Justin Hall, Copperopolis 35+ 4/5

I am not big on writing race reports. I have had to do enough of them for that other form of racing I do that perhaps I am race report fatigued…..or perhaps its simply too hard to prioritize them among work, family, and lets not forget training  . I didn’t write one after finishing 10th at Cherry Pie Crit, I didn’t write one after finishing 13th at Land Park – I think mostly because I was disappointed we didn’t win after having 5 dudes leading the last lap. Yet I am compelled to write one after finishing 33rd at Copperopolis. It seems rather counterintuitive that I would be compelled to write something about my worst finishing position this year – so if your asking why – the reason is that I want to express how proud I am of my teammates and what a good thing we have going here on the DBC Masters team! So here goes:

I had a pretty rough week leading up to Copperopolis. Work has been kicking my ass lately and somewhere along the way I picked up a stomach virus. I rode on Wednesday after not being on the bike since Land Park, I intended to ride at least 40 miles at a good clip but 20 miles in I simply couldn’t bear to keep going no matter how bad I wanted to so I cut the ride short to 30mi – I got home and looked at the data 18mph avg @180 watt avg – well off normal. The data doesn’t lie, I felt like crap and it showed. That night I was up basically at midnight in the bathroom for the rest of the night – details not required but suffice it to say it was a less than pleasant evening. More of the same throughout much of the next day, by Friday I was feeling better but had lost ~10 lbs. I played poker Friday night drinking water non-stop to try to hydrate. It probably didn’t even make sense to go to Copperopolis given the week I had but I simply wanted to experience the event and didn’t want to wait another year to do it.

Pat picked me up and we rocked out to the Foo Fighters on the way down. We did a half assed warmup which didn’t bother me too bad knowing road races typically start out a bit on the slower side. In retrospect I should have warmed up more to at least open up the capillaries since I had such a bad training week. We started - I accomplished one of my initial goals which was to be toward the front so that its easier to see all the bumps, holes, etc. and was generally one of the first few wheels from the beginning to beyond the feed zone but not exerting effort just drafting. About a mile into the main climb things got bad. I forgot there were only ~50 riders in my group (by comparison land park was ~75) so when I looked up to see how many people were in front of me I felt like I was toward the back of the pack, but not actually at the back, which of course I was. I wanted to press harder but I was concerned about blowing up so I figured I would stay around 310w and hopefully let the race come back to me – I think this was a mistake? (Those with more experience please comment).

So we get to the top and there are a few stragglers from other teams along with my teammates Fred, Pat Turner, and Lee Millon. I was finding it emotionally difficult to come to terms with being dropped and I really wanted to catch back on so I started to “encourage” those from other teams to work with us. Maybe some of us guys from Davis aren’t great climbers but we sure know how to echelon. The other guys were starting to get on board with our program and we were actually starting to work effectively together. As most of you know this terrain is mostly rollers but you could see the peloton intermittently and we were most certainly gaining on them. I would have to guess that we were about 500-700 yards back and closing fast when the guy in front of me started turning left – I was 3rd wheel head down hammering but I saw the road to the left, sensed his movement, and blindly followed left, as did most behind me. All of a sudden we hear Fred yelling at us – I look up no peloton in sight, turn around Fred never turned; its painfully obvious to me that we turned left prematurely. SHIT!!!! Backtrack, regroup, etc. peloton is now out of sight. At this juncture the wind has left the motivational sails of a few of the non-DBC’ers – perhaps they were being prudent not wanting to burn matches on a lost cause, but we still wanted to try and so we did, in what was ultimately an act of futility.

We hit the last pitch, hit the downhill which was a lot of fun - fat and dumb guys like me can go fast  . Between the loss of motivation, the slow downhillers, the quitters, and whatever other excuses our loose affiliation of guys was down to the core 4 DBC Masters that started the initial chase – me, Pat, Fred, and Lee. Lap 2: To be honest, the climb felt a heck of a lot harder the second time – yes that’s the same hill I was shelled off the back on the first time so I must have REALLY been going slow the second lap.

I really just didn’t have anything left - the flashlight was still at home, the batteries had yet to be purchased and I could name every street in Sufferville. But I really just wanted to finish the freaking race, and as a byproduct of that desire I found out how great it can be to have teammates and people your proud to call friends with you. I was miserable – literally. My teammates noticed I was bonking and offered me goo – no thanks I have my own I was just too stupid to realize I needed to eat it, thanks for noticing and telling me what was going on with my own body (I should be able to recognize myself right?)! I was cramping in my calves to the extent I could barely pedal - my teammates showed me how to get rid of them. There were a couple miles where I couldn’t take pulls due to the cramps, but my teammates carried my weight. I ran out of water and my teammates offered me drinks of theirs. I could go on…….

We crossed the line 4 abreast as a symbol of teamwork, camaraderie, and unity – I would like to find a picture of that but I will remember it for a long time regardless. In looking at the results today I noticed this gesture was lost upon the officials who decided that Lee should be a DQ for centerline, which totally sucks. But I don’t think the DQ diminishes what a great team experience Copperopolis was, and I hope Lee feels the same. In what is seemingly an individual sport I am proud to say that we have a very special team guys. Those who know me know I am not a big rah rah rah kumbaya guy especially after a 33rd, but big thanks to Pat, Lee, and Fred.

Copperopolis was a hard fought battle. I believe I should have risked “blowing up” in order to stay with the peloton but I am honestly not sure. Lots of what I know from racing cars applies to racing bikes, some of it doesn’t – I am still ignorant in many areas, I guess that’s why they have cat5. But, I am learning and improving…..

Thanks for reading,
Justin Hall