Jeff Cup 2008 - A Coppi Rider's Perspective

I was more nervous going into this race than I have been in a long time. It was my first road race of the season and likely the first race of the year for most of the 120 other guys in the Cat 4 field. My training had been going well and I was more fit than I have been in the last two seasons, so I was putting some serious pressure on myself to perform well. Finally, my driving companions for the trip to Charlottesville, Jean and Lindsey, were admittedly nervous for their race.
Despite the nerves, the massive field was well-behaved and pretty safe for the most part. I was on the brakes more than necessary at first, but eventually became more comfortable and was able to move forward within the field without difficulty. The first lap went by so quickly that I lost track of where we were, and asked Jason whether we’d gone up the hill. About that time I saw the 1k sign, so it was obvious that we’d passed the hill long ago. I guess I jammed up it with the rest of field without recognizing it as the “big” hill.
The second lap was more of the same. There were some small attempts at breaks, but nothing got more than a few meters gap. Joaquin caused some pain by jamming it up the hill on the second lap. I hit 1100 watts – my highest wattage of the race – in the first five seconds of the climb, re-accelerating after slowing down for the turn at the base of the hill. If you can carry your speed into that turn, like Joaquin did, you can save a match and put the hurt on the field.
I started getting these little cramping spasms in my quads during the third lap. I’m sure I was dehydrated and underfed. I just hoped that the race would end before I succumbed to full lockup. Other than that, the third lap went by smoothly and I was able to move up on the hill without much effort.
The final lap was faster and a little more nervous. The race had not been hard enough to seriously shrink the field (75 finishers were given the same time out of 99 starters). So a lot guys had pent-up energy to burn, but no one was willing to risk trying to get away. The final lap also featured some scary moments with no fewer than 4 cars barely pulled off the road and a rider down on the side of the ride covered in a blanket and a moto-ref, on foot, frantically waving for us to slow down. Not what you want to see a few miles before the finish. Miraculously, the field rolled through these obstacles without mishap. I managed to move into the top 20 before the final turn into the finishing road (the turn is about 1 mile before the finish), along with all of the Coppi boys. But we all paid the price of having to re-accelerate coming out of the turn. It was basically a power-eating drag race from the turn – trying to find wheels, accelerate around exploding riders, and find a way to continue accelerating to the line. I’m still trying analyze where I went wrong, but my current thinking is that I used most of my remaining matches getting back up to speed after the turn and was never able to latch onto a good wheel to carry me forward. Once I was in the wind, I ran out of steam and became one of the exploding riders that everyone had to pass. I probably lost 20 spots by the time the line finally came.
Bottom line: 39th in field of 75 finishers, 99 starters.