Just Short of the "Hat Trick" at Tour De Grove

There is something about being fit that creates an intense desire to race! After a long winter spent training, and then a Spring filled with races with varying degrees of success, I have finally reached what I feel like might be a peak level of fitness. When you happen to stumble upon your peak level, you just want to race because of all the work that was put into attaining your top physical potential. It's really not surprising to me that I am going relatively well at this point in the year. I have always raced well in May and June, and then started the inevitable decline as the weather heats up and the races are fewer and further between. So, I guess it is time to make hay while the sun is shining, so to speak. That said, I packed my bags last Friday, May 11th and headed to Saint Louis for the Tour De Grove.

I would be racing three different criteriums on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I had decided to drive up because three of my teammates would be there that would be driving from to Saint Louis from Kansas. Evan wisely decided to skip this weekend as he had been racing almost every weekend for the last two months. He needed a break and I was glad to see him exercise discretion and get some rest. JD McCay had also made other plans that involved a women and a small cabin in the woods near the Buffalo River, so he could not be persuaded to even consider changing his plans. Kris French was in a state of flux with regard to his form so I would be driving up solo. I actually welcomed the solitude of the 5 1/2 hour drive and arrived in Saint Louis at 2:00 with the race starting at 4:15.

The Friday night race would take place on a traditional four corner crit course with a long straightaway throughout the start/finish area but very rough pavement on the backside of the course. For some reason I had more butterflies than normal prior to the start of the race. I think it had to do with the fact that this was obviously a well promoted event with a large, quality field. As the race began we all started the process of figuring out the best lines through the corners and sizing up who would be a factor versus who would be "pack fill". There were several attacks that all came back very quickly. When the announcer rang the bell for a $50.00 cash prime (winner of the next lap gets the money), I maneuvered for position intent on sprinting for the cash. As we came around the last corner with 200 meters to go I accelerated and was surprised to have a large gap which allowed me to be able to sit up and cross the line first without having to expend to much energy. I was hoping that winning the prime was a harbinger of things to come and that a race win would come as easily. After the prime there was an attack from a member of the largest team, Big Shark. The guy got a nice gap quickly and then extended it over the next couple of laps until he had about 15 or 20 seconds. My teammate Bruce Tanner went to the front to bring back the escapee and began to cut into the lead. After sitting on the front for two full laps, my other teammate, Jay Hawkins took over and brought the Big Shark rider back. I never had to work and felt lucky to have teammates willing to work for a team win. With one lap to go a very strong rider from Florida went to the front to lead out his teammate. I was third wheel and liking my position. As we came out of the last corner the Florida Velo rider in front of me accelerated very hard. I really had to dig deep to hold his wheel and was only able to come around him for the win in the last 50 meters. During the warm down lap I spoke to my new friend, Pablo Santa Cruz. A very fast ex professional soccer player, and ex professional indy car driver that now feeds his competitive drive through racing bikes. Pablo is really quite the character and would be a factor in every race.

Saturday morning's race was at a new venue in an area called "The Grove". This course was non traditional in that it was about two miles long with several left and right corners. The first corner would be a factor in the race in that it was less than 90 degrees with a decreasing radius that was very difficult to take with any speed. Saturday's race was the "headliner" for the weekend and as such had the most prize money on offer. While most of us don't race for the money, it is nice to at least cover your cost for the weekend if possible! Once the race began I settled in and just rode wheels for the first several laps as half hearted attacks were all brought back. When the announcer rang the bell for another $50.00 prime, I once again maneuvered for position, which would prove difficult to maintain over the two mile long lap. As we came around the last corner I was on the wheel of a small guy with a blond surfer hair do and was ready to light him up for the money! When he jumped I tried to match his acceleration but quickly realized that I simply could not. I sat up to conserve energy and watched him easily take the prime. "Uh oh", I thought to myself, this guy is gonna smoke me today.

Shortly after the prime lap there was a flurry of attacks as the race got very hard and fast. At one point I was in a break with the small, surfer dude, Pablo's teammate, and a Big Shark rider. I thought the break had a really good chance of staying away so I did extra work to try and make it stick. All but the surfer dude were contributing but the pack was chasing hard and ultimately brought us back. With one lap to go, I had to really expend a lot of energy to move to the front. As we went into turn one a guy rolled his tire right off the rim causing a massive pile up. Pablo and his teammate were up front and upon hearing the carnage they attacked hard. I literally had to sprint to get back on terms after getting slowed by the crash that had unfortunately taken out both of my teammates, but also took out speedy surfer dude. Once I reached the front group I rode right to the front and took Pablo's wheel again. He was getting another lead out from Mark, his teammate and I liked my position. As the last corner was a very wide 180 degree turn that you could take with speed I attacked with a wide open sprint about 200 meters before the last corner taking everyone by surprise. I was able to fly through the last corner, open my sprint back up with 150 meters to go, and take the win by several bike lengths. It was a risky move, but I did not know the surfer dude had crashed and felt I needed to make the sprint long and hard knowing he had a better jump. By the way, I later found out that the little surfer dude was Jamie Carney, a World Champion on the track and multiple time National Champion, not to mention his many years spent as a professional bike racer. More about Jamie later!

After the race on Saturday while waiting on the podium ceremony, I spoke with Pablo. He had missed the podium but his teammate Mark, had gotten third. We hit it off immediately and I was reminded of some of the other reasons I love this sport, and one of those reasons are the people you meet that are involved in it. I have met some very interesting people over the years and have been amazed at how many common threads there are between those of us that race bikes at this level, and specifically, those of us over 40 that are still doing it. Pablo and I agreed to meet back at the race course to watch the pro race later that afternoon and then have dinner together with all of our respective teammates, which we did. We had a wonderful meal together and made what will probably be a lasting friendship.

On Sunday morning we arrived at yet another venue in what is known as the Dutchtown area. The course was a little longer that a normal crit but had some elevation change which would make the race a little harder and make a break away more likely. As we warmed up before the race the pre race buzz was that Jamie Carney would be racing with us. When someone pointed him out to me I realized it was the little surfer dude from Saturday and then things began to make sense in terms of why a 44 year old Master's racer was able to make me feel like a small child when we went for the $50.00 prime the day before.

 When the race started Jamie attacked into the very first corner with a one guy going after him. I instinctively jumped for the wheel of the guy trying to bridge to Jamie and just that quickly, we had a small gap on the field. As we came around to the start/finish straight which was a long uphill drag to the line that got increasingly steeper, I put in a very hard pull that was really just a sprint up the long hill. Unfortunately, the third rider came off after the pull and I asked Jamie if we should wait on him. Jamie shook his head "no" and put his head down to try and pry open the gap to the field. The field was chasing frantically as they knew who Jamie Carney was and I assume they were aware I had won the last two races. Jamie and I quickly established who would pull on the various parts of the course and we settled into time trial mode. For the first five laps I was literally sprinting the entire start/finish straight and then Jamie would let me recover for next 400 meters or so before I would take the next pull. The guy was smooth as silk and taught me a thing or two in that break that you would think I would have learned in 25 years of racing bikes. We switched leads in the corners where the guy in back would take the inside line and the front guy could just swing off then right back on the wheel for a super smooth, fast transition. We were flying! The field kept the gap at 15 to 20 seconds for the first 10 laps with Florida Velo and Big Shark doing the majority of the work chasing. Normally the field will reach the point where they will sit up once they realize a break is going to stick. These guys chased for much longer than normal but we finally managed to break the elastic and opened the gap to 45 seconds.

As we counted down from 3 laps to go I was wracking my brain on how I might be able to beat this wily veteran. With a half lap to go Jamie looked at me and smiled and said "well, the only thing left now is a sprint", to which I replied, "yeah, and I think we both know how that's gonna end"! With two corners to go, about 400 meters from the line, I was behind Jamie and jumped as hard as I could into the corner, with the goal of going into the corner with more speed, in order to gap him coming out. The idea is that if you hit the corner with more speed there is nothing the guy can do as you flow through the corner because he cannot pedal through the corner at such high speed. Well, the first part of my plan worked and I hit the next corner with about 12-15 meters on him. As we came out of the last corner with the long drag to the line, I looked through my legs to see him slowly making up ground. At that speed the draft extends back as far as 10 meters and once he got in my draft it was game over. He came around me on the steepest part of the hill and took the win. The good news is that I had not made any mistakes, I had no regrets, I had simply gotten beat by a faster guy.

As we took a warm down lap I spoke with Jamie about his accomplishments on the track and he informed me that he had recently won the World Championship in the Scratch Race (basically a crit race in a velodrome) on the track. I clarified that he did not win the Master's World Championship, but rather he had won the UCI Worlds against the fastest sprinters on the planet at age 44! He is the oldest guy to ever win a UCI World Championship in any event on the track. What an inspiration to know that old guys can still compete at the highest level! I had a new found respect for the little surfer dude. I googled him when I got home and his list of accomplishments as a cyclist was a few pages long. It was really fun to race with a guy with his experience and it certainly made it more tolerable that he had foiled my attempt at a "Hat Trick" of winning all three races that weekend. I would put the weekend up into the top three I have ever had as a cyclist, not just because of my placings, but also because of the quality of the events themselves, and certainly the quality of the riders in the field. And, I beat Jamie Carney in a crit!!!! (shhhh, don't tell anybody it's because he crashed :-) Thanks for reading.