Koppenberg Road Race

Looks like it's been a while since I've posted anything.  Sorry about that.  It seems like my evenings just seem to be so busy lately, and truthfully, there's not a whole lot to say.  Typically, I was writing a post nearly every day, including what I ate that day, and what types of workouts I was doing.  This was an effort to track my activity and weight loss, so I could easily see how food, exercise and weight loss all affected each other.  But while that might be interesting for me, I seriously doubt it's very interesting for anyone else.

I had also been posting ALL my exercise, regardless of what it was.  Some of my workouts might be pretty interesting, but I don't think anyone really wants to see a map of my daily bike-commute to work, over and over again.

I would like to keep posting to this blog, but probably only when I'm doing something kind of interesting.  If I just ride my bike to work, and eat a salad for dinner, I don't think I'll be posting that.  But if I participate in some kind of race or other event, or do some kind of other cool workout, I'll definitely post that.  So, I won't be posting as often, but when I do write something, maybe it will be somewhat interesting.

My last bike race was the Weld County Road Race back on April 19.  I was supposed to race in the Deer Trail Road Race the following weekend, but it was canceled due to poor weather.  That's too bad, because I was really looking forward to that one.

This just gave me more time to plan for the Koppenberg Road Race on May 4.  This popular Colorado spring bike race takes its name from a popular climb in Belgium, on the route of the Tour of Flanders.  While the original Koppenberg features nasty cobblestones on a climb that reaches a 22% grade at one point, its Colorado namesake is a 5-mile loop consisting of a mix of pavement and hard-packed dirt.  Some of the dirt is relatively smooth, with some areas containing numerous potholes and some mild washboard.  But the real key to this race is the infamous Koppenberg climb, a 200-meter long nasty dirt climb reaching grades of 17 percent.  The climb typically includes deep ruts from trucks driving through the mud, making the climb fairly tricky, and requiring you to navigate a good line.

Some nasty terrain on the Koppenberg climb.

I actually rode part of this course accidentally while on a weekend ride last year.  I was out for a nice Sunday ride, and came across this race.  There really wasn't another way around, so we just joined in with the racers for a couple miles, giving me my first taste of this course and the tiniest bit of a taste of bike racing in general.

Understanding this course is pretty key to doing well.  With many of the categories, including my Cat 5 group, racing three laps, it only ends up being about a 16-mile race, meaning this isn't really a test of endurance as much as it is about speed and bike handling.  In a big pack of riders, you can't see very far ahead, if you're not at the front of the pack.  And if you want to conserve your energy, you don't really want to be at the front.  But without being able to see ahead of you, you can subject yourself you a really bumpy ride if you aren't familiar with the course.

Typical dirt road on this course.  Hard pack, with random potholes.

Because of that, I wanted to do some scouting to make sure I understood all the nuances of the route.  Last Saturday, I went for an early-morning recon ride before my son's football game.  I rode three laps of the course, followed by a climb of the nearby Wall route, just to give the legs a little workout.  With this ride, I got a pretty good understanding of which sections were smooth, which were covered in potholes, where the best lines were (I had the best luck riding on the far right side of the road most of the time), and where there might be potential for flat tires.  I also got a really good feel for the big climb.  In my case, I was happiest taking the center line.  I also found that I had the most control of my bike by keeping my butt in the saddle the whole climb, rather than standing.  Although standing looks cool in the post-race photos,  I found that this tends to shift my weight toward the front wheel, leaving my back tire slipping and sliding in the dirt.  Once the back tire starts slipping, you just lose all your momentum, and you'll often just topple over sideways.  I've seen some crazy video of this course online, with people falling all over the place.

And once the guy in front of you falls on the climb, you might as well just hop off the bike and walk, because with all the deep ruts, you can't really go around them.  Ideally, it seems like the best place to be on that climb would be in the very front of the group, so you had less of a chance of being held up by someone going too slow or falling over.  But you can't always control that sort of thing during a race.

Looking down the hill.  This hill is crowded with spectators and photographers on race day.

I spent the previous week riding my bike to work almost every day, keeping the legs working.  I also cranked out a couple 20-mile rides during lunch, too.  I wanted to get in one more practice ride of the course, so I drove to work on Friday, bringing my bike with me.  I left work a little early that day and headed back out to the course.  I was hoping to see some teammates out there, but it sounds like they showed up about the time I was leaving.  I did another three laps, and a couple climbs up The Wall.

Saturday was a rest day, so my legs would be fresh for Sunday.  I relaxed and enjoyed some nice weather at my son's football game.  Go Lobos!

I managed to convince my family to get up early to come watch me race on Sunday.  But not THAT early.  I was up at 5am, eating breakfast and getting the last of my things ready to go, and out the door at 6am.  They came out in time to be there a little before my 8am race start.  Before the race, I opted to skip my usual trainer-in-the-parking-lot routine, and took one final recon lap with teammate Josh King, who would be racing in the SM5 <40 category.  I was a little worried about getting a flat tire during a practice lap, but it all worked out ok.

The organizers got everyone lined up shortly before 8am.  The Cat 5 Men under 40 group was going first, followed by my group, Senior Men over 40, 15 seconds later.  And then, we were off!  I'm happy to say that after 7 practice laps on this course, there really wasn't anything unexpected.  Of course, racing in the middle of a pack is quite a bit different than cruising around by yourself.  I think my practice really paid off.  I had a pretty good feel for where the smoothest lines were, even though I really couldn't see the road ahead.  And I plowed my way up the hill on each lap without much of an issue.

On the first lap, we must have dropped a bunch of people on the hill, because once we hit the paved road again, I was in the front with a group of only 8 riders.  That group of 8 essentially stayed together for the rest of the race.  And I think I learned my lesson from the Weld County race, and I stayed off the front of the pack for pretty much the entire time.  I was generally hanging around at the back of the group, letting them do all the work.  It wasn't really an organized paceline or anything, just a small pack with me at the back.

On the last lap, everything was basically status quo until the climb.  At that point, most of the guys took the left line, and I stuck to my usual center route, with a couple people in front of me.  I was pretty sure someone would make a move on this hill, and I didn't want to miss it.  The people on the left were moving pretty good, but it was crowded.  In the middle, the guys in front of me were going kind of slow, which was slowing me down in the process.  Worried I was going to get left behind, I bounced over to the right side, where I hadn't don't any of my practice laps, and stepped on the gas.  I passed the guys that had been in front of me, but was slipping and sliding a bit.  This path had a bit of a cross-slope to it, and it was a little squirrelly.  But I made it up quickly, and without falling, and managed to stay right with a group from the left side who were just starting the break away.

Near the top of the climb.

I stayed with that group as we started to head back downhill, getting ourselves back onto the pavement.  At the second-to-last turn of the race, I pushed forward, and was first through the turn.  I was thinking I was in a pretty good position, then remembered Weld County, where I was also first through the penultimate turn and then ran out of gas, so I eased up a bit.  We were coming up to a slight uphill grade, and I figured everyone would slow down and regroup, so there wasn't really a point to killing myself right then.  As I suspected, the group all came back together, and then a few guys started to push the pace.  One guy jumped off the front, and there was a frantic effort to follow him.  We crested that little hill, and then had a nice long downhill.  I pushed as hard as I could on this section, getting myself into second position, but still a few seconds off the leader.  The final turn is a little tricky, with a little crack in the pavement that bumps you a little, but I took that turn as fast as I could. I was still in second position with a few hundred meters to go.  At that point, I had given up trying to catch the leader.  I just wanted to hang onto my position.

Looking back, I'm not sure why I never got out of saddle.  I was pushing as hard as I could, but I just never stood up for that final sprint to the line.  I think maybe I just haven't practiced it enough.  We did do a little sprint practice at a team clinic, but I think that might have been the only time I've worked on that.  Hands in the drops, butt in the air, and swaying the bike back and forth.  I remember that it felt really unnatural.  Whatever the reason, I didn't have a good sprint, and it cost me second place.  As I sat in my saddle, pushing my legs as hard as I could, I felt, then saw, another guy passing me on the right.  And there was nothing else I could do.  I didn't want to lose a podium finish, so I pushed as hard as I could, hoping no one else snuck past me.  And they didn't.  I managed to hang on to third place for my first podium finish ever!

It was pretty cool, and truthfully a little bit awkward, so stand up on the podium and wave.  There were a few people gathered around, but not really.  So I was just smiling and raising my award for my wife to take a picture.  A little different than how it looks when watching the pros on TV.  But regardless, it was my first time getting my picture taken on a podium, and I got a cool little plaque (and a bottle of vanilla Core Power.  But that's still sitting in the fridge at home).

After the race, I took a cool-down ride up The Wall with teammates Josh King and Robert Tarrall.  Not much of a cool down, I know, but we took it super-slow.  I don't know if Strava gives PRs for slowest times, but I'm pretty sure that's the slowest I've ever ridden that hill.  On the plus side, it was a nice way to actually ride and talk, something that can be hard to do when you're riding at 20 mph or more.

Top of The Wall, with Robert Tarrall and Josh King.

So that's about it.  I'm not sure when I'll post something again.  My next race will be a 3-day event on May 16-18, which should be pretty cool.  So stay tuned for that.  Like I said, I won't be writing blog posts every day, and won't be posting every single bike-commute or anything.  But if I do something more than ride to work, I'll definitely be writing about it.

And here are a bunch of recent rides from Strava, including my practice rides and the race itself.