Source Endurance

Last weekend I headed out East towards Louisiana to do a couple of races on “dirt”. The 10th annual Tunis-Roubaix Race was held traditionally just outside of College Station, TX, and as always attracted a bunch of riders trying to test their skills on sand, gravel and white dirt. Having done that race three times before my choice of gear was my aluminum CSK bike with Shimano R-550 wheels and two 23mm Specialized Armadillo tires. Flats and crashes usually have a big impact on the outcome on this race so I made sure to be puncture-free by using 400g tires with the right PSI’s. I got lot of comments about the heavy setup on my bike (19-20lbs?) but I felt always in control with the good, old CSK which has seen half of South East Asia and never broke down on me.

The P/1/2/3 race saw only 25 starters, 7 of those in green&black THSJ colors. I had only Mat Stephens as a teammate but he’s more like having 2 teammates when he’s “on”. Once we hit the first dirt section the peloton was already down to 15 riders due to flats and the high speed. THSJ used their numbers in the right way the race got very dynamic over the 6 laps and total of 70miles. Being outnumbered, I tried more to “re-act” instead of “act” and found myself often times jumping with breaks instead of trying to attack the group 8 or 9 we were in. Andrew Willis and myself launched ourselves up to Vargas at one point but we got caught again. Mr. Vargas was on fire this weekend so he was up the road a minute with maybe 7-8miles to go. At that point the race was on for 2nd place as only Mat and John Trujillo (Velossimo) and myself would be doing some tempo-riding/chasing. I realized that a win was getting out of question with 3 THSJ in the break and one up the road. I haven’t place out of the Top 3 in the past years at this race so I wanted to make sure to get to the line all together instead of racing for 2nd place only. I went to the front and went above threshold for 10-15minutes and caught up to Vargas 3miles from the finish, having towed the remaining group with me. I was able to counter Dan Opdyke’s move and chased him down with 1K to go but couldn’t resist to the Double of Fawley and Uhl up the finish hill. Willis jumped in there, too so I ended up 4th for the day.

The next day I found myself in the parking lot of the St. Francisville Inn, a small town deep in Louisiana which was the starting point for the Rouge-Roubaix P/1/2/3 race. I heard about this race before and was always tempted to go but the 8+ hours drive out there didn’t look very efficient to me. Adam Gaubert was going anyways so Mat and me took a ride with him out there. The race started out very mellow, riding at 120 Watts, heart rate in the 120-130’s and lots of chatting among the 108 total P/1/2/3 riders. There were 3 sections of rural back-country dirt roads, each lasting 5-9miles for the total race distance of 100miles. Once we hit the gravel it was “on” but for some reason not as many got “popped” like in previous editions. We still had a field of 60 riders coming out of the “woods”. This allowed the entire field to take it easy again for the next 15miles and 59 out 60 guys took a break at the side of the road….Dirt section number 2 included some more climbing and a few rough spots but thanks to the tough aluminum fork + heavy Armadillos I was fine and never felt out of control over the bike. I missed the 100 Dollar hand-given (!) prime on top of the Dirt Hill by a few meters to Bryan Fawley of THSJ. A lead group of 15 riders emerged after that rough stretch of road but too much “politics” inside the break caused for lower speed and the field catching up with us again :-( After a few gels, feed zone goodies, and an observation of the competition I hit the last dirt stretch with 30miles to go. Oh was that fun! You have to ride on a 6-foot wide road, full of gravel and sand, going 15% steep inclines and downhill of course. I saw people dropping their chains, clicking out their pedals, falling to the side.

Luckily that didn’t happen to me and I was able to get out of the last dirt section in a group of 12 guys which was chasing a solo rider off the front. We never saw him again; even with a hard pace in the group we had to acknowledge his strength and the race for 2nd place was “on” – again. I still felt pretty fresh at that point but the presence of two strong teams in the break (Herring Gas and THSJ) kept me from making “mistakes” and attacking. So I waited for the sprint…the 1K to-go sign came sure quick enough…and a one-lane bridge crossing, too! (That’s the first time in my racing years that I had to cross a small one-lane bridge with 750meters to go in a road race). Not being a sprinter, I hesitated long and finally geared it up but didn’t get around Vargas and Herring Gas’s Tim Regan. I finished 4th but since an “old man” was in the Top3 they give me 3rd in the P/1/2 race.