Rouge Survivor

This year's Rouge-Roubaix lived up to it's reputation. The front half of the A race missed a turn and added a couple of bonus miles to their 100 mile race. Meanwhile, in the B race, one rider was broadsided by a deer (or a doe?) and knocked clear across the road. He got up out of the ditch and finished the race. Rob K. ran into a rider who had crashed by dropping his wheel into a crack in an old wooden bridge, breaking off his fork in the process and ending up down in the roadside ditch like Jan Ullrich. Frank Moak, after flatting in the A race and chasing back with the help of a couple of teammates, got all the way to the last dirt section when his rear derailleur exploded, getting tangled in his rear wheel and ripping off the derailleur hanger.

We started with about 65 riders in the A race and within a couple of miles of the start we were already going 29 mph. Things were still together when we hit the first dirt section at mile 25. The pace started out fairly reasonable- around 22 mph - but gradually increased. At mile 30 we were still in the gravel and I looked down at my computer which was reading 30 mph. It was definitely the fastest I've ever gone on dirt! The pace stayed brisk and when we hit the second gravel section around mile 65 I was near the front. The steep mile long climb at the start of this section split the pack big-time, and after a very hard but very disorganized chase a few of us who had lost a bit of ground finally regained contact with the front group which was itself chasing a solo rider who had escaped in the dirt.

The front group was down to about 16 riders by the time we hit the final and most severe dirt section at around mile 80. This section starts with a nearly impossible climb. A number of riders were quickly off their bikes. I was kind of stuck behind a couple of riders on the right side of the road who were climbing a bit slower than I would have liked. A string of five or six riders when flying up the climb on my left while I struggled to stay upright in the loose gravel at a speed of maybe 5 mph. My quads were screaming by the time I lumbered over the top but I was able to hang onto a small group of riders for most of the rest of this section, nearly getting dropped a couple of times in the hills. Finally, I hit the asphalt after letting a dangerous gap open between me and a group of four ahead. Chris was with me and helped a lot as we worked to close the gap. Our group of six would stay together for most of the remaining 10 or 12 miles, coming apart only in the last mile or so as a few of the stronger riders attacked.

I was pretty well toasted by the end, but a 12th place finish in this race is pretty satisfying for an old guy like me. I think I went through the equivalent of about 10 gel packs of Hammer Gel, but only about two bottles of water. The rest of the team did pretty well - I think everyone finished. My legs will be hurting tomorrow for sure and I think that an easy day or two is definitely in order!