Fawn Grove Roubaix

I've just returned from the Fawn Grove Roubaix with a busted wheel and am impaled armadillo. Originally, I thought the race would favor my riding style (cx skills, flats, and very little climbing) and the race flyer described the course as genitally rolling (no climb over 3% grade) with 5 miles of gravel/dirt sections (hard packed dirt with a little gravel, very ridable). So I decided to take a shot and race the Roubaix.

I scouted and rode the course the day before to check out the decents, gravel sections, and moderate climbs. The course stated out as expected with rollers and a gravel sections. At mile 4, the course ventured away from the description. After a crazy decent on gravel, a monster climb began. My Garmin was reading 25% grade for about 300 meters, but I figured I would be able to survive. The course smoothed out again, until the gravel the sections turned to pits rather than roads. I was able to motor through these sections and came to a nasty climb that never ended. My garmin was reading 20%.....24%........28%..........34% and I was thinking great, what a nice rolling hill. After this fawn grove alp de huez, the course was very flat until the finish.

Race day:

Had bowl problems before the race and had to go to the john with 5 minutes to spare. I ripped my number half off getting back to the start line. When the race started, some idiot attacked and went off like Fabian Cancellera. No one responded because we weren't even a mile in. I stayed up front going into the gravel section to make sure I didn't get gapped or caught in a wreck. Things were going smoothly until we approached the first gravel decent. We ended up splitting off the pack and forming a decent lead group of 10 riders. The group was full of the craziest rides I've ridden with and we were bombing down a thick gravel road at 25mph. Riders were fish tailing all over the road and people were kicking up rocks that were the size of golf balls. Despite the crazyness, I was still in the lead group until the first climb. As we began to ride the first climb, I pushed myself to redline to hang on.......my garmin starting beeping like crazy to signify that I had past the redline. I kept motoring through to keep in contact with the lead group. After we crested the climb, I was still in good position until we rode up the monster climb and I was dropped like a hot potato. I was demoralized and riding solo for the remainder of the lap and tried to get back with the group. I decided to just ride as fast as I could until the finish. On the second lap, I saw Mike fly by and chatted with him for a minute or so. As soon as I rode into the first gravel section, my wheel was sliding all over the place. I look down at my wheel and noticed a spoke was loose. I stop to assess the damage and found that 3 spoke has pulled away from the hub and my tire was pulled off the rim.  I sat around for over and hour waiting for someone to pick me up.

I later found out that the retaining ring from my rim was missing and all my spokes were free to roam.