The Copper Town Circuit Race Report

This past Sunday (February 17th) I raced two races on the same day. I wasn't going to race Copper Town since I've been racing pretty much every weekend in February and I don't want to burn out, but this race had a Women's 3 only field and a Women's P/1/2/3. I don't get much of a chance to race twice... I've only been able to do it once before at the Reno collegiate race because they had a regular category and a collegiate category at the crit. So, I decided to race both races on Sunday.

Photo credit to Cycle Masters of Turlock

The first race, the Women's 3, was 60 minutes long. The course is pretty flat. You start to feel the rollers after a while but they're the kind of rollers that a person like me (a big ass), can power up in the big ring. I was racing my Grammo 580s for the first time, too, so that was pretty exciting. The field had a bunch of girls I've either raced with in the 4s or I have raced with in collegiate. I know how awesome the collegiate girls are and how strong they are, so I knew it would be a fairly hard race to place in. 

We had 11 girls total in the W3 race. C'mon, ladies! A race finally gives us our own field and we don't support it. Frustrating. 

Anyway, the race really wasn't that exciting. It was all smooth, some attacks, which I thought I was going to die in. After a couple of laps, though, I could tell who would charge and when the attacks were going to come. I'm getting better at this whole reading the race thing. I decided to do an attack, which I completely regretted but I didn't get dropped, so... go me... or something. 

Okay, so the same thing happened over and over in the circuit race. Attack, respond, attack, respond. No one broke away in this race. The section through town was fun. The wind kept picking up throughout the race, too. 

Photo credit to Cycle Masters of Turlock

On the last lap, we all started to get into position after the U-turn. This time, no attacks happened after the turn, which is one of the places that were pretty obvious attack points. We all just settled. The 2km point come, no one attacked, we really just settled in the group. 1km... attack. I got on the right side of the pack and answered the attack at about 300 meters. 200 meters and UC Davis, Team TIBCO II, Chico Corsa Cycling Club, Reno Wheelmen, and I duked it out. Team TIBCO II ran out of fumes, and UC Davis had a strong sprint. I rolled in second place.

I was socked. I couldn't believe I had enough of a sprint to out-sprint some seriously strong riders in that field, but I was able to do it! My coach and I haven't been working on my sprint since I'm still in a building phase. Hopefully this means that my sprint has improved a bit!

I won a t-shirt and $30 off for the Top Sport Stage Race in April... which I think I want to do. Now to find a TT bike...

Oh, by the way, I totally texted my coach about my podium. I was also hopping up and down like a little kid. Boyfriend found this amusing... I'm sure every one around us did as well. 

My legs were shot after that race, but I still had the Women's P/1/2/3 race to do, which was 90 minutes long. I hung out with Boyfriend and a bunch of other cyclists out there, goofed off, and got ready for the second race. 

There were some strong riders in the field. I knew I wasn't going to last very long in that race since my legs were completely shot and I haven't had much experience in racing a second race on the same day, but I started. I didn't attack, I didn't try to pull any moves, I didn't do anything. I was basically this:

I lasted a third of the race with the leaders, because when a Brazilian CAT 1 rider attacked, I pretty much just went... "meh" and didn't even attempt to respond. I got dropped with a couple of other CAT 3s and we rode the rest of the race together. So, I got my ass handed to me. My right calf threatened to cramp, I was tired, and sleepy... and sleepy. I was happy the race was over when it was over. My left  foot hurt so much, as if it had a stress fracture on it, that I had to sit in the car for a while before I could even think about moving it. Actually, I sat in the trunk but whatever. It's the second time that that has happened... I wonder what's up. 

No, really. When she attacked, I was pretty much like this guy:

I could have quit the race. I thought about it. Did finishing second to last in the WP/1/2/3 race make me physically stronger? Nope. Did it make me mentally stronger? Hell yes. It's a mind game. I know I can fight through the pain. It's doable. I went over a hurdle. 

The race was good to me. Now I know that I'm not a total failure in the 3s. Hopefully I'll do well in Snelling this Saturday, another Women's 3 race!

Thanks to everyone who congratulated me on my podium and on my hard work. It means a lot to me and it gets me even more stoked for races. You guys definitely inspire me to become a better athlete. Thank you, thank you, thank you!