Barry Roubaix - Cycle


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Middleville, Michigan
United States
Kisscross Events
20F / -7C
Sunny
Total Time = 2h 43m
Overall Rank = 505/564
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 83/92
Pre-race routine:

Hit the continental breakfast chowed down a banana, yogurt, and had a little omelete. Hung out at the hotel til 9:20 and had most of my stuff ready to go. I had to adjust the rear brake as I forgot it had been rubbing.
Event warmup:

Karen dropped me off and I finished dressing and rode down the park road for just a short ways then headed to the start area.
Bike
  • 2h 43m
  • 35 miles
  • 12.88 mile/hr
Comments:

This event sounded like a challenge, little did I know it was going to be as tough as it turned out to be. We drove the majority of the course on Friday, and the wife had knee pain from the hills without ever getting out of the truck. The hills are relentless and never ending. For every downhill it seems like your climbing 2 to 3 before another downhill. Some of the hills gave my Cummins Turbo Diesel motor some work and this thing can pull a load. The roads were in great condition. I made sure to take my baby aspirin the morning of the race as I didn't want to have a major coronary while on the course.

The morning was cold with a morning low around 14, I think it was in the upper teens to low 20's at the start. I'm used to riding in the cold, but that's usually for rides around an hour when commuting to work. I knew this was going to be 2:30 to 3 hours. Not to mention NE winds around 8-10 which were gusty at times too.

I started in wave 3 and just kinda of took it easy to start. I made it through the entire course without having to walk, there appeared to be quite a few folks that spun out there wheels from mashing and had to walk some of the killer hills. I stopped once to adjust my rear derailuer. I had replaced the chain and rode the MTB to try things out and thought I'd be good to go, at first I was having issues with the gears jumping, not to mention the front chain ring getting hung up when switching from the small to medium chain ring, which became increasing frustrating.

Between the layers of clothing and good wind vest, I kept my camelbak of water under my vest, with the water tube stuffed down the layers of clothing and had no issues with it freezing. Wish I would've had some of my Infinit with me but I figured it was just going to freeze into a block of ice. I chowed down a half of Clif bar and had a small cup of Heed at the one aid station. I needed more calories.

I picked up some hand warmers the day before. Having a full foot length warmer in my Lake winter boots and placing toe warmers in my lobster mitts kept my hands and feet plenty of warm. I could of used something for my face as I had a external skull freezer happening when riding into the wind to start, after going numb nothing really mattered. I took extra hand warmers in case I had any frostbite issues or ran across someone in need of help.

When I hit the pavement knowing I was getting close to being done with this monster and thinking I was on easy street I found that there were still some more hills to contend with, after flying down one area there had to be a good climb of nearly a mile.

After getting to the park and crossing the finish, I knew K was in the area as I saw the truck in the lot she dumped me off at in the morning. I rode I bit through the parking lot to cool down and figured a beer sounded good. K went to find the beer line and found out they had no co2 so there was no beer. We thought of hanging out but after getting to the truck and getting dry clothes on my top half and loading the bike we figured we would just head back to the hotel.

Staying at the host hotel, Bay Pointe Inn was worth the money not to mention a good reason for the wife and I to get out of town together. An easy 10 minute drive it worked out great so she could go back to the room and stay warm for a couple of hours before coming back.
What would you do differently?:

Do some more riding on my MTB in hills before the race. Even though I finished way in the back of the pack, I was happy with the day overall and will try to do better next year.
Post race
Warm down:

Rode just a few minutes in the parking lot.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Hills, hills, hills

Event comments:

Overall it's a great course and quite challenging. But for $40 with no shirt, only one aid station, and no freebie food at the end, not to mention the fiasco with no beer after all the pre race emails telling how there were 10 kegs of beer it was kinda of a let down.

The two track section of West Sager Rd should be scrapped with nearly 1000 racers going off in four waves 2 minutes apart it turned into a bottle neck since it's only at the 5 mile mark, lots of riders were bailing out and walking which didn't leave much room to get through. The course could easily head east along Mullen Rd just a bit further south.

The Barry County Sheriffs dept and volunteers did a great job of controlling traffic at the hwy crossings.

Even with the negatives the challenging course will bring me back next year if things workout.




Last updated: 2011-02-18 12:00 AM
Biking
02:43:00 | 35 miles | 12.88 mile/hr
Age Group: 83/92
Overall: 0/564
Performance: Average
High HR, no need for a HRM to figure that out.
Wind: Strong
Course: Hills, hills, hills.
Road:   Cadence:
Turns: Cornering:
Gear changes: Hills:
Race pace: Drinks: Not enough
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge Too hard
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? No
Post race activities: Below average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3