HILLY BILLY ROUBAIX

June 26 2010, The Hilly Billy Roubaix. I signed up for this race after John Majors had told me about it last spring thinking it would be a lot like the Iron Cross, and seeing how much I enjoyed that, I was looking forward to this one. This race did not disappoint me as it was every bit as hard and challenging. John and I arrived at the race site about 9:00 Sat. morning, signed in and got ourselves ready. The race started at a little after 10:00. It was a rolling start out to the highway where everyone regrouped and it was on. I was hanging back as I always do, trying to pace myself because the temperature was suppose to be in the high 80"s. This didn't work out too well for me as I missed a turn and went four miles in the wrong direction, not all bad because I found another rider[Joel] who had also made the same mistake. When we made it back to the race course, we found out from the sag truck that we were the last two riders. At this point I decided to just make this a ride and not a race. Joel and I rode down this road that had pot holes big enough to lose a small car in and at one point me and my bike; that's dirt road racing in W. Virginia. Back out on the hard top we got working together and Joel asked me how far to check point one and I told him we were close, turn's out it was just around the corner. I decided not to stop and blew right on by, as I was feeling pretty good at this point in the race.This may have been a mistake. About five miles up the road we left the secondary and headed up this "road" and I use this term loosely. I found this course to have many road's like this one and a few more that are to hard to explain. A few hundred yard's up this road I saw a guy walking towards me and I told him he was going the wrong way when I realized it was John carrying his bike. He said he had flatted and ruined his spare tube. I said no problem you can have mine. We fixed his flat and headed out to find check point two where we had more tubes stashed. Along the way we topped a hill to find an unofficial check point with three official Hill Billy women offering up jello shots , but we were so far behind they had run out. They told us that check point three would have moon shine if we were interested. Not so much for me and John as we wanted to finish the race. In another ten miles or so we pulled into check point two, to find they had about run out of water which would have been fine because it didn't taste all that great to me. We gather up our drop bags, lubed our chains and in Johns case his rear rim to, not making him to happy. They told us that the first forty miles were the worst, the rest was not too bad and that we had it made. At this point I was starting to feel sick and couldn't eat or drink like I should have on a day as hot and as long as this. John said not to worry, he would ride with me, and make sure that we finished, thanks John. After another twenty miles we rolled into check point three, where they had some good food which I had been craving, there were bananas, home made cinnamon bread and pretzels, there was more but that's what I went for. They told us that there was nine or ten miles left and we had it made. It sure felt like a lot more, as the cramps were coming more often at this point and I knew we were close to the finish so I kept going knowing that you had to climb to the finish, hoping that my legs and lungs would hold out.They did and John and I crossed the finish line together, at this point I felt like I had won the race. I have to say this was the second hardest race I've ever done probably because of the heat and mistakes on nutrition and hydration, hope to have better luck next year. Many thanks to JR, the sponsors and the volunteers. They did a great job. Hope to see the Oswald Crew there next year. THE MOVING FINGER WRITES; HAVING WRIT MOVES ON. The old man a.k.a. Eric