The Race:First, I had bad directions from Yahoo! maps. That is the second time Yahoo! maps has given me just plain wrong directions. Luckily I left early enough to make it w/ some time to spare.
Hillsboro-Roubaix is so named due to it being a somewhat hilly course, always super windy and w/ several bad roads and some brick road sectors. It was a very nice day overall; shorts (obviously from pic) for the first time this year! It was a windy bastard though. And riding on bricks is way rough. I thought it wouldn't be too bad, but it was bone rattling.
We had 100+ people starting our race, so this was the biggest RR field I've ever started with. It was 3 laps of a 22mile course. It started hard an remained hard throughout. Toward the end (~3/4 through) the second lap, (what I thought was [I'll explain this]) the main field split to all hell on a super windy section. Wanting to make the selection (which was splintering to fewer and fewer guys very rapidly), I chomped the bit and rode as hard as I could to bridge to them. I made it, and by the time I did it was down to me and three others at the base of the first (of two) climbs back into Hillsboro.
When we started the climb, I noticed my "breakmates" were struggling, huffing/puffing, grunting, shifting down, etc. I felt fine and was climbing this hill in my big ring even, so I thought 'f^#k it, I'm going to drop these guys and see what happens.' And so I did. I solo'd off for the remaining ~2miles of the second lap and headed out onto the third (final lap) solo. I could see my gap growing as I would round corners and my only thoughts were "I'm going to win this mother' and 'what should my victory salute be?' (I pretty much decided on the finger pointing in the air offering up madd props to Allah). So, riding my ass off, ~3/4 way through he final lap I caught up to 2 guys that had Cat III numbers pinned on. I asked "are you guys three's?" They said "yeah." I asked "are dropped and lapped, or OTF (off the front)?" they said "OTF, the main field is 45seconds up." I thought 'shit, there was a breakaway somewhere along the line that I didn't see go.' So these two dudes wanted to work together to try to catch the group, but I was much stronger than them, so I worked w/ them for a few rotations, then just rode away from them. I knew I wasn't going to catch the group up the road, which I could see through corners was ~7-10guys. I thought 'ah well, maybe top 10, a super hard workout and tan lines.' So I continued on solo and finished strong.
Fast Forward to results, I'm listed as 44th! I guess at some point roughly half the field got away and I never even saw it happen! The group I saw up the road in front of me was defiantly NOT 43 people, so I guess a humongous group 'sneeked' away in front of them. Kind of a bummer of a result, but I rode super good, so I'm happy w/ the day overall. Downer about a 100+ person start is you can't see what's going on all the time.
I do want to mention also, that under race conditions the 11speed drivetrain was awesome. I always had the right gear and it worked 100% without flaw. And the Fulcrum racing 0 wheels are sweet too. I love the feel of an ultra stiff wheel under a carbon frame. You get this weird kind of incredibly lively feel from the road, but that is deadened by the frame; it's hard to describe (like a really good, solid road feel, but that doesn't beat you up).
Well this got long fast, so if you've read to this point, you're dedicated; thank you!
Looks like snow this week! I'll keep y'all updated on what I can get done training wise.
1 comment:
I didn't know they sold pink thigh highs. NICE!
Great job on the race. You were cracking me up mid-post with the victory solute decision making.
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