I guess my bad luck continued yesterday at the Giro Della Montagna criterium.   Like the day before, there isn’t that much to write about.  It was just a normal criterium.

The race is at the Italian section of St. Louis.  We used to all go to a Bocce Ball place and have a meal and play Bocce after the race.  But I guess the race has gotten way too big for that anymore.  Shame.

The race is pretty much up a hill on the back stretch and back down to the finish.  Not a big hill by any means, but enough to get you tired after doing it for 75 minutes.  The front of the race’s pace makes riding further back risky.  The 1st three corners can get jammed up, thus you have to scrub a lot of speed, which you have to make up somewhere else on the course.  But yesterday’s race didn’t really get out of control.

The end of the race was interesting.  There were a few guys off the front, which one must have been a UHC rider.  I say that because UHC lined up on the inside for the leadout the last 3 laps, but were just hovering there, trying to protect their position at the front without chasing.  It made it hard to move up since we were riding curb to curb.

I got into just okay position with a couple laps to go.  I was swarmed a couple times and had to battle back up.  I wasn’t in great position, but great position in this race would require too much energy to hold.

I was maybe 20 guys back with one to go, on the outside, but the inside line was going faster.  I stuck to where I was at and into the first corner, it looked like it opened up for John Purvis, a friend from Arkansas.  He had just come here yesterday for the last two races.  He borrowed some tools from me before the start.

John was going around the outside of the first turn and I followed him.  He looked like he was going to be fine, but I think maybe the guy to his inside did a small swerve and he mimicked it, but whatever happened he was headed for the curb at the wrong angle.  I saw it coming but couldn’t do anything about it.  He slid out and hit the barrier and curb.  I grabbed a lot of brake, tried to cut the corner short, but his bike flipped back into the course and I flipped over the bars.

I was more disappointed than pissed.  It was super bad luck.  I had not used much energy the previous few laps and think I had one good lap in me.  But, no replays, so I’ll never know.  The sprint isn’t good for me, going downhill, so I would have just tried to be as far up as possible going into the last corner, then just try to maintain.

John came over to the van and asked me if I was alright, which was nice.  He told me that he didn’t really know what happened.  He said that was the first time he has ever crashed on the road.  He races cross, so he must have fallen in cross races.  I told him it was my 2nd crash in 3 days, so don’t worry about it.  It is just part of racing.  It’s a bad part of racing, but part none the less.   He said his back was sore, which I sympathized with.  My back is tweaked too.

So three out of 4 races done.  At least I’m getting in pretty much a full race each day, if nothing else.  Today’s race is at Benton Park and is pretty difficult.  It is more like a hard circuit race and not a criterium.  I was thinking about skipping it, since I’m pretty beat up, but that isn’t how I’d normally operate, so I’m going, even though my heart isn’t completely into it.

Yesterday I took Tucker to the bike path that runs North out of St. Louis, along the Mississippi. It was already pretty warm, so I didn’t want to run him too long.  We went maybe 3 or 4 miles.  After the run, I went to a easy access point and he swam some in the river.  He wasn’t used to a current, so was a little panicked.  I ended up swallowing a bunch of water, which he puked up pretty quickly, but he had a good time.  He really doesn’t like being too hot.  Then late last night, we went over to Forest Park, the biggest park in Central St. Louis for another romp.  He seems to be having a pretty good time here, even if I’m not.

The women’s field at the top of the hill yesterday.

Tucker running along the railroad tracks close to the bike path.

Tucker swimming in the Mississippi.

He was too tired to sleep last night. Me too.

Okay, pictures probably sum up my race better than too many words.  I had low expectations, that I was exceeding, but the bike gods weren’t happy with me for some reason.

I picked a lousy start number and only a few guys had worse.  But, no one was really that excited at the back of the field and I rolled up a couple rows to chat with Bjorn Selander since we were lined up so early.

The course was pretty awful.  Like very sticky, clogging mud.  It had been that way most of the day, but was getting worse as it dried out.  Lots of running, even when it was just flat.  I wasn’t at all motivated for that.  I haven’t ran a step since Jinglecross last year really.

But, I didn’t run that badly.  We dismounted about 400 meters into the race and did a 100 meter mud slog and I was alright.  I actually passed a couple guys.  Then we had to go up Mt. Crumpet, which was a surprise to pretty much the whole back row.  It wasn’t marked during the pre-ride, which I didn’t do.  I didn’t get into the mud until about 100 meters into the race.

Anyway, I jogged past a few more guys going up the climb and had moved up close to the top 20, start number 58, skipping some numbers, so I’d passed maybe half the field.  And I wasn’t gassed, which surprised me.

Anyway, going down the descent, into the sandpit, I was seated pedalling and hit a small bump.  I heard my seatpost make a bad noise and realized it broke.  It stayed on a 100 meters and then the seat and seatpost fell off into the mud.  I was thinking how hard it was going to be to ride in this deep mud off my seat.

I only had a few hundred meters to go to the pit, which was lucky.  I got back on my A bike, I’d already switched 1/2 a lap in and was passing guys still.  Be just after the barriers, just a bit after the pit, I heard a horrible noise and my rear derailleur was gone.  I stood there a second, thinking how far I’d have to run to get back to the pit and realized it would be more than a kilometer.

So, I just walked back to a course crossing and made my way back to the pit.  Done.

I don’t know why I had a Easton Carbon post on my bike.  Well, that isn’t true.  I had no seat on my B bike when I was working on it, so I just pulled the seat and seatpost off an old cross bike to put it in the stand.  I meant to put an Eriksen post on, but sort of forgot about it with all the stuff going on.  What a mistake.

The derailleur thing was not that unusual.  I don’t know how many people I’d seen without derailleurs.  Out of the 4 people racing from the Topeka area, 3 of us ripped off rear derailleurs.  There are 100’s gone.  That isn’t an exaggeration.

Okay, the World Cup is this afternoon.  I’ve pieced my bikes back together.  I put the Eriksen ti post on that should have been there originally.  I had a Di2 rear derailleur plus a wire, which was destroyed.  Plus the dropout, which I had.  I didn’t have an 11 speed chain for some reason. Man, do you have to carry around a lot of stuff for cyclocross.  I’m going over to the venue to hopepully get a chain from Shimano.  So, my bikes should be in working order for tomorrow’s C1 race.

There are so many people here.  LIke 10’s of thousands.  The parking is so far away.  It is great.  Maybe better than Worlds in Louisville.  I think the course is going to dry up some before the races later this afternoon.  It should be good to watch.  Alright, need to go for a ride.

Here are some of the pictures that described my race last night.

This one photo might sum up the race the best.

Or this. Trudi went back over to the course where The seat broke off and just happened to see a small piece of the seat sticking out of the mud.

Busted rear derailleur and extra dropout.

The women’s race start. This was the best part of the course. The fastest.

I put in spikes when I heard we were slogging up the hill. I knew we couldn’t ride it.

Catherine and their dog, Jason, after her race.