The Eugene Roubaix is a 14.3 mile loop that Cat 5 does three times. It is relatively flat, but has some climbing right out of the shoot. We started out with a neutral start, up the first climb and down the back which was a tight steep downhill. It must have been about 2 miles in total and the lead vehicle honked his horn and the racing started. Well, the racing did not start, we kept our same pace...about 20 mph. For the next 5 miles or so, it was like a Sunday afternoon ride in the wind. I was shocked, couldn't really figure out what the heck was going on. 7 or 8 miles into the loop, a few guys tried to break, but they were almost immediately pulled back in. My goal was to stay at the front and go with any break that happen to form, but not really try and be a hero and go off too early. The last turn of the lap put us on a 3.5 mile straight away with the wind at our backs. For some reason the guys at the front decided to slow up a bit as we went around this corner. About 500 yards into this section, I had had enough. I was sitting about 5th wheel and took off. Very quickly I had a gap of about 50 yards or so. I had no intentions of going at it by myself but wanted to get our group doing something. After a minute or so, I sat up and waited for the group to catch up. They did catch up, but no one passed, they just sat on my wheel. I wasn't going all that fast, but no one felt like working. At this point, I wanted to break again, but have a few guys go with me. So, I slowly picked up the pace this time instead of just taking off. This time, I brought a group with me. One thing I forgot to mention is the last 1.5 miles of the loop is on a dirt road with 200 meters of pavement to the finish line. I made the mistake of literally doing all the work down this entire section. I was pushing about 400 watts for what felt like forever, but was really only about 2 miles. Once we hit the climb at the start line, we were down to 11 of us. I went straight to the back and was dropped just as I crested the summit. The other 10 riders had about 300 meters on me. It all happened so fast, I was pissed at myself for working too hard too early.
Anyway, lap two starts on the wrong foot. I told myself that now was the only chance to catch back up, so I put my head down and tried to hammer back up to the group. It took me 3 miles, but I finally caught back on. I was whipped and didn't want to take a pull the rest of the day. The majority of this lap was uneventful until one of the last corners a rider was going way to fast and layed it down right in front of me. Luckily, he took only himself out. At this point I was about 7th or 8th wheel, but this guy was about 4th. The guys up front heard the crash and took off. 3 of them got away. I tried to organize the other 3 guys around me to catch, but only two of us were working. We stayed this way for the rest of the lap and all of the last lap. When we hit that last right turn onto the straight away, I was leading. For some reason we decided to right side by side. So, I was riding in front on the right and another guy was on my left, each of us with a rider behind. I did not want to continue this all the way to the finish, but the other two would not pull. We hit the dirt section doing about 20 mph. About a mile from the finish, we picked up the pace, but I was still leading. About 1k from the finish, we were pushing about 27 mph, I was still up front...mad at this point, but still up front. We hit the pavement, 200 meters to go, guy next to me starting pushing the pace, 100 meters, I downshift a few gears, stand up and start the sprint...smoked them all by about 40-50 feet! I was pretty happy after doing all that work near the end. Power meter said 1275 for that last little section.
I am happy with third after wasting all the energy on the first lap. Lessons learned I guess.
Until next weekend....
Here is a picture that I found(the photographer is on the finish line, this was our group of 4)...enjoy
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