Barry Roubaix 2011 Recap- From an average Joe cyclist point of view #601

Lookey Lookey! Wannabe is racing his commuter/CX Gunnar Fastlane bike in the
Barry-Roubaix Killer Gravel Road Race!!!!

Photo credit: Hans Nyberg at Tenmilemedia

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Watch more video of Barry-Roubaix: The Killer Gravel Road Race on cyclingdirt.org

LOOK!!! at the 2:00 minute mark Number 601!! That is me!!!
Extreme Gravel Racing!

Oh where to begin... was it the eighteen degrees biting cold wintry snap that held our attention, or was it the fact that it was my very first road race?

At first I was all jittery and confused, didn’t know whether to wear my boots or my canvas shoes with toe warmers, glad I chose the latter, and whether or not to wear my other jacket, just wrapped up in my team kit and a sweater I was very cold, but this was at idle, which would surely change once we started pedaling about like mad men / women. So this is the Wannabe all dressed up in the RACING GREYHOUND team kit for the first time, a great day to try something new, on a less than perfect day of 18 degrees! But at least the sun was shining bright; this made a HUGE difference in all of our rides, guaranteed

Cold Crisp Spring day on Gun Lake

My initial excitement grew when I had realised that there was an absolute no turning back during warm up, and I had to just make do with what gear I was wearing and how my bike was set up, which was perfect as far as I could tell, I really wouldn’t change a thing but maybe clean the chain and use a dry wax lubricant instead of the oily lot that was on there gathering all that grime and grit from the road, thus causing inadvertent shifting errors and other crazy things we shall delve into at a more proper segment.

After rolling up to the group of people for the 35 mile route in my class, I had a sense of ease and well being, after all, everything was in its proper place, the bike was tuned the gear was sufficient and warm-ish, the food stores, although could be better, were suitable for the first hour, as so I had thought. I see some fellow hounds and roll up to then asking them if this was the correct group to be in, just to really make sure, and it was, as if it wasn’t then it would disqualify your race. Four minutes to go, I reset my Garmin GPS and just let it count, I was still too nervous to manually start the counter as we crossed the threshold, in hind sight I totally could have, so the first four minutes or so were added to the total time recorded, as well as the last few minutes or so, it really didn’t matter too much as my time was far less than acceptable, but hey, you got to start somewhere. It was time, I was shaking and feeling all kinds of emotion, it was so fast and so exhilarating to me that it felt euphoric in a weird way, all the pre race stresses vanished and I was riding my bicycle again.

RIDE DETAILS OMMITTED - STAY TUNED FOR VIDEO!

Yes, indeed, after a rough road race even the bikes needed to take a little nap. ;-) Wouldn’t you know that there was well over a Million dollars of bicycles here on race day, more like 3 million as 3 grand a pop times 975 entries or so, and is such a testament to the cycling community that, although not the safest measure, and most certainly not the brightest, you can just leave your 2400 dollar Sach’s laying around for the taking. But we cyclists would never do such a thing, that is like kicking down your door and having an affair with your spouse right in front of you while eating your supper and taking a crap on your throne whilst reading your favourite issue of Velonews. Sick and wrong on all accounts, therefore it is rather safe to presume that your bicycle will be safe at such event. We are a very trust worthy community, as far as I am concerned, for the most part that is, as there are bad seeds anywhere.

Like this one here in the center, number 601.

Photo credit: Andrea TuckerTucker Bikes

Enough reading? How about watching this small video clip of how the race pace was on these roads, this is the Sagar road segment, which was, quite rough in relation to the rest of the ride.

Not too shabby eh? A fellow GREYHOUND is shown in the yellow and black for the most of the video, and this pace was almost double my slow precarious pace in this section as I was both scared of crashing into the icy cold ground and wrecking my awesome Gunnar Fastlane, I know, kinda lame of an excuse but it is all I got. If you look towards the 4 minute mark, a rider goes down hard, he may have been the one with the broken bone injury. A few people were injured during this rough race.

See the map below for specific details if you please:




Links

The OFFICIAL Facebook page HERE
The OFFICIAL race results HERE
The OFFICIAL Garmin results HERE (Note: there was a four minute lead in and an outro to my time recorded.)

Cycling Dirt's Totally stellar review of the race, read this!!



The GARMIN results of my rather EPIC ride.
Summary
Overall
Time: 02:50:49
Distance: 35.26 mi
Elevation Gain: 1,882 ft
Calories: 2,099 C
Timing
Time: 02:50:49
Moving Time: 02:40:17
Elapsed Time: 02:50:49
Avg Speed: 12.4 mph
Avg Moving Speed: 13.2 mph
Max Speed: 29.5 mph
Avg Pace: 04:50 min/mi
Avg Moving Pace: 04:32 min/mi
Best Pace: 02:01 min/mi
Speed
Pace
Elevation
Elevation Gain: 1,882 ft
Elevation Loss: 1,884 ft
Min Elevation: 744 ft
Max Elevation: 1,096 ft
Heart Rate
Avg HR: 160 bpm
Max HR: 182 bpm
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Which comparatively speaking, in relation to all my other rides recently, including but not withstanding, sucks royally, period.

In summary: I went out too hard too soon thus depleting my main energy stores, hitting my "wall" and essentially falling off the back of the entire race. I basically did a "What not to do" during the event and seem to do the same subsequently on our Tuesday Night World Training rides, you would think I would learn by now. At least I have did this so many times that I am rather predictable, pathetically so, but always consistent.


Anyway, the ride back took 2 hours including filling up and on the way we so happened to see a wonderful Barn-o-gon in all its splendour:

Barn-o-gon?

I got fourth place... from the last in my class. ; )
81 601 Wannabecyclist M 36 Racing Greyhounds 2:45:32 12.7

It is not how fast you are, it is how much fun you have. Ride safe my friends!!





-WCFTW