Barry-Roubaix

2011 Mileage: 1405

Well Barry-Roubaix didn't exactly turn out like Perry-Roubaix did. I raced the 65 mile open category, starting with over 150 people including a lot of the top guys from the Midwest and some strong guys from Ontario. I may have been a little out of my league riding my way up to the front early on but I felt pretty strong and figured I'd just see how long I could stay up there. I settled in on Simonson's wheel during the roll out and stayed there until we hit the roughest section of the course about 6 miles in, Sager Road. This is where things blew apart, although I managed to stay fairly close to the front, with the lead group down the road I was starting to settle in to a second group. As we exited this section I started realizing I was washing out around all the corners and realized I was losing air quick in my rear tire. I had pinch flatted. At around mile 8 it was unrideable and I had to stop and change it. I lost the group I was with and watched as people flew by while I fixed my flat. I even saw most of my team (all doing the 35 mile event starting after me) pass me by. I'm not sure how long it took me to fix it and although it wasn't too long it still left me well behind anyone that would be riding the pace I wanted to go. This left me out to suffer for most of the next 60 miles by myself. I was constantly passing people on the first lap and actually managed to catch up with a couple strong riders who were in the same situation as me after having been caught up in a crash and needing to fix mechanicals caused by it. I rode with them for about 15 miles and then watched them drift away on an early climb on the second lap and even though they weren't far up the road I could never seem to bridge back up. I could see them as I crested every hill for the next five miles. That was a little demoralizing. Then the cramping set in which didn't help much either. I fought off cramping for the last 20+ miles. Considering how much climbing there was on this course, that was quite a challenge. I ended up finishing in just 4:02:47, good enough for 67th place out of 108 finishers. 48 minutes behind the winning time.
It was a little tough to have a race go like this and I know that I wasn't going to win this one being an open race with that many big names at it, but I expected more than this from myself. I realize I had a mechanical but that doesn't make it much easier to swallow the result. I rode with Simonson yesterday and we talked about our races and how we thought they went (he DNFed) and although I'm sure I wasn't much help to him it was great to be able to bounce all of my issues off someone with his kind of experience.
After that reality check it's time to get back in the saddle to get ready for the rest of the season. I think some hill repeats may be in order. I could not believe how much climbing Barry-Roubaix had, anyone who says Michigan doesn't have climbing I challenge to go ride that course.

Perry-Roubaix

Last night Dad and I loaded up the car to head for Daufuskie, but decided to take a little detour over to Perry, Georgia to get in my first race of the year and my first ever road race. We arrived in Perry around 6am, plenty if time to check out the course and make all the needed preparations for a 10:22 start for my 50 mile cat 5 race.

When they sent us off it was all new to me and a lot different than I was accustomed to. In cyclocross and mountain bike races the hole-shot is an important part of the race, here it seemed like everybody wanted to treat the start like there warm up. That is with the exception of one guy who attacked right after the first turn and I quickly pulled him back in with the field on my wheel. The next time he went, about two miles in to the race, I decided to jump up to him withou the field and see what his strategy was. It came down to he basically didn't have one but wanted to be first in to the dirt section for fear of crashes. We quickly decided that while we had a gap we might as well just make a go of it and see if we could stay away. We really pushed ourselves on the first lap and the field was nowhere in sight by the end of it. A solo rider caught us on the second lap and the three of us then worked together. The extra man really helped in allowing one of us to take a break from pulling briefly if they needed it. I was really hurting by the time we hit the early climb on the final lap and could feel the twinges of cramps coming on but I dug through it and hung on. The guy that caught us on the second lap cramped on the final climb and dropped off the back. So the guy I started with 2 miles in and myself managed to stay away to the finish. I was sitting behind him and jumped around to sprint with just under 200 meters to go. I didn't get much response from him and rolled through with the win.

As I crossed the line every muscle in my legs was cramping but the win in my first ever road race felt great and overall I felt strong for the day. We beat the field pretty handily and averaged 23mph for the 50 mile race. The average speed of the winning rider last year on the same course was just under 19mph.

I also made some gear changes and put a new crankset on the bike, a DuraAce in a true double, 53-39. This was from my experience on the sprints in florida were I was topped out at just over 35 mph. I topped out at just over 39 in the sprint today and that made all the difference.

Now I'm just arriving on Daufuskie for a few days of training, golfing and relaxing with my Dad. We've also got some household projects that I'm sure my Mom would like us to do, but that's more just an excuse to be down here.
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Daufuskie Island & Returning To The Cold

2011 Mileage: 950About a week ago Lindsay and I made a trip down to Daufuskie Island (my Mom joined us too). It was our first trip back to the Island since we got married there last May and we had an incredible time just relaxing on the beach and riding around the Island on our beach cruiser tandem.Then it was back to the bitter cold of Michigan and yet another snow storm this weekend. I commuted last Saturday on the bike and it was 35 degrees and raining for my 20 miles in, so the heavy snow for my ride home actually seemed very enjoyable. It was alright that it took me three hours to go thirty miles, the lights were fully charged.
I've decided I've had enough of winter and I'm headed south again this weekend and I am hoping to get my first race of the season in while I'm down there. Perry, GA is only a slight detour from Daufuskie and it might not be the best thing to spend 14 hours in a car driving overnight and then get out and race but I think I'm gonna give it a try anyways. I'm sure I've made worse decisions regarding racing in the past. The Perry-Roubaix is a 4 lap, 50 mile race and a part of it is on red clay roads. Should be fun, and it will be good to get the first real test of the year out of the way.