By Michelle Blake
Webster Roubaix is an outstanding event that is legendary for it’s dust, so thick that I have yet to finish cleaning the remnants of 2009 from behind my ears. Hanging out with racers who take pride in having a sparkling clean bike, I absolutely love watching their disgusting faces as they fly by and as I am still a 10 year old at heart, this race is a great opportunity to spend some time playing in the dirt.
In past years, I haven’t had that greatest of finishes at Webster Roubaix. In 2008, at the age of 13, I stayed with the field the entire race only to be crashed out a few hundred meters from the line. 2009 wasn’t my year either, when Dave Viney rode me off his wheel just a couple of miles into the race. But this year, I became determined to win the title of Webster Roubaix champion and to own of one of yhe distinctive, coveted trophies .
From previous experience, I knew a few key tips to succeed in such a difficult race. The number one rule that I kept repeating to my teammates during the day was that you had to be one of the first people on the dirt, because it’s nearly impossible to move up after you’re already in the dust. I also noted that Dave Viney and Julius Aulisio were a couple of masters who I was going to be racing with, that I really needed to keep an eye on in order to stay with the group. I was also racing with Ashlyn Gerber, a great friend but very strong competitor, who I knew was going to be hard to beat that day.
There were 11 women at the start along with the 21 Masters 55+ and 65+ we were also racing with. This included my teammate, Zoe Mullins, who was competing in her first ever womens road race! We started off on the dirt neutral, meaning the actual racing couldn’t commence until everyone was on the pavement. Some people took this as a moment to swap recipes before the attacks started, but I used the time to position myself perfectly in the pack, as in right at the front. From the beginning, the speed was held between 21 to 25 mph and for the first lap of the race, I kept within the top 7 of the peloton. There weren’t any extremely notable attacks and no breakaways but when we got within about a mile of the dirt road you could sense that everyone was gearing up for a hard effort. I knew what I had to do and immediately jumped on Viney’s (Dave Viney) and Jubie’s (Julius Aulisio) wheels after being one of the first through the sandy corner. Viney had a plan for that race, and that was to attack every lap on the dirt section, dragging us through the start/finish at 25 mph, with myself doing everything possible to hold 3rd wheel in the paceline. When we would finally get of the dirt, Viney would pull off and we would all reorganize into a group, though it was significantly smaller every lap than what we had before hitting the dirt. I didn’t quite realize how significant the breaks were until Jubie pulled up beside me while I was sitting about 10th wheel and said that there were 3 women left in the pack including myself and Ashlyn. Surprised, I looked over my shoulder to only find 2 other people behind me in the group. I was guaranteed a podium spot, and just one step closer to that trophy.
We dropped the other lady a lap later, and Viney finally whittled the group down to four riders off of the dirt section with 2 laps to go. I was one of the victims of that lap’s attack, along with Ashlyn and three other masters. We rode all together for a lap and half until some guy came flying by us with one lap to go. I’m thinking to myself “Who on earth is this guy and where did he come from?!?” The first answer I came up with was that we had been lapped by the +45 group and so I shouted not to chase him because he was in a different category. But then a voice behind me said “No we’re not.” Scared me half to death. Apparently out-of-sight/out-of-mind works both ways; for break aways and dropped riders. The woman that we had dropped earlier in the race had teamed up with another master who paced her back up to us. Judging by how much work she must have done to catch up with us, I wasn’t too worried about her at the finish, but still, it scared me there for a second.
As we turned the last corner onto the dirt, Ashlyn attacked. She got a pretty good distance on me, and I tried to chase her down but couldn’t quite catch her. I had almost accepted the second place finish when the group of masters I was with rode past me. Jumping on their wheels, I started gaining ground on her and when the finish line came into sight, we had pulled even. A quick glance over at her, proved that Ashlyn had burned her last match going too early and I continued on past her to the finish. That finish line never looked so welcoming.
It may take another year to completely wash away the dust from 2010 but there is no way to wash away my smile from winning Webster Roubaix.
Photos By:
Jan Chalmers and Tracy Mullins
