Mead Roubaix Sunday, April 22nd 2012

  After Boulder Roubaix I spent the next two weeks riding in preparation for Mead. Although the riding in Greeley offers very little elevation change, there are a plethora of dirt and sandy gravel roads, so I spent as much of my time on the bike grinding out as many gravel miles as I could and doing hill repeats on the ridge running along the western side of town. I also decided to change my bike up a little for the event, I replaced my race wheels with my heavier training training wheels(Mavic CXP32) with a set of Origin8 armored tires and a 12-26t cassette instead of my regular 11-23t.
  I decided to take Saturday as an additional rest day so instead of riding I cleaned my bike, packed my gear for Mead and actually got to bed a little early. Sunday morning Ashton and I got up early for breakfast and I loaded the car as she got Orson up and ready to go for the day. Around 9a.m. we made the short drive over to Mead and parked at the elementary school, Orson and went to the playground and I picked up my number and got on the trainer.
  I got to the start line a little early and made small talk with some of the other riders while waiting for our race to start, the official called it and we started rolling for our neutral start out of downtown Mead. We hit the open road and the pace picked up a bit but nothing too demanding. Going into the first gravel section I was sitting somewhere in the top ten riders in an attempt to avoid the chaos of being caught in the back on a dirt road. The first dirt section came at a T in the road, the the only course marker at this junction was a single orange parking cone kinda at the corner...I'm not sure about you, but to me a single parking cone sitting at a corner does not give any sort of reference as to which route to take. Apparently I was not the only one who didn't understand this course maker, a couple of other riders thought it was a turn and wiped out in front of me, I swerved around them and continued grinding out the gravel. Unlike the Roubaix at Boulder where the dirt sections were hard packed and relatively smooth, this course the dirt sections were loose, sandy, covered with gravel and washboard sections scattered about.
  Riding through the first gravel section I began to loose position and slip to the back of the the main field
and then eventually off the back of the peloton. Once off the back, I made the turn onto the pavement solo, I was soon caught by one of the riders who went down earlier on the dirt road, we worked together taking short pulls trying to regain contact with the peloton, we picked up a couple of other riders who had fallen off the main field. Our small group worked together at a high pace until I was dropped once again, I rode solo for several minutes until I was caught by Davis Wilkey(who also went down in the wreck earlier) from the Black Sheep Jr. Cycling team. Davis asked if I wanted to work together and do what we could to pick off the stragglers from carnage, so that's just what we did and before we made it around to the start of the second lap we had picked off several other riders on the second gravel section.
  Going into the start of the second lap Davis and myself were still working well together taking good pulls and setting a decent pace. Approaching the gravel again I was taking a pull, the volunteers at the turn were all standing around and not directing riders and I missed the turn, I made a quick 180 and jumped back onto  Davis' wheel. We continued our second lap much in the same manner as our first, taking steady pulls and picking of those who were dropped of the back. Another paved road came and went and we were back onto the gravel in no time. Back in the dirt I couldn't seem to hang onto his wheel anymore and he rode away, about two or three miles later I came across David on the side of the road with a mechanical, he had dropped his chain and so I stopped and waited on him, we continued on together and started our third and final lap.
  At this point I'm not gonna lie, I was starting to wonder if I could hang with him for one more lap or if I were to be doomed to ride my last lap solo. Once through Mead again were back onto the dirt roads, at this point we added a third rider to our group and shortly after I was dropped. I knew I had to make an effort to get back onto a wheel, I got out of the saddle and hammered but by the time I got to the pavement they had already made it to the top of the first set of rollers and I new my fate was sealed. I did indeed finish my last lap solo. Rounding the corner headed south back into Mead I noticed two riders bearing down on me, I made up my mind that I would cross the line on my own and not be caught while doing so, I moved down into the drops and got on the rivet. I crossed the finish line, talked to Davis for a moment met up with Ashton, Orson, Todd and Liz(who rode up to watch the race) and the five of us made our way back to my car. We packed everything up said our goodbyes, Todd and Liz rode their bikes back to Boulder and we made the drive back to Greeley.
  Over all I would not say that I necessarily enjoyed Mead Roubaix as a race but I feel that it made me a stronger rider in the end, the course was hard and technical and I feel that my handling skills definitely helped me out in a couple of the loose sandy corners.

http://connect.garmin.com/course/1089147

Thanks for reading,
-Drew

Keep posted a summary of my first crit in Co. soon to come.