Koppenburg Classic
May 16, 2004
Two races on back-to-back days. This was good training for a stage race. Of course, these stages were pretty short, but, dang, they were hard. This race was 3.5 laps on a 5.5-mile course, half of which was dirt and included the 16% grade Koppenburg Hill, with only two dirt lines on it. I knew everyone would be hammering the start, trying to get to the hill first. That was my plan as well, but when everyone took off so hard, I almost immediately gave it up. It was just too fast for me and I thought I’d just blow up. I tried to work hard and hopefully regroup after the first hill.
Before the start, I pulled up behind Eric Coppock and next to Jason Franze. Eric was my teammate, of course, but Jason was just a friend. Jeff Knutson was in the race as well, but I wouldn’t see much of him, as he went start to the front and stayed there. Kreighton Beiger pulled up beside me just before the start as well. When the gun went off, Kreighton tore towards the front and was the first onto the dirt, only 90 seconds into the race. Eric also bolted to the front, per our plan. These guys have power and can recover from such efforts. I don’t and can’t. Eric did great on the hard, washboarded roads and was in fact, the first rider up the hill. Man, I need to be strong like that. If I could have been in the top group at the start, who knows what would have happened. I need to work on this…
Once we hit the dirt, everyone seemingly passed me. I figured I was quickly back into maybe 60th place. I moved up a bit before the hill, but to 40th at best. Sheri and Derek were on the road and cheering me on. John Black was at the top of the hill and also gave me some encouragement. I chased hard at the top of the hill and got into a chase group, the leaders were up ahead, but moving fast. Once onto highway 170 and the gradual climb on paved road, I moved up a bit. This was more my terrain.
After the next time up the hill, I was motoring down the dirt road when I see Eric up ahead. He got dropped from the lead group and sat up to regroup with me. This worked greatly to my advantage as Eric coached me on where to sit for the best draft along this section with the a strong crosswind. We stayed together with others and worked hard for the next lap. The high-speed turn near Costco proved to be no big deal. The Cat. 4’s seem to slow down quite a bit for this turn and I had no trouble staying with anyone I was riding with. This is a potentially dangerous curve as it is very high speed, tight, and there is significant water dip in the road at the junction.
On the third time up the hill I had dropped most of the riders I was with. On top, I was isolated and in no-man’s land. A rider was 100 meters ahead of me and I tried to catch him, hoping we could work together to stay away from the bunch behind me, but he just got further in front of me. I worked pretty hard here, but didn’t go all out as I knew the riders behind me would catch me. Sure enough, the first rider to catch me, on the pavement now, immediately attacked me and went up the road. Five or six other riders then caught me and I latched on. We caught Mr. Attack on the hill on 170 and stayed bunched down to the turn. Eric did not catch onto this group.
Once we hit the dirt, the attacks came. It was only six minutes to the finish and the bumpy dirt road was an excellent place to get away if you were strong since the draft wasn’t as big of a factor here. Mr. Attack did just that. At the time I was leading the group and I was hurting, so I didn’t chase it down. Two guys behind me did and I latched on. Once the attack was chased down, one of them counterattacked, but he didn’t get far. I was in time trial mode now, at least until I got closer to the hill.
With a minute or so to the bottom of the hill, I took the front again and worked hard, preventing any further attacks. I hit the hill first and powered up it, being cheered on by Sheri, Derek, John, and many others ringing cowbells. I crested the hill first and the finish was only 150 meters away, but Mr. Attack was closing behind me and I was blowing. I looked back and panicked a bit. I shifted up, staying in my small chain ring, but it wasn’t enough. When I shifted to the big chain ring it was too much. I got nipped by a bike length at the tape, finishing in 15th place, 1:23 down off the winner at 48:54. Apparently I was close to a few other riders, as I was given the same time as the 12th place finisher. The winner finished in 47:31 and it consisted of a group of 7 or 8, including Rocky Mounts Jeff Knutson in 7th. Then there were a couple of riders that were stranded in the middle and then the second group came in and I was in this group. Eric finished 21st , 2:27 off the pace and about a minute behind me. I had passed Kreighton on the second time up the hill and never even realized it. He finished 28th and 3:50 back. Jason finished 41st and 6:18 back.
Full results can be seen at: http://www.americancycling.org/results/2004/may/kop/results-page.htm.
The full race was about 19 miles, if the laps were 5.5 miles each, as advertised. My computer said the laps were 5.1 miles. If the latter I averaged 22 mph. If the former, then it was even faster. The race had 940 feet of total climbing. My max speed was just over 40 mph on lap two. My slowest speed was 7 mph on the Koppenburg Hill. My best lap in practice, solo, was at 14:48. Today my first lap (starting and stopping the laps at the top of the hill) was 14:00 (165 bpm average heart rate for every lap!); the second lap was 14:15; and the last lap was 13:54. My heart rate maxed out at 175 at the finish of the race. The lowest it ever got was 152 bpm on the descent on highway 170.
Photos and video should be coming soon… John Black has photos at: www.cs.colorado.edu/~jrblack/koppenburg04. Thanks, Johnny!
