Rocky Mountain Roubaix

I think the Rocky Mountain Roubaix is Montana's longest running bike race, and it was the first real road race I ever entered. Road racing has been in a bit of a decline around here, with more people opting to race mountain bikes and cyclocross, or just ride for fun instead. The wednesday series' are inexpensive, easy, and fun. Traveling to road races, on the other hand, tends not to be. You have to drive across the state, spend a bunch of money, and often spend the day suffering alone on the road. Then half the racers have left the time the awards start. I'm starting to think that having free beer and a bbq or something is key to good racer turnout.

Anyway, I've done the roubaix 5 times now, but since it's about our only road race I have been stuck in category 4. Next time I buy a license, I do get to upgrade to 3, but haven't had a reason to do that because most of our races, including the roubaix this year, don't require one. Like the Hell Ride, this was done as a "gran fondo." So there was the choice of the A race of 70 miles or B race of 40 miles. Having always been in the "B" race as a 4/5, this was my chance to move up ride with the fast guys.

Last year it was pouring rain and miserable. The dirt sections were slick mud and you couldn't see where you were going. It ruined all the bearings and cables and housings on my caad 9 and that was the last time I ever rode it since the crack in the chainstay had been growing. This year the forecast looked decent- just cloudy with possible showers. So of course in the morning it was raining, but I felt optimistic. Then I got to frenchtown, and it was still raining, and looked like it was raining on the course. So, yeah, it rained again. And was cold.

2017 Montana Hell Ride

I suppose road racing season is over already, after speedwagon, the hell ride, and roubaix. I wanted to set up some sort of prizes for the people who did all three (there are only 7 of us), but so far that hasn't happened.

Last time I mentioned a possible new road bike, and, well, I have this:

A new bike season

I guess it's been awhile since I posted anything on here so here is what I've been not doing lately. Winter was pretty long this year, and after riding and racing pretty much non-stop from mid-January through the end of November I was not all that motivated to work out and ride the trainer.

I did ride the trainer a few times, and I did walk and hike a few times, cross country skied, downhill skied, but it wasn't a whole lot. 2-3 hours was a big week for me. What I did do was drink plenty of beer and sit around.

Cyclocross season

After racing butte I wasn't all that motivated to ride in August. At one of the wed worlds rides I just went home because I felt bad and was having a bad time. Things kind of went like that, where I would sometimes feel good and sometimes bad. Then, suddenly it was September and cyclocross was stating. Those new wider wheels and the 1x drivetrain didn't happen so I just showed up for the first wednesday night race with the bike as-is, on old tires, after a month of slacking and no cross practice. Also I moved up to the A group instead of B. It actually didn't go that badly- I didn't finish in last (although I was close).

Hiking the reservation divide

Actually we had bikes and did a good amount of riding, but I noticed I had a lot of pictures where we were pushing bikes:

2016 Butte 100

Well, I raced the butte 100 again, and it wasn't really any easier than last time. I did a pretty good job riding and training this season to prepare for it, although June was not a great month after the foot thing. I did cut way back on the beer and junk food for about two weeks leading up to it in an attempt to drop a few lbs, but without a scale I don't know how much it helped. Anyway, the fitness was acceptable leading up to it and I figured I would improve on my time of 13:15 from two years ago by a pretty good amount. I had a goal of finishing in under 12 hours, which seemed pretty reasonable after I spent a full 40 min at aid station 9 in 2014, and felt like I was moving at a crawl for the last 25 miles.

Prep for Butte

The Butte 100 mountain bike race is in two weeks, on July 30th. For the most part I did a good job of riding and training this year, and race season started out pretty well. Then, in June I had that foot injury and had to spend a few weeks sitting on the couch. As soon as I was feeling good enough to ride again, some family came to visit, we went to Canada, and then I had a wedding to go to. So there was basically 2 weeks of hanging out and drinking beer after 2 weeks of sitting on the couch. Not really the training I wanted to get in before Butte. Thankfully, I did still manage to get a reasonable amount of riding in once my foot started feeling ok, have cut down on the beer and junk, and last week got in a whole bunch of riding, so I'm starting to feel like I'll be alright. I'll get in a few more good rides this week and then it's time to taper.