I had high expectations for the entire weekend. But given the finish Friday night, I was forced to adjust those expectations. Long story short, I Hoogered up and raced everyday, including Saturday, a mere 14 hours after going over the bars at 37.5 mph the night before. (see Lafayette Square, Friday Night)
Saturday: St. Louis Hills
With expectations now shifted a bit. The intent for today was to test how the body would respond. I was bandaged on the left elbow which was swollen pretty good. Tegaderm with gauze and wrap on the left elbow and left low back. I had rash, scrapes, and cuts on all knuckles on my right hand, right elbow, right calf/shin, and cut face as well. Pretty much looked like I was on the ass end of parking lot bar fight.
Very similar course to Lafayette Square. There is a bit more elevation change with a steady downhill on the backside into turn 3 which is a slightly smaller road. Thanks to Jose and SRAM NRS, my bike and equipment was ready to race again minus my front wheel and brake caliper.
I felt pretty good, legs felt fine. Mentally I was about 90%. I had already decided that I was not going to contest the sprint when lined up. Race went smooth for as smooth as a 4s race can go. I'm pretty tired of the dumb racing that goes on in the 4s by the way. Theres a crash in turn 3 on the 3 to go lap, small crash, your standard 2-3 guys going down in the corner. Only bad thing is a friend of mine broke his frame he just got this season.
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| Time to quit tailgunning... |
Bell Lap: I'm feeling good with all the pace elevations in the last 3-4 laps so I hang on to the main group and sit in. We throttle it out of turn 3 and line it out. But, the guys up front, in true Cat 4 fashion, sit up half way to turn 4 and the whole group just mushrooms out before turn 4. No thanks, not today, not going to do another 40 up street sprint out of turn 4 to the line. Have fun guys. I just hung on to the back and rolled it in. I have a whole rant about this stupid ass negative racing that constantly goes on in the 4s, but that's for another day.
Sunday: Giro della Montagna, The Hill
I was feeling pretty good. If there was any race I wanted to win this weekend it was this one, second would be Friday or Monday.
Anyway, There were a few stupid crashes here and there, not a big deal. I just tucked in and tried to stay out of trouble and conserve as much as I could. There was a more serious crash in turn 1 when we hit the countdown laps. We were stopped at the line for about 5 minutes and restarted with 5 to go. Pace went up pretty good as we hit the hill on the 2 to go lap. I was sitting about 15-20th and holding just fine. We came out of turn 2 and throttled it. Well, I power faded pretty hard the last 1/3 of the hill into turn 3. Just couldn't turn the gear I needed to to stay with the top 10, I lost quite a few spots but wasn't totally gassed. So coming out of turn 3 I started ramping it up for the run to the line. Out of turn 4 I stayed seated, went hard, picked off about 4-5 guys before the pit and then positions didn't change much after that. I think I had a little more residual fatigue than I realized from crashing so hard on Friday night. It really shut me down that last lap. Everyone is so close with fitness at Gateway Cup that any little difference is exaggerated and more difficult to hide. Rolled in 30th somewhere, 100 starters give or take.
Monday: Benton Park
This course is all about catering to my strengths, a little rise, super technical, a long fast downhillish straight away with 10 turns over 1.77 miles.
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| Front straight mid-race, the split was just starting... |
Exact same course as last year. Getting up in the top 25 and holding position in the top 25 is critical in this race. I rolled good and top 15-20 the whole race. At least 4-5 guys took themselves out in corners, never seen that many guys crash themselves in one race! Anyway, the split came right about halfway through the race, we were down to a group of 40 or 50. That group was dwindled down to about 35 for the last lap. I pulled in spots whenever I could and went after it out of the last 2 turns. Ended up finishing 15th out of 85 starters, in the money.
All in all, an honorable result given that I started the weekend on the ground in the finish sprint. It was nice to get a respectable result the last day.
Thank you to everyone for all the support through the weekend, you know who you are. And you too back in Chicago, you especially know who you are.
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