then some up and down and then some steady climbing that tops out after 6 miles (from the start). There are some very steep sections and the pavement sucks ass the whole way up. You top out on a smooth-as-glass road near some lake. The road is pretty nice and flat, then some rollers, then more rollers and more rough road. Then you begin a second short climb at roughly the 15 mile mark. That's probably a 1 mile effort, then 3-4 miles of downhill. It's not terribly technical - but the pavement sucks ass again and you can just feel your teeth coming loose as you descend at 45 mph. There's a little bit of a run out after the descent, then a little climb up to the finish.

This is a good race to chill out on. My plan was to sit in for at least the first two laps and maybe follow something starting on the third if it looked good. This seems to always be a race of attrition. The last time I did it I didn't finish, and I think only about half of our 30 man field did finish that year. This time there were over 60 starters. The weather was nice - shorts and shorts sleeves the whole way.

Vaughn and I didn't see Kevin K until we lined up for the start. Kevin said he wasn't feeling so hot, but was going to do the best he could. Vaughn is still searching for some form, so I knew he would be taking it easy and just trying to hang.

How badly it sucked:
As planned, I chilled for the first two laps. The first time up the climb wasn't so bad. Nothing too eventful happened on the first lap. The second lap was more of the same, but the tempo definitely increased on the first climb this time. I was still comfortable, though and stayed near the front. Some guys were getting frustrated and trying to increase the tempo some. I let them - I was conserving.

The third lap things heated up. I thought that they would, so I started the feed zone climb in the top 5-10 or so. There were quickly a few guys who were driving the pace, I just tried to stay near the front. There was a Cal guy driving it for awhile and Armstrong (Allan) was also riding strong at the front. After a few accelerations, we came to a little roller, where there's a quick descent and then a really steep uphill. A Village Pedaller (VP) guy made a good move here and got a gap quickly. A Buy-Cell guy followed him. I was still recovering a little and didn't feel like chasing it, but also wasn't too worried about it. There were quickly 3 VP guys up in the front now, looking strong. The Cal guy was there and then the Junior from Ofoto accelerated. I was cooked riding at my limit already just trying to keep the pace high and couldn't follow, but then neither could anyone else.

I ended up setting the tempo for the rest of the climb, with the 3 VP guys on my wheel. Hmmmm. They had one guy off the front and 3 guys who could clearly climb pretty well. Not good. Once we got to the flat part, 1 (maybe 2) Buy-Cell guys also come to the front. Geeez. So I pulled for a few more miles around the smooth lake section and kept looking back to see if any of the homies were concerned. Didn't look like it. So I kept riding tempo and trying to figure out what to do. It seemed like I ought to do something - the VP guys and Buy-Cell guys just had it too easy.

So on the next big hill, I decided I would launch a bridge attempt. I drifted back a few wheels, rested a bit, took a drink, and then let fly like Mussolini from the balcony at the base of the hill. Immediately there was a VP guy covering me, but the heat was too much and he quickly retreated backwards out of my kitchen. I was by myself with a good gap at the top of the hill. I motored down the other side and started off for the Ofoto junior who was maybe a minute up. I was making up good time all the way until the sharp left hand turn towards the north (I think it's north) but then he accelerated again.

I kept going as steadily as I could. I could see the other 2 guys ahead in the distance . . . maybe another 2 minutes up. A few minutes later I caught the Ofoto junior guy and we immediately started working together. We didn't say much, but he pulled through when I signalled him and I usually just took over after a minute or two. He was taking some strong hard pulls - I was just trying to match his effort. We could see the two breakaways ahead, but it didn't seem like we were making up much ground.

When we came to the little climb on the back side of the course, I started to realize I was tiring. Junior was still pulling hard and I was just hoping I could hang on for the climb. The pack was maybe 1 minute back. Not enough, but I guess I was still really hoping we could catch the leaders and get some help from the respective teams back in the group. I scratched and clawed to stay with Junior to the top of little climb and rode over the summit strong - if nothing else, I could do the descent with 1 other guy and it would be much safer.

So I did the best I could and looked back after a minute or two and the junior was way the hell back there. Shit! Well I wasn't going to wait. I still couldn't see the main group and wanted to get down the gnarly descent without incident so I just motored it by myself. Once down to the long runout before the small climb I looked back but couldn't see anyone - good news. So I kept it going as hard as I could - applying the "out of sight, out of mind" theory. Once I neared the top though, I saw them bearing down on me. I was still hoping that with maybe a little gap after the feed zone, I could get out of their view and maintain on the climb . . . and hope for the best.

I motored through the finish and then past the start and headed towards the feed zone. Looking back . . . I could see they were almost on top of me now and they were moving. Damn! So as they passed I tried to stay in the front - I managed to get in 4th wheel behind two Maguire guys and a VP guy. The VP guy was still sitting on since he had 1 guy up the road. As we motored through the feed zone, my legs started to get heavy and I knew it was going to be a tough final lap. I got a bottle from Kevin (who was in the feed zone now), drank a whole bunch, squirted some on me and then threw it (which was stupid since I ended up running out of water later).

I tried hard, but I could tell it was about time for me to start paying for my efforts. I just didn't have it. At some point, I saw the Ofoto junior come past me and up to the front group. Awhile later . . . I decided it was time to hang with the grupetto. So I hooked up with 4-5 guys and we rode the last lap together. So I finished, but probably not even in the top 30.

Post race comments
Anyone wanna guess who won?!?!? One of the two guys from the break? Wrong! I guess we caught them somewhere near the feed zone. I think one of them might have even abandoned the race before we caught them - so we really just caught 1 guy and that's why I never noticed. The Ofoto junior guy won in a big sprint. Shit! I followed the right guy. I'm not sure why he sat up, but maybe because he knew we'd be caught and he was just saving his energy. Either way, even if I had sat up - I don't think I would have had the motor for another hard 22 miles.

Oh well. It was a much larger field, and it seems like the 3's are way more fit this year.