I didn't know what to expect Saturday. On one hand I've placed a few times at Carondelet. But, on the other, help setting up a course at 6am usually doesn't help your performance. Add to that, having to squeeze in a trip to work, to get a remote site up and running again and I wasn't even sure that there would be a race.
The call to go in to work came while I was driving the pace car for the juniors with 3.5 laps to go. The race ended and I hopped in my car for at 8:52 for the half hour drive work. What I went in to do went smoothly. Some unrelated issues had me tied up for a while. At 11:25 I was back in the car and headed back down south to Carondelet when the traffic slowed to a stop at W. Florissant. Fearing the worst, I got the highway and went on city streets that I don't know in the hopes of getting around problem. The first street I recognized that had an exit to 70 was Grand so I went east and hoped that I would be past the accident. The plan worked and I arrived back at the park at noon.
After the pre-race preparation like getting dressed, slathering on some warming balm, shooting up with EPO, etc it was 12:15. That gave a half hour before the start. Not so bad.
The roads were still wet but the rain had stopped. Always a good thing. For the first 15 minutes or so I took it easy let the race settle in. What I noticed from riding the caboose for the first number of laps was the people going off the front were 'Chesters and Mesa and Doggies and a couple other solo riders. We didn't seem to be represented and were instead responding to attacks. Time to stir the cocktail a little. From then on, it was attack and cover attacks when I could. I was off with a Mesa for a few laps but then somebody from the sidelines yelled at him to stop working. He listens well and he drifted back to the pack. I pushed on solo for another lap and half but that futile. Matt got in a break then and did some good work. Later I started a nice 3-man break with Allan and another Mesa. This worked well. We all shared the load and stayed away for what seemed like a long time but my brain wasn't in condition to be counting laps. I don't think we ever had a huge gap. Jon Gohl on the PA kept saying 5 second gap but who knows how accurate that was. We finally got caught shortly before the final five laps.
Those laps turned seemed to be turning into a parade as everyone got ready for the final lap. I figured I would commit cycling suicide in the hopes of helping someone out and attacked again up the hill as we approached two laps to go. Nolan Froese got up to me with one to go. I was wasted and just tried to stay close to the pack. As the pack got near the final turn, there was a touch of wheels and Nolan, who had just been caught, went down. Fullerini was the unlucky one to be behind him and did an endo. He messed himself up some. The way he held his I thought it was his collarbone again. He started moving his arm better after a while but he still hurt the back of his shoulder somehow and was going to have it checked. He dinged his knee up too and will be sore for a few days.
We got 3 of the top 10 but no real high placing. Still we got to split some money. Never will complain about that.
The call to go in to work came while I was driving the pace car for the juniors with 3.5 laps to go. The race ended and I hopped in my car for at 8:52 for the half hour drive work. What I went in to do went smoothly. Some unrelated issues had me tied up for a while. At 11:25 I was back in the car and headed back down south to Carondelet when the traffic slowed to a stop at W. Florissant. Fearing the worst, I got the highway and went on city streets that I don't know in the hopes of getting around problem. The first street I recognized that had an exit to 70 was Grand so I went east and hoped that I would be past the accident. The plan worked and I arrived back at the park at noon.
After the pre-race preparation like getting dressed, slathering on some warming balm, shooting up with EPO, etc it was 12:15. That gave a half hour before the start. Not so bad.
The roads were still wet but the rain had stopped. Always a good thing. For the first 15 minutes or so I took it easy let the race settle in. What I noticed from riding the caboose for the first number of laps was the people going off the front were 'Chesters and Mesa and Doggies and a couple other solo riders. We didn't seem to be represented and were instead responding to attacks. Time to stir the cocktail a little. From then on, it was attack and cover attacks when I could. I was off with a Mesa for a few laps but then somebody from the sidelines yelled at him to stop working. He listens well and he drifted back to the pack. I pushed on solo for another lap and half but that futile. Matt got in a break then and did some good work. Later I started a nice 3-man break with Allan and another Mesa. This worked well. We all shared the load and stayed away for what seemed like a long time but my brain wasn't in condition to be counting laps. I don't think we ever had a huge gap. Jon Gohl on the PA kept saying 5 second gap but who knows how accurate that was. We finally got caught shortly before the final five laps.
Those laps turned seemed to be turning into a parade as everyone got ready for the final lap. I figured I would commit cycling suicide in the hopes of helping someone out and attacked again up the hill as we approached two laps to go. Nolan Froese got up to me with one to go. I was wasted and just tried to stay close to the pack. As the pack got near the final turn, there was a touch of wheels and Nolan, who had just been caught, went down. Fullerini was the unlucky one to be behind him and did an endo. He messed himself up some. The way he held his I thought it was his collarbone again. He started moving his arm better after a while but he still hurt the back of his shoulder somehow and was going to have it checked. He dinged his knee up too and will be sore for a few days.
We got 3 of the top 10 but no real high placing. Still we got to split some money. Never will complain about that.
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