Rob Robins, Jayson O'Mahoney and Roger Montes kick back with a couple of cold ones and reflect on the hard and dirty Webster-Roubaix race
For those not aware, the Webster-Roubaix road race is a 9.5 mile loop that takes in the cattle country around the little town of Webster, Florida. Webster is also known for it's flea market, as attributed to the advertising found along I-75. What makes this race so different from other races on the Florida scene is the dirt road section, which is approximately 2.5 miles in length. This section of road is strewn with potholes, loose gravel and lots of dirt and dust.(left) O'Mahoney flying around the Webster-Roubaix course.
The promoters (who did a great job at this race in my opinion) combined the Cat 3 field with Cat 4 making for a field of 110 riders - according to the announcement by Tim Molyneaux at the start. Race distance was approximately 65 miles or seven laps of the course. The promoters were nice enough to have a neutral rollout from the start / finish line (on the dirt road) to allow fair play and that sort of thing. The race was underway as soon as the last rider made it to the first paved road.
During the neutral rollout it was a mad panic to clip in and try and move up in the bunch without being obvious about it. As soon as the bunch hit the first paved road, the first attacks of the day went. I have no idea of the carnage behind me; I was concentrating on the wheels in front of me and trying to hold position among the first 20 - 30 riders. It was also nice to see two of my teammates alongside me - Rob Robins and Roger Montes were right up there. I'm not sure what happened to James and Ron in that first hectic lap.
Everyone was fighting for position to hold themselves near the front. As the bunch approached the dirt for the first time, it was almost a sprint-like situation to be positioned appropriately. I found myself around 25th wheel heading in for the first time. Being that far back meant I was covered in clouds of dust and the like. It was a little unnerving the first time over the dirt; the speeds were holding around 25 - 26mph. Everything on the bike was being pounded. I was glad I spent the time preparing the bike and test riding on dirt roads a few weeks before. Installing some older American Classic aluminium bottle cages complete with blue loctite on the cage bolts kept my fluid supply secure. Beefy 32 spoke wheels and 24mm+ tyres were the order of the day!
As soon as the first dirt road pass was made, the hammer went down again on the regular paved roads. It was obvious that riders were going to be shelled here. In these first early laps each corner on the road course was punctuated by a fast increase in speed which really stretched the bunch out. The constant shuffling around in the bunch near the front continued for the entire race, as did the almost sprint like positioning to hit the dirt road first.
During the 3rd or 4th? pass over the dirt road, Roger suffered a slow leaking flat (as I found out post race). I was sitting on his wheel through the dirt (he is an awesome MTB rider and has great handling skills) so I was surprised to see him going rapidly backwards. I was feeling much more comfortable by this point of the race on the dirt road section. It was almost as if I was in a "groove". I found myself riding a 53 x 15 or 53 x 14 gear, sitting right back on the saddle with my hands on the tops of the bars. This combined with my Vittoria 24mm Pave tyres (shameless plug there) gave the bike a comfy ride - if that was possible.
During the final lap, two guys managed to get off the front. That was surprising as the main pack was not letting anyone go. A couple of guys tried to bridge across (including Ben Page) but this break was snuffed out and a pack sprint on dirt was in the cards. I thought about launching an immediate suicide counter-attack but one rider against the might of the bunch intent on sprinting cancelled that idea. Fighting for position at this point was much more intense. I also took a brief look behind me and saw that our once large pack was down to ~ 40 riders. Coming into the dirt for the final time I managed to slot myself in the top 15, very close to Rob Robins, Ben Page and Eric Stubbs. Unfortunately for me a rider in front of me hit the big pothole right after the turn onto the dirt which killed his momentum. It also killed mine as I was on his wheel :( However, I managed to salvage things somewhat and stayed within 20 metres of the sprinting pack. I rolled across the line for 19th place in Cat 3. Rob Robins took 5th in Cat 4 which was a stellar effort. Ironically a Cat 4 guy won the race... this seems to be a regular happening when 3's and 4's are combined.
I loved this race. I really wish the distance had've been longer as it would've played out better for me. Perhaps for the 2009 edition the promoters will combine the 3's with Pro 1-2 as they did for the 2007 edition. At the end of the race just about everyone resembled a West Virgina coal miner. I looked pretty bad myself, not helped by the five day beard coated with sweat, dirt, snot, etc. We had a bit of a team get together afterwards to down a few brews (thanks to Vern and James!), talk about the race and marvel at the condition of our bikes.
Over and out.
