Its been 1 week since American Triple T and I am signed up for my first gravel bike race. The Roughneck Gravel Roubaix consists of 104.7 mile, 75.4 mile, 40 mile and 12 mile races. I opted for the 40 miler. As I arrived in Titusville PA memories of my 1st trail race in the same area at Oil Creek State Park flood my mind. Then at packet pick up morning of the race, I had seen a lot of the volunteers from Oil Creek.
As I got my bike and gear out of the truck a few people I knew stopped by and were full of information for me and how this was far different than road racing etc. I did appreciate the info, but knew I would like likely be just fine. I got over to the start line and started talking to a few more people I knew. I was starting to get some race anxiety as I waited, then finally it was time. We lined up and listened to the directions of the race director. Then with a blow of a horn we were off.... We had a police escort to the edge of town and with in 2 miles we faced the first of many hill climbs.
After a fairly long climb I started chatting with a lady from North Carolina. I spent few miles ride with her, found out she was also an Ironman finisher. As we descended down a large hill we came upon a guy who crashed, he was bleeding but had help already, actually looked like he broke his wrist. We were only about 6 miles in at that time, looked like he didnt slow down at bottom of a hill and hit the wash board grooves in the road.
Shortly after I was riding alone again and I heard "hey Kolo", it was a friend of mine, Shannon. She is an excellent cyclist and had caught up to me at mile 18. We rode together for a long time. She would climb better than me but I could descend better so neither us of broke away, just pushed each other harder. We rode up on a young man who was also doing his first gravel race. I introduced myself and he did too, his name was John. I asked him how old he was, turns out he was 16! I told him how awesome it was that he was out racing while his peers were behind an xbox. He asked my age, I told him 48 and he told me that was awesome because his dad was 48 and there was no way his dad would ever consider doing this, ha ha ha.
We were now a party of 3, pushing each other up and down the hills, which was very fun.... super hard... but fun. then it happened. we were on a long down hill and I was way out front then a huge climb. well I was so happy that I crushed the climb but as I got to the top a car pulled up and said, are you part of the gravel race, I said yes... she said you missed the turn at the bottom of the hill. DAMN! I turned around and coasted down to the turn and up another climb I go. I caught up with 2 guys whom I had not seen all day so I knew I had lost a good bit of time. I was at mile 31, figure I lost about a mile so I had 10 miles to try and make up ground.
I did ride hard, took some risks that I would not other wise have taken on both climbs and down hills. then with about 5 miles left I came upon John again, I asked where Shannon was and he said she pulled away a few miles ago. He said they both yelled for me when I missed the turn and when they realized I couldnt hear them, they sent the car after me. I thanked him for that and pushed forward, I was able to open up a lead on him but with 1 mile to go he closed in on me. Our finish was on a BMX track, which was awesome!!!! John passed me just before the finish. I ended up 20th over all and 4th in my age group. All in all I was happy with my effort for my 1st gravel race.
