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The Barry Roubaix was held on April 20, 2024 in Hastings, MI. It was seasonably cold in the 40s with snow flurries at the start. To make matters worse, there were 15-20 mph winds out of the WNW. I raced the 62 mile version, actually 64.5, that had 4,400 feet of climbing. This was my second year racing gravel and my second time doing Barry. 2023's race was brutal for me with a crash in the first 15 minutes that left me with a broken rib, concussion and road rash from ankle to hip. Sadly it looks like it happened to someone else at 9:18 in my video (rearview camera). So this year, the goal was to make safety a priority!
Even though this is a priority race for many, this early race doesn't fit into my overall fitness goals. So I came into this race with plenty of fatigue after a heavy training load and 2 weeks of being sick. All I wanted to do is have a safe ride and put in a hard effort. I had hoped to get into a good group and stay consistent all day. As it turns out, I surpassed all my expectations and felt pretty good for most of the day. I kept expecting to be dropped off the back of the group, but somehow I had more than I thought.
I finished 90th out of 1084, but I felt like I had much better fitness and could have stayed with a faster group. I was in a split off the front with a big gap starting around 2:48:00 (55.4 miles) and thought maybe we could hold it to the finish. Unfortunately we merged with a bigger group, the pace slowed down and we were eventually caught. Our group swelled to about 50 riders to the finish. Which by the way, had no finishing banner, WTF!!! I didn't even know where the finish line was until I crossed it! Ugh, I was holding back on my sprint looking for the finishing banner. Oh well, I lost a few places at the end, but that's my fault for not knowing the finish. However, I also didn't expect to come into the finish in a group of 50!
2024's race was a massive improvement over 2023's 199th place. I took over 20 minutes off my finishing time, improved 109 placings and avoided all crashes! This was a great start to the gravel season, all signs are pointing in the right direction and many more races to come!
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