Barry-Roubaix

I kicked the bike racing season off early this year with the soon to be classic, Barry-Roubaix. Let's just say this race is awesome. The fast dirt roads, the almost unrideable sand, and the quad and lung burning climbs make this one incredible race! In addition, this is a great race to test your early season fitness and see how competition is looking for the year. I went into the race with realistic expectations, but was looking to find some good form and have a good result. In the end I was happy, but it was not without issues. So without writing my life story, here is the cliff notes version on my race.

With the 1-2 mile neutral roll out. I was able to get the legs loose. Then it was on! I stayed near the front group and the climbs started right away. Legs felt good and I was able to gain several most positions. By about mile 8, we had a fast strong group putting out a good pace. I was killing it on the flats. Every time I had a chance to dance in my big ring, I took full advantage. And then it all started to fall apart...

It all started with my chain falling off to the outside of my big ring. I tried to flip it up with my crank arm, but with no luck. I had to stop and fix it. As I stopped, the group I was with rode out of sight! I got back on and started sprinting to try and catch up. Shortly after, my chain fell off again but I was not going to stop. So I tried to reach down and pick it up with my hand. As I was riding down a hill and trying to grab my chain, some how my hand touched my front wheel and it got sucked into the top of my fork and on top of my tire! OUCH! I was moving about 15-20 mph down the hill with my hand stuck in my fork and there was nothing I could do. The rear of my bike kept bucking up. I tried to pump my brakes to slow down. I finally got it out at the bottom, but the damage was done. I had 2 huge holes in my glove with what looked like 3rd degree burns to my fingers from sitting on top of the tire. I stopped to make sure I did not break my hand and figure out how I actually kept my bike up avoiding a more serious accident. From hear on I fought through the pain and finished the race strong even without being able to use my big ring for the rest of the race. I finished 18th out of 49 with a time of 1:58. Not bad considering all that happened.

The highlight of the weekend was letting Loose my my buds from Rouge Racing Project out of Louisville KY! These are the former TSB boys. And we had a great time sipping beers and talking shit. We figured this race will be an annually meac for both teams to meet up in the spring to let loose. And then we will do it again in the fall at the USGP in KY! So look out for this to really start to get out of control....