Copperopolis Road Race Report

Mini-victory at Copperopolis RR yesterday: I didn't cramp and I'm tired but not wasted today, after lots of sleep. It was a very hard race: the 3 laps (65mi / 3h 15m) included 5500ft of climbing, with one main 10-min climb per lap. Set several personal power records. No actual victory tho: 23rd of 79. Missed selection at top of 2nd lap climb, on the 15% pitch. Settled for 2nd out of the 1st chase group of 9, with fun tactics @ finish.

Attrition rate: 80 to 40 on 1st climb by 5mi in. Then selection to 25, 21 by finish. chase grp up to 15, 9 on last lap flats. I got 2nd of 9.

Power numbers confirm it was a hard day. Biggest jumps over PBs: 10min avg: 342W, 2hr norm: 286W, 3hr norm: 276W. work: 2773kj / 296TSS. This was one of the first rides with a new PowerTap wheel (a heavy-duty training wheel, replacing PT carbon race wheel lost in theft), so in the back of my mind I'm wondering if it's calibrated/zeroed, but generally the RPE matched the power numbers (for both Saturday and Sunday).

I have to say that the first lap's climb was nearly as hard as the second lap's, but I was fresher and made the first selection. I grinned and bore it at the redline at the steep pitch, losing some position there, but grabbing on the back. The 2nd lap wasn't catastrophically weaker, but there were fewer guys to drift back through and while I kept digging to close the small gap, the power was still so high after the steep pitch that I couldn't quite grab the 2 wheels that came by that just made it back on (including Dan). I did grab onto a couple chasers but let them go since the pace was too hot. They didn't make it back by the top, and the leaders kept drilling it, so even strong chasing didn't make up time on the rollers and flats.

It felt like I got gapped on the steep section (the torque numbers reflect how my legs felt more than the power numbers), but where I got dropped was on the section after, when I apparently still needed to be doing 375W rather than 350W. Big numbers for me to reach for at the top of a 10 minute climb.

Wish I'd made it with the leaders, but the rest of the race was more fun because I didn't blow up chasing. Our group rolled up more than a handful of guys who'd blown up chasing or were spit out the back of the lead group, either on the rollers or in the wind.

The third lap was fun. I basically set the pace up the main climb, going at threshold to make it just hard enough to keep the group contained. A couple guys surged, but the steady pace rolled them up. Half the guys popped off. Then we had 9 who worked pretty nicely on the flats, smoothly rotating until the final climb was in sight.

I picked up the pace on the last climb too, got away just by setting threshold pace, but got hit with some wind gusts and let a couple guys catch me, then used their wheels until we were sheltered. It was a handful together at the top, then a series of small surges. Then two teammates did one-two. One was small, but the two was pretty explosive, and I responded big but didn't quite close. Thought the rest would come on the downhill, but he opened it up.

Behind him, it was three of us playing tactics, the teammate, who bombed down the hill, and a guy who just sat in. I pushed the 53x11 whenever I could and followed the teammate the rest of the time, since he wasn't obviously blocking for his guy up the road. When it flattened out, I surged and nearly closed with the guy off the front, the guy sitting in countered, but I got him in the last 200m. Interesting finish made it fun.


Power graphs for 3 main climbs and the finish: