On Sligo Rd. is where it started getting really fast with a couple breakaways that I jumped in on when it got to 5 riders or so. We finally did end up breaking away just before the first gravel section with a group of 5 riders. This section was really loose and had me constantly using counter steering techniques to stay upright. About half way through I took the lead as the lines being picked were less then ideal. Soon after a group of Raising Cane's guys bridged up to us and a guy on a mountain bike with semi slicks passed us.
After taking the right turn back onto Hwy 969 a few riders broke off again so with three other guys in my CAT we decided to bridge up to them. A few miles later the two guys that I bridged up with fell back so the break was down to four. Soon after that me and another guy dropped off their pace and stayed together on the next left turn that led us into Mississippi, where a rider bridged up to us. The three of us stuck together and along the highway I passed a few of my Precision teammates (Scott, Mark, and Johnathan). One of the riders in our break decided to take a piss so we slowed it down to wait for him. While waiting for him to finish most of the peloton caught back up with us, so I decided to drop back in with them and conserve energy as I was going through my water / cytomax faster then I had planned and was completely out with 10 miles to go before the next feed.
On the left turn to go to the second gravel section one of the guys from Raising Cane's went down on some of the gravel across the road. It didnt look too bad and I actually saw him finish later that day. When we hit the gravel I was in second position and could feel some cramps coming on. Half way through the climb a group of 5 shot by me and there was nothing I could do. I stopped at the feed zone to grab both the bottles I had there and chased down some guy to ride together with. We rode together all the way to the third gravel section where he quickly dropped me on Big Bertha as I made it only half way up this climb before walking which I did on another hill in this section. I was bonking pretty bad at this point and had a few more people pass me on this section. When I got out to the road section I was alone though but quickly got caught by some CAT 4's whose wheels I sucked on for quite a while until I could get over my bonk. With about 10 miles to go one of them took off and the two of us started equally taking pulls. I ran out of water again and bummed some off of the guy who I had been riding with. We rode all the in together, with some guy blowing by us at the end (jackass). I ended up 15th in my CAT, which was a little bit of a let down as I know I could of rode that course much faster.
Heres a video of the race: http://www.tunicatrails.org/VIDEO/rougeroubaix2009.html
Heres some photos: To see the pictures go to http://www.AdamAndErinFalgoutPhotography.com click on the 'PROOFING' tab, Then type the password 'rr2009' and that will bring up all the pictures from the race!
Heres a NY time report on the race: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/sports/othersports/10cycling.html?hp
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