Koppenberg 2007

At 2:30 today, the gun went off and the suffering began. The spring classic is located a short ride south of Boulder and is a 5.5 mile loop featuring a 2.5 mile dirt section with a 200 meter hill that has a slope of 17%. The koppenberg is named after the infamous hill in the European race, the Tour of Flanders. Team Einstein’s had four guys in the Pro, 1, 2 field. The race stayed together much longer than I expected and didn't split until Moniger took out P-Low just before the dirt climb. I was on P-Low’s wheel and saw Moniger pass him in the loose dirt and thought to myself, “Wow, that’s sketchy. But these are probably the two best riders in the peloton so I’m sure it’s cool.” It wasn’t and they both went down face first into the ditch. They almost took out Brad White and I as well but our CX skills kicked in and we made the first break. On lap 6 the attacks finally wore me out and I was unable to stay with the lead group of twelve. I was now in a group of four and we worked together to keep the lead group in sight. On lap 7 I was about to bonk because I ran out of water until, out of nowhere, teammate Brad White and ex-teammate Jonathan Garcia bridged the gap and gave me a fresh bottle of water. With two more strong guys in our chase group I was able to sit in a little more and recover for the final lap. When we hit the koppenberg for the last time I was the first one up the climb and Brian Kendal and B-White were the only two to hold my wheel. We drove it the final 3 miles and picked up a Toyota/United guy who had been dropped from the lead break. B-White lead me out for the sprint like an old pro and I won it with Kendal just behind and White rolling in after. Although we couldn’t hold the lead group we still earned a 13th and 15th out of a stacked field pushing 80 riders. Brian is a great addition to our team this year and I think we can expect great things from him.