Koppenberg Casualty

 As with the Paris-Roubaix and Ronde von Vlaanderen, it takes luck, skill, fitness, and smarts to with a "classic".  I fell victim to the Koppenberg course today.  The quick recap goes like this.  I did my usual, start at the back thing, thinking that nothing eventful would relly happen until mid-way through the race and I didn't want to get caught up in the carnage of the first-lap fireworks.  The first lap was straight awesome.  We hit the dirt and it's single/double file full-gas all the way to the climb.  When I get within sight of the climb, it's a plume of dirt-smoke all the way and the leaders are already heading up it.  When I get to it, some guys already struggled in the middle and most everyone is off the bike running with the bike.  My cyclocross skills came in handy here as I was off and running at the start of the climb.  I passed several riders running, then had a picture-perfect remount and was off motoring again. 




I rode with several guys and eventually our group was about 10-12 riders all working pretty well.  We were catching other riders and making progress on the main pack.  Well, 3 laps go by and halfway through the dirt section, my rear wheel washes out on the gravel.  It was more like a power slide as I didn't go down or slow really, but all of a sudden my bike is riding like it doesn't have a tire.  I look down and I'm completely flat.  Race over at 45 minutes, 3 1/2 laps out of 8.  Later I realize that it was indeed a pinch flat.  I guess 100psi was too low for my 180 lb. body.  Also, the guys in my group ended up finishing around the 10-15th place in the race, so that lines up with how my prior results were going.




I'm coming away from this race feeling both good and bad.  Bad, because well, I DNF'd.  Good though because I felt pretty good, my legs were responding well, I felt very comfortable in the group I was in and that's a good indication of how I may perform at the last race of the year, the Steamboat Springs Stage Race.  I also felt great running with the bike, so that's good for cyclocross.  I ran for 30 minutes after getting home.  This week is a low-intensity, low-miles week to prep for the Steamboat Springs race.