Originally Posted by furiousferret

Copperopolis Road Race

My plan was tear apart the field because really I thought that was the only chance I had. The hill was probably too small for me to do that, and 2 of us worked hard but it only got down to 6 (out of 12). 4 of them were on 2 teams and whenever I finished a pull they would attack, so I just sat in the back and let them do the work. I was feeling okay but when I went down the descent I took some bumps really hard and I would have swore I blacked out for a split second (its hard to describe how bumpy this descent was, definitely the worst I've been on in asphalt). After that I was done, and got dropped. I lost 2 minutes, almost latched back on the hill but it took too much and I was done. I'm frustrated that my riding ability keeps putting me out of races, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. at least 3 guys (including one guy that I stopped for on the second lap) were medevac'ed out from going down on that descent.

I think you had to be out of the saddle (I wasn't) and a bit back to do descend there. Some racers had zero issues on it and others just couldn't do it. If I ever do the race again I'll have to work on that, but being a 15 hour roundtrip its debatable if I'll ever do it again.

That's probably the last race (as a competitor) I'll do this year, we have open crits, but since it all ages and cats its more just a donation and practice. Hopefully some more stuff gets organized with hills.