Gateway/St. Joe/TOM/Etc.

Work has been work and I’m a little behind on blog updates, so in chronological order…..

Gateway Cup/Labor Day weekend

Not a lot to report. I only raced Friday and Saturday, reserving Sunday and Monday for family time. Friday was super fast and wide open. I narrowly missed a wreck with five to go and got buried in the middle of the pack. I burned quite a few matches getting out of that hole and when it came down to a field sprint I was out of position and out of gas. 40th. I’m not real happy with how I raced, but it was a good learning experience. Saturday was a totally different course. Not so wide open and lots of turns. I got a better starting position but was caught behind a crash two laps in and had to take evasive maneuvers on the sidewalk. I spent the first half of the race making up the spots I lost. At some point a break of 19 got up the road. I didn’t even see it go. I did better than the night before at positioning my self the last part of the race and wound up 14th in the pack sprint, but with 19 up the road, so what. Again, good learning experience.

Drive home Saturday night, recovery ride on Sunday and long ride on Monday. Also went to my dad’s in Lawrence for some relative work.

St. Joe TTT

Jeff, Phil and I put this on our calendar some months ago. Turned out to be a challenging course. Lots of climbs with hairpin turns. The pavement was still wet and caution was the word of the day. There were only two teams in the P/1/2, with Epic being the other one. We rolled first. The motorcycle cop who acted as a pace vehicle didn’t understand that pedal bikes get around corners faster than motor bikes and we were crawling up his ass several times in the first four miles. Our competition was breathing down our necks after the first turnaround. At the second turnaround they had lost several minutes on us as well as one of their guys. I found out later that Gronninger got a flat right after the first turnaround. Without that bit of bad luck it would have been a very tight race. Looking forward to doing it again next year.

I skipped the RR in favor of the pay ride from the Plaza on Sunday morning. Good times.

Shack party Sunday afternoon at Jack’s shop. Beer, burgers and more beer. Best part was the lawnmower races. Jack sells commercial zero-turn machines. We set up hay bales in the gravel parking lot. I lost every race and it was a blast! Luke won the whole thing and 60 bucks to boot. BB had it in the bag but hit a hay bale on the last lap.

TOM

Got to the Plaza about noon with BB and Glen. Snagged a table on the patio at Baja 600. Chips, salsa and margaritas while we watched the women’s crit. Hit the beer tent, surfed for swag and then back to the beer tent. Saw JB and Amy. Their seats sucked! Good view of the finish, but they were in a dry county. Watched the finish of stage one. Cavendish. Who would have guessed? Met-up with Holloway, trolled Kona Grill for a bit then went to PF Chang’s for grub and a night cap.

Tuesday crit

Last one of the year. Standard warm-up with JB, Jeff, Brian and Luke. Fairly docile race. Jeff went up the road with three others halfway in. They were eventually reeled in with a few to go. With one to go, Nick crossed wheels with a teammate and went down hard. We rolled up after and he was still down on the grass. It looked like he was in a ton of pain. After a thorough once-over they decided he didn’t need a bus but should probably go to the ER. JB stepped up and volunteered to take him. I hear he escaped with no broken bones. Heal-up fast Nick.

End of the season

The last race of the season (for me) is this Friday in Jeff City. We race right before the finish of stage 5. Should be a hoot with all the vendors and spectators there for the big boys. Plus the added advantage of racing first and being able to chill, have a beer and watch the TOM and then the 4/5’s and 3/4’s after. Looking forward to it.