Race Report- Copperopolis Road Race- Men’s Elite 3’s
Email Subject Line: Race Report: Copperopolis Road Race- Men’s Elite 3
Race: Copperopolis Road Race- Men’s Elite 3’s
Date: April 4th, 2026
AVRT racers: Keegan Worcester
Top Result: Keegan Worcester - DNF
Course: 4 loops of a 20mile circuit. The course is known for its particularly cobble-like poor pavement. The course starts with 20 minutes of rolling uphill terrain to the flat plateau area before the final 5 minute climb before the bone-shattering descent towards the finish on a small one- minute uphill drag. The course continues past parking lot to begin another lap with the feed zone just a couple miles down. The downhill is repaved after about a minute on the bumpy descent. No real corners on the bumpy part but that doesn’t make it any less scary. The paved descent has some more challenging blind, high speed corners that benefit good cornering technique. I ran closer to 70psi to have the best grip for the tougher pavement sections and I believe that helped. The headwind on the first longer climb of the two meant staying in the pack was very helpful. Its also beneficial to stay more in the front position of the pack in the first 3rd of the course because gaps can upen up easily on the rollers if people don’t shift properly or take a bad line (or are just cooked). It’s only 2 riders wide in sections so that doesn’t make it easy to pass or mark moves if that’s important.
Strava: https://strava.app.link/PGepqNpxq2b
Nutrition: 200grams of carbs from my overnight oats for breakfast. Electrolyte beverage on the drive there. I fueled 130g/hour during the race with a combination of Science in Sport drink mix and 40gram beta fuel gels with 150grams of caffeine spread throughout bottles for during the race. There was neutral water bottles during the feed so I did take one to suck down on the 3rd lap, but I was lucky enough to have Paul helping out on the day.
Recap (written by Keegan: Started the race feeling confident in my preparation for the race and my knowledge of the course from the prior year. I had changed wheels the week before to my lighter wheels for climbing races with no issues. I’m not sure what happened with my rear derailleur if the bumpy pavement or another rider bumped it but I started noticing pretty early on the I was having some issues downshifting. It wasn’t too bad on the first main climb but it did cause me a few poorly timed shifts and would mainly affect me after the climb because I couldn’t downshift into a gear where I could reaccelerate. This happened at the start of the plateau area and I got dropped by seconds before I got a gear I could pedal without spinning out again. I was able to catch back on after a couple of minutes. I rolled a few attacks during some of the toughest pavement sections where I hoped I could force a breakaway and make the race harder for everyone but it was clear no one was going to let me go up the road so after a couple of tries I decided to rest before the final climb. At the start of the final climb on the first lap I shifted into my largest cog on my rear derailleur for a short steep uphill section and then disaster struck. I couldn’t downshift again. I watched the peloton ride away as I was desperately trying to shift while doing 120rpms. I lost about 30seconds before I could get a gear again as the race finally sped back up on the uphill. I chased full gas for about 15 minutes and was finally able to catch up to the main group just before the feed zone on the 2nd lap. I wasn’t able to get much of a chance to recover before the rollers started again and got dropped as soon as the climb proper started again. I completed two more laps solo while having to get on and off my bike 5 or 6 more times to manually change the gear but decided to call it after battling cramps and Paul telling me I was still well out of the points on a group more than 10 minutes up the road. Proud of my effort but unfortunately circumstances destroyed any chances I had of a result on the day.