Gateway Cup

If you race bikes in the Midwest there are a few race weekends that you HAVE TO GO TO. First is Memorial Day weekend in the Quad Cities area. Then there is Tulsa Tough (I have not been yet, I'm going next year) Tour of America's Dariyland, and Gateway Cup. You might think differently, but this is my list, and if you want to find some of the best racing in the area this is where you have to be. There are some more great weekend races that are up and coming but I will talk about those later.

The only new race I listed was ToAD, and that is because it is actually longer than a week, and it is super awesome!

Other than that these races are classics! They have been around a long time, and in the case of Gateway Cup some of the races were on their own before Mike Weiss, promoter and owner of Big Shark, started the series. The biggest race of the weekend is the Giro Della Montagna, a race that has been going on for about 27 years in the historic St Louis community The Hill. It is a long rectangle crit course with a slight uphill on the backside and a slight downhill into the finish line. Winning the Giro is a huge deal in these parts.

Racing at the Cup is the world series and something that anyone in St Louis who considers themselves a bike racer must do. It is also a tough race in that it is fast, and crashes happen, a lot. I feel like sometime people should show up kitted up with roller derby pads.

The first night starts things off right with the Tour de Lafayette in Lafayette square. A box shaped crit course that the big races take place at night. The streets in Lafayette square are wide and lined with tons of people who live on the course. The whole time you are racing around people are living it up and people are cheering at every corner.

The next day is Tour De Francis Park in the St Louis Hills community, not the same as The Hill. The course is very similar to the pervious day except it is durning the day. The racing is very much the same, fast and hard. With roads so wide it is hard to control the pack and you have to be on your toes.

The toughest days come on Sunday and Monday, with Sunday being the famous Giro Della Montagna. The start line is at the door of the neighborhood Catholic Church and is blessed by the father before the race starts. The roads are narrow, and with the fields always full it can get a bit hairy. Last year we lost a few of our riders in a big crash on the slowest turn on the course. With the long downhill on the front stretch speeds will normally reach 45+ mph and the winning sprint will get higher than that.

The last race of the weekend and the newest race in the series is the Benton Park Classic. This is the only race of the weekend that is not 4 corners, instead it has 10 turns! It is amazing! I have done 3 editions of this weekend, and all the editions of this race. It is one of my favorites of the entire year. And being the last race of my racing season is a great way to end. The course has elevation change, wind, turns, goofy local bands playing on the backside, and historic neighborhoods. It also goes right next to the Budweiser factory, pretty much perfect.

Winning just one of these races would be a great accomplishment for a season, but I am not the only one who thinks this, so it is easier said than done. And with the storm down in the Gulf happening, and that weather coming this way in time for the weekend, things are going to be hairier than ever.

See y'all there.

Sedalia Crit/Otterville RR

The team and I headed out to Sedailia, MO yesterday to race this weekend. Sedailia is a great little town in Western MO, that hosts an amazing critirium in the middle of their downtown. The cat 3/4 and the Pro123 are held later in the day with the later taking place in the dark. The course is very straight forward in crit terms. .75 miles long, with 4 corners and almost no elevation change. It is a very fast course, and with good bike skills you can really enjoy yourself in the race.

We lined up Brian Smith, Eric Finks, Jason Wulff, Jason Murphy, myself, Keith Vogl, and Grant Erhard. We have been very successful this year in crits and have done some great things as a team. We came to this race though to work on some weak spots, and get things tuned in for  Gateway Cup. If we didn't do so well that would teach us something that we could try to fix before the big race. But succeeding would be nice too.

The race was pretty easy in my opinion for most of the ride. We all started in the back of the pack and had to work our way to the front of the race. We all agreed that was the worst part of the race. Most of us had not gotten a great warm up after driving long hours to the race. So jumping hard early in the race sort of sucks. Once the legs have stretched out though things were pretty straight forward.

We did a great job in the race of hitting working points we had targeted. Hitting those targets made it easier to make small changes to our plan when we were short one rider near the end of the race. With 5 laps to go we lined it up on the front of the pack and started our lead-out train. This is the longest, and biggest lead-out we have ever done. We tried it once before but did not get it quite right. With some small tweaking though we were flying! I set myself in second position. I was supposed to be 4th, but like I said we needed to make some changes. We have been riding so great together though that everyone was able to make the change without too much trouble. Our first rider, Keith, in my opinion had the hardest part of the job. He took us up to speed and had to hold it for 2 laps. That doesn't seem like much compared to PRO's but we are just getting started here so 2 laps for our first guy was a lot. He did an amazing job, even accelerating for a second spirt when I thought he might be losing power. As we were coming around with 3 to go it was my turn. The rest of us were just supposed to keep the speed high enough that no one would want to try and move up. This would give our sprinter the best chance to win. As I fought with my bike trying to put out as much power as I could I kept waiting for the pack to surge around me, but they never came. And with Grant behind me barking to keep going I was able to make about 3/4 of a lap and dropped Grant with 2 turns till 2 laps to go.  Grant and Murphy had the last two laps to pull to put our man in the right spot. Looking back on myself I should have gone farther and dug deeper. I think I got scared of dropping too much speed and called it too soon. Practice makes perfect though right? After I pulled off I don't really know what happened first hand. What I saw however was the field was shattered! There were only a few riders holding onto Fink's (our sprinter) wheel. I was blown away! From what I am told our lead-out dropped Eric at the perfect spot and he took the win by a bike length. It was really great to get him the win in what he considers his home town race.

Between the 3/4 and PRO 123 race we were able to meet one of our sponsors, David Garnett, the president of Hawthorn Bank in Clinton, MO. He is trying to help his own town try and bring a race like Sedalia to Clinton. It is always great to meet the people that make our racing possible.

The PRO 123 race in Sedalia is held under the street lights and car head lights of the town. In my opinion it is AWESOME! Last year I jumped in this race and made it all the way to 15 min, out of an hour......
So this year I was really hoping for a better ride, and to try and help our new team member Luke Bligh with whatever I could. The team lined up better in this race so as to not have such a hard start. It really didn't matter though, it was hard, and fast, and hard. There were two really good teams that I could see really mixing it up. Dog Fish, the juggernaut of St Louis Cat 12 racing, and Gateway Harley Davidson. Other teams with regular strong dudes were The Hub, with Devin Clark, and Off the Front with Hayden Warner. For the most part the regulars made their way into a break and they duked it out while the rest of us battled for best of the rest (9th). I was pretty smoked by the time the break was out of sight. I had made attempts to pull the pack back up to them as we had a good sprinter in the bunch. But I am quite on par with these guys, hence I am still a cat 3. My fitness must really be coming around though as I was able to recover very quickly and an uncountable amount of times. I was pretty much bouncing back and forth in the pack, jumping, or pulling, and then hanging on the back.

As we neared the end of the race Eric, Luke, Grant, and I were still in the race. As we started to line up for Luke we couldn't find Grant who was hanging on for the finish at the back. That was okay though as it was his first cat 123 race and he was going to finish great! Luke did a great job of steering Eric and I around the course in order to get him in a good spot to sprint. I actually felt bad for Luke being behind me, as Luke towers over me on the bike and I have no idea how he was getting a draft off me. So as we were starting our lead-out, and keying off Dog Fish, we got a big unlucky and ran into some traffic. Eric when one way and I went another. I had a chance to pull off the move and keep Luke going but I over cooked a turn scraping my pedal on a curb and barely keeping my bike upright. Luke made it around me and through the traffic though, a great skill he has honed over the years, and finished 3rd in our group and 11th overall.

We were all pretty pumped about the race. Everyone really seemed to have had a good time and the city of Sedalia put on a great race. I hope that they keep it going in the years to come, and the people of the community continue to embrace it as they have.

Grant, Keith, and I, were all planning on staying with Finkszilla's place in Clinton. We stayed there last year, but it is kind of a drive. This year we decided we would get a room at a hotel on the town square. Hotel Bothwell is a great old hotel that has not lost it's charm. I really like places like that, and someday I hope I get a little more time there to really check it out.

This morning the team headed over to Otterville, MO. It was only 15 min away, another small Missouri town that welcomed us cyclists to their town. The Otterville road race is a 24 mile rolling loop through the country side. There are really no real hill climbs to speak of, but the road is also rarely flat. The wind was also pretty strong. We didn't really go into the race with much of a plan. Most of us had planned to do the 123 race, but chickened out when we thought that the weather was going to get rough. So we just went in looking to get some more work done.

We were all pretty tired from the previous night's racing so we were happy to see that no one was really organized and never attacked us. There were plenty of guys who tried to get off but we felt there wasn't much use in tracking them down. We felt most of the time the race was going to just naturally bring them back. During the frist lap we actually had a little fun when Eric had a chain problem. A few of us pulled off the back to bring him back up once he had it fixed. We started to get a little nervous when Grant ended up also having a mechanical problem as well while we waited for Eric. Everything ended up fine though and we made a quick pace line back to the pack.

In the second lap we tried a few moves to see if anything would stay away, but nothing did, kind of like we had expected. So we wanted to do some more practice with our lead-out.  Sometimes you learn more when you fail than when you succeed, and I think this was one of those times. Our train didn't work this time, and there were things we did not take into account for.  It was close, and a good try, but like I said, we learned things, and wont make that mistake again.

In the end Grant was our best placed rider, even after having to deal with a not so good situation at the end of the race. It all turned out okay, and like I said Grant didn't give up and finished strong. For a young guy only racing about a year he looks mighty strong. All the guys look like we are going to be flying next weekend, and thats a good thing.

Lance Armstrong

So I am pretty sad about Lance's decision to not fight anymore. I understand, and I know that he said before the charges were brought that he would no longer fight. I am a big LA fan, but that doesn't mean I have my doubts about what he did when he was racing. Everyone was doping so does it really count as cheating?

Now taking into account that you know I am a Lance fan, I agreed that the USADA prosecution seemed quite zealous and counter to what we feel is fair in the USA. Lance is that the first rider or athlete taken down by the USADA, and just about every time it seems very one sided and if you are caught in their net you are pretty F*&ked. It raises questions in my mind of oversight, and checks and balances.

I have read some blogs saying that Lance has again done a great job of spinning the outcome in his favor. At this point people not very familiar with what is going on will look at this as an admission of guilt. And WADA, and the USADA are saying that it is. But the more you look at it the more it seams like a settlement similar to what you see when a corporation settles with a plaintif. Lance has more to do in life than re-win what he had already won, and I feel he feels no one can take away what he had won. So what is the point fo fighting the past, just move forward and do more with his foundation and race in non WADA races. (there are plenty out there)

I don't think this will change anyone's mind about LA. I think us Lance lovers will still be with him, and the haters will still hate him. I was even thinking the other day, what would I do if Lance lost, or gave up? Turns out other than being bummed he gave up, it doesn't change my life.

I am heading out to western Missouri tomorrow for the Sedalia Crit and Otterville road race this weekend. This will be the last tune up before the Gateway Cup next weekend. For us road guys this is the end of the season in Missouri, and there are a lot of guys looking really good right now. We are going to use this weekend to have our stuff dialed in and ready to win.

Hi

So I know it has been a while. I feel like I have been really busy and always tired when I had time to write. There has been a lot since the Great Egyptian Omnium.

First was my team gymnastics camp. Every year I host a camp at my gym. Since I have started it is really only my team kids that come, but maybe some day other kids will want to come too. So what I do is a hire visiting coaches to come in, work with the kids, and have a lot of fun. I have had college coaches, college gymnasts, and this year I brought in a Men's national team member, and a team member of the U of I men's gymnastics team. Now I do only coach girls, but these guys are great gymnasts and the way men's gymnastics works, most guys can coach pretty well. Paul Ruggeri and Vincent Smurro came down from the U of I and we all had a great time with them. They guys were really nice and helped the girls a lot. I tried to take them out and show them how great St Louis is and they seemed to really like it. Every year I am a bit nervous that camp wont be fun enough, but I am always pleasantly surprised that the kids love it.

After camp my bike racing team was hosting our first ever critirium in Maplewood, MO. We had been mulling over putting this race on for months, but as none of us really knew what we were doing there was not a lot of discussion until a couple weeks before the event. This made those few weeks after the great Egyptian even more stressful for me. The city of Maplewood was really very helpful and went out of their way to help. There was a point when I thought we weren't going to be able to pull things off and they talked me back into it. The race was supposed to take place in downtown Maplewood to help showcase their great town. Our first set back was the streets, which were in great need of repair were going to be repaired and it would run into our event. Our next location looked very fun but when we realized it wasn't going to work the city planners pointed out an industrial park and sent me to look. Know I now what you are thinking, borring! But this is the nicest industrial park I had ever seen. The race would go past two round-abouts through a parking lot that twisted and turned, down a wide false flat uphill neighborhood street, out onto Big Bend and back to the start. It was a HUGE success and the whole St Louis cycling community really enjoyed it. We only charged $20 for the first race and $10 for every extra race, so it was cheap! Our payout wasn't great, but the goal was to have great racing for a low price, and we accomplished that. We had a few heats with over 45 riders and that is a good number in my opinion for a race that wasn't for sure up until a week to go, almost no payout, and was local. Not that our local scene isn't amazing, it just seems like more local riders could show up to other races to help support these events. It was great to see everyone out at our event and I am so pumped to do it again next year.

The icing on the cake was I won my own race! I didn't think I would get a chance to race but I made it in, and things just worked out great. My team worked awesome and put me on the front for a great sprint. I had a grin from ear to ear!

The next week we had the MO state TT and crit championships. I had wanted to do the TT all year as I would like to get a bit better at it, and if I am ever in the hunt for MOBRA (our local race series) I will need to do well in TT's. The number one reason to go however was to get my friend and teammate Chris Connolly to go. Chris is one of the biggest diesel engines I have ever ridden with. We do have a few guys in our area that are faster than him right now, but they had better watch out. I have never done a 40k TT and I did pretty bad. But Chris won and had the 5th fastest time in the STATE out of all categories! This was on a borrowed bike, and a dude that road it maybe 5 or 6 times. Guess who needs to get a new bike?

After that win I was ready for some more QMC victories at state. Our first crit win for QMC came from Julianna Crang in the Juniors race. After that the biggest number of our team to ever race together lined up for the 30+/35+ masters race. Our rider was Bj and the plan we to get him away in a break. It took quite a while before we were able to get the field wore out enough to get it done. But Mark put in a dig and got a pretty good gap off the front. He was the first Quantum rider to get off the front without anyone going after him. I wondered at the time if it was because they knew he was not from Illinois. Mark is pretty well know so that was my assumption. After a couple laps though Bj made a big dig and made it up to Mark without anyone else on his wheel. That was all she wrote for the 30+ race. We shut the race down big time with 6 of us riding 3 wide at the front of the race at close to parade speed. With a couple laps to go we started trying to get Eric lined up for a possible 35+ win. Eric was in a great position but with all the work he had done earlier in the day he wasn't able to match the sprint of a couple other guys in the race.

We were super pumped about Bj's win we were equally excited about racing for Eric in the 3s race. The race was a little better populated than the master's race was, but we still had the biggest team in the field and we felt we could dictate what was going to happen. There were a few riders we were looking out for and had a plan to try and put them into the pain box. The cat 3 field in MO is on the rise though and many riders were ready for the punishment we dished out to the field. Every time one of our riders hit the field with an attack we were marked by a number of riders all hoping to get away with them. I made a mistake at one point trying to bridge to a break that looked good to help one of my teammates. I thought I made a very big hard jump and no one was going to be on my wheel but I was wrong and had brought 2 Mercy riders. This in turn caused the rest of the field to jump and the good looking break was brought back. With only a few laps to go I was hurting bad. I had done a lot of work in the previous race and this one. So when a strong Big Shark rider made a big attack with only a few laps to go I dug down for whatever matches I had left and buried myself. I wasn't able to finish with my teammates but they kept Eric in position and gave him a great shot at the win. Unfortunately Eric wasn't the best sprinter in the bunch sprint and couldn't hold of futur QMC rider Luke Bligh.

This last weekend was one of the biggest payout races in the area at the Edwardsville Rotary Criterium. The total payout was $10,000 with a big party happening around the race, as well as taking place at night. The course was short with 7 turns. Twice on the course the road narrows down to one lane and there is a very fast technical chicane you must navigate. Our race went off at 8:15pm, the latest race I had ever taken part in. I really liked the course and was pretty pumped to put our team plan into effect and see what happens. Less than one minute into the race I crashed washing out in the first half of the chicane. Luckily I didn't take anyone else down with me, and other than a hole in my skin suit, torn grips, and a dropped chain, everything was ok. I pulled myself together and headed back to the pit. I made it there as the pack was going through the start finish so I waited for them to come by again.

Once back in the race I started to get to work with the rest of my team. The first part of the plan was to keep the speed high and get rid of anyone not strong enough to really be there. We kept taking turns jumping off the front or pulling stretching the field out. Twice I went for preems in the race but was beaten by Korte Hammer Down's Sam Moore. He has really been getting stronger over the last few weeks and we will have to keep an eye on him for Gateway. We all tried to keep in touch with each other as we road as we tried to get organized for the finish. With something like 9 laps to go Finkszilla got on the front and started hammering. He lead the race for what seemed like 4 or 5 laps and when he finally looked like he was starting to get tired I pulled around him to try and keep the pace hot. I tried to keep it smooth through the technical parts of the course and fast everywhere else. With 2 laps to go a strong Big Shark rider decided to start pulling. I was a little confused by this but that was fine with me. I hung to the back of the pack for the last 2 laps and just tried to see what was happening at the front. In the dark it was hard to see though. I didn't know till later that we had taken 1st, 2nd, 6th, 8th, 10th, and I took 20th, the last money spot! In all it was a great day and we all had a ton of fun. We didn't get it quite right with our plan but it is a weak spot that we know we have and we are going to work it out. I am so proud of the guys and the team. We are going to have a very strong team going into Gateway Cup and we will be looking for some good results.