Louisiana Rouge

We as Kona mountain bike racers had two missions last week. One was to do some southern riding and get our engines going for another year of ripping. The other was to test out the new Kona road rocket ship called the Red Zone . We succeeded at both. First we rode for a week around the rough rolling roads of St.Francisville, Louisiana. It was great country riding, lots of picturesque sights and temps in the low 20’s. Barry had booked us a little cabin by Lake Rosemound which made for a great training headquarters to refuel and rest between training escapades.

Secondly we signed up to race in the 15th edition of the infamous Rouge Roubaix. A 104 mile road race across patchy roads with 4 long gravel sections covered in loose pebbles and cross ditches.

A couple nights before the race we headed into Baton Rouge to visit the local Kona Dealer Pedal Play. 1 block from the shop we got pulled over by the local cops as Mr Sneddon had forgot to turn the driving lights on. Fair enough. Next up we waited in the van for 30 minutes as 3 more cop cars pulled up surrounding us. Barry and I broke out in a laugh at the retartedness of the situation. Apparently the Baton Rouge Police corps were looking for someone else, not a van loaded with bike racers pounding coconut waters and eating whole food takeaway meals. Eventually we were allowed to continue on our way to Pedal Play for a night of good times with the boys at Pedal Play, drinking Louisiana beer and eating Jambalaya (creole mixture of rice, meat and spices).

Sunday was race day: In the first gravel section Kris took one for the team and tested out the Red Zone’s ability to ride into a cross ditch at 40 km/hr. The light carbon frame and wheels held up perfectly. Kris didn’t fair so well with a bloody left arm requiring hospital treatment. With the testing of the toughness of the bike out of the way, Barry Wicks, Spencer Paxson and myself continued on to determine just how fast we could make these things go. We road hard at the front of the pack bringing back attacks and keeping the peloton moving along until we hit the 3rd gravel section which contained some small climbs. This demolished the pack, Barry was off the front with the leaders, Paxson and myself were left chasing as we searched for some early season form. From this point on the race was awesome as the gravel roads and wind meant there was no place for anyone to hide. Riders were cracking everywhere, Paxson used his cyclocross skills to pull himself and is Red Zone into the top 10, and I dieseled along behind picking off blown up riders 1 by 1. In the end Wicks hung on for 5th, I cruised in for 11th and Paxson followed up in 12th. A very solid day for a crew of mountain bikers at Louisiana’s premier road race.

That evening we were all wrecked. Wicks, Paxson, Kona rep Nate Clark and myself all retreated back to our beds where we started the day. Sneddon was doing alight, a couple stitchs in his arm but upbeat and energized as usual. It eventually rubbed off on the rest of us as we had an evening pounding food and chit chatting, before packing our bikes for our trips back home. My 3 teammates left yesterday, I road around Baton Rouge eating crawfish, then was suppose to leave today but American Airlines is having a rough day. First the 6:40 am flight was delayed, in the 2nd attempt the plane broke its steering on the runway, the next 3 flights were overbooked, and the 4th one is now 30 min late. It’s now 13 hrs after my scheduled departure and I’m still eating Louisiana Crawfish. Fingers crossed they have things figured for the 6 o’clock flight or else it’ll be time to unpack the bike and make this place home for a while.