BattenKill Roubaix 4-14-07

Thanks Neil for this great description of the race: 

Saturday, April 14th was the Battenkill-Roubaix road bike race (Saturday before the real Roubaix!). Nicely squeezed in between the cold weather and the day before the Nor'easter storm) it was about 40 degrees at the start, but got up to around 50 for a about 10 minutes.
The race is 55 miles in and around Salem, NY.  The race includes about 20 miles of Salem's 'Pave' which is dirt/mud/stone back country roads in numerous 2-5 mile sections. Many areas still had snow on the side of the roads on the hills. It was the toughest race I have ever done, and would recommend it to anyone who wants a real challenge. Here is the web link for further details!
http://www.battenkillroubaix.com/

The race was very well organized, lots of marshalls and lots of volunteers. It was my first race as part of Team Marty's, and my first road race since the accident two years ago. After hearing about how hard the race was, my goal was to finish. I managed to finish the race, in 38th place out of 50 in the Cat 5, 35+.

As soon as we left the neutral town start, the locals took off as the pavement transitioned to wet dirt, with rolling hills. Then the first hill about 6 miles out of town split up the pack, and the 2nd big hill (think West Hanover hill or steeper on wet dirt) the main group took off and the rest of us were struggling to get over the top. (I did notice that most of the group that made it over had compact rings). Then it was pretty much a solo ride for me from about mile 20. If it is possible, I think the race was about 40 miles uphill, and 15 downhill. There was one very long descent that we hit 48mph which was a blast.

My Specialized Roubaix tires sucked up the holes quite nicely!

Now I have to try my FSR Comp out at the mountain bike races this year!


Neil Chuprinko

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