Copperopolis: "The pavement's not *that* bad"
On the eve of Wente, I've got a feeling that I should finally get around to uploading this....
Copperopolis - E4 - "The Pavement's Really Not So Bad"
I set my alarm the night before; 3:50 and 3:55 (just in case!). In bed at 9:30, asleep by 10. I sleep through the "night" - a not mean feat given my usually noisy neighborhood. (Oh, the Tenderloin…)
3:45 - I wake up to my phone ringing. It's some Middle Eastern guy yelling about how he's the milkman and I owe him money for his fucking milk! I groggily explain to him that a) I don't have a milkman and b) I live in san francisco, despite my NYC telephone number. So c) please chill the fuck down. I would have been a lot angrier, but he just gave me another few minutes to my morning.
3:55 - Coffee water boiled. Call Zach to make sure he's moving in this direction. Breakfast: A couple slices of Acme raisin cranberry walnut bread w/ homemade pistachio butter. Didn't want go through the effort/time for my usual oatmeal.
4:15 - Zach arrives; we go pick up Joe, and we're on the road exactly as planned. Bridge at 4:45. Fuck me, early. Almost as early as when we left for Merco…
6:30 - drive up the climb. Revel in the perfectly paved section. Recognize that it's gonna hurt. Laugh at the Porsche that has a bike rack helping set up the feed tent.
6:50 - Pull into the lot. Directed to park on a bunch of beaten down grass. Going to make the rollers a pain… Reg, warm up, etc.
8:10 - Line up, get told off by one of the officials for having folded the border of my number. Why the hell can't everybody have small numbers like the did at Chico? Seriously. A normal Velopromo sized number is impossible to fit on a size-small jersey and maintain full pocket-access… More or less direct quote: "that's a DQ'able offense you've got there, I'd tell you to fix it now, but you've got too damn many pins in it. I'll let you off, but next time don't do it. If anybody else says anything to you, tell them Bobby P let you off the hook."
8:15 - Whistle blows, and we're off. Pace is reasonable right off the line - it appears that these guys are here to race! (Quite different from my experience off the line at Chico last weekend, which was positively leisurely for the first 15km). Feedzone; hear Taleo talking about attacking through it on the second lap. Relay information to Joe and Zach.
And we're climbing. Roaring Mouse sets the pace up the hill on the first lap; it's not too bad - but it's very clear that the next lap will be worse, and oh god I don't want to think about the third time up…it may be 3.4% average from the bottom to the top, but it has some easily > 10% sections towards the top, which were brutal.
Crest with the group; settle into a spot near the front. Zach, John Becker (Mike's Bikes, apparently riding for Daniel Velasco) and I are trading pulls, keeping things reasonable. Then Becker's gone - punctured his tubie. (turns out Velasco hurt his knee recently; wasn't on top form, and gave Becker his wheel to continue). Becker eventually catches back on, only to mechanical as he tries to shift into his newly acquired 28 while still in the 58 and the drivetrain locks up. Note: be careful when riding somebody else's wheel! Also, cross chaining…still not a great practice on a perfectly tuned drivetrain!
I fall off the pace at the front to go back and fetch Joe up to the front, so the three of us can be together on the descent. I felt very pro being a good domestique - but it wasn't really needed given the pace. Nobody really wanted to work.
The (not-so-) little kicker before the descent came up; and we three were riding up it together. A couple Mouse guys in front of me look like they want to have some fun on the descent. They blow down the first bit, and I carry a bit more speed through the first little roller; slingshotting around them and let my inner Jon Stevens roar. Brakes? Hah. Weight way back, light on the pedals; hardly holding the bars, letting my front wheel do it's thing (within a guided limit) over the spectacularly bad pavement. Pedal pedal pedal. Heart still pounding from the climb - this is no time to rest! There are hills to zoom down! Per Strava, guy who went down it 15 seconds faster than me was pushing 300watts the whole way…measured with a power meter.
I (finally) get caught on the rise to the finish (wouldn't be a Velopromo race without an uphill sprint). As a float back through the pack, several guys say "holy shit dude, that was spectacular" and similar. I feel good. I know I've burned a match…or three, but if I can push the pace and scare people (w/o endangering them) at any point in the race, I might as well do it where I'm capable. A quick conference with Joe and Zach shows their agreement. Zach makes an interesting point: if the pack is still together (and if I make it over the last climb…) I could win this thing. Previously stated plan updates: if the pack is together on the plateau on the third lap, I go ballistic on the descent. It's been shown that nobody can hold my wheel, and maybe, just maybe, I can get enough of a gap to hold through the slight bumps and to the finish.
Lap 2: Dropped on the climb, though not too far from the top. Maybe 6 minutes on my own before I'm back with the pack - dropping several guys who are clearly completely locked up on the way. Take it easy; scarf a clif bar, some shot blox, drink up. Rest. Take this descent easy. Though it's easier on the legs, it's a lot more stressful having to worry about the competency of guys around me trying to make up a place or two.
Lap 3: Dropped like crazy on the climb. Started to feel cramps coming on the outside tendon of my right knee, and up through the hamstring. Chapeau to Zach for falling back and giving me hell for not giving it 110%. We crest, and try to haul ass back to the field, but it becomes more and more apparent that that's just not going to happen. It's become a brutal training ride - mental and physical. Half way through the flats, the cramp that was developing turns real - it feels like my leg shortened by a full 5cm. We try and get the guys we pass to work with us, but they're just as gassed as we are. Well, a bit more gassed; we're passing them.
Crest the hill, and I repeat my performance on the descent - better on the true descent, actually, but not quite as good on the couple rollers after it to the finish. Might as well enjoy myself, and get some more skills-training in!
Cross the line, don't bother to check place. Probably 40th or something. (Actually - 17th. Shows exactly how blown up the field gets in this race.)
Get home, upload to Strava, and find out that I got KOM on the descent on the first time, by 1second, over a Marc-Pro-Strava rider, earlier today. Ecstatic. Write this report, and then Phipps tweets at me that he's just uploaded, and he stole it from me - by 7 very significant seconds. (Average speed of 54.2km/h, to my 53.3…). Check back on Strava a bit later, and Justin Rossi has both Phipps and myself beaten by 9 and 16 seconds, respectively.
1) This is not a pure-climber's race.
2) Racing with a team is fun. Having a plan, executing it, and modifying it on the fly as circumstances change (realize I can drop the field on the descent, and having Velasco and Becker, our two main marks, fall out of the race).
3) Negative racing still sucks - talking to Joe afterwards, he attacked on the climb on lap 3, and nobody bridged up. I know there were climbers who could have bridge up to him, and then worked together in a break, but I'll let him tell that story. Generally people just sitting up on the plateau and not wanting to work.
4) Being recognized for something you're good feels awesome. I can't wait for the next race where I can drill it on a descent. Oh wait! Next weekend, and the weekend afterwards!
5) The pavement really wasn't nearly as bad as everybody made it out to be. Though Jacob tells me the top section was resurfaced somewhat recently, so there was more shitty pavement in previous years. Still though, the pavement here is bad and uncomfortable, but it's not dangerous. Yes, run reasonably new tires - old ones are far more likely to puncture. Drop a bit of pressure for comfort, but nothing extreme. The bad section at Madera was far worse in terms of base-level quality, and on top of it, it had many more sizable, wheel-taco-ing potholes). This was just uncomfortable. But this is bike racing. Who expected it to be comfortable?!
Speed: 31.4 / 72.6 km/h (max speed was on the descent on the third lap).
Speed on the descent the first time (avg): 53.3km/h, in 6min40
Power (whole race, per strava, usual warnings): 193W
Heartrate: 172/205bpm avg/max
http://app.strava.com/rides/464601
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