Boulder-Roubaix

Boulder-Roubaix, Boulder's answer to the great one day classic. I have the run down here.

Preview:

The race takes place over 8 laps and 110.8km of hard riding. The race flyer says that there is 75% of hard pack dirt road, but I think it was probably closer to 80%. Although there were no big climbs, there were a few little lumps. Not enough to break up the field, but certainly enough to sap the energy from the legs.

I took some photos of the course on Thursday, but by Saturday the roads looked completely different. On Friday the weather turned to crap and the rain started to piss down. So the photos below are of what the roads looked like in the sun.

The first photo is of the road just as the race turns off the sealed section.

Another photo showing the roads we were to race on. In the distance the road goes up in what was one of the lumps.

Below is a photo of one of the locals chillin' out on the course. I sure hope he doesn't try to stage a protest of the race and lie in the middle of the road.

This race was one that I was quite looking forward to. In fact, I liked the look of the race so much that I skipped riding the Olympics to focus on it. Either that or I was just straight up not good enough for Beijing, one of the two anyway. It was a race that suited me a lot more than those technical crits or the horrible races that just go straight up hill. I had an easy week leading up to today, but I needed the rest. I wasn't feeling great all week, but was hopeful I could rise to the occasion. It was going to be a tough race, so I would certainly need to step up if I wanted to do well.

Race Report:

I woke up this morning, took a look out my window, and just saw a constant stream of rain. I didn't know whether or not that was good for me, but it would certainly make things interesting. It was pretty cold as well. At least compared to the sort of weather that we have been having here lately. It was time to put away the sunscreen and pull out the thermals. But luckily or not (I'm not really sure which) the rain cleared up by the time the Pro 1,2,3 men took the start line. The sun even managed pop out and say "hello", but not till the last lap.

The first lap saw me get off to a pretty bad start. Though there was a feed station, I had no one to feed me, so the two bottles I had on my bike had to last me 110km. Coming off the sealed section I was still doing well, but I hit the dirt and hit some trouble. This opening section of dirt proved to be one of the tougher sections of the race. We'd hit the dirt pretty quick, but finding the best line to miss the potholes and slow mud proved difficult. I hit the gravel and took the worse possible line I think I could have. I was bouncing all over the place, and it wasn't long before my still full bottle popped out. I now had to do 110km on one bottle; shit!

But that wasn't my biggest problem on lap one. Battling with the wrong line and getting in the wrong place meant I was spat out the back. I was using up a lot of precious energy, and still going backwards. But that's not where the story ends. I mean, if that was it, do you think I'd be writing about it now? Of course not. I gritted my teeth, smashed down on the pedals and clawed my way back on. I was still in the race, but that first lap wasn't the best.

After the first lap I took a lot more care and started to ride much better lines through the rougher bits. In racing, it is usually the uphills that are the most difficult, but not today. I found that the toughest bits were actually the slightly downhill run coming off the sealed section, and the final straight, which was cut up like crazy.

This was always going to be a race attrition. Two riders went off the front from the start, but where brought back before the end. Within the main bunch, there were always attacks coming here and there, but none that actually got anywhere (until the closing laps). All it did was shell some of the weaker riders off the back. Riders were even attacking on the sealed section, where the peleton had to do nothing but lap through on the downhill to bring them back. The race remained intact for the first 5 laps, but on the 6th the fatigue was starting to show, and the best were starting to show themselves. Each lap the hills got harder, the roads felt rougher, I got more dehydrated, was starting to cramp slightly, and life was just getting tougher. On the 6th lap the attacks began in interest. I was able to react to them pretty well, but was suffering. I hoped that would mean that everyone else was suffering as well, so I even tried my luck at getting away. It didn't work. I kept battling, but by the time we hit home straight leading up to 2 to go, I was gapped off the back. I knew that road would get smoother after the finish line, so I kept battling to remain in contact. I could see a rider just in front and focused on catching him. After a while I looked up a bit further to see that the bunch had blown apart.

For the last 2 laps there were just two of us. We battled on to the finish together, but the race was over for us. We rolled in side by side to take 19th and 20th (well, I was officially 20th). I was a bit disappointed, but I didn't do too bad. It was my first race that I put any priority to for a while, and I responded better than I thought I would during the race. I finished in a time of 3.19.18. Not bad since I had expected to take 3 1/2 hours, and we did sit up a bit on the last lap.

Here's a photo of me, looking rather happy after the race. The photo was taken just after the finish line.

Below are the happy winners on the podium. The guy on the right looks pretty keen to get into that beer.

Here are some close up photos, to show you the crap we rode through.

I was impressed my bike withstood the onslaught of the race without breaking. Maybe the casing of dirt gave a bit of strength to the frame.

The new paint scheme on the Orca, gold, to celebrate Samuel Sanchez' gold medal ride. And yea, Orbea got me the new bike straight away, just for this race.

SRAM, not to be out done, have their gold coloured cranks.

...and matching derailleur.

But most of the mess accumulated on the bottom end of the bike.


My attempt to be a euro cyclist (see Facebook group, "Official rules of the euro cyclist"). Shoes still white, even after epic muddy ride.

And you can see I'm following the euro rule of having my socks protrude above my booties, look at that line.

Riding in August is great. It doesn't matter if you're in Boulder or Dunedin, you can still end up with an epic mudline on your ankles.

The top half of my head is nice and clean thanks to helmet, hat and glasses. Lower half pretty dirty though. Note my clean jersey, not the one I raced in, I changed before the ride home.

Yea, my helmet wasn't as white and blue as it used to be. Maybe I should just chuck it through in the washing machine. Or not.


The race has left me pretty shattered. My whole body took a hammering. But after cleaning my bike and removing mud from all my gear, I thought it would be the perfect time to check out the pool and spa at our appartment complex. Felt great to soak the body. Hopefully it will help me recover, because I've got another race tomorrow. No rest for the wicked. North Boulder crit, I'm ready for you.