Benton Park Cycling Classic, Gateway Cup Finale

Benton Park Cycling Classic, Gateway Cup Finale

The Benton Park race on Monday turned out to be the Crown Jewel of this year’s Gateway Cup. This course was by far the toughest course of the weekend for all categories.

WARNING: This is a longer report, with reason; it was MY crown jewel of the season!

READER NOTE: I suggest looking the course map below prior to reading this report. hehe

It’s a 10-turn figure 8 on the surface. It ended up being much more than it appeared. If you didn’t bring your high speed cornering skills to this race you were dead on the start line. Those of us from Chicago are not unfamiliar with figure 8 courses. But, this was a course like no other. Length was 1.7 miles, similar to Glencoe’s long course from this season, much more technical though. It had a chicane after we came back over the freeway and right before a nasty right hand turn into a nice downslope straight away to turn 9. We crossed over I-55, went past the Bud brewery and came back across.

(looking to the South: <-turn 3, turn 2 ->)

Turn 8 wasn’t nasty as in tough but nasty as in rough with multiple non-flush manholes in yucky spots. Also, the road you turn onto from turn 8 has a lot of crown to it right there so when you came out of it you had a lot more lean angle on the tires than you think, so it was really easy to overcook. Which happened a lot throughout the day. I LOVED THIS COURSE!!

The course ate race fields for lunch! Just look at the results from USAC, especially P1/2. https://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?year=2010&id=2873&info_id=29606

Steve Tilford also wrote up a good course description: http://stevetilford.com/?p=5978

On to the race itself:

Looking at the map, I reasoned that this race was going to split the field. I decided to break the race down in sections. First, make the field split. That would mean get a decent start position, keep the front close. No tailgunning today. We had 99 line up, I had decent position on the line, 2^nd or 3^rd row. Race time was to be 40 minutes +3. Whistle blew and we were off, I stayed near the front but not ON the front. Ran the first couple laps gauging lines and watching where the surges and bunching was coming. The chicane was no big deal since we had to slow so much to go through it. Within a lap or two gapping was starting coming out of turn 8. I just kept a heads up and went around as needed. Gaps were also beginning to develop at the S/F line up through turn 1. If you lost contact before turn 1 you were done. Again, I went around guys as needed waiting for the BIG split to come, after about 4 laps, I could feel it was coming soon. On the 5^th lap, we came down the front stretch….

toward the S/F with turn 1 up at the top and here it was! The big split was taking shape.

JD from xXx was next to me, I looked over to him and said that’s the gap we got to close now. He told me “its ok, it’ll come together at the top”. I’m thinking, naw, this is IT. I went. I never saw JD again. First section of race complete, made the field split.

Now it was on to section two:

I just sat in on this group which was about 40-50 guys I’m guessing. I trolled the back with my twitter friend Joel (@CXNut) from St. Louis that was able to race with all weekend. My legs were definitely stating to feel it and guys were starting to fall off pretty regularly on all different parts of the course in 1’s and 2’s. Before you know it, the front group is now about 30-35 guys max and the laps are not getting easier. I look down at my Garmin and we are at 34 minutes, crap! I’m starting to fade and we’re doin 40 + 3 laps. I don’t know if I’m going to make it, I told @CXNut on the straight between 9 and 10 that my legs are going south, not sure how much longer I’ll be around.  I’m just breaking it down and goaling it one lap at a time now. Just hang on! Lap times were about 4 minutes I believe.

Well, they called 3 to go that last time we crossed the line before I saw the 34 min mark on my Garmin, I didn’t know that. On the far stretch by the brewery after turn 3 I started fading off, was pretty much thinking I was cooked, 6 minutes more + 3laps. I had dropped off of @CXNut’s wheel about 50m at this point. I could hear Bart’s moto ramping up behind me, crap, I must be the absolute last one in this group. Bart (who has been a friend for several years now going back to RAGBRAI 3 years ago) pulled up next to me and said “hey dude (pointing in front of me), that’s the race right there!! Push through it!!!” I thought shit, he’s right, I’ve done a lot of work to be here and made a lot of smart decisions in this race, don’t drop the ball now! So I put my head down and started digging deep. Bart rode right next to me all the way back to the group! I grabbed the back of the whip going in to turn 4, the turn at the end of that stretch. I was back on! After turn 9 I rolled up next to @CXNut and looked over at him, he looked at me and said “YOU’RE BACK!” I couldn’t talk. Between turn 1 and 2 he looked over to me and said this is the last lap. WHAT?? I didn’t hear jack when we came across the line 10 seconds ago. I thought, GAME ON, I can suffer another lap, in fact, maybe more than a lot of these guys! I’m going to house these turns, I have no lack of confidence in my cornering ability and I’m going to use every bit of what I got right now!

The third and final section of the race: the bell lap

We make the left toward the chicane, I grab a couple spots. Nice and easy through the chicane, surge out of it, grab another positon. It’s all inside lines from here on out! Diving into the inside of turn 8, POW!, about 5-6 wheels up in front of me a guy has a blowout on the outside of the turn. Non-issue for me, no where near where I was going and my line was wide open. I throttle it up out of turn 8 down the undulation. I go into turn 9 hot, no brakes, wicked lean angle on the rivet at 30mph through the turn! (according to Garmin on post race analysis). Joel was three wheels behind me and said the guy right behind threw his hand up after the turn and quit. I rolled up inside the kid in front of me heading into turn 10, told him I was there and to make this turn cleanly! I took him on the inside and continued taking positions all the way to the line. As the line closed in the next guy in front of me was just out of reach. The money went 15 deep, I took Jerel’s one out of the money at 16th. Sean in the pit yelling me through those closing laps, Bart, and Joel were important in this. Some props have to go out to my friends on this result. They helped me like friends would, and more than they know! Tough course, best race of the season for me! Not necessarily best result wise, I’ve had some top 10’s but this race far and away blows those top 10’s out of the water. The road season “officially” closes for me with this race. Fall Fling is fun and all, but how do you mentally ramp back up 3 weeks after Gateway Cup knowing fall is here?? Who knows, don’t really care, I’ll do whatever Fall Fling events don’t interfere with work for just to get a little more road fun in before the winter.

The objective now turns to starting the 2011 season where I left off from 2010. Which is how I started the 2010 season, where I left off from the 2009 season!

On to Cross….the bike build begins!