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.