On February 4th 2012, after nearly twenty years of mountain bike racing, I finally took the plunge and jumped into road racing with the Boulevard Road Race in Campo, CA. And it truly was a plunge because up until the end of MTB season in fall 2010, I had never even owned, or desired to own a road bike.
In fact, the first road bike I owned wasn’t even a “real” road bike–it was a 2009 Specialized Tricross that I acquired in a trade for my ’08 FSR Stumpjumper. (And just for the record, I almost didn’t even get the Tricross because the other offers of Playstations and tattoos were so enticing. But, my innate desire to expand my bike collection inevitably won out. It always does…)
Specialized Tricross | My First 'Road Bike' (Ludwigslust, Germany)
The trade for the cross bike proved to be a wise choice. Not only did it fit me well, but it also came equipped with front and rear rack mounts that were ideal for touring. So, naturally, now that I COULD tour, I did. Who am I to miss an opportunity when one so blatantly presents itself? For 45 days, I rode solo through 10 northern European countries. The bike, my paniers, the road, and I all became one as I explored the beautiful countryside of Sweden, battled 15 mph headwinds and pouring rain in Belgium, and immersed myself in the robust bicycle culture of Denmark. Even after my European tour was over, I continued to do long road rides on the cross bike back at home. The speed, freedom, and excitement of being on the bike made me feel like a kid again… much different than the adrenalin rush you get from mountain bike racing.
In early 2011, I bought my first ‘real’ road bike, a 2011 Specialized Allez for the primary purpose of training for my upcoming mountain bike race season. My newly hired coach, Jesse Eisner of Crank Cycling, recommend getting a road bike with a power meter to maximize my cycling training. I was a little reluctant due to the financial commitment of such a purchase, but I eventually complied. Jesse was right about the power meter. In fact, I’ve come to learn that Jesse is always right about all things related to training. With his guidance, I went from finishing in the bottom 1/3 of most mountain bike races to finishing in the top three in several races and winning two races at Rim Nordic.
After a couple thousand training miles on the Allez, I retired it and built up a carbon ‘hong-kong’ special that I affectionately call a ‘Ricardo Pro’. It’s super light at 15.4 lbs and is mostly SRAM Red. Having a road bike that you love makes training that much more enjoyable. I currently train on it for about 600 miles per month. I still have the TriCross– it’d be hard to sell it after everything we’ve been through together. I ride it to the coffee shop from time to time, for old-time’s sake (don’t tell my other bikes, but I think it’s my favorite).
'Ricardo Pro' Built by Me
Anyway, back to what this blog post is supposed to be about, my first road race…
Why start road racing now? Well, that’s easy: I’ve logged thousands of miles in training over the last year on a road bike, no peletons, no echelons, no pace-lines, so I figured that I should be fast, right? And besides, I’m curious! I’m an avid TDF (Tour de France) watcher, and I want to really understand what Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett talk about. Plus the timing worked out well, as this race happened to be right at the end of my base training.. So, why the heck not?
And why the iconic UCSD Boulevard Road Bike Race? We’ll that’s easy too: because all my roadie friends told me it would be a good race to start with.
After scouring the cycling forums for tips on road racing and videos that showed how to ride in a paceline and an eschelon, I realized it might be beneficial to have a quick meeting with two of my Sho-Air teammates who also planned to race this event. Deron Dodero (Cat1 MTB Racer) and Stephane Roch (Pro MTB Racer) are, like me, mountain bike racers, not road racers. However, this was the second time they had done this race, so I expected they’d have some valuable information to share.
Their account of their Boulevard experience last year confirmed that, to win, team efforts were mandatory, along with pacing, patience, and some serious strategy. For example, those who shoot out to the front in breakaways usually get caught by the peleton. Furthermore, unless you have teammates in the peleton to work with, it is easy to get elbowed to the back of the pack which is the most dangerous place to ride and an easy place to get dropped. Once dropped, and away from the windless protection provided by the peleton, the race is most likely over. There is little to no chance to catch back up with the group on your own. Keeping this in mind, Stephane, Deron, and I came up with a strategy that gave me high hopes and big expectations for my teammates and me. However, “even the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.”
On race day, I rolled up to the start line, looked around, and to my surprise, could not find my teammates anywhere! Nervously, I wondered if I was starting with the wrong group or if they got lost on the way to the race. I began to change my race strategy, thinking that I would have to do this race as a “one man wolfpack.” Right then, the race official stared counting down .. ’3,2,1.. go!’ I rolled out with the peleton and stayed with them for the entire first descent of 11 miles or so.
Just after turning on to La Posta, the start of the first climb, two Sho-Air jerseys glided around me. Turns out Stephane and Deron did miss the start and had worked together to catch the peleton on the descent and grab my wheel. They gave me a subtle nod as they came around me and began to pull. Whew! Game on!!
UCSD Boulevard Road Bike Race 2012 | I'm in the Rudy Project Green Helmet (in the back, look close)
The three of us stayed with the first group of 15 or so racers until the majority of the way up the first climb. Everything was looking good with Stephane effortlessly pulling us up the long climb back to the top. Perhaps that’s when I got a little complacent, because I began to make some simple, but critical mistakes.
When I least expected it, the peleton started to pick up the pace. It happened while I was fumbling around with my water bottle and I lost Derons wheel which put me out in the wind by myself for a minute. Instead of gradually increasing my power to close the gap, I surged, and by the time I made it back to Deron’s wheel I realized I had expended too much energy to maintain the pace. The road got steeper and my power output was all over the place as I battled the gnarley head wind to try and maintain my position. And boom. Just like that I got dropped. And just like that, it was game over for me. I was a one man wolfpack once more.
I spent the rest of the ride more-or-less solo thinking about how I should have been paying attention better, how I should have managed my power output better, how I should have stayed out of the wind.. and how I happy I am that there is no peleton or echelon in mountain bike racing... 
My teammates continued on and did extremely well. Stephane finished 5th and Deron finished 15th. Overall, it was a great first road race, I learned a lot, and can’t wait to do it all over again. To all of my roadie friends who thought this would be a good first road race for me: thanks for introducing me to the discipline — let me know when you’re ready to do a mountain bike race.
My Strava stats from the Boulevard race are above. I, regrettably, didn’t race with my power-meter — there’s still some potentially interesting data.
