roadcx.net

I finished somewhere probably in the top 30 of the A-race today at Rouge Roubaix (I think). The race started out pretty fast for first 25 miles on the road despite going through a pretty twisty road section. This section featured a couple of riders crashing a corner (sharp turn) and a ton of curb-to-curb yellow line ignoring. I was hating on that and left it alone -staying on the correct side of the road, but the amount of it going was going to cause a problem if a car came as all those riders would try to move over suddenly.

On the first gravel section (miles 25-33), it started off pretty fast and I was moving up to the shrinking front group. Probably 1/4 mile into the gravel, I saw a pretty nasty crash as the group accelerated into the gravel, a rider got sideways and drilled into the ground, ouch. As people tired or had issues with the varying depths of gravel, I kept moving up. A few miles in, I fishtailed around one corner and lost contact with the hard driving group… collected in a chase group of about 12-13 riders working into the cross/headwind on the ~30 mile road section between the gravel sections.

In the second gravel section (miles 64-67), I was hitting the climb pretty hard, I was 3rd or 4th up the hill with the whole group strung out behind. One of the guys in front of me swerved when he slowed to talk to one of his teammates that we caught (he had dropped off the lead group apparently)… this put me off the good stuff suddenly into about 4-5 inch deep gravel…and down I went.

Picking up the pieces…. (photo by Adam Falgout)

I quickly got up and ran the remainder of that short hill (maybe 100 feet left) and mounted my bike…..chain was off….

Run-up! (photos by Adam Falgout)

By the time I was in full-on chase mode, the chase group was unreachable even with the two other guys with me helping (although they were the back of the pack climbers, so what should I expect?) Along the 15 miles to the final gravel section (miles 80-83), we dropped one of our group going up a small hill, so it was mostly just me and another guy trading pulls.. Up the steep gravel climb and the subsequent rollers, I was by myself. I caught a few others along the way, but they didn’t last so it is was mostly solo for the last 15 miles or so.

Finishing it up with my crusty knee. (photo by Adam Falgout)

I don’t know my results yet (preliminary results do not include Cat3’s for some reason yet, self timed at 4:44 for the 102 miles). The riders that I was climbing well with on the 2nd gravel section placed in upper teen placings, so my result would have been significantly different if I wasn’t taken out. Despite this, I was really happy with my gravel riding (and the road sections as well) and put up some wattage numbers well above what I though my FTP was. Even at the end, I was able to sustain good power at miles 90, 95, 100, etc. It is a good sign since I haven’t really started my heavy training yet and didn’t taper for this race since it was not a target race. Just an excellent early season test, I will go back!

I didn’t get a T-shirt, but I got some additional scar tissue on top of other left knee scars.. For some reason, my left one usually takes the brunt of it. It pretty much started with a Cat 4 pack crash (on a straight away two riders crossed up) at 2006 Lascassas RR in Murfreesboro, TN, was layer upon by a rain slicked pavement slide out at Glenview Park practice CX race in December 2007 and now some new features today.

I am heading 5 hours west next weekend to NWA for Hell’s Kitchen. Another good early season test with a good 1 mile climb on each of three 20 mile laps.

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Update (3/10): Results are mostly posted up on LAMBRA. I was 24th overall in the A-race (23rd in Cat 123 and 1st Cat 3). I will be interested to see the finish times when they are posted up.