Crackandpopulis- Women 1/2 report

by Monica

Or as the ncnca calls it Copperopolis.

I raced this for the first time last year and it kicked my #^*! This year wasn’t any different. Once again, the race did me in. I don’t know if it was the stressful work week going into the race, the lousy warm up, complicated with messing around with my barrel adjuster (I was having shifting issues), not enough food, bad legs or hey, maybe all of this. Probably the latter, anyway here’s my report.

We had 30 or so on the starting line. Teams with multiple riders were McGuire, Touchstone and the newly formed Proman/Whole Athlete. There were smatterings of the usual suspects, Cynthia Momsen & Jane Despas to name a few.

The first time up the climb the group narrowed to about 20. At the top, as we neared the lake the attacks began. Touchstone went first, followed by Mcguire, Touchstone, Mcguire, Touchstone….you get the picture. This continued into that vicious little climb before the descent. There was a lot of fighting to get near the front for the descent as everyone wanted to choose the line down that bumpy, twisty, narrow road. I found myself sitting about 7th wheel going down, which worked out all right.

I hoped to eat, drink and recover a bit as we came near the starting line but this never happened. The attacks started all over again. No time to really grab a Gu or drink much. I made the fatal mistake of not taking any feed while passing thru the feedzone. We hit the climb the second time & the true climbers put the hurt on. The group started scattering. I found myself falling back, fighting my best to get back on. We were breaking apart into groups of 4 or 6 as we got closer & closer to the top. Cynthia Momsen & I were the last to fall off but as we were close to cresting the summit, Cindy got back on and I didn’t. Damn! I was toast. My head kept telling me – they’re only 20m in front of you – c’mon get up there! I did the whole mental thing of trying to catch on but my legs just couldn’t go.

So, I suffered like a pig! All alone for the remainder of the race. I tried to drink but I didn’t have hardly any fluid. I tried to eat, munched on a Clif bar, swallowed some Gu but by this time it was too late. I had a headache and I was in trouble. Somehow I convinced myself that I wasn’t going to quit so I continued this torture to the finish line. At one point I saw a Mcguire rider up ahead who’d fallen off the group but other than that I never saw any other chicks, in front or behind me.

I got back to my car, ate a PB & J, drank my Endurox and headed home ASAP. I called David to talk to me as I wasn’t sure I’d make it. I was in bad shape. Its taken me until afternoon today to feel like I recovered. Disappointed, hell yes! I was hoping for a little better time this year but……my threshold of pain’s reached a whole new level. In the end, I think I finished about 18th or maybe last, or maybe both, a lot of people DNF this race.

Can’t wait for Wente!

Photo is from Abbiorca.com , visit their site for some great photos of Copperopolis.

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