Gateway Cup Series, St. Louis, 2003
by Paul Nilsen
St Louis was awesome, as usual. We had a ton of rain. Friday night the rain washed glass shards onto the course--or locals sabotaged it--because everyone got flats. There were 27 flats during cat 3 race, and "too many to count" during the pro-1-2 race. I suffered two rear flats, and had to drop when I was out of rear wheels at 45 minutes in. I spent 5 minutes trying to wheedle a third wheel from pit officials, but they were reluctant to give me another's wheels given the number of flats. They were about to cave in to my negotiating style ("please please please please....") just to get rid of me but finally decided against it when I requested a Campy 10 wheel (too demanding?). I had started the race with lighted wheels (Hokey Spokes pat. pend.) and took a solo flyer for a lap about 15 minutes into the race on a dare from Jeff McFarland. It hurt trying to hold the field after it swallowed me whole and tried to shoot me out the back, but it was super fun racing.
Saturday's course on the park was fun, too. Long, screaming sweeping right-hand descent, onto a nice long straight hill, to a tight right-right-left chicane at the finish. Last year a Mercury rider knocked me off course out of 8th place within 100m of the finish and I spent the whole year regretting missing that result. This year I managed to finish 7th, winning $75. We started 100 guys and the race stayed pretty quick the entire time; nobody would let 7up guys go away and it came down to a field sprint up the final climb. Jim Holmes laid on a good solo attack and spent a lap off the front before coming back. I just did my bit of sitting in, trying to stay near enough to the front to be easy and spinning efficiently, and tried to motor the final climb on the last 2 laps. Fun.
Saturday night was spaghetti dinner at Italian-American Club, followed by Bocce ball. We enjoyed a spirited game of Bocce, taking instructions from a short drunk Italian guy (who I'm not sure spoke any actual English), and getting heckled by a benchload of old women who said of our game, "it was...interesting". After Bocce we drove to the Arch and cruised the STL Blues Fest, then lost a few bucks playing slots and craps on the riverboat.
That was a *long* first 24 hours.
Sunday was "Giro Giro Giro" della Montagna. One long rectangle laid on its short side, giving one long descent and high-speed turn, then one long grade back up. Jim Holmes laid on another good few attacks and worked his a** off in a small group chasing the break while I sat back, relaxed and laughed. I had ridden in the top-10 for a few laps and the high speed made it really hard up there, so I settled for counting down time from the relative comfort of the easy top-25%. The last 5 laps of this race are super hairy--tons of bumping and shoving at high speed, lots of reshuffling. Each time up the hill the field would spread from curb to curb as people fought to get to the front. I lost out that way last year, getting reshuffled off the front to the back with 3 laps to go, so this year I hung out towards the back until 2 laps to go and rode the swarm to the front. The downhill home straight was no picnic either during those last 5 laps, as the speed was so high you had to grind just to hold the wheel in front because you knew a gap would be fatal. The last lap was fought hard, but I hung on for 16th place and another $25. Cool.
Monday was *POURING* rain so I sat out.
Next year the Super Deluxe is updating their rooms, so be sure to hold these dates on your calendar!
