"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Tour de Winghave RR

Drizzled/rained most of the race. Two roundabouts and some pretty tight corners made today's race interesting. 9 laps of 3 miles each in the cat 4's. Counted about 8-10 wrecks in the rain soaked corners. I got caught behind three that required quite a bit of work on my part to catch back up to the field. Final stretch was 200 meters up hill, right after one of the roundabouts. I came out of the corner in 3rd, 20 meters back from the top 2 riders. I caught one at the line after a tough sprint to finish 2nd. Payout was big, as this was the highest prize list for a one day race in Missouri. Bett part of the story is the 5 points I won today give me 19 total toward my cat 3 upgrade :) I'm just about there!

Big props go out to Mike Weiss and Big Shark Bicycle in St. Louis for putting on such a great event and to the city of O'Fallon for hosting us.

Tour De Winghaven

Great job man, sounds like you made up a lot of ground in the sprint, to start 20m back and reel someone in, in a race situation, usually means you've gotta be hauling arse.

As an aside...I could really use a 27 mile RR :D

Great job man, sounds like you made up a lot of ground in the sprint, to start 20m back and reel someone in, in a race situation, usually means you've gotta be hauling arse.

As an aside...I could really use a 27 mile RR :D

Yeah, it was shortened due to the rain, but when I put RR in the title I actually meant Race Report. The race was more like a circuit. 3 mile laps through the heart of the Winghaven neighborhood in O'Fallon, MO (suburb of St. Louis).

Yeah, you guys at least got a break from the rain in the 4's race!

There was tons of carnage in the 5's. On my warm-up lap my teammate damn near lost it in the roundabout going up to the start/finish, after that we both just lined up at the back and let the rest of the field sort itself out. I think there was no less than 3 wrecks just on the first lap alone!

This was my 5th race ever, and my first time racing in the rain, so I played it conservative.

Wish it woulda been dry, this would've been one hella fast race; despite the rain I still averaged 20.8mph (I thought that was fast considering I've never raced in the rain)!

Yeah, you guys at least got a break from the rain in the 4's race!

There was tons of carnage in the 5's. On my warm-up lap my teammate damn near lost it in the roundabout going up to the start/finish, after that we both just lined up at the back and let the rest of the field sort itself out. I think there was no less than 3 wrecks just on the first lap alone!

This was my 5th race ever, and my first time racing in the rain, so I played it conservative.

Wish it woulda been dry, this would've been one hella fast race; despite the rain I still averaged 20.8mph (I thought that was fast considering I've never raced in the rain)!


Yeah . . . it wasn't quite as bad for us. After the first few laps the number of wrecks each lap dropped so riders at least became more cautious. For comparison of speed, our average was 23.8 Glad to hear you finished upright as well. And yes, the course is much more fun when it's dry.

I also did the 5's race today. It was my first ever race!!! I started to slow on the first lap. I started working really hard on laps 2-4 and got to about 40 meters behind the pack but just couldn't catch them by myself. I finished 27th out of 50. My average speed was 22 mph. I was the guy on the Blue with the U.S. Navy jersey on. It was a very fun experience I can not wait to race again. You can bet I am going to start with the pack in my next race and see what happens then.

ronbridal-

you wouldn't happen to be one of the mack paper riders would you?

I also did the 5's race today. It was my first ever race!!! I started to slow on the first lap. I started working really hard on laps 2-4 and got to about 40 meters behind the pack but just couldn't catch them by myself. I finished 27th out of 50. My average speed was 22 mph. I was the guy on the Blue with the U.S. Navy jersey on. It was a very fun experience I can not wait to race again. You can bet I am going to start with the pack in my next race and see what happens then.

Glad you had fun!

Don't know how far away from StL you are, but every Tues night Big Shark holds training crits in Carondalet Park (South StL), if you find the itch to race again gets to unbearable! ;)

I am about 2 hours from St. Louis. I talked to Richard's (Big Shark mechanic) wife after my race. Her and my finace were talking during the race. She was telling me about all the stuff they have at Big Shark. I wish I lived in STL, I would be there alot. It sucks around here. We only have a few people that actually race. The kid that got second in the juniors, and a guy that got 10th in the 40+ masters, and a guy that finished in the pack of the 4's. Other than that we just have rec riders.

ronbridal-

you wouldn't happen to be one of the mack paper riders would you?

Yeah, I ride for Team MACK. They're a good group of guys and there are a couple that live near me here in Quincy (just north of Hannibal). It'd be nice to live somewhere larger like StL because of the large number of races there. I only have about a 2 hour drive down to StL, so it's not too bad. Do you ride with a team or unattached?

Good to hear it was a good time! I got conned into working at the shop (Big Shark) because so many of the employees were racing so I didn't get to race/come watch. O well...always next year!
~Nick

Do you ride with a team or unattached?

I ride for Manchester Racing/St. Louis Trek.

But I'm really starting to consider looking for another team that has more cat4/5 riders. There are usually only 2 of us in cat5.

Nice job. Congrats on the points. Rock on.