Dairy Roubaix 2013

 So I got a wild hair this weekend to head down to southern Wisconsin for the Dairy Roubaix when I got wind that the Mammoth Gravel Classic was going to be postponed due to snow.  Drove 3 hours on Friday after work to get settled in. Awesome venue. Great people. We had a community cooler so every body got to try something new.  Plus Kevin from Red Eye Brewing in Wausau brought down a beverage cylinder of a Rye Porter that was off the hook.

Chow line in the morning. I am feeling highly caffeinated. Photo Cred Two Wheeled Maiden

Waiting to start on a beautiful WI morning.

The next morning I realized that I was the northerner amongst all the southerners. People were putting on full length tights, Jackets, fleece hats w/ ear flaps, and neoprene booties. I was in a vest, embro and arm warmers and loved every second of it. We rolled out enmass and were down the road pretty quick. The first 5 miles were pretty much down hill, as we headed for the river.  I was a little too lax and let a big gap form when bottles started flying and people started acting sketchy.  It took me a few minutes to chase it down, and I did not think I was doing that much work, but when I checked my garmin file it said I pegged my HR at 192. One match burned.

As we made the turn to come up out of the river, there were 2 guys that were already away, and up the road.  After a bit, I went to the front since it seemed like Brian Fuhrmann was doing all the work in our group of 7. By mile 17 I realized that Brian and I were the only ones doing anything. I pulled off the the side, and some club roadie actually stayed right on my wheel as I went over the the yellow line.

"you marking me, brah?"

Then it dawned on my that this guy had someone up the road. This was the first indicator of my roadie ignorance. I don't have a problem with people sitting in, but at least feign a contribution to the group. This isn't a crit, and your not Jens.

The second indication of my ignorance of roadie culture is that you can never shame a roadie into doing anything that they do not want to do. This is a mentality that I have been aware of, but have so much contempt for, that I stay away from the road scene.  In hind site, I should have just started attacking.  We were in these valleys with these long climbs, where it would have been so easy to launch a flier, OVER and OVER and OVER again.  It least then it would have been miserable for everyone, and we might have shed some dead weight. Once we hit the 27 mile mark there was a pee break stop, and guess who attacks? That ended the roadie hijinks for the day.

All of the climbs pretty much consisted of the couloirs along the Mississippi river.  It really reminded me of being back in Kentucky with all of the Karst topography and small farms. Right before we got to the finish Brian and one other guy from our group peeled off for the rest of the 107 miler (I just did 57 miles).  Then we started this gut busting climb up to the top of the river bluffs to intersect with CR X.  once we hit the top it was pretty smooth sailing. I did get jumped 100 yards from the finish line by the two guys that had just sat on my wheel for the last 6 miles. rolls eyes. I was pleased with the effort.

Average moving speed was 17.2 mph, and overall avg speed was 17.0mph.  We had about 4700 feet of climbing. I finished 5th.  It was a glorious time and many thanks go out to the folks at Wisconsin Bikes for Good. I met some great people, and finally got to see some ground that was not covered in snow.

The new bike worked awesome, and I am really impressed with what Cannondale is able to do with aluminum. The ride was never harsh, and the Ultegra worked great.  I really did not notice the brakes being good or bad. The wheels are tanks.  I bet you could knock 2 pounds off that bike with some Stans Crest wheels and some nice tires.