The Gateway Cup is usually a good weekend to get some year-end speed work in.  It’s 4 criteriums in four days.  The first 2 are night time races.  The last three are on good hard courses.  Small hills that wear on you.  I love racing at night.  The speed sense is increased so much it seems like you’re going 40 mph all the time.

Friday’s race started pretty late.  Nearly 10pm.   It was only an hour 15 because of permit issues, etc.  Nothing to really report here.  Was suprised I felt better riding.  I was having some issues with cadence.  Thought my leg speed was down the drain.  The field was together at the end.  I had some other issues with positioning.  I had to make a big effort on the last lap to just get up to 10th in the last corner.  I was on my team mates, Bill Stolte’s, wheel.  I told him to punch it.  He rode me off his wheel.  He finished 7th and I was 10th.  I was perplexed. Dan Schmatz won which was good for the hometown crowd and his local sponsor.  He’s won the race something like 5 times or so.  He has that sprint timed perfectly.   Anyway, got to the hotel after 1am.  Ordered some pizza, took the dog for a walk and got to bed an hour later.  Around 3 am I woke and figured out that I was riding the wrong rear wheel and only had a 12 on the rear.  No 11.  I wasn’t really thinking about the race, but somewhere in the back of my mind, it must of still been there.  If I have to sit down, the sprint is over for me.  I need to put on a bigger front ring.

Saturday was a good race too.  Evening.  New course.  Hard.  Felt good.  I won a couple primes and felt better again.  But, I missed a huge move with about everyone in the race up the road.  Brian Jensen won.  He outsprinted Colby Pierce who nearly made the Olympic track team a couple months ago.  Pretty good result for sure.

Sunday and Monday were both field sprints also.  I was off the front for a few laps both days, but nothing was working.  Actually, Sunday was a field sprint for 2nd.  Coby Pierce rode away by himself and made it two for THF Realtry.  Sunday was hot.  95 maybe.  Middle of the day.  Hour and a half race.  Alot of guys melted.  More than half the field quit.  The end was pretty chaotic.  Brian jumped hard a half lap out on the uphill back side.  Kind of caught the field by suprise.  I was 10 or so back.  Had to weave my way through a few guys dieing.  I was 3 or 4 bike lengths off Henk Vogels going into the last sweeper.  Then it is 600 meters downhill to the finish.  I was paniced not drafting into the sprint.  I got onto the front group, onto Henk’s wheel just when he went by the small group at 300 meters.  But, I miss timed it abit/alot and ended up 5th at the end.  I should of been 2nd, but should of’s don’t really mean much after the fact.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised Tuesday that I was pretty fresh still.  Even with the sleep deprivation going on over the weekend.   Maybe it’s the start of something.  Cooler weather at least.

I’m building up a few cross bikes the next couple days.  Getting my MTB bike back in racing order.  I’m going up to Chequamegon early next week.  I guess Lance is coming, so it’s going to be a circus somewhat.  Good for the promoter, Gary Crandell, though.  He deserves it.  Anyway, there’s still a ton of racing to be had.  I’m doing 6 races in a 9 days period over the Interbike week.  5 cross races and 1 criterium.  I’m pretty sure that is a receipe for disaster.  But, you never know if you don’t try it.  OK.  I’ll find some photos to post later.  Out.

Yesterday was a long day. Packed up all my stuff/dog and drove with a friend, Vincent Davis, up to Cable. It’s around 10 hours. But first drove an hour to the Plaza in Kansas City to watch the women’s criterium that was held before the finish of the men’s race in the Tour of Missouri. Trudi is working the race for BMC, so she needed another goodbye from me and the dog. But, going to the race is a pretty ying/yang thing for me. Having a race of the caliber of Tour of Missouri so close to where I live is great, but not racing it is problematic. Last year I tried to get into the race. Got pretty close, but it fell apart last minute. This year there wasn’t a chance.

Anyway, it was good. Exciting. It’s weird seeing all these people that you see through out the season out of place in Kansas City. The women’s race was good. There weren’t a ton of riders there, maybe 40 or so, but they were the best criterium riders in the country. Brooke Miller, current criterium and road champion won. Catherine Walberg finished 13th. She wants a do over. Sorry. No do overs in bike racing. Columbia set the tempo the last 10 miles. Mark Cavendish made the men’s field look silly. I was standing at 175 meters and he was coasting, looking around when everyone else was sprinting full out. When he started sprinting full out, I guess he didn’t have much of a problem winning.

We still had 9 hours left. It was a mess getting out of the finish area. Ended up not getting out of KC until nearly 5pm. Drove until after 2am. Bromont, dog, starting getting exciting about an hour out. Cable is his favorite place in the world. I haven’t seen him for more than 5 minutes all morning. Vincent has a Garmin GPS that tracks dogs. It’s going to be great hooking him up and seeing how far he roams. Vincent’s dog, Jack went nearly 8 miles this morning and it’s only been a couple hours.

The rumor is that Lance isn’t going to make an appearance up here. He was the talk of the finish line yesterday, unretiring. I don’t have an explanation for that. My guess is that he is looking for a more simple life. Cycling is simple is many perfect ways. And he has the luxury of being able to do nearly whatever he wants. I applaud it. Why not? But, Jonathan Paige is coming. That should be interesting. He is hands down the favorite. OK. Going out to ride with my dog in the woods.