In the photo: Sam Hill, Theo Goguely
Report written by Sam.
One of my favorite races of the year is Coppertown Circuit race. Lining up in a 30 man field with Robert Terra, Theo Goguely, and Chris Craig, we were determined for a great result. Our race plan was to get Robert the win, and we definitely were confident in that manner. At the start of our race, the wind had bumped up to ten miles per hour, a headwind until the 180 degree turn, then a tailwind on the way to the finishing straightaway. In total we did 4 laps, it was five miles per lap.
The race had turned out to be mild at first and it actually stayed that way, until the end of course. Little attacks would go off left and right, nothing too interesting because everything was brought so quickly back in the headwind.
It wasn’t until 2 laps remaining a strong group of five guys got away after the 180 degree turn, it looked a little dangerous, but I followed a wheel, then I led the main group to them. Again, nothing happened until 1 to go.
This is where the race got a little crazy. Coming out of the actual town, a couple guys got off the front, I just was following wheels at that point to make sure Robert would have an easy field sprint. Chris was well positioned to do some work for us at the front. After the 180 turn, Chris started to hit it at the front for a little bit, but then the race started to float on for a little bit, and everyone was looking at each other. Robert was pretty well positioned, two wheels behind me, and I was fifth, so we had nothing to worry about, yet.
Around 2000 meters from the line, Robert calls for Chris to attack, which was an extremely good call by Robert, (and by Chris who made it happen!). At around 1000 meters, Chris went again, and this time I let the four guys go off a little bit, and make a strong Fremont sprinter chase back the group of three. By 600m, Robert was being boxed in, and Theo was on my wheel, we were about third spot, but the whole group was spread across the road. At 400m to go, I found a spot on the far left side, and took Theo, as well as Robert with me. I stood to lead them out, but it ended up to be too tight of a spot, and Robert couldn’t come around Theo. I was able to hold for the win, as Theo closely took 2nd, Robert held on for 4th, Chris really stuck it out for 7th.
Overall, I was really impressed with how we raced. We had a good call by Robert, and Chris was key in helping us get the 1-2-4, by providing a softening attack, to keep the field on their toes, so he definitely earned his “teammate of the day” award. I was also very impressed with having not only the win, but three people in the top five, I couldn’t be more happy for the team.
First, thank you to my parents, my dad decided to take a tight schedule and help me get to the races today, before he flew out. Thank you as well to my amazing team, and my coach Adam. Lastly, but not least I want to thank our amazing sponsors: Mike’s Bikes, Equator Coffees, Specialized Bikes, Capo, Osmo Nutrition, Probar, Violich Farms, Smith Optics, Toyota, and Bikesmart.
Video of the race can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8VfzqlDOpQ
