Copper Town Circuit Race Report- John Pauley-35+ 4

Race: Copper Town Circuit race in Copperopolis, CA (Sunny and about 70 degrees)
Date: July 31, 2010
Category: Master 35+ Cat. 4 (20 riders started, 15 finished)
Teammates: Andrew Adelman
Course: Four laps around a 5.5 mile out and back with a nice little section through town (crit style) as one of the turnarounds. The course is rolling, with one roller on the front side of the course that you could almost call a hill. The finish is a 1 mile downhill (2% grade so less than Alpine) to a 100+ yard uphill finish. (Quick side note, the race is run “British style”, meaning we stayed on the left side of the road the entire time. I’ve never done that before and it was an interesting little twist.)
Placings…. You will have to wait until the end of the recap to find out

Andrew, Christian and Mark drove up to the race on Friday and stayed in Arnold. I told Andrew that if I did this race, it would be a last minute decision. Well, it definitely was that. (For those of you that don’t know, my wife tore her hamstring three weeks ago and she has good days and bad days and this affects my ability to train and race) Well, Friday was a good day, so on Friday night at 10 p.m. I got the go ahead to do this race!

I got up at 5:00 a.m. and decided to make the two hour drive to Copperopolis and try out this course. The course itself sounded interested to me since there are no hills and it was a circuit race (I gave up doing criteriums when I separated my shoulder 8 years ago).

The race starts off in the town square and then turns out onto the main road. For the first mile or so, the race started fairly slowly. Andrew and I both rode at the front trying to keep the pace down, but on the first little hill, a couple of guys rolled off the front and started a breakaway which brought the pace up a little, but it stayed generally slow for the first couple of laps. The breakaway lasted about 10 miles and at one point they got a 20 to 30 second lead on the peloton. It’s amazing when you watch the Tour de France (or any other big bike race) how the peloton gauges just how far away the break will be allowed to get before they reel them back in. We all sat in cruising along at 20 to 25 mile per hour while the break was out there and no one panicked. With a lap and a half to go, the pace suddenly picked up and we brought back that 30 second lead in less the 2 miles. It was fun to watch and I felt like I was truly “racing like the pros”.

Anyway, the race for the first 20 miles was fairly uneventful; no crashes, everyone took their turns at the front, a break or two got away and then came back to us, and we dropped a couple of guys, etc. With about 2.5 miles to (at the last turnaround) the pace started to pick up and each team was trying to send guys off the front, but most of the attempts were too far from the finish and the pack was all over every move. As we headed up the last hill, with about a mile and a half to go, Andrew and another guy took off and got about 20 or 30 yards on the group. Instantly a few of the guys in the peloton panicked and chased them down. I was sitting in about 10th place watching to see if they got caught and with 1.1 miles to go (and more importantly at the top of the last roller) we caught Andrew. Surprisingly the whole group slowed down and I shot up the right side of the rode and flew past Andrew (who didn’t know I was coming and almost rode me into the gravel on the side of the rode). I was yelling “right side”, “right side” and fortunately Andrew moved enough for me to slide by and I was alone off the front. I heard one guy yelling that a break (me) was going on the right and another guy said “It’s too far!”.

Well, here is what I had ahead of me: one mile of rolling down hill broken down as follows; down 2% for 3/10 of a mile, flat for 3/10 and the down 1% for 4/10 of a mile and then the finish uphill which was just over 100 yards. I knew these distances, because I was measuring the finish each lap (and I confirmed them with my GPS afterwards). Back to the race… As I past Andrew, and the head of the peloton, I put my head down, got as arrow as I could, and quickly hit 34 mph. I held 33 or 34 all the way to the flat part and with ¾ of a mile still to go I was starting to hurt a little, so I backed off to 30 / 31 mph and tried to hold that for as long as I could. (I still haven’t looked back and for all I knew, they were all right behind me and this was all for not.) I hold my speed and make to the final “downhill” and I now I am really having a tough time holding my speed, but the slight downhill helps. I finally look back and I am shocked to see that I have 150 yards on the peloton. At this point, I decide to try to hold 28 mph or higher until I reach the uphill finish section and then take another look.

Quick side note, during the Tour de France, you hear things like “he is turning himself inside out” or you see Jens Voight on the front of a break and he looks like he is suffering, but somehow he is able to continue. The only times I have ever been in that situation is when I am climbing a big hill during a race and I can’t keep up. Today was different though and all I can think about is “if they can do it, so can I”, so, I pushed on.

I get to the bottom of the finish hill and I take a look back and I still have 100 yard lead with 100 yards to go! I’ve got this thing! So, I decide to settle into an easier pedaling rhythm because my legs are getting really tight and as I shift gears I mis-shift somehow and I do a couple of pedal turns where nothing happens, the legs spin with no power to the back wheel. Fortunately, the chain fell back into gear and I stood up and “sprinted” (maybe 18 mph). I look back with 10 yards to go and there is the peloton flying up the hill at 25 to 30 mph. I was hoping to do a little fist pump or something as I crossed the line, but now all I can think about is getting there before they do. Just to be certain I pick up the pace the best I can and lunge for the line. I get the win, but only by about 2 bike lengths. I look back and Andrew and another guy are crossing the line for second and Andrew ended up third by the width of a tire! (It is amazing how quickly a hungry pack can make up 150 yards when the legs are burning!)

It was a great day for CoreTechs Cycling and it was my first win in 17 years! (A few other CoreTechs guys did well, but I will let them tell you about it.)

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you out there.