Barry Roubaix March 16,2016

First time in this major race for me. The field was huge-thousands of participants. We started in waves according to our distance, gender, and age. I was in wave 11, which started 20 minutes after the first wave. Just lots and lots of bike riders. I knew several people in this race but really only saw a couple of them. This photo is of our wave.

The weather was warm and sunny-starting in the 60s and ending in the 70s. I felt pretty good because most of the faster, younger riders started ahead of me, there weren't too many people passing me other than groups of fast women who must have started in later waves. There was constant traffic but mostly I was passing slower riders. That made me feel pretty good about myself even though my actual speed wasn't really much faster than the other races I did this spring. The finish winds through Hastings on paved roads so I had a little sprint out with someone else to the finish, which I won. Of course with so many different waves, there is no way to know if someone you're riding with is even, behind or ahead of you. The Sager road stretch was interesting. I did have to stop and walk a couple of times there, but due to the fact someone ahead of me stopped and there was too much traffic to go around them. I might have been able to ride that stretch the whole way if there were no other riders nearby. I finished 1033/1475 overall with an average speed of 14.71, 48/80 in my age group. This will be my last gravel race of the spring season. I'm a little disappointed in my results. I'm actually more than one mph slower in average speed compared with past races. I haven't had a chance to train much due to the situation with our business staffing, which will get worse before it gets better. But, even a bad day on the bike is better than a good day anywhere else. I just like to get on my red bike and ride it for all I'm worth.

I think two equipment choices helped me. I kept my Clement MSO 40mm tires instead of going with my narrower (and theoretically faster)  LAS tires. Much of the gravel had been worked up and loose, probably due to the amount of traffic ahead of me and the dry conditions of the course. It hadn't rained all week so the roads were dry and dusty-really making the Paris-Roubaix reference realistic. So I like the wider tires on loose gravel-more secure. That allowed me to push a little harder, maneuver around people even though I had to get onto looser gravel and stay on the saddle in the soft sand. I also changed my gearing to a 50-34 front crankset and 30-12 rear cassette. This lower ratio allowed me to spin while remaining seated on most of the hills. This is a faster way to climb for me, and I think it helps prevent  my quads from cramping. Trying to decide if I should keep this smaller crankset on the BMC or switch it back to my Surly, which I now am using as a Rando bike. 

Manchester, TN 200K Permanent April 2016

A trip to the Nashville area for a conference and Ruth's SR board meeting gave me an opportunity to complete my April Permanent in southern Tennessee.


I abandoned my planned March Permanent in Michigan due to a combination of weather (very windy, cold and wet), a malfunctioning Garmin and a poor choice of equipment-I went with my Gunnar road bike in order to go faster, got my first flat tire 10 miles in, got chilled changing the tube, turned around and went home. That was March 27 so I had no alternate days to recover. Lessons learned-make an attempt earlier in the month, use the tried and true Rando bike, buy a new memory chip for the garmin.

Anyway, the weather was a little cool for Tennessee but considering the snow in Michigan at the time I still felt lucky. Still felt like spring in Tennessee.

Overall I really enjoyed this ride, on my BMC with my dyno hub and lights and full fenders. There were a few smatterings of rain but nothing really too serious. The route took me up two mountains with switchbacks and the occasional grade above 10% which I walked. The gearing on my BMC isn't extremely low-36X30.

I did have a rather major mechanical issue with the chain falling off the back of the rear cassette and jamming the freewheel body against the hub, causing the chain to dangle down close to the spokes whenever I coasted. I rode through Monteagle (with a brief stop to give Ruth a kiss, since she was meeting at Monteagle inn, which was right on my way) and stopped at Woody's bike shop in Suwanne. He had to completely disassemble the rear hub/freewheel in order to un-jam it. That put me behind schedule for completing this ride during daylight so I'm glad I went with my lights. Here's a photo of sunset taken from a bridge that crosses Normandy Lake. 

Lowell 50, April 2016

One of the main factors in this race was the weather. The race started in sun with temps in the 30s with a stiff west wind. By mile 24 we here headed into a snowstorm with dropping temps. While the roads never were frozen, I spend a lot of time in a pace line which I attempted to hold together as we were in the open areas of the last half of the race.

The other factor was that I really didn't feel that well. All week I felt winded and light-headed with any exertion such as climbing a flight or two of stairs. Must be fighting off something. Felt the same on the initial major climb which is the steepest and longest one of this race. Seems like an average speed of about 14.5 mph is the best I can do this spring.

Finished 101/162 overall at 14.52 mph. 14/29 in my age category. The only photos of interest I took were a before and after of my bike, which was very muddy at the end, due to the wet roads.