Boulder Roubaix
May 23, 2004
This race was scheduled for April, but 7 inches of snow forced the postponement to today and the weather was beautiful. The course is a 17-mile loop with the majority of that on dirt roads and gravel trails.
The Rocky Mounts team was well represented with Greg (flatted), Eric (22nd?), and Jerome (4th!) in the 35+/Cat. 4, Kevin, Jeb, Matson, and Noah in the Cat. 3’s and Eric Coppock, Jon Garcia, Jeff Knutson, and myself in the Cat. 4’s. Why wasn’t I in the 35+/Cat. 4’s? Because my friends said the Cat. 4’s would make me stronger and, presumably, more humble. I think we succeeded on that score.
Checking into this race was a complete joke that every cyclist complained about. I don’t know if the race organizers are brain damaged or what, but this procedure is so stupid it’s shocking. Many, probably most of us, had pre-registered for this race. This was a huge mistake since if you pre-registered you had to wait in a horrendously long line, manned by I’m sure well-meaning volunteers who are incredibly slow, just to pick up the form that you had previously mailed! Then you had to get into another line to get your number. There just isn’t hardly anything to do here, but they are amazingly slow at it. The message to the riders was DO NOT pre-register. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Every bike race director should be required to go to a running race and see how things should be done. It just isn’t that complicated. Don’t penalize people for pre-registering. Is that really the message they want to send? Despite getting to the race an hour early, I got in about three minutes of warm-up do to this fiasco.
Eric and I staged about in the middle of the group and when the gun went off, things didn’t go ballistic from the start. I was thankful for that and soon worked my way up to the front. I’d send most of the race here, perhaps working too hard, but staying mostly out of trouble and with the lead group.
After a half-mile or so, we turned north onto the dirt roads. The course doesn’t really have any true hill climbs, but there are plenty of short, steep rollers where I’d invariably get out of the saddle to get over them. On the first rise, there is a crash near the front and in the middle of the group, I have no trouble going by on the left and the pace picks up. I think the mentality is to attack after any crash as it tends to split up the group. We didn’t go that hard for that long, though.
When we hit Neva Road, I went to the front a pulled a bit, but not too much. Jeff and Jon were riding a lot at the front as well, but I didn’t see Eric. He was the ghost rider. I knew his plan was to lay low for at least the first lap. The pace was conducive to this, but the crashes weren’t.
The next crash happened at the bottom of a hill where we did a 90-degree turn to the left (north). This is all on dirt and if you took this corner wide, it was really loose and a rider went down. More rollers led to the Nelson Road and a fast, mostly downhill section of pavement heading east. We turned south on 63rd and there are a number of rolling hills here where the pace picked up a bit. We turned back west and after a short bit, made the left turn onto the gravel canal path. Immediately there is a crash near the front and I have to put my foot down and get around on the left. I chase hard to get back with the leaders, but the effort has hurt. I latch on and try to stay upright around to the two switchbacks of Wipeout Alley. The first one marks the start of a short, steep, loose downhill and the next one leads up a short, steep, loose hill to a loose gravel section. Sure enough, another rider goes down in the first switchback. He’s right in front of me, but I get around on the right and I’m in the lead group at the end of the first lap. Jon and Jeff are here as well and maybe Eric. He was riding at the back and had to chase back on no less than three times throughout the race.
Sheri and the kids came out for the race. The kids spent the whole time playing down in the water and sand at the Reservoir, but Sheri was feeding Eric and I. I didn’t see Sheri at the end of the first lap, but I didn’t need her either. I started with two bottles and I was still good.
I stayed near the front again on the second lap and led the field into the dangerous corner at the bottom of the hill. I also worked hard on Neva and led the field onto the gravel canal path. I wanted to stay in front of all the crashes, but not work too hard. I gave up the lead after a wheel and grabbed a wheel. Wipeout went well the second time, as I was the 3rd rider there.
At the top of the hill I spotted Sheri and she expertly delivered me an extra water bottle. I tossed one of my to the side and slipped it into the cage. I led the field through the finish at the end of the second lap and back onto the dirt. I led for too long here and when I moved over a number of riders when by, but I latched onto 7th or 8th place. When it was my turn to take the front again, the rider who had just moved over gave me a push to get me out in front. I led again for a while and halfway up a hard hill. When Jeff came by me, he gave me a little push as well and said, “Come on, Bill. Stay with the leaders.” I did.
Around this time, Eric comes by me. I was shocked. I had not seen him from the very start of the race. He was looking strong and headed right to front to mix things up. I was dying at this point, but still hanging on.
When we hit Nelson road, the Rocky Mounts blue train had four riders all within the top ten places. I took a turn up here and led the turn onto 63rd, but now things started to heat up big time. Immediately a rider attacked, but Jeff chased him down. Then Eric attacked, I think. Finally Jon goes off the front and no one goes with him. He’s riding strong and gets a hundred meters or more on the field. I wonder if he can hold it. It’s still so long to the finish.
At one point along this stretch, on a slight rise, a rider just back and left of me reached for his water bottle, lost concentration, and hit a wheel in front of him. He went down like a ton of bricks and I’m sure others ran into him and got held up. They don’t call this division Crash 4 for nothing.
There are surges all the time, at every hill and sometimes at seemingly random times, but maybe they are chasing down an attacker. I don’t know since I’m barely hanging onto the back of the lead group, which is stringing out and blowing apart. We make the turn onto Neva and the peloton catches Jon here and goes by. Eric goes to the front and pulls most of the way down this road. We lose Jeff here as he pops off the back. Eric is the best placed Rocky Mounts and I’m right behind me as we turn onto the gravel for the last time.
I’ve been on the rivet for the past fifteen minutes and I finally crack. I can’t close down the gap to Eric’s wheel and I’m left in no man’s land. I go into time trial mode and try to hang onto a good placement. Two riders catch me and go by, one is Jon, who has apparently recovered. I try to grab his wheel, but can’t quite do it. We stay about 50 meters apart for the rest of the race.
I look back before Wipe-Out Alley and I have a huge gap. I’ve been here before. I’m the first to pop off the lead group, but by the time I do, we’ve gapped the rest of the field. I have at least 20 seconds on the next rider. I take things careful down and up the hill, not wanting to lose what I have. Just before we hit the pavement for the last, fast mile to the finish, I see Eric in a heap by the metal barrier. He was in the group behind the two breakaway leaders and was confident he’d win the sprint for third, but he was just getting up when I went by. He’d recover for 16th place. The last mile was anti-climatic, as I wasn’t going to catch Jon or be caught from behind. I worked hard into the finish to claim 12th place to Jon’s 11th. I was less than a minute behind the winners and the race took 2h23m. This is an average speed of around 22 mph.
I stuck around for a bit chatting things up with a number of people, including former Bronco Reggie Rivers, who was in my race. Reggie is a big, muscular guy and a really nice guy as well. He used to have a local radio show and currently has a talk show on local channel 12. He’s coming out with his third book about how a crime family tried to fix an NFL football game. Reggie got shelled pretty early in this race, but he finished.
I went down to the beach and hung out with the family. Daniel and Derek had constructed a big lake at into the shore and even had an island in it. I lounged around mostly and then stood out in the water to ice my legs down a bit.
Before leaving, I watched the Cat. 3’s and the women’s 1-2-3 race go by. One guy was off the front of the 3’s, but not by far. A chase group of about ten included Matson. There was a 15-second gap back to the next group, led by Jeb. Just as this group was about to finish the first lap, a completely oblivious female jogger with headphones in her ears, cut right in front of them. I thought the entire group was going to go down, but miraculous, no one crashed and no one hit the woman. I don’t think she even knew what was going on. The course marshal here was doing a pretty pathetic job. He was way too passive and had some trouble with cars as well.
The women’s field came by completely shattered. A lead group of three, then former Olympian Ann Trombley (Excel) with another rider, Maajte (solo), and then one’s and two’s. It looked like the rest of that race would be in individual time trial for almost everyone. That sucks. It didn’t look like a normal bike race at all. I guess that just shows the very wide disparity of ability in the women’s field.
This was a tough race for me. I’m still learning. I probably worked too much, as I didn’t have the power and pop to stay with the final attacks. I certainly didn’t have the mileage in my legs as I’m only riding a hundred miles a week and my longest rides or the year have been the Carter Lake (51 miles) and Roubaix (51 miles) races. But I’m having fun and staying the mix until near the end.
