Sunday, May 13, 2012

Koppenburg Circuit Race

Dean here, a few weeks back, on April 28 I raced the Koppenburg Circuit Race.  The course is a 6 mile loop half of which is dirt.  There is a very steep hill in the middle of the course that goes to 22% grade for about 200m, the koppenburg.  The section after the hill is a fast dirt straightaway that has a very strong blowing crosswind.

In the pro race we did 8 laps.  Some really fast riders were there including Lachlan Morton of Garmin, Lawson and other Livestrong riders and a few Cal Giant riders.  The pace was fast from the start of the race and I was doubting if I could even stay with the group.  Riders were getting dropped every single lap, especially the first half of the race.  The race started to settle down a little bit and I got into more of a rhythm.  I got into a breakaway going in to the dirt section, which is mostly uphill, with 2 laps to go.  We were caught by a chase group.  The next lap we were in the breakaway again with just four of us up the road.  We had a 25 second gap going into the dirt section after the hill.  On the road leading into the final turn two riders, one of which is Jesse Goodrich who is racing with the U23 National Team in Europe right now, attacked me and the other rider I was with didn't follow and I couldn't go with them.  He later attacked me after the hill even though he wouldn't pull through to chase.  I ended up in 4th but I was still very satisfied because that matches my best P12 result.

My Garmin file: http://app.strava.com/rides/7524757

Video of the Pro Race, skip to the last third for action of me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEE5M8hUp6U

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