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| Rouge-Roubaix Race Report
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| If your Mom knew you were riding your good bike like this as a kid, you would have been punished. That thought always comes to mind riding the gravel sections of the Rouge Roubaix race. The race is 100 miles through some great country North of St Francisville, LA. It includes some really nice roads but also some bad ones and three sections of gravel. There is an “A” race for the Cat 1,2,3’s and Masters and a “B” race that starts 15 minutes later for the Cat 4 and 5’s. The “B” race field seemed bigger this year - maybe because of the weather which was in the 50’s at the start, warming to the 70’s before we would finish. Mike Bradford and one other NOBC rider who I just met going to the start were in the “B” race with me. I was running around trying to find someone to give me some bottles in the feed zones so I wouldn’t have to wear a camelbak in the heat. Theresa, Mike’s girlfriend, would be in the second feed zone. I lent an extra helmet to a Cane’s racer on the condition that they would hand me a bottle in the first feed zone.
The race has a three mile neutral start and there is a lot of conversation. This is the first big race of the season (although Cane’s had a big turnout for their two-man time trial a few weeks ago) and it is like seeing classmates again at the start of school. There are a few folks in the pack who wander around a little too much for me so I move up towards the front of the race after a few miles. Things move along pretty steady until we get to the first gravel section around mile 25. A guy in an Eddy Merckx jersey moves to the front a pushes the pace into the mid-twenties in the loose dirt. This spreads the field into a single line and instantly drops riders who aren’t too confident in the gravel. It seems like there is more sand this year and my back wheel gets loose a little more. In a thick gravel section at the bottom of a hill, I hear a rider behind me hit the ground pretty hard. After eight miles we are off the gravel and have less than half the riders in the front group. There are still some bad spots in the road and Paul Koehn with ProBike hits a pot hole hard and flats. The wheel wagon is a ways back and his chances to win the race just got that much tougher. You need to be lucky to finish well in Rouge Roubaix since there is so much opportunity for mechanicals and crashes. I saw three riders go off the front before we started the gravel section so I push the group to keep a steady pace. Last year was my first Rouge Roubaix race and a rider broke away early and we never caught him. We start passing up a few riders but I think they missed the gravel turn. They don’t look like the guys I saw go off the front. Before we hit the second gravel section at mile 65, I think we are all together again. Just before the start of the second gravel section there is a bad bridge with wooden planks for cars to travel over a dirt section. I cross on the right planks and hear a rider crash on the left one. I assume his wheel got between the planks. It happened in the race last year as well. Block House Hill on this second dirt section is pretty tough and often separates the race even more. This year it seems even harder since the sand is thicker. You need to keep your pace fast to keep from falling yet not dig too deep up the hill that you can’t recover. I lead the group up the hill and may have pushed a little too hard. A guy has a camera on the side of the road and I don’t want to see a picture of me pushing my bike! After the hill, James Bagley and another rider come by me and we are riding along at a good pace. On one of the rollers I loose my line and get sidewise and have to get off my bike. Three other riders get by me as I run up the hill before getting back on.
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I make it off the gravel but there is a pretty big gap between me and the front five riders. I am cramping some in my legs and push hard to bridge to the front. The front riders are organized and pushing the pace and I am not closing very fast. It is clear I won’t catch them by myself and decide to ease up and wait for two riders behind me, John Smith with TCC and the Eddy Merckx guy (I never met up with him after the race so didn’t get his name) so we can work together. I am a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to clear the gravel section with the lead group and know my chance for a win today has gotten a lot tougher. The three of us work hard taking 30 - 60 second pulls. Every now and then we catch some riders and I am hoping they have fallen off the front group but they are off the back of the “A” race and don’t look too fresh. I get my bottles from Theresa in the second feed zone and we continue to work all the way until we start the third dirt section. I push not only to catch to group in front of us but to keep from getting caught by others from behind. We agree that we will work to regroup after the gravel if we get separated and start the dirt section with our legs burning. All three of us ditch any attempt to ride the first steep hill and run our bikes to the top. We stay together the rest of the way and keep the pace pretty fast. We pass more riders but all are from the “A” race. Jay Scheib yells to me as I pass him walking. He took a bad spill on the one of the fast downhill's and hurt his ribs too much to ride up the hill. We are back on the paved road but it won’t be too long before it gets marginal with lots of rough spots and pot holes. We work hard and there are a couple of guys from the “A” race that jump on. After a few miles I notice that “Eddy” has fallen off the back quite a ways. I sit up for a second but he doesn’t look like he is closing any distance. John and I continue to pull and finally within 5 to 7 miles from the finish we catch up with a group of four riders. Two of them are from our race (one is a Southern Elite rider) and all the hard effort seems worth it. John, me and the Southern Elite rider are doing all the work. I am pushing the pace the hardest hoping to maybe see the front riders. We are down to the last few miles and the group is starting to fall off the pace when I pull up hills. I think I am the strongest rider left but one of the riders we caught hasn’t done any pulls so I am not sure. I consider just breaking away and finishing alone but I decide not to risk it. I hadn’t been able to get as many miles in this year and am a little concerned about cramping this late in the race. We make the turn back on to Hwy 66. We are less than 2 miles to the finish. There is a hill before we turn off the main highway and another hill just before the finish on a side road. The Southern Elite rider tries to break away on the hill but I jump his wheel. He pushes for a while but I am right with him and still feeling strong. I take a look back and no one else is close. He eases up for a second and I come around him and take off. He tries to stay with me but he is hurting. I make the turn off the main highway easy and finish off the front. John is able to come by the Southern Elite rider and get second in our group. I don’t know how close I came to the front group. James Bagley lost the sprint to another rider but it turns out the other rider had got lost in the first gravel section and somehow cut 5 miles off the course. He turned himself in to the race officials and was DQ’d. I was extremely impressed with his integrity. James placed first and I got third. I would have loved to have been in the lead group sprinting for first but was very happy that my hard work to catch the front group paid off. It is very satisfying to finish on the podium in the race that the March 2006 issue of Bicycling magazine calls “The Hell of the South”. |
