Today’s race was in the Italian section of St. Louis. The race is on a hill. Not a big hill, but still a hill. Rectangle, 4 corners with the long sides up and down. Downhill sprint. Pretty long, 500 meters or so from the last corner to the finish line. The race was supposed to start at 5:50, but the women had some rain and had to be neutralized to clear the carnage off the road. (Brooke Miller, Tibco, won for the 3rd day in a row.) Anyway, we started pretty late. Late enough that we were going to finish in the dark. With no lights.
The race was going pretty good. Pretty steady fast. It was looking like it was going to be a field sprint, but towards the end a small group got away. Finally only two were left. We were coming up on them pretty fast, but Coby Pierce couldn’t be denied and won ahead of a charging field. Dan Schmatz won the field sprint for 3rd. I was buried. The photo finish camera wasn’t working, so I’m sure the results are all screwed up. But, the prize money here isn’t anything to write home about until tomorrow, so it is nearly irrelevant. I was somewhere between 10th and 15th. Pretty pitiful.
Tomorrow is the final day. The prize money is nearly triple. Over a grand to win. That makes it way more interesting. Except, it is another 4 corner, flat criterium. Not really what I’m/we’re good at.