Bumpy Ride

I committed to do the Rouge-Roubaix bike race on March 13th down in St. Francisville. As I signed up online I was wondering if this was smart...still not sure but I've paid the money and I guess I gotta go. The Rouge is in its 13th year and I've done three of the races with the last one being in 2004. It wasn't a very good race then because I wasn't in shape for it and really shouldn't have been there. So I've wanted to go back and try to redeem myself but most of the time it didn't work out. So now I'm going to do it and, like the the marathon, it'll be a matter of getting into shape. The Rouge-Roubaix itself is a 100+ mile bicycle race with about 24 miles of the course on country backroads on dirt and gravel surfaces. It's a hard race and considered to be one of the toughest in these here United States. If you're not in position to contend then you're in a position hoping to just survive. Then when you finish...after swearing you'll never do this race again...you start thinking about how you could do it better next year.

So, yesterday, I went out on my first official training ride for the Rouge. That means a long ride...in this case, about 70 miles...and I went with a few guys who took me on a 265-minute journey thru parts of Caddo and DeSoto Parishes that I'd never been on before. More than half of that ride was on country backroads to simulate some of the sections of the race. They were on mountain bikes and I was the only one on a road bike which means I have no suspension to soften the pounding I would take as I went around, over, and through potholes, bumps, mud, and whatever else you don't normally see on a smooth road. It was actually an enjoyable ride although I did get shook up quite a bit and joked that I thought I had loosen up any blood clots that I might have had, if any. My bike seemed to survive okay but it'll need some cleaning. Here's the LINK to photos of the route that someone else had taken a couple of years earlier. When we rode it, the roads were drier and well packed but we did come across a number of rocky areas including a 1/2 mile of fresh dropped white gravel rock that I had to struggle with to keep upright. Basically you have to keep pedaling the bike...if you stop at any point you'll either fall over or will have to dismount. You won't be able to get back on and ride again, you can only walk out of the mess. I managed to stay on the bike but it took lots of concentration to keep myself from falling on those rocks!

So, yeah, my legs are tired but I'll give them an easy spin late this afternoon before I give the Centenary kids a time trial fitness test. They have a busy semester ahead of them if they want to do the races and they'll have to train. Oh, yeah, and study for their classes, too!