Many of my favorite races have trended towards those that test a rider’s all around skill.  A race where the roadies and the dirtbags can meet, compete, and defeat each other.  Not because I have some grudge against roadies, I was one for a few years.  The races where one from any other discipline can show up and be competitive bring out the best in all of us.  For some of the roadies it’s terrifying to rip down hills sliding on the brink of calamity.  For the dirtbags that is where many times we are the most in control.  And in that wrestling of control back into your own hands lay the reason many of us have taken to this two wheeled endeavor.  The Barry Roubaix is all of these things. The ‘Barry’ is Barry County, MI.  The ‘Roubaix’ is a nod to one of the hardest races in all of cycling.  After last years race, I find this race more Flanders, than Roubaix.  The Tour of Flanders is Belgium’s biggest bicycle road race, and thus, one of the biggest races in the world.  It is contested over a series of around 20 ‘hillengen’ very similar in length, pitch, and to a degree surface as that of the Barry Roubaix.  The Barry Roubaix course consists of 80% gravel roads, and a serious amount of climbing thrown in to continually punch you in the yambos.  What that blahbittyblah means is that this will probably be your favorite race of the year if you make the trip. It was for me, last year.  This race will beat you senseless and you will beg for more. The surrounding countryside is beautiful, and the speeds will range from 7mph to close to 40mph.  Full on derka.  Bring your ‘cross bike, bring your mountain bike, hell bring your road bike if you like carnage asada tacos.

March 27

Middleville, Mi

barry-roubaix.com for info and registration through bikereg.com