Contrary to previously blogged information, I decided not to do the ridiculous road race through the Brown County State Park, instead I opted for the Tour of St. Louis. It was a 2 day 3 race weekend. Saturday was a Crit and a TT, and Sunday was just another Crit. The pre-reg list wasn't anything super special, as far as turn out goes, but come race day there were a pretty decent number of guys (maybe 60 dudes or so), with a few strongmen to boot. The circuit was 3/4 of a mile or so, but it was through a park area, so there were no real turns and almost no touching the brakes. As usual we took turns going with the early moves until something got a gap. I ended up in a move of 12 with a bunch of guys with 2 or 3 teammates in the break. This didn't make for a very good dynamic. We got a pretty large gap for a while, but the break was never steady, just non stop attacking and chasing each other down. Brad Huff was actually in the break, and his pro-ness didn't help much either. He would just bolt off the front and make everyone chase and then everyone would just look for the next flyer. Soon those attacks split the break and 4 guys got away and the rest of us came back to the field, after an hour off the front. So with 10 min left in the crit I tried to rest for the sprint, but ended up sucking and rolled in 14th.
The TT was 9 miles of super flat road "down by the river." I had the road bike all TT'd out again. This time I even had a disk for it, but Isaac's disk was leaking air 5 min before the start, and being the good teammate that I am, I gave him mine. He rolled it pretty good and ended up 7th. I continued the trend of going slow in TT's and ended up 24th. That's all we'll say about that.
The Sunday Crit was another not technical, no braking, drag race. The field was on their toes for most of the race, keeping all attacks on a short leash. 58 minutes in a small group went off and got a gap, naturally, we missed it, and so did Brett Stewart and Jeff Schroetlin from ABD/ Gear Grinder. Me, Isaac and those two did some work, but THF did a good job of breaking up our chase effort. The group of 5 stayed away although we were sprinting into the last guys from the break at the end of the race, but just didn't get close enough. I ended up 11th on the day, another perfectly worthless result. I'm feeling good though, I just need to put it all together and win something. This weekend is our sponsors race in Warsaw, IN, it's also the first race that we'll have all 6 of our guys there. The Fat and Skinny Tire Fest is always a good time, with some decent money too.
Another side note- My little bro Aaron got his upgrade to a Cat 2 this last friday. He celebrated his cat 2-ness by crashing out of the crit in STL and getting a concussion. Luck hasn't been on his side this year, but he's getting it rolling ok.
One last thing that I wanted to bring to peoples attention, was a race I came across on Cyclingnews. It's called the Tro Bro Leon, in France. I don't know much about it seems to be pretty classic-ish, but it doesn't get any face time for being so epic. See for yourself... (So much for no pictures)
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