Barry-Roubaix, The Killer Gravel Road Race. March 26th, 2011

Barry-Roubaix website:


Here's a great clip on how the race played out at the head of the pack:

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

Now from a mortal's perspective:

WOW, what a stellar kick off to the race season here in Michigan. Promoter Rick Plite and his crew executed another exceptional race with attendance hitting close to 1000 riders for this years gala event. The premise for the race is simple. There are three distances to choose from (23, 35, 65 mile) and any bike is welcome. It was obvious that the 18 degree conditions outside had little impact on people showing up and this was realized when I rounded the corner to enter the park and was caught up in the following mess:

By the time I got parked and picked up my number plate I was already 40 minutes behind schedule. This left me about 20 minutes to get ready. It dawned on me that cold weather riding usually requires an additional 30 minutes of prep time to get layered and warmed up properly. I spun on the trainer for a meager 10 minutes and headed over to the start line just as they said, GO! I settled in with the roll out and prepared myself for the Sager road section that sucked for me so badly last year. I was tickled to discover the benefit to riding the first wave was that the riders were able to clear the "technical" sections cleanly without the mayhem that surely happened behind our wave. The sandy roads of the course were frozen hard and smooth. Barry County has some truly amazing roads! In usual fashion I was promptly popped off the back within the first few miles and played leap frog with as many groups as I could.
At mile five I avoided disaster as I flatted the front tire on a fast sketchy downhill. I changed the flat as I watched what seemed like hundreds of riders fly past. Back on the road I soon realized I forgot to attach the front brake cable and had to stop to re-attach it. Doh! It was somewhere around mile 20 that I realized in my haste to get to the start line that I had failed to toss a few gels into my back pocket and had absolutely no nutrition for the 65 mile haul.
At the base of a lengthy climb some homeowners were blaring "The Eye of the Tiger" which seemed appropriate as I dragged my ass up the climb. The next 10 miles I rode with a good group of riders as we exchanged pulls and reeled in swarms of riders. As I approached a final climb towards the end of lap one I shifted down and dropped my chain off the inner chain ring. Another stop. Damn.
I eventually finished lap one feeling pretty good although my tank was running low. As I made the turn for the second lap I had a feeling in my gut that I was in for a struggle. I was desperate for energy food as I scoured the road for an unused gel packet or Clif bar. Due to the cold conditions, there was a great deal of gel packets and chemical hand warmers littering the road dropped from the back pockets of fumbling riders. I eventually found a unused GU packet and tore off the top and as I squeezed the heavenly goodness from within I realized it had been run over and the bottom corners had been blown out. My left hand was now covered with semi-frozen sticky goodness which bonded my fingers together like crazy glue. I then stopped at the aid station and gobbled down a frozen banana. Unfortunately, they were all pre-peeled, frozen and uber-slippery. I just couldn't bring myself to cram one in my back pocket for later.
The frozen roads were now thawed, soft and very slow. I was very slow and each hill was getting progressively harder to climb. I was cooked. I was thankful that I had a good supply of glycogen stored from a week of rest and that I was fully hydrated.
I finished at 4:20:xx and was 80 out of 145 in the 65 mile class. I'll take it. Some races are flawlessly executed and there is often very little to reflect on. This particular event made up for those flawlessly executed races and I think karma should be in balance now for me. My bike was set up perfectly for this course. I had no clothing malfunctions and my layering was spot on. The lessons learned I can only hope to remember prior to this race next year.

In a nutshell, this race is a true test of a riders early season fitness. What a blast!

RESULTS & PHOTOS