Richmond Roller Road Race

Saturday was the Richmond Roller Road Race west of St. Cloud. Leading up to this race I was told: 1. There was a 2-mile hill climb 2. The finish was at the top of the hill 3. It was a nasty hill. I get nervous before races—so you can just imagine how I felt.

Amy C, from Silver Cycling, and I carpooled to the race getting there with 30 minutes to register and to get ready. Thankfully, there was a 3 mile rollout to the starting line to warm-up. I kept asking during the rollout if we were racing yet—it was along rollout. It became quite clear that the game was on once the pacer car took a sharp right turn. We sprinted to the top of the hill were the finish line was (and the white tent). We all came over and regrouped on the downhill. About half way down the hill, somehow Amy fell off the road on the right side and was riding in the dirt. She said it was a inch-inch and a half jump to get back on the road and didn’t feel comfortable jumping it to get back on the road with all of us around her. She started veering to the right more and more into the forest the closer I got to her. Once I was passing her I yelled “Amy, this is a road race not cyclocross!” Poor thing, I thought her race was over at that point.

We took a sharp left turn at the bottom of the hill. I forgot my computer at home so I didn’t know how fast we were going. All I know was in order to make it around that corner you had to feather your back breaks. We got around the corner and true to our road races this year—we had headwind. As the lead group, we slowed it down and took it, from what I was told, 15 mph. Amy miraculously was able to get out of the trees and sprint in headwind to catch-up to us.

Another left turn and we had tailwind. Again, I was told we averaged 30-35 on that stretch at times. The Central Plains “Wheelsucker” girl was in the race. A number of us now knows who she is and kept a close eye on her.

Final left turn of the loop, we found ourselves in crosswinds with a 2 mile slight hill climb. It was the kind of hill you didn’t see the elevation—but you felt the acid build-up in your legs after a while.

First lap was slow, second lap was faster with the winds picking up. Again, Amy did a little cyclocrossing when the Men 1/2/3’s came by and cut her off. She is always good for a good laugh when it is needed.

Lap three—now this was when the fun started, after I thought I was going to lose it on the bike. I was descending down the hill in my drops, feathering my back breaks thinking I don’t need to worried about the corner—I’ve been doing corners at the crits at this speed. I must have squeezed my back break a little too hard while going around the corner because all I could hear was my back tire leaving rubber on the cement and feeling myself taking the corner on my rims. You know when you are falling time stands still? I remember having control of my front tire, back tire was out of alignment of the front tire, my left peddle was millimeters from hitting the ground, thoughts of road rash was flashing in my head—and by the grace of some god—I pulled out of it and didn’t miss a beat. I could hear girls behind me gasping with amazement. As was I.

The speed picked up on the back side with the tailwinds but really didn’t break the lead group up. A Grand Performance rider was pissing the two of us off behind her by not holding her line, she was third wheel. Come on…a GP rider can’t hold her line? She then proceeded to dump water on her head—us two behind her felt that she missed a few times to get us off her tail—sorry didn’t work! The two mile climb started to shatter a couple of riders off the back. Not until the final 500 meters did the action start. Two girls jumped—I jumped right behind them, but Dano, the Jr., seemed to have a bit more power saved up in hear legs to get around me. I got 4th place out of 18 riders.

On Sunday I didn’t have anything planed. I called up a friend to go out for a causal ride. He’s a runner and hasn’t had his bike out in over a year. I said I wasn’t interested in pushing it and I would bring the mt bike so I would have more resistance. We had a good ride. Met on the Luce Line and then headed to Excelsior to get a beer at Mainerds. It started to rain so we didn’t get to enjoy the beer by the lake. We got back on the bike and I road with him to his place. We parted after 30 miles—I still had about 15 miles left. 2 miles later I bonked. I was heading south on rolling hills in a headwind with a bike that was 10 pounds heavier then my road bike, with tubeless tires (air pressure became lower then when I started) averaging about 3-5 miles per hour up those hills. Thank god the Luce Line was flat and that I live close to the path. It took about 1.5 hours to get home.