A 62 mile dirt road race with 4500 ft of climbing was an awefully ambitious choice for the first race of the year, but I was happy I made the decision to drive out to Middleville, MI for the 1st running of the Barry Roubaix. The course was a real leg buster... literally as I'm sitting here with two very sore legs! The weather was great despite the dreadful forecast we had all week. It was a good turnout of about 300 people with some hammerheads from road scene like Derek Graham and Michael Cook.
The start was pretty low key as Johny Meyers lead it out. About 2 miles in we hit a gnarly section of two track on Sager Rd. I took one look at the rocks and sand of the mile long section of road and decided this was the place to take advantage of my Superfly 29er bike choice with the new XR1 tires. I attacked hard and didn't look back till I turned the off Sager Rd. To my surprise, I didn't see anyone! I decided to bury my head and commit 100%. From there on, it was 59 miles of hammer time to the finish for the win in 3hours and 11 min.
Rick Plite threw down a slam dunk on this event. Great course, timely results, nice swag prizes... and a very cool plaque for the winners. Thanks goes out to Mike Shrift (Trek/Fisher) and Travis Ott (Fisher) for hooking me up with a great bike. Another big thanks goes out to Mike B. from NoTubes.com for rushing me a set ZTR Race 29er wheels just in time for race day! Next up is another great Spring Classic over in Canada... Paris Ancaster. Stay tuned!
