Boulder Roubaix - 4/7/12

The weekend after Oceanside was my first road race of this season as a CAT 3, I was very excited to race the Boulder Roubaix.  This race is 70% on dirt hard pack, but very bumpy which yields for some tired riders, consisting of three 18 mile loops for a 56 mile total.  There were four CAT 3 guys from my team including myself in the field and we decided to help each other out where we could.  The first two laps stay with the group and the last lap see what happened, and nail it in the final miles.  That’s pretty much exactly what we did, I found it easy to stay with the group and match any breaks that happened.  There were lots of sketchy areas with all the dirt and mass of CAT 3 guys riding together.  We lost Travis and Bart on the end of the second lap, but Darain was holding strong in the third lap.  Towards the mid part of the third and final lap I think Darain started cramping and fell slightly back.  I lead the group a little too much the last lap, but no one wanted to take any turns up front, even though I was barley pushing 250 watts.   The last few miles I really thought about just pulling away and trying to hold a gap on the group, but did not know if that was the right thing to do.  It was inevitably going to come down to a sprint, and that is not exactly my strong suit.  So at the two mile marker I started to pull away, thinking I can sprint for two miles right?  Wrong, I created a small gap that was closed at 1 km to go, I was passed by over 15 guys.  I was like no way I was just leading this whole thing, I managed to keep sprinting and get back to 11^th place across the line still within 11 sec of the leader.  Darain came in the top 20, Travis, and Bart were just a little ways back as well.  I learned that I am not the greatest sprinter that I think I may be and also that if I want to win some of these road races I either have to make my move earlier or learn to sprint.  I think a little of both for next time, but over all a very fun and tough road race, Paris Roubaix on TV Easter Sunday the next day to boot.