Ste. Genevieve Road Race.....

Well, what can I say, that was a hard race. On the same token, it was a great race and great venue. This race really challenged me mentally and physically. First of all, I'd have to say that going in my legs were only at 75%. I had a long work week and come Thursday my body felt like it had been hit by a Mack truck. I still rode 50 that day and 25 on Friday and I propably shouldn't have. Anyway's, enough with the excuses. There were only about 15 CAT 3's that did the race. I guess a lot of guys either pulled the chutes after Gateway or just don't like road races. I did have two teammates though, Denny and Marin.

Now for the race report. For the first lap we were going at a pretty good clip and continued to chase down an ever attacking Shawn O'neal. We wouldn't let him get away and I road at the front a lot, more then I should have. That was the first 25 miles of the loop, then the hills came and that's where everything broke apart. There was about three nice climbs of different grades, but each one with their own character difficulty in their own right. We split up into several small 2-3 man groups, except for Shawn who was by himself. Denny showed me good legs as he passed me on one of the climbs. After the last climb before going into town I found myself alone between groups and trying to bridge the gap, my time trialing ability is a little lacking, so I held up and waited for John from Ghissalo and Turin guy. The three of us then made it into the feed zone all together and finding ourselves just about caught up with several of the other small groups. Then it was the Dogwood roadrace all over again for Denny. As I went through the feed zone Denny had actually gotten off his bike and could not go any further. He had some bad cramping going on and had to wait for them to go away. As I rode past I had a decision to make, either go with the group or help Denny out. Two is always better then one when trying to bridge a gap. Well, I decided to leave the group and turn around only to find out that Denny still could not go and he told me to go without him. Well, at this point I fell into no man's land. I was all alone to contest the next 35 miles on my own all the while trying to bridge a group of several compared to just myself, ain't gonna happen. I'd have to say this was the hardest 35 miles I've ever done, what makes it even worse is that after about 10 miles of being on my own, Denny who I had stopped for looked like he totally recovered from his cramps and flew past me. Then a couple miles later the lead masters group of about 7 or 8 guys passed me. Then another few miles after that the rest of the masters group passed me, although I kept them within site the rest of the way. Now thinking about it I should have just latched onto them and worked with them. I know it's illegal, but who care's at this point of the race. My feet were killing me and my knees were also screaming at me too. Anyways, I let them pass and finally I reached the last set of hills and all I could do was put it in my easiest gear and try to spin as easily as I could all the while keeping my cramping to a minimum. All I could do is look at my odometer and read the mileage click up and wonder how many more miles I had left. I can say I didn't much in the tank left, I was on fumes as they say. Well, I did finally make it, and I could actually see in the distance that Denny was now only about 300 meters in front of me. I crossed that finish line in 10th place and could only think about getting some cold water down. During that last 35 miles it's funny what goes through your head when your suffering like I was yesterday. The big question was why am I putting myself through this pain and agony? At that point I would've told you never again, but now after a good nights sleep and a cup of coffee in hand I can tell you that I would do it again next week.

It was an awesome race even with the suffering. I talked to one of the promoters of the race and he said it was a lot of work and wasn't sure about the race next year. I hope they do it because it was awesome and a great way to finish out the season, not too many road races this late in the year around here.

It's now time to really take a break and think about the upcoming cross season.