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| Photo Credit: Julie McGraw Photography |
What a month,
what a week, what a race! This past Saturday was the 5th running of
the Barry Roubaix Killer Gravel Road Race in Hastings, MI. This race is growing and sure to be one of the the biggest events in the region. Over 3,000 entrants in 2013 with about another
2,000 spectators or more… made for a GREAT day.
Rick Plite and his entire staff at “KissCross Events” have done a hell
of a job promoting the snot out of this thing… and it shows! Beer tent, organized course, wave starts,
cycling/health expo, band, cool awards, swag and more!
We had a
good showing from our squad (TSB) at this event. This year they offered a team
event that we entered with decent success. We placed 16th out of
about 40 teams for the 36mile event. - TSB- Jackie, Nathan, John, Sandy, Pat, Brad, Jim, Eric, Aaron, and Kevin. Results Here
I drove over in the morning with John Osgood and Sandy Laufle in my truck. Met up with the TSB gang along the TEAM ROW and set up shop! The temps were right at about 25 degrees and the sun wasn’t shining… so, that meant we had to dress for a cold ride. A quick little warm up and to the starting corral’s we went.
I drove over in the morning with John Osgood and Sandy Laufle in my truck. Met up with the TSB gang along the TEAM ROW and set up shop! The temps were right at about 25 degrees and the sun wasn’t shining… so, that meant we had to dress for a cold ride. A quick little warm up and to the starting corral’s we went.
The course
was in decent shape. Fast rolling frozen dirt roads with some areas of ice, but
covered enough with sand to keep your traction. The thing hard to dodge was the
vehicle ruts that had frozen solid. They were blind if you tried to tuck into a
pace line. I personally raced at about 75% with a nagging injury I’ve
been nursing the last few weeks (torn-abs). So, racing was the
farthest thing on my mind while pedaling around the back roads in Barry County. My fitness going into the event is rated at
about a 6 out of 10 for me right now. I’m happy with that and I’m looking
forward to tackling my “A” events later this summer.
I rolled
across the finish line at 2:09 and ended up 63rd out of 144 entrants
in my A.G. … not bad at all knowing I
did not pull the ol’ grunt trigger on a lot of the rolling hills.
I’m already
looking forward to next years event. Congrats to all that competed!
Next stop – Pontiac Lake Mtb XC Race!
See ya on
the dirt,
- TP
1 comment:
Nice Job... Good seeing you there!
See you at Pontiac in a few weeks!
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