Race Report: Copperopolis Road Race - Men’s E4
Race: Copperopolis Road Race - Men’s Elite 4
Date: April 8th, 2023
AVRT racers: Logan Allen
Top Result: Logan Allen 8/16
Course: 3 counter-clockwise laps of a 21 mile, 1800 ft elevation circuit featuring iconically bad pave and potholes at times spanning the entire width of the road. The elevation is frontloaded into the first 6 miles of the course, with rollers leading up to a 2 mile climb at 5%. After the hill is a 9 mile plateau cutting through now flush, green pastures (courtesy of all the rain this year) and then a bone-jarring, bike-mangling 5 mile descent before a 0.6 mile drag at 3% up to the finish. This years temps ranged from the low 50s at start to low 60s at the finish. Wind was about 9mph from the south. Course map and elevation profile can be seen below.
Course map (CCW starting at the most western point)
Elevation profile
Nutrition: Fueled with maltodextrin mix in my bottles. 2.5 bottles at 90g carbs each, 1.5 sleeves clif bloks. Teammate Drew in the feed zone proved very helpful with the third bottle of mix hand-up.
Race Report: I treated this as my first “A” race of the season with a week of tapering preceding and a practice recon lap the previous day. This would be my 3rd attempt at Copperopolis and I wanted the win sorely.
The race started off hot, with a Mikes Bikes rider pacing the climb. We pass up the masters 1,2,3 group, who had started 5 minutes before us. The pacing proved fast enough through the first climb to whittle the peloton down to 9 riders. This group stayed together until the descent on the first lap where large gaps grew due to differences in descending prowess.
Having rode the course the day before I knew what to expect and put 30 seconds on the field. After assessing my fatigue level, I decided to wait up for riders to catch me. A group of 4 of us paced together to the start of the climb on the second lap. The pace up the second climb proved to be too fast for me and I had committed too much to hanging on so I lost a few positions up the hill as I tried to recover enough to be competitive on the flats.
Now in 7th place, I ride solo until the Masters 1,2,3 catches me at the very east end of the course, with two riders in my category tailing them. I group with the two E4 riders and we push ahead of the masters. The Mikes Bikes rider who led out the first climb has mechanical issues and we end up adding him to our group before the descent. We stay together until the base of the 3rd climb. Mikes Bikes and an unattached rider pace faster than I want to up the hill and I settle in to ride the remainder of the race solo. They hold their lead and I ride in for 8th place.
Overall I felt very strong in comparison to previous years. My nutrition felt good, my new team kit and tire set-up felt fast, my form was ideal. Unfortunately for me, a strong set of riders showed out this year, and even though I took 35 minutes off of my time from last years E4 race, set some power records and PR’d every Strava segment, I managed to place the same. Excited for next years race!