Copper Town Circuit Race 45+ 1/2/3
Feb 15th 2015
Jerome Nadel, Andrew Adelman (words by AA)
It
is a strange thing this bike racing. It gets into your blood and you become
hooked. That or it doesn't. You try it never to return to it. I am of the later
category, not the former. I have a shaking addiction. I go cold turkey each
September and think how great it is not to get up early on a weekend for a 3+
hour drive, no going near caves that contain pain, and even seeing dirt flow
beneath my wheels once in awhile. It is inevitable though. The longing for pain
and suffering returns. The pathetic need to prove myself to guys I barley would
recognize on the street. It comes back in a flood of anticipation and
excitement each February.
So
begins the 2015 season. I tied off and heated the spoon to ease my addiction
with a short shot of Copper Town Circuit race. Two of them to be exact this
past Sunday. Below is what transpired. As it is with all my s! illy race
reports, waste time at your own discretion.
If
you were to peak inside my noggin you would see rusty gears clicking that
believe for some unfounded reason that I have boundless strength and the
ability to ride with anyone. I think as bikers we all have this fantasy to a
degree and need this thinking to protect ourselves when the pain comes, and it
will come. As the gears started to click in the first 35+ race, I returned to
my cat 4 roots and chased everything that moved. I burned a full match book
making sure I did not miss "the move" of the day. Sure enough, after
chasing down one move I was sure was it, the real move went and I was left
gasping for air and sitting with the rest of those that now know we were racing
for scraps. As I rolled in with the rest of the scrap feeders, anger welled
inside and the self talk was not pretty.
Angry is not a great way to start a race. If you start
angry, you sometimes do things you shouldn't. This race was a 7.5 lap race
(each lap was just over 5 miles). I wanted to make people hurt. I wanted to
feel pain. At the start of lap two, when I should be patient, I attacked. I had
a gap. The field chased and caught me. When they caught my rear wheel, I sat up
and the guys behind fanned out and sat up too. I attacked again. I had a gap
again. I get rolling. I had a bigger gap. Hmm. I started doing math. Math was
never my strong suit, but I did know I had about 30 miles to go; alone; on an
out and back course where the field could see me each turnaround to gage how
far I was. Probably not the best move.
So,
sit up and come back to the pack and draft, or keep rolling by myself into the
wind? Yep, I keep rolling. I see one guy trying to bridge. Yes! He makes it
across. We don’t say a word to each other but we start rotating well. He is
taking nice, stron! g pulls. I don’t know who it is (turns out his name is Joe
Starron-new guy to Mark Foster's new team-used to race for Folsom), but he is
pretty strong. We open a gap on the field. We keep this up for 15 miles, at
which point he turns to me and says his first words; "this the
plan?". "It is now" I respond and we keep hammering ourselves
with about a 40 second gap.
Side
note here. We were on course the same time as the Pro/1/2 field. We could see
them each lap as they were heading the other direction. It was inspiring to see
the CoreTechs kit in the break and then chasing at the front each time I went
by. I had to make them proud and did not want to give in, in part due to seeing
them fight so hard. They ended up getting the win in the P/1/2 field!
Back
to my race; At mile 30 (about 7.5 to go) the pack closed me a! nd my break
companion down to 20 seconds. At that point, three others joined us. It was
awesome to now have more of a respite and not have to pull at the front so
often. My legs at this point were pretty Jello like. The problem though was
that none of the new guys to the break were from the two strong teams in our
race (Hammer and Specialized). Sure enough, we hit the last lap and at the
turnaround, we see the National Champion in the TT (Craig Roemer from
Specialized) at the front of a select group of six or so. I also see Jerome in
that group, which means our teamwork is flawless, he is right where he should
be. Our break fights to pick up the pace.
We
make the final 180 turn and as we head back to the finish (about 2.5 miles to
go) we see the chase group is about 15 seconds behind and moving fast. Our group
falters as two of the guys don’t pull through. Then we try and rotate again and
we stay about 10 seconds ahead. Again two of our group sits on. 1.5 k to go. My
o! riginal break companion attacks. To his credit, he gave whatever he had
left. I jump after him and it is just us two for a short distance. Like old
times. 1k to go. I am close to being fully out of gas. We are 600 meters from
the line, and we are caught. Like a blur though, Jerome is there and he is
flying to the finish. He has a large gap and easily takes the win! I give
whatever my legs have left not to get swamped by the new guys and hold on for
an exhausted 4th place.
So,
in the end, it worked out darn well. Would have been much better had I been
able to fend off the third place guy to put two of us on the podium, but
getting the team win and two of us in the top five was rewarding and abated my
original anger issues. Great win Jerome, congratulations!
Now
onto Snelling.
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