Traverse City Cherry-Roubaix

Anything with a “Roubaix” attached to it involving bikes gets my immediate attention, throw Crit and Traverse City, Michigan into the mix and I’m there...

This was a no-brainer, All my family lives in Traverse City and Huge portion of my summers and holidays were and still are spent in this beautiful place entitled the “Cherry Capitol of the World”

When I noticed the sweet play on words at the top of my U.S.A.Cycling home page I instantly got fired up, I immediately clicked on the link and to read the race profile..7/10ths of a mile, 6 corners, a cobble/brick section..”Sa-Weet !!”

This was the the first year for the Race and Run Seamlessly by Hagerty Racing Team out of T.C.

My only concern was the first corner, Imagine an over 90 turn to the right, the mirror image of Glencoe just 75 meters from the Start/Finish..

We all breathed a sigh of relief when the Officials told us the Barricades would be opened wide and Strait for the Finish...Genius Idea..

Pre-lap...My nerves are jumping, this would be my first race as a Cat 3.

I line up second Row, whistle goes, My worst clip in of the year...super lame, The Race takes off Leonard and Peter Style ....Crap....I’m almost at the back of the field, I slowly start to make up Ground, burning a fat match to get back up to the front, it’s on and Hot..The corners are technical and lots of gaps are opening up all over the place, I’m leap frogging around bad handling ability & fitness levels...finally I’m sitting 7th or 8th wheel...I’m feeling horrible, suffering from my bad start...I have to recover for a minute to move up a bit more as we head into the 3rd lap, we hit that over 90 corner hot and the guy two spots in front of me absolutely destroys himself into the Hay Bails, I have about a millisecond to react and avoid Him, a broken bike and a angry flying Hay Bail, Somehow I snake in between but 4 are gone off the front...Damn, I tried to bridge several times, with no team mates and a solid Team from Grand Rapids Blocking everything text book style, I resigned myself to try and win the Field sprint and maybe a prime after hearing the Gap was growing every lap..

A field prime is called and I nearly grab it but my positioning was suspect as I wasted energy early...These are valuable little lessons...A funny thing happens half way thru the race...I start feeling good and really comfortable hitting the corners hot...more Carnage in corner one, this time a broken carbon wheel grazes my left leg as I fly past not losing anything with a solid line...I have this corner dialed... And good news, I see one from the break completely fried and that makes 3 away and we’re Racing for 4th now and for some Money...Yee Haww

2 to go, I’m 3rd wheel and I’m not gonna give up any position ...period...The deck shuffles a bit, 1 to go and we’re flying thru the Cobble section, I’m still 3rd wheel locked in and focused, we carve the only left on the course and first wheel takes an incredibly poor line and nearly loses it into the gutter, The guy in front of me jumps and I’m on him, we take the next right flying, his line is solid and I’m on his wheel, and mashing to stay on...150 meters to the final corner and He’s burning a giant Match thinking he’s away ...We hit the last right handed 90 degree into the final stretch as fast as possible, I let him gap me a Couple yards and started my sprint with about 200 meters to the Line and Came around him cleanly to grab 4th....

What a great way to close out my 2008 Crit Season, At Home, in front of Family, an Amazing event and no Crashie Crash for Newt !!!

I would of loved to have been in the Break and have my team mates there, But that’s Bike Racing...oh well, maybe next year

Ironically enough, The winner was a Friend of John Tomlinson’s, Taylor Birman, another 16 year old Badass...