Roubiax report

Mud, hills, cold an fun. It was decided that the Almonte-Roubaix truely is more of a Ronde Van Almonten really. Roubaix certainly does not have this hilly profile. Either way, it was a chilly start to the morning with the racing quickly getting underway. Kept myself much closer to the front than in previous years which paid off when the selections were made. Apparently it was under some serious tempo setting by a certain Mr. Atkins that caused the most damage, bringing out front group down to about 15 riders, most of whom were certainly suffering in this particularly rough and long mud section. In got bad enough in the mud that my glasses got completely covered to the point where I could no longer tell where I was going on whether I was still following the wheel in front. Thinking there were more riders than there was, I made the decision to sit up for a sec and remove them. Oops. About 8 riders passed me and then nothing. Quickly shoved them up my jersey and made a pretty tough chase to get back on. Worked quickly with another group of popped riders and got back. Phew. Sat in for the next bit while everyone recouped from the efforts. Then flat. Road the rim for a few minutes until pulling over and peeling away the tub. Pulled out my spare (22mm Comp 22 race tub), flipped it on, pumped it up and got back into chase mode. Pretty much a 40km tt tempo effort. Felt pretty decent, especially with only my one working gear, 53x15. Hard on the ups, easy on the downs. And fun times in the headwind. Overall, good fun times were had and a very satisfying shower to finish it off. Would have liked a placing on the results to write about, but a good effort. Got home, bite to eat then a nice real easy 2 hour spin to clear out the legs later in the afternoon. Celebrated the end of the first race of the season with a good Belgian brew and some take out Chinese. What can I say, I got a craving and figured I deserved it. One week of class and the same time until Battenkill. Time to turn up the heat.