John and I showed up to the Barry-Roubaix, Killer Gravel Road Race on Saturday, March 27th early in the morning. The air was cold and the wind was blowing making getting ready for the race all that much harder. After a quick trip to registration to grab our bib numbers and swag, we were off to get our new V-Gear kit on.I must say so far I’m impressed with V-Gear, the kit looks and fits awesome. You can see us coming a hundred miles away. Just the look I was going for. After kitting up, we were off to warm up, yeah right, it was so freaking cold out that warming up was impossible.
I had a small mishap at work on Wednesday and screwed up my elbow, so instead of suffering for the day, I dropped down and did the short race. I vowed that if I won by more than 5 minutes, I’d drop out and give up the title. As you’ll read later that wasn’t even going to be an issue.
After a short delay, we were off, all 600+ of us, a mass neutral rolling start for about 2 miles. In theory this is great idea but as the train gets rolling, you soon realize that many folks have never ridden in a pack like this and had a hard time holding a line. I had to make a move around these guys for my safety. John and I were together for the first mile or two and then I lost him in the pack. I found out later that he was about and eighth of a mile behind me the whole race.
Any how, as we entered onto the first gravel road I realized that my early move was not good enough as I was caught behind a group of riders not prepared for the rocky loose climb on Sager Rd. Two guys went down right in front of me but I was able to avert disaster, dismount, and ran up the climb. Once remounted I realized that there where really only two lines on Sager Rd. the far left and far right, of which several people obviously couldn’t figure out because they tried the loose sand down the center.
After leaving Sager Rd. the race was pretty uneventful for me, other than I realized on Sager that my front derailuer wouldn’t shift onto the small chain ring. In order to shift I had to shift down, push the chain over with my heel and pull the left pedal up, thus moving the chain onto the small ring. What a pain in the arse, but that was easier than trying to fix it during the race. What ever works!
My GPS unit went dead at about the 15 mile mark, so from that point on I had no idea how much further I had to go or my pace. Whatever, neither piece of information was really that important.
On the pavement back to the finish, I picked up a female racer and chatted with her, trading pulls. I figured that she had to be at the front of her class. We caught a few people toward the end and as we entered the state park she called out a racer about 50 yards behind us. I sat up a little and started to put on the gas. She called him out 20 yards back and told her, lets go. I poured on the gas and she stayed on my wheel to the finish. I wish I could have thanked her. Turns out, that guy was in my class and I had been trading places with him for about the last 10 miles.
I finished in 1:41 and some change for and 8th place finish. As I was sitting at the line I turned around and John crossed the finish about 45 seconds behind me, coming in 10th.
We hung out for the raffle and awards. I ended up winning a 6er of Founders ale and a bottle of T9 chain lube. Steve Balogh, one the Photogs at the race, rode up with me and hooked me up with another 4er of Founders. Add in the free pint glass and water bottle and I came away with about 5 bucks out of my pocket for the race.
I need to thank my wife for her support in my crazy endeavors. I also need to say thanks to my son, Drew, for being a great kid and supporting me in my racing. He was a great help in making sure I was ready.
Thanks to Rick Plite for putting on a great race.
Thanks to our sponsors, Original Gravity Brewing Company, Zilke Vegetable Farm and Midwest Wheel Smith for their support.
See ya at the next race!
