Barry Roubaix 2015 Race Report

 

The Barry Roubaix has become a sort of tradition for me, well at least a tradition since 2013. Like previous years, the weather leading up to the race was interesting. A mixture of mild and cold weather, with some rain and snow was all mixed into the

In past years I rode my mountain bike with cross tires.  After getting my Cannondale CAADX last fall, I decided a cross bike would work better speed wise since the course is not so technical as to require a mountain bike.

This decision got a bit of a wrinkle on Thursday when organizers announced that Sager Rd. would be back in the race. Sager is a “seasonal” road, meaning it nothing more than unmaintained two track.  The past two years conditions on the road were dangerous due to ice and snow (perhaps impassable would be the better word).  This year, the road was looking like this during the week prior to the race, 

Photo from Barry Roubaix Facebook Page

Prior to the race being moved to downtown Hastings, the course would take Sager Road at around 5 miles into the race.  The video below shows Sager at the 16 minute mark from a race a few years ago.

 

 

A bit chaotic. Despite this, I decided to stick with the cross bike plan equipped with a set of Schwalbe Sammy Slicks 35mm, considering the amount of pavement on the course and the packed dirt roads of prior years, these seemed like an ideal compromise between the traction and speed, even with the potential craziness of Sager.

So, back to the weather watch. The two days before the race saw dry weather, with Friday being particularly sunny, although cold.  I drove to Hastings to pick up my race packet on Friday, and then onto my Grand Rapids hotel. Once getting settled, I tracked down some local greenways to get a quick ride, the purpose of which was two fold, although seeing the local scenery was not among these. First, my bike had been tuned up the day before, and I needed to  make sure it was working well. Second, I had only ridden twice that week, and I needed to get something of a warm up in.

The bike worked well, the legs felt heavy. That evening I dined at the old reliable Noodles and Company and hit the hay.  The night was cold and clear and the temperature the next morning was around 15 degrees. The plan was to wear my new Matthews thermal jacket for the race. Once I arrived in Hastings, I did a bit of a warm up, and began to sweat after only 10 minutes. By now the temps had risen to 19 degrees, and with the clear skies, it only promised to get warmer. The jacket was dumped, and I went with double arm warmers and a wind vest. I might be cold for a bit but that wouldn't last long.

I was starting in wave 9, at 10:18,  along with the other 30-34 year olds. However, due to large field sizes, the age groups had been divided up. Last year, I was in 30-34 age group.  This year, I was in the 32-34 age group.  I worked my way up to the front of the group of waiting riders and took stock. Lots of jerseys, most notable being one rider with smiley faces on his jersey that I recalled from last year as beating me. There was also a few Bissell jerseys, a few Stryker CMS, Village Bike Shop, World Bike Relief, and a few others. It was impossible to tell who was actually in my group, so the plan was to stay towards the front at the start and try to stay with the fast guys when we hit gravel/dirt.  

The start was paved for the first few miles and fast. We kept in a large group and I stayed near the front, but things spread out and broke apart at a right turn onto the first gravel. This led to the Three Sisters, a series of three increasingly steep climbs.

I quickly discovered the gearing differences between my cross bike and mountain bike.  The gravel climbs seemed a bit steeper than normal. Plus, it was very apparent that the course was going to be extremely dry and actually dusty. Plus, it seemed there was more gravel as a result. In past years the course had been hard packed dirt road. Not this time around, and a few times my rear tire slipped on the loose dirt. About a half a dozen fast guys broke away on the on the Sisters, including a Bissell rider, and the rider with the smiley faces on his jersey. I was not able to keep pace.

Somewhere on the Sisters.

Following the Sisters, the course falls into a steady diet of up ups and downs of gravel hills with a few sections of pavement stuck in.  It didn't look like I would be able to reach the riders who had broken away following the sisters, Sisters so I settled into a rhytm and rode with a few others from my wave, including a mountain biker from the Village Bike Shop.  I spotted a rider with a SRAM jersey up ahead and set about catching and dropping him, although Village remained with me.

In addition to the Village rider, I began to go back and forth with a World Bike Relief racer. Sometimes he would get ahead by a few hundred feet, and I would catch-up and pass, and then he would appear from no where and pass me back.  Overall progress was good, and my average speed was higher than last year, sitting right at 18.5 mph. 

The next main landmark after the sisters was hitting Gun Lake Road, a long stretch of pavement, with a long climb to boot. Last year, I had set time goals to hit various points in the course.  The conditions tossed those out the window in 2014, but this year, I had recalled the Gun Lake goal was 38 minutes. As we took the left turn onto Gun Lake, I looked down and saw that the time was at 36 minutes. So far so good.

Per plan, I pushed hard on Gun Lake, and got past a lot of riders. Village was with me, and WBR was still about as well.  Some dicey riding was happening on the climb.  There was a Ford Expedition going up the main Gun Lake climb which kept getting stuck in between batches of riders.  The driver probably could have been a little more assertive in getting up the road, but on the descent on the other side, some riders began to make moves to pass the Ford on its left, including a tandem which tried to make a move a in the middle of an intersection where the Ford was trying to turn left. Things looked like they could get bad, but the tandem held back at the last minute, got yelled at by a sheriff's deputy, and let the Ford go.

Following that excitement, and the Gun Lake climb, the next big hurdle was Sager Road located at about the 18 mile mark. I dropped back alongside Village and told him he should go ahead, since I figured his mountain bike would be much faster on Sager.  Turns out I was right.

The left turn for Sager came up, and he took off. I followed at good speed and passed numerous other riders, but I couldn't match his maneirvability and lost sight of him.  Sager was interesting. It was rough, and someone had taken a 4 wheeler or truck down the road when it was wet and we had to pick lines through very deep (some deeper than 1 foot) tire ruts. At one point, I was riding down in between two deep ruts, while on my left and right, others were riding on the outside of the ruts. I was expecting the field to have spread out more than it was, but everyone seemed to be making it down the road well enough. A far cry from the Youtube videos when Sager was at the start of the race.

Sager was only one mile, and then the course took a right onto more gravel, with numerous small climbs and descents, including a few downhill turns which were very loose and one right turn which I hit with too much speed and nearly took out WBR and myself in the process.

The major hurdle in this final half was a climb known as the Wall, a steep climb with a false top, which then curves to climb an additional 50 feet. Again, I maintained a good pace, with WBR about 75 feet ahead. At the crest I kept pushing hard and began to close on WBR over the course of the next few miles.  Still no sign of Village. He had really made the most of his advantage on Sager.

Heading into the last ten miles, a strange thing happened. I had made contact with WBR, and then all of the sudden we were in a pack. The CMS/Stryker rider from the start had come from behind to make contact, and I came together with a few other riders who had been at the front of the pack at the start.  As we transitioned from gravel to the final pavement run into town we had formed a strong riding pack. It was interesting that the top riders who had been in a group at he beginning had reformed almost the same pack there at the end despite being strung out for most of the race.

Anyway, on the pavement we picked up speed and pushed hard, with everyone rotating on the front.  My one concern was some dicey riding from a younger rider in the bunch, perhaps a 11-18 year old or possibly the 19-29 year olds. While we had still been on gravel he had been riding a bit loose and had come close to making contact with some riders. On the final climb before the descent to the finish line he was weaving and getting close again which was rippling through the pack. Some riders were urging everyone to calm down. One rider came up next to me and gestured ahead and commented that things were getting interesting up ahead. Sure enough, not 30 seconds later, the younger rider crossed wheels with the rider in the front, hit his wheel, and both very nearly went down.  That killed the momentum as the packed expanded outward in anticipation of a crash (except me, who was right behind them), but both managed to keep it together for run into town.

I should note, that in this final three miles to the finish I made contact with Village. I said hello as my group went charging past his smaller paceline, and in a demonstration of his strength, he hooked onto the pack and came up next to me to say hello. At this point I decided to ask what age group he was in. Turns out, he was 30-31. We weren't even racing each other.

So, we came charging into town with the pack intact, perhaps 10 to 12 in the group. The course takes several hard 90 degree turns which slowed things up, and revealed my lack of road racing experience before the final straightaway at top speed to the finish. I pushed hard and the group began to spread and split, although WBR edged me out, as did Village. Despite this, it was a hell of a race and an exhilarating finish.

My time was 1:58, meeting my goal of a sub two hour time, and beating my previous time by 5 minutes. The weather was much warmer, and I hung around and chatted with some of the other guys in the pack before riding back to my car to change.  My plan was to change, grab a bite to eat and check the results to see if I should stick around for the awards. While it was not an explicit goal, I was hoping for a podium spot, especially following last year's 6th place.

Once changed, I went back to the post race party, had a sandwich and waited in line to check results. And to my surprise, I managed a 5th place in my age group. Unofficial goal accomplished, and guess that means I would be hanging around for the awards. Of note, the first place in my age group came in around 1:56, while the next 6 riders, myself included, were all within 3 seconds of each other.

Hooray.

Anyway, I hung around for the awards, and hung around some more. The party is fun, especially if you are there with a team, or are part of the Michigan cycling community. I am neither of those, so things got a little tedious and I began to think about the 5 hour drive home. The award for the 24 mile race were done, and an announcement was made that the 36 mile awards would not happen until sometime after three, so I went back to my car and took a nap. I walked back at three, but they were still doing some 62 mile awards. Then a band got up and started to play. I was getting a bit annoyed with the delay, although from a business perspective it made sense. The 36 mile race has the most participants, and getting all those people to stick around longer to buy food, check out the vendors, and to hang out in town is good for the local economy and the race.  But I still had to drive home!

Finally the awards came, and I got to step up to the podium with....one other person, the first place rider in my age group. Apparently the others had left already so we had a lonely, two person podium. But it was still a podium.

[Imagine a podium picture here...I was expecting to find one from the numerous official photographers, but apparently they missed me]

And I got free chamois cream. Yay.