How did the event go?

I traveled down to Hasting Michigan this past weekend for the Barry Roubaix 62-mile gravel event with a good friend Mark Lancia.  Like most other gravel events Barry Roubaix is a mixed-field mass start event, meaning that anyone can register and anyone can be at the front of the field.  This can lead to a huge and sometimes a chaotic group until the first real split of the race, but I’ll get to that later. 

This year at Barry Roubaix I chose to do the 62 mile event as opposed to the 100 mile event I did last year.  I decided on the shorter event for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, the 62-mile event has a fairly significant amount of prize money whereas the 100-mile event has none.  Secondly, this was my first race of the season and I felt it would be nice to “ease” into the year.  The 62-mile event had an 11 am start time, which was a welcome change from the usual 7-8 am start of other endurance events.  This meant that instead of rushing through breakfast, coffee and the usual pre-race routine to get the most amount of sleep possible, we were able to take our time and sleep in a bit.   Now I’ll skip the small nuances of the morning and get to the race it’s self!

The day of the event was pretty brisk… with overcast, lots of wind and a low of 4º it was a difficult decision trying to figure out what to wear.  Especially because Mark and I had no one to take a jacket or warm clothing at the start line. We arrived at the start line 30 minutes before the start thinking that this would put us pretty close to the front of the start pen but we were super wrong.  Mark and I ended up being 15-20 rows back from the front which meant that we would have to do a fair amount of work to get to the front of the field in the opening few Kilometers of the race.  However, this slight miscalculation may have been for the better,  the guy beside us in the start pen had raced the event several times in the past and he told us where the first two splits of the race typically happen.  One at 10 miles (16km) on Shaw Road and one at 26 miles (42 miles) through a campground.  This little tidbit of information helped Mark and I gauge our effort on how quickly we needed to get to the front of the race.  

At 11 am Sharp the whistle blew and the race started.  With everyone in the field having varying skill levels and competitive goals, everything spread out quickly as we rolled out of town.  With everyone spread out a bit this made life way easier and safer trying to get closer to the front of the pack.  Within the first 5km, I had made my way to the front of the pack to avoid being “swarmed” by the group and more importantly to stay away from any crashes that might be happening.   This plan worked extremely well and I was able to stay near the front of the group without any real hassles until about the 15km mark.  At this point, everyone started being more aggressive trying to be at the pointy end of things as we entered the first split.  Riders started going for gaps that weren’t necessarily there, aggressively bumping into other riders through corners, and doing what they could to be in a good position in the field.  As we came onto Shaws Rd  I was sitting 10th wheel, which was not an ideal position but definitely could have been worse.  Luckily for me, Shaws was more of an ATV track than a road and I was able to pick off a few more positions as the riders ahead of me as they avoided puddles or by riding on softer slower dirt.  About 1km down the road there was a gradual sandy hill that was ultimately going to be the split point, as soon as one rider made a mistake everyone behind them was going to have to run.  The rider in front of me was the first person to make a mistake and we were both forced to get off and run, creating a small gap to the next rider.  As I was running I saw a firm bit of dirt on the ride-hand side of the track and instinctually ran towards it and cyclocross remounted onto my bike and took off chasing down the riders ahead. In hindsight, this was a risky decision.  If I didn’t execute the remount perfectly I would have lost all of my momentum and fallen a handful of positions back and potentially unable to catch the riders up the road.  Thankfully that was not the case and I was able to close the gap to the riders in front.  

Exiting Shaws Road we were a group of 8 riders all rolling in a paceline and pushing the pace to try and get a solid gap on the main group.  We all worked together very well and established a solid lead on the main group as we rolled into the 2nd technical section of the course.  Like Shaws, this was a rolly ATV track with a mix of soft sand, rocks and firm dirt.  However, this time around we also had to be wary of riders in the 36 mile event who were also on this section of the course.  Fellow Canadian Connor Willson got to the front and started pushing the pace through this section and by the end he and I had a 5-10 second lead on the rest of the group.  We decided to keep pushing the pace and see if we could grow our lead any further.  After a few KM of being up the road, we weren’t able to grow the gap further and knew that the other 6 riders were going to catch us eventually.  So to conserve energy, we slowed up and regained those other riders.  

The next 40km of the race went super smoothly, again everyone in the group was doing their fair share on the front and for the most part, everything was going smoothly.  But as we got within 20km of the finish people started pulling less and less, and more attacks started to come.  However, no one was able to get away over the subsequent 15km.  With 5km to go there was a barrage of attacks, out of every corner, up every little rise, any and every opportunity was being taken advantage of.  But still, no one was able to get away from the group.  

Coming into the final kilometre there was a right-hand corner onto the finish straight I was sitting 4th wheel and felt like I was positioned well.  Coming through the corner the first two riders rode it perfectly as the rider in 3rd bobbled and slowed way up.  I was able to correct my line and not lose too much speed but the two riders in front realized they had opened up a gap and tried to capitalize.  Instinctually I sprinted as hard as I could after them trying to close the gap.  As I closed the gap I noticed that the two riders in front started to slow up, but I still had a small gap behind me. So I decided to keep pushing in hopes that I could hold the rest of the group off for the final few hundred meters.  But the rest of the group was just strong enough to reel me back in. As I got caught I slowed up and tried to recover as much as I could for the final 7 man sprint to the finish.  But this is where I 100% messed up.  For whatever reason I thought we had an S bend on the course before the final 100m and positioned myself for that. I put my head down and quickly stretched my neck as a way to relax myself.  And as I was doing that the rest of the group started sprinting… There was no S bend and we were 100m from the finish… I sprinted trying to catch back up, but it was too late, I blundered the final 100m of the race and finished 7th.  Last in the lead pack…

I will be the first to say that the result on paper is incredibly frustrating.  I have played that finish back 100 times in my mind out of pure anger and frustration trying to learn from my mistakes.  I don’t feel like 7th in this event is an accurate representation of my current fitness level and that a podium or maybe even a win was well within the cards for the day.  Unfortunately, this is racing, and rarely does the fittest rider win.  Especially in pack racing like this, it’s a game of strategy, a game of chess on wheels.  And that game is something I need to work on.   So as infuriating as that finish was, I cannot change it now, all I can do is take the positives and learn from my mistakes.  

What were my mistakes and what do I need to learn?  I need to do a better job at reconning the race as a whole, but especially the finish straight.  The result could have been different had I spent 5 minutes and rode the 1km finish straight before the race started.  Having that knowledge would have allowed me to make better decisions on race day.

What are the positives?  Rarely in my cycling career have I finished in a bunch sprint, and even rarer are the times when I felt like I was capable of winning said bunch sprint.  In the past, I would have been happy if I got dropped on that final straight because I would’ve been holding on for dear life the last 15km cracked out of my skull.  But this time I felt in control, this time my legs still had a bunch of life in them, and this time I felt like this was my race to lose. (I appreciate that that might come off as cocky and arrogant and I don’t mean it to! I know the other guys in that group were also extremely fit, I’m just trying to convey the idea that I felt really good at the end of that race).  Which shows a huge amount of growth and a huge improvement in fitness over the last few months. All of which has me extremely excited for P2A this upcoming weekend.