Copperopolis Master's 35+ race

Copperopolis is one of my favorite Nor-Cal road races. It's got climbing, but it's not a pure climbers race. It's got rough roads and cross winds, but it's not a race for a pure power rider either. The course basically just beats you down over time and rarely does the strongest rider not win.

We had a strong group of guys with Craig, Jeff, Rob, Mick, Dean and myself. Safeway had the always dangerous Dan Martin and Mike Hernandez and a strong, well drilled team. The first lap was relatively uneventful. The pace was high and riders went out the back in dribs and drabs. On the second lap after a series of attacks and counter attacks I got up the road with Mike Hernandez and two others. Mike's been riding crazy strong this year so I was hoping for some reinforcements. Jeff almost made it across in a small group but they got reabsorbed. We quickly lost one rider and then on the second climb of the second lap (of three laps) we lost the other guy. And I was getting close to the edge myself. Coming by the start area I passed on the message that I really needed "some help up here!"

Starting the final lap Mike put the pressure on and I got gapped through the feed zone. The gap wasn't huge so I kept chasing hoping to either catch back on or at least make it over the climb before the pack so that I could help the other guys bring Mike back. Over the steep section Dan Martin escaped the main pack and caught up to me. I stayed on his wheel for a little while but finally got gapped. He joined up with Mike and the group caught me. We had Jeff, Rob and Mick still in the group so we worked hard together with some of the other teams to bring Mike and Dan back. It didn't go so well. They weren't riding away, but we weren't closing either.

Finally on the last climb we splintered our group down to about eight guys including me, Mike and Jeff. Dan Martin had been dropped by Mike Hernandez and we were able to bring him back after the descent. But the gap was too big and we couldn't catch Mike. I did what I could and brought our group with Jeff to the final kilometer and that was about all I had left. Safeway's Chris Wire won the field sprint for second and Jeff finished fourth. This is AFTER he had to chase back on after minor crashes on each of the first two laps. I rolled in with Dan Martin for 11th.

Afterwards Mick, Rob, Craig and I rode another lap to take advantage of the nice day and watched as Discovery pro rider Levi Leipheimer dropped Andy Jaques-Maynes and Kevin Klein to solo the final lap. Dressed in all black like a bike racing Johnny Cash of all things...