It takes two to tango, or I guess in this case three. I hadn’t even heard of the Barry-Roubaix until my good friend and partner in crimes KK mentioned it to me a few years back. Now he claims that he had forgotten about it, and that it was me that dredged the idea to the surface like Tony Beets in the Klondike. But in any event the idea became a reality and a plan was hatched. Misery loves company, and we could not think of a better companion and fellow sufferer than Renee.
For those of you that don’t know, the Barry-Roubaix is a bike race. It is a play on words and fashioned after the famed Paris-Roubaix race. Billed as the longest gravel road bike race in the world. It comes in three lengths to suit riders of varying capabilities and aspirations. 35km, 60km, and 100km.
Of course we chose the 100km. The race literature bills the 100 as “The 100 km race is for elite/pro level athletes…” Of which we fit the description exactly. Well maybe not so much.
Our plan was clever and deceptively simple. Engineered to achieve success. I hesitate to divulge such a powerful strategy but here goes… We would each do some amount of riding (or not) prior to the race; show up in mid –Michigan on or around March 25, and race the thing. Simple. Honestly… if Vincenzo Nibali finds out about this training… watch out. He will be a shoe-in for the Giro, and Tour this year.
KK lives in a balmy temperate climate, he can ride year round in lovely conditions. Oh yes, it may rain once in a while, and he even claimed it snowed once or twice, but all in all very pleasant. He commutes to work by bike on a regular basis. According to him uphill both ways of course! Plus he does a bit of club riding. Although if you listen to him talk, his best training efforts involved beer drinking.
Renee on the other hand, had to contend with a cold winter, but managed to get out with her road riding group, and augmented that with some fine indoor riding. She will kill me for saying this, and deny it vehemently, but she is a closet triathlete, so she had plenty of cross-training going on as well.
I’m just a guy with a bike. My only advantage was that I had plenty of gravel roads to ride on over the winter. I should have really taken advantage of that more…
Typical Training Ride
Those of you that are familiar with Michigan weather will know that March 25th can provide virtually any weather conditions imaginable. Snow, rain, cold, even sunny and warm. This year however was not sunny or warm. We had been anxiously eye-balling the forecast all week long. It did not look good. As race day approached we were looking hourly. The day prior, we drove out to the course to pick up our race packets and drive part of the course. It was a very pleasant 20 deg. C, and sunny, with dry roads. It was hard to believe what the forecast was saying about the next day.
Parking Lot Pre-race Smiles
Race day. Rain and 3 deg. C. Being wet is one thing. Being cold is one thing. But being wet and cold is another thing and just plain miserable. There was much back and forth discussion on clothing options. But under those conditions there is nothing optimal. Definitely a chance for hypothermia on a day like this. Finally after some last minute clothing adjustments at the car, we rode up to the starting chute, and got positioned near the back of wave two. Masters Men, Open Women, and some assorted others. The rain had abated momentarily, so it was merely cold while we were waiting for the start. Despite the bleak day spirits were high, and before long the first wave had started, and our group followed 2 minutes later.
Most of the pack were going hell bent for leather, while we held true to our loose strategy of not going out too fast. 100 km is a long ride. We were on nice paved roads for several kilometers as we navigated out of town, but we knew of course that this would not last for very long, which it didn’t. In pretty short order we hit the dirt roads, and things began to change. The roads had been heavily rained upon and were either very spongy, or muddy, or both. And then the hills started. Soon after followed by the rain.
It was getting a bit grim, but at least we were starting to pass some of the rabbits. On the flip side however there were 17 more waves of riders behind us that would be competing in the 2 shorter versions of the race. The fastest of these people began to overtake us. All in all pretty challenging riding with the weather and surface conditions, hills, and riders all over the place. The 3 of us had intended to stick together but in the chaos of the racing environment, and local conditions coupled with having pretty much zero time to practice riding together we would often get separated and have to regroup from time to time.
Somewhere on the course
Conditions, both road surface, and weather continued to deteriorate. Along with that, and maybe because of that we were suffering from some mechanicals. Renee’s rear derailleur packed in so she was basically stuck with a choice of the large or small chain-ring. Also she lost the front brake, and had diminished function on the rear. Being such a hilly course resulted in both of these issues being problematic. I was better off, but I couldn’t reliably shift on the front, so I was pretty much stuck on the small chain-ring. KK, had no mechanical issues. It wasn’t just us, there was evidence of a lot of this throughout the day.
Speaking of gear there was a real mixed bag of bikes on the course. The vast majority were riding cyclocross bikes as we were. The next biggest group were mountain bikes, followed by fatties. Those fatties looked to be especially well suited for the conditions of the day. There was a smattering of fixes, single speeds, and the odd tandem.
The first aid station was about 30km in. It was raining pretty hard. We regrouped there and had a bite to eat. A very brief discussion ensued and we unanimously agreed that when we got to the 60km race junction we would ride that to the finish; abandoning our 100Km race. It would mean that we would get a DNF, and no recorded race time, but it was the right thing to do. Again, we weren’t the only ones making that decision on the course.
At the junction, the mid distance course merged with the short course, so now there were all sorts of people and bikes on the course. Lots of people walking up hills, and riding all over the road, and generally adding to the mayhem. Eventually the course wound its way back to paved roads, and into town. We regrouped and the three of us crossed the finish line together. Some, including the timing chips, thought we had excellent finishing times, but of course that was not the case at all. Even if you discounted our DNF and just took our 60km race time, we finished pretty poorly in the overall scheme of things.
Mud
I guess at the end of the day the old adage holds true…
“You don’t have to be having fun for it to be fun”