Copperopolis Road Race

Copperopolis Road Race is probably my favorite race in all of Northern California. Last year, I won it in the junior 15-16 field but this year, I decided to compete in the Elite 3's race with Marcus Smith and Andrew Lanier. There were 47 people entered in the race and on the first climb, people were already getting dropped. I made sure I was always near the front to stay out of trouble on the narrow roads. On the second lap of the race, four guys broke away from the field. Going up the big climb on the third lap, I attacked and tried to bridge up to the break on my own. I was about 10 seconds away from the break but then I turned into a strong crosswind section and the gap increased. A group of about 12 people swept me up. Once I was reeled back in, nobody wanted to work together to catch the break. Two guys got dropped from the break and the group I was in swallowed them up and spit them back out. On the final lap, I probably attacked four or five times to chase on my own but the group would work together to bring me back and then stop working once I was caught. We never caught the break and I ended up finishing 5th.