Race #1 – Friday, 9/4/09
by Karen Brems
Katheryn, Lauren and I are here in St. Louis for the Tour of Missouri Women's Series. There are 4 criteriums in the St. Louis area. The organizers invited all the top women's teams to attend and are really trying to get some increased exposure for the women's event.
The first race was a night crit at 8:30pm. This is not usually my favorite time to race, but there is a good atmosphere at night crits - lots of spectators and they did a fairly good job of lighting the course. It was also a very simple course: 4 corner square about 1 mile around with very wide roads and metal barriers all around the course to keep errant (or drunk!) spectators off. CycleOps also had a nice tent set up full of trainers for anyone to use, which was really nice since it was dark when we were warming up and they had other category races on the course.
The 45 min + 5 lap race was very fast from the gun and never really slowed. It was easy to move up on the sides because the roads were so wide, but the flip side of that was that it was hard to hold position because there was a constant swarm up the sides. Colavita had the largest team with 7 riders and they were constantly on the attack or covering the many Tibco attacks. With a small team, Webcor had to pick our battles. Katheryn, Lauren and I all covered a few moves and were in some very short-lived breaks, but it became pretty clear after a while that nothing was really going anywhere. Kat Carroll was off solo for a few laps as was Kori Seehafer, but in the end, the whole field was together.
I saw the lap card showing minutes counting up a few times, but in the dark, I never saw the lap cards in the last 5 laps. Dave Towle announced 5 laps to go and 2 to go, so I counted down from there, but it turned out that he was off by a lap and the sprint came a lap earlier than I expected. Other riders were confused as well. It probably didn't make much difference in my placing - I was just trying to follow Colavita riders moving up and avoid getting swarmed too much, but I was too far back and didn't have the legs to really contest the sprint. Tibco started their leadout with about 2 laps to go, which was pretty early for only havng 4 riders, but they prevailed in the end and Brooke Miller (Tibco) won. I think Laura Van Guilder (Mellow Mushroom) and Kelly Benjamin (Colavita) finished 2nd and 3rd. I was somewhere around 15th or 16th (money went to 20 places). Katheryn and Lauren were also in the main group somewhere.
We race again this afternoon and are hoping the rain happening right now will stop by then!
Race #2 – Saturday, 9/5/09
Day 2 of the Gateway Cup was another flat, 4 corner crit. Lauren got race report writing duty today.
Here is her report:
Welcome to Midwestern weather! We were a little worried at 5 am this morning when we were awakened by the sounds of booming thunder (ok, so I had ear plugs in and missed the entire thing, but I hear it was scary). It was coming down pretty hard through breakfast and up until about lunch time when it miraculously cleared up and the roads dried just in time for us to head over to the course. After a short adventure along the way (misinterpretation of directions) we made to the race course to find out things were a little late. We loaded up onto neutral Cyclops trainers and enjoyed the end of the men’s race before us.
As we lined up ( the sky darkened a bit. We got through call-ups and the state representative of the 65th district shot the gun. Just as she did that I felt a rain drop on my forehead. Uh oh. (Luckily we made it through the entire hour with a very light shower).
I moved around quite a bit today in the field trying to keep my eye out for Katheryn and Karen. Attacks started to fly from the very beginning, including a few early ones from Katheryn, but like yesterday nothing seemed to stick. I took some direction from Katheryn on wheels to follow and was always watching and learning from how the two rode.
My goal for today was to go for a prime. The first one came quickly so I let that one go without trying but started preparing for the next couple. The third one I tried getting into position but was unable to maintain the position I gained on the last stretch. The final $100 prime was the one I really tried to go for. Corey Seehafer was off the front solo and had been for about two laps. On the second stretch things started to slow down so I attacked up the right side of the road coming hot into corner two, thinking if I caught Corey I might be able to ride it in. I quickly realized, however, that Lip Smacker was right on my tail so I eased up and was counter-attacked. I couldn’t match the attack and lost my position for the sprint (only to find out later that it was a field prime and that catching Corey was unnecessary). Live and learn.
We all finished in the group, with Karen taking a strong 11th place. It was a good day of racing with some of the top female racers in the country. I look forward to the next two days of racing.
Race #3 – Sunday, 9/6/09
For the first 2 days, we got lucky with the weather in that the rain came in the morning and we got to race on dry roads by late afternoon/evening. For the 3rd day, the forecast was good, but wrong and we had light rain almost as soon as the race started, which makes criteriums a bit more dicey than normal. Katheryn and Lauren had their race faces on and finished out the race.
Here is Katheryn's report:
Stage 3 of the Gateway Cup was another four corner crit, this time in the "Italian" section of Saint Louis. As with the first two stages, Lauren, Karen and I were able to ride to the race and take advantage of the Cyclops trainer tent. Today's course was a rectangle with the start/finish stretch being on a slight downhill and the finish line about 500m from the final turn.
We arrived with plenty of time to get set up on the trainers and go through our individual warm up routines. Towards the end of our warm up, there were some scattered rain drops that began to fall but nothing that was too substantial. We rolled up to the start and received our race instructions under dry conditions yet within 10 laps or so of the race, the rain began and fell more steadily, not heavy, but enough to result in people being a bit more tentative around corners.
Unfortunately, within 25' or so minutes of the race, a bad crash happened just by the finishline and the peloton was neutralized to allow for emergency personal to come in and help the victims of the crash. Riders were held back and many of us rolled backwards on the course to keep the legs from seizing up. The precipitation did not get worse but Karen made the decision to not risk possibly crashing and pulled out. Lauren and I decided to stay in the race, they restarted us within 10 or so minutes, and if things got really hairball, we would possibly pull out.
The weather improved and although there were several attacks from riders that resulted in either solo or a small breakaway, Tibco and Colavita was motivated to keep the group together and any attempts to split the group were futile. Lauren did her best to maintain position for the finish and I just tried to keep myself safe. Karen managed to get roped into help call the race and now adds announcer to her ever growing list of skills!
Brooke Miller ended up winning the stage again and both Lauren and I finished safely in the main group.
Race #4 – Monday, 9/7/09
By Karen Brems
The final race on the Tour of Missouri Women's Series (aka Gateway Cup) was in downtown St. Louis on the same finishing circuit that the men's Tour of Missouri raced on later in the afternoon. This was the main race of the series with almost 5 times the prize money as in the other 3 races. There was also a large Expo area and a bigger crowd of spectators (although, the crowds were actually pretty good for all our races).
The race was an extra 5 min. longer than the other 3: 50 min plus 5 laps. Course was a similar wide, relatively flat 1 mile square like the other courses. It was a slight uphill, headwind finish stretch. I think everyone's legs were a bit sore as we got on the neutral CycleOps trainers for the final time - I know mine were! Even though crits are short, 4 days in a row of them adds up!
The race was fast from the gun, but I did not feel that I was quite at my limit like on the first night. As usual, there was a constant swarm up the sides of the wide roads, so position was constantly changing. There were lots of attacks - Lip Smackers and ValuAct were the most aggressive - but Tibco and Colavita were bringing everything back. Lauren, Katheryn and I just tried to stay out of trouble and not too far from the front. Katheryn got a call-up and led the first lap and made a few other appearances at the front, and got her name announced several times by Dave Towle.
About 35 min. into the race, there was a $50 prime announced. I considered going for it if I could get in position without a huge effort. A Lip Smackers rider took off with a lap to go. After about half a lap, a group of 6 or so riders took off after her, and I tagged on the back of that group on Laura Van Guilder's wheel. We caught Lip Smackers with about 200m to go and nobody seemed to be starting to sprint, so I took off from the back of that group (we had a slight gap of the field behind) and took the prime. As I was trying to recover from the sprint, I looked back and saw at least a 200m gap back to the field. I knew my chances of staying away alone for another 20 min. were probably slim to none, but I couldn't just sit up either...So I just set off at a hard, but sustainable pace, and my gap started to grow. Since I was no threat in the omnium, I figured Tibco and Colavita would let me go for a while and maybe someone would bridge up to me. Or maybe I could stay out long enough to get another prime. At the very least, I got the Webcor jersey out front for a while and Dave was announcing my name every lap and the crowds were cheering me on even if my legs were a little lacking! Jack Seehafer (Team Type One Manager) was on the sidelines (after having raced the men's race himself!) and told me my gap was about 15 sec. after 2 laps. By 3 laps it was down to 9-10 sec. though, and as I went through the start-finish, Dave announced a pack prime and I knew my effort was doomed. I was caught on the next lap and then just tried to sit in and recover as much as possible for the next 10 min. to get ready for the finish.
With 1 lap to go, there was still really no team leadout in control, and it was a constant swarm looking for good wheels moving up and avoiding getting stuck behind riders getting swarmed. I somehow found myself on Kelly Benjamin's wheel with half a lap to go and moving up. In the sprint, I made it up the the "2nd row" and finished 6th. My goal had been a top 10, and it was only some of the top sprinters in the country ahead of me, so I was satisfied with my effort and it was fun to be a real part of the race for a change. Now it is on to Cyclocross!
Overall, this was a very well organized race and we are all hoping it will lead to a real stage race for the women next year!
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