Barry Roubaix

First time racing BRX; a learning experience.

The race lined up super early. I was out riding my warm-up and found Elliot riding around so joined him. My wave was set to start at 10:08, and by 9:30 the start chute was filled. No worries, I thought, as this race is timed as sort of a time trial. So it isn't necessarily what place you finish in, but the time from when you cross the start line until you cross the finish line.

Before I knew it, the front of my wave was quite a ways in front of me. So I'm in a strange position. I start in wave 3, but all the contenders for the race I'm riding are starting in wave 7, which starts 8 minutes behind my wave. For the first 20 minutes of the race, coming up the 'three sisters' - three large hills at the beginning - I was just trying to catch the front of my wave. The fastest guys in the 36 mile race still start in wave 7 - and all my teammates - but I still knew that all the guys in my age group, 19-24 started with me in wave 3. Up the big hills I was able to catch up with a few tandems that started in my wave, which are very good allies to have during the race. As I experienced with Tim last year at Melting Mann, tandems are very fast when the racing is flat, just very slow climbing. So for about 5 or so miles, it was a constant passing the tandems up hills, and then they would catch me up on the flats and I would get behind the group of 3 tandems and ride behind them for a while.

I don't think I ever caught the very front of wave 3, as I finished 6th in my age group (which all started in wave 3), one spot off the podium, darn. The top guys in my age group were in front of me the whole race. I was constantly passing people the entire time. The 22 mile route merged with my 36 mile route during the race, so the road was constantly filled with riders much slower than I was going. It was a constant cycle of riding as hard as I could to get on the group in front of me, realizing quickly they were going much slower and then coming around and chasing down the next group on the road. I was doing very well at this until we got to Sager Road, the renowned two-track, which was full of rocks and sand, it was bad. I was behind a large group coming into Sager, so I was behind a lot of people walking their bikes, with not any room to get around. With all the sand, I didn't have anything, and my race blew up. I walked pretty much the entire road and while doing so got a lot of sand in my cleats.

For the next 10 or so miles after Sager, I couldn't get my right foot clipped into my pedal. For all those concerned, I have shoes and pedals that fit together, and not being able to clip in my right foot really messed with me. I was mad about it for a while, letting a lot of people pass me and not really worried about putting in the effort to make up some ground on the riders ahead of me. I eventually got over this after a while, and just used my right pedal as a sort of platform, which was dangerous as my foot kept slipping off, causing me to go slower and not really able to hold onto any wheels ahead of me. This was a large part of the race where I lot of people came by me, and I'm disappointed with this as my fitness was good yesterday, I was really putting in some power when I could, and I was able to out-climb anyone around me. That being said, I was never really with anyone I was directly competing with. I didn't know who was in my age group so I couldn't mark anyone to make sure I stay with them.

Eventually, I hit a large pothole fast enough and the hole was large enough that it forced my shoe to be able to clip back into my pedal, and I was off. The last 10 miles I was with a group of about 5 people, and we cruised back into Hastings. Probably averaging upwards of 22 mph, we passed a lot of people. Unfortunately, most of these people we passed probably weren't in our race, as the 36 mile course was now the same as the 22 mile course. Basically, all these people are in the way, and no benefit to me.

3/16 Waterloo G&G, Grass Lake, MI (Gravel) 34th Overall (221) / 4th AG (6)
3/23 Melting Mann, Vandalia, MI (Gravel) 61st Overall (255) / 17th AG (31)
3/30 Dirty 30 Gravel Grinder, Saranac, MI (Gravel) 81st Overall (215) / 9th AG (24)
4/6 Lowell Classic, Lowell, MI (Gravel) 27th Overall (239) / 8th AG (15)
4/13 Barry Roubaix, Hastings, MI (Gravel) 216th Overall (1342) / 6th AG (18)
4/27 Yankee Springs TT, Gun Lake, MI (Mountain !!)
4/28 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series, Ann Arbor, MI
5/5 Fort Custer Stampede, Battle Creek, MI (Mountain)
5/11 Hammond Region Riot, Hammond, IN
5/25 Twilight on the Square, Akron, OH
5/26 Newark Center Classic, Englewood, OH
6/1 Deaconess River City Bicycle Classic, Evansville, IN
6/9 Dirty Donut, Martin, MI (Gravel)
6/16 Vuelta a Porta Sheldon, Grand Haven, MI (?)
6/22 Athens Brick Criterium, Athens, OH
6/29 Port City Crit, Muskegon, MI
6/30 Great Lakes Classic Road Race, Marne, MI
7/13 Detroit Cycling Championship, Detroit, MI
7/14 Corktown Crit, Detroit, MI
7/28 The Divide (Gravel) / Muncie Grand Prix, Muncie, IN
8/10 Rose City Crit, Jackson, MI
8/18 Gaslight Crit, Grand Rapids, MI
8/25 Debaets-Devos Crit, Detroit, MI
9/8 Uncle John's Dirty Ride, St. John's, MI (Gravel)
11/2 Iceman, Traverse City, MI

This years Barry Roubaix was one of learning. Get to the start early. Stay on wheels. Try and survive Sager Rd. without stepping off or walking too much in the sand. It was too bad so many people were in the way. It is too bad that the people I was competing with started 8 minutes after me. I wish this race was organized differently, but it is what it is. I'm happy with my fitness, I'm looking forward to more races. I'm thinking about going down to Indy next weekend to race, we will see. It might be of greater benefit to train hard this week, this weekend, and next week; just to get some more solid base behind my training. I don't really have any races on my A list until July in Detroit, so now might be a good time to really work on my fitness some more and work on some smart, structured training now that tax season is over, and school is about done.

A fantastic race from all the TCL guys and ladies, a ton of podiums. Well done!

Not too many photos this week, but lots of information; enjoy (:

Cheers! CE