“THE HILL”
The famous “Hill” is the traditional Sunday race. This year would be the 25th anniversary of the race. It is in an awesome Italian neighborhood in St. Louis. All the residents come out and stay out all day all the way around the course, especially up the backside and pack the front side. The course itself is a stretched rectangle with one short end on the top of the hill (more like steady incline with a mild kick at the top) and the other short end at the bottom. The front stretch is a downhill that rises up through a false flat across the line. After turn 2 is a mild downhill that turns up about halfway to start the mild climb. Course length is at .9 mile per lap, we ended up doing 22 laps in the 4’s.
Last time I raced this I was a 4 and did horrible, it has been my nemesis of weekends past. I have been dropped, lapped, and/or pulled. I was nervous going into it but also knew I was coming into it this year with form that I’ve never had before as a Cat 4. I had the legs yesterday at Tour des Hills just made a tactical mistake. Blow the whistle, lets go already so I can see what I got for this course this year! Had a decent starting position and maintained moderate to tail end pack position just fine. The downhill after turn 4 is long enough you can let big gaps open up and you’ll roll right up to the back of the pack as they jam the brakes in turn 1. The pace up the hill the first 5-8 laps was brutal (for 4’s). It started easing up though and became much more manageable, easy really in the back. A lot of slowing going into turn 3 with a ramp up out of it all the way to turn 1. As the race continued, every lap up the backside more and more guys would die off. I was feeling fine and just move right up around them and never see them again. We hit the 5 to go lap and I stay put in mid pack, I stay there until we cross the line to get the 3 to go. Time to move up! This course is shorter than the day before so now was the time to go. It’s inside line through all the turns now except turn 3 and many spots were gained every corner. On the 2 to go lap, there’s a blow out in the middle of turn 2 followed by 3-4 guys going down to the outside, immediately after that there is the resulting panic crash (almost got caught in that one) right behind it. I was already lining up the inside and flowed right through the corner having to slow only a little. However, the 20-30 guys in front of the crash hit the gas when they heard it, I fully expected that when I heard the crash and watched for it! That group gapped everyone. This was it right here, I knew I had to cross the gap and catch that group before they get through turn 3. I got to them about half way up the hill. Hung on to this smaller group of about 40-45 guys. I played it safe through turns 1 & 2, once turn 2 was cleared I started ramping it up, so was everybody else. I faded just a bit up the hill and lost 4-5 spots gaining maybe 1. I knew to stay calm though and that the front usually jumps too soon on this course. That was the case today. I went flying through the last corner and into the downhill run to the line. I just used the downhill to simply ramp up speed but not go full effort yet. The mistake a lot make on this course is that guys hammer down the hill and have nothing left on the false flat to the line and die. As the speed starts to slow at the bottom of the downhill and I go into the trough, I go full bore. I pass a handful of guys to finish a respectable 24th on the hill for the Giro della Montagna!! My best result ever on this course. I’m happy with that. I am getting stronger as the days pile on. Others are clearly fading.
Monday brings a new course and what will be the crown jewel of the Gateway Cup 2010.
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