Wow....what a day!

This was my second non-tri bike race, so I'm still on the steep part of the learning curve, and this was a completely different type of experience than race #1 (a traditional type of Cat 5 road race, a single 25-mile loop). This race had a combined cat 4/5 start as the last race of the day. It was a neutral roll out until the first turn off the main highway. I didn't realize that our start wasn't until 9:00. I think I got out to St Francisville around 7:00, so I was sitting around waiting WAY too long.

We finally lined up at the start, listened to the instructions and warnings, and got the GO to start us off. I realized about 2-minutes before the start that I was going to have to pee pretty soon, so 30-seconds after we took off I pulled over and ran into the woods. I figured this was one of my smarter moves of the day, as it was a neutral start, and I was able to catch back up with the field before we got out of town.

It was just a nice, fast paced group ride for about the first 45-minutes. We averaged about 22-mph for this first section....roads were nice (a few pot holes, bumps, and loose sections) and life was good!

We hit the first gravel section somewhere around the 1-hour mark, and that's when everything fell apart. I was in the back third of the pack when we made the turn onto gravel, and the carnage was direct and immediate. The gravel sections are what I would describe as loose, sandy gravel. It's a mixture of a few hard-pack stretches that your can roll right over interspersed with sections of loose sand or sand/gravel mix that your wheels just dig into and bog down. To make it a little more interesting, you've got ruts, pot-holes, and debris to watch out for too. Several people either went down or flatted in the first hundred yards of this section, which just blew the group apart. I made it through section #1 with no major issues. This was actually the "bonus" gravel section, just a couple miles long, that was added this year because the traditional route had a washout and was "closed".

We had a few miles of pavement where there were still a few other riders around me, then gravel section #2 started. This section was long. About all I remember was having a death grip on my bars most of the time and running into a "sand pit" that stopped my cold. My wheels sank down so far I went from 15 mph to 0 in about 4 feet and fell over before I could get unclipped. I'm not sure, but I think this stretch lasted 5 or 6 miles. It seemed to go on for a long time, and, by the end, I was all alone.

When I got back to pavement after gravel stretch #2, the mentally brutal part of the race really started. Most of this part of the race is on pretty good quality country roads, with very little traffic. What made it tough was that I was all alone, and the route went right into a brutal head wind. This wasn't a breeze, it was a wind....a blow debris down the road type of wind. If it hadn't been for the tree, I would have thought I was in Oklahoma or Kansas! After about 20-minutes of this, I mentally shifted from "race" mode to "survival" mode. In going through the two gravel sections, I completely lost track of everyone else, and there were times when I was pretty sure I must have been in DFL place. I started wondering what I would do if the SAG van came along and said they needed to clear the course? That never happened, and I was definitely in the back of the race, but not quite in last place.

Anyway, gravel section #3 hits at about the 65 mile mark. It's shorter than #2, but it's where the hills really start. The sandy gravel on the hills is loose enough so that if you stand up, you spin out. Maybe some of the guys in the Cat 1/2 race were able to ride the hills, but my guess is that everyone had to walk at least a couple of them in gravel sections 3 & 4. I ended up walking one hill in Section 3.

There was a 10 or 15 mile section of good pavement between gravel section #3 and Section #4. For what ever reason, I started to feel pretty good after gravel section 3. I passed a couple of people in this section, and saw that everyone was suffering from the head wind as much as I was. Anyway, I picked the pace back up after I hit the pavement and caught up with a couple guys. I put on my best "salesman" hat and convined one guy that we were much better off suffering together than we were fighting the headwind alone, and he grabbed my wheel. We road together for about 10-miles. I think I did about 70-80% of the pulls, but having someone to share the misery with was a huge mental boost. We passed a number of people in this stretch, but everyone we passed seemed so deflated and out of it that they didn't seem to see the advantage in teaming up. I few had managed to put together a small group instead of just the two of us, I think we would have made up considerable time on this stretch.

Gravel Stretch #4 was short, but it was a killer. It had the steepest hills, and I think I was reduced to walking up 4 of them. To my way of thinking, this was the toughest gravel stretch. You're alone, the hills are killer, and the road is ROUGH. I do remember one down-hill with a very sharp left-hand turn. Once I got near the turn, I realized there was a ditch across the road. I braked for a second and then tried, unsuccessfully, to hop over it. FAIL. I hit it pretty hard and was shocked that I didn't take a head-first tumble, flat, or bust a wheel. It turned out that the last feed station was near the top of the hill in this section, and right at the start of the pavement. I passed two more people about a mile from this aid station, but from there to the finish, I didn't see another racer.

The last 20-miles of the race were all on "pavement", but it was hilly, windy, and very rough stuff. I think my average speed dropped to 17 mph or so over this section, but that was about all I had left at that point.

I got back to town and "finished".

WOW.....what a day!

Positives:
1. I finished and was not last
2. No bike issues
3. Nutrition plan worked great, despite forgetting my bottles and gel flask
4. The course is pretty unforgettable!


1. Bike Race Checklist: I left home without water bottles, gel flask, jerseys, and my USAC license - STUPID.
2. More winter rides: I've been riding some, but this was my longest ride in 10-months and my longest ride ever on the road bike. A couple more winter long rides to build more endurance and time in the saddle would have been beneficial.
3. I normally ride a tri bike, and my tri bike position is dialed in and comfortable for 6 or 7 hour ride. Road bike position....not so much. If I'm going to be able to compete on the road bike, I need to get the position dialed in.
4. It's a bike race, so riding solo for so long on the paved stretches makes no sense. In hindsight, I should have done whatever it took to link up with some other riders for the long windy stretch between gravel sections 2 & 3. I would have made up a lot of time and saved a lot of energy for the last paved stretch.

1. Training
2. Mental toughness
3. Riding solo for 70% of the race


This race "is what it is". Long, usually tough weather, hills, and very rough "Roubaix" style roads. The race organizers claim that this course will chew you up and spit you out if you're not properly trained, and they're right! However, if you're looking for a bike only event, early in the year, that involves longer distance and a challenging course, THIS IS AN EXCELLENT EVENT!