Tour de Grove 2012: Day 1

The word of the day: crashes, or should I say flashes of horizontally spinning bodies and fractured bikes. After picking himself up from a large accident on corner 3 with 6 laps remaining, Quinn watch one rider try to untangle himself who had placed one leg in between the triangle of his bike and the other wrapped up inside the hook of his handlebar.....

With the eyes of the world set on Ryder Hesjedal’s historic ride this morning at the Giro d’Italia or the seemingly endless pre-race interviews with the Tour of California now only 24 hours away, a quietly-covered but well-attended 3 day race series has brought a strong field of fully-represented professional cycling teams to the Gateway of the West for the Tour de Grove in St. Louis, Missouri. 

Fresh off two wins last weekend, Jelly Belly Pro Cycling is working for Brad Huff and their leadout train includes fast-man Sergio Hernandaz as sweeper and Canadian Nic Hamilton on the front. Jamis-Sutter Home, also fresh off a victory after their 1-2 sweep of the Tour of Gila’s Stage 4 criterium, will be looking to steal control of the front late meanwhile Competitive Cyclist’s Cole House will be looking to free-ride through the final laps with his sole teammate and strong time trialist David Williams (who won Day 6 @USA CRITS Speedweek after lapping the field).  Mountain Khaki’s have also traveled up for the race and look to continue their strong finishes here in St. Louis. Joining the field only for Saturday’s NCC race, United Healthcare will start 5 riders with Karl Menzies and Robert Forster.

I first attended the Tour de Grove in 2010 during my days as an amateur with Rubicon-Orbea.  Then held in early June, the humidity and thunderstorms were oppressive and relentless. Fortunately the event has moved up on the NCC (National Criterium Calendar) thirty days, providing an opportunity for publicity for teams that either missed Tour of California invitations or have interests in the NCC overall. After gaining confidence at the 2010 edition with a 2^nd place finish behind Jelly Belly’s Brad Huff on the first day, I have returned with the hopes of securing a strong finish now that our criterium squad’s lead sprinter Carlos Alzate has departed for California.  With a week of training and resting in Evansville, Indiana, the guys are feeling close to 100%.  My form is coming along well and I’m looking to step up this weekend with solid performances now that Conor, Kevin, Tino and Quinn are helping me in bunch kick.

The course: A four corner counter-clockwise 1.2 kilometer circuit through St. Louis’ trendy Loop District featuring a 2% grade along the 400 metre tailwind main straightaway. Into corner 1, the route softly curved left before a tighter corner 2 with barriers lining the outside. This took us to the top of the lap from which a long 400-500 metre downhill blast through poor pavement and a marginally lit suburban drive send us into corner 3.  The fast entry and sudden breaking went something like this: “where is the swarm? There is a hole on the right...no one yet. Okay it’s left this lap. Follow that move. Bang, hit a bump. Bang, lose a bottle. Follow the swarm. The apex is coming, find a slot...Don’t break...don’t break...don’t break...dark...bright light....dark....BUMP....BRAKE AS HARD AS YOU CAN! Don’t lock up. Settle the bike over the weird crosswalk bump at the apex of corner 3. Don’t go wide, it banks away into the oily parking stall. Okay....I’m alive. Move up”. You could almost pedal through corner 4 and it was a decent tailwind up the main straight. A good sized crowd arrived for our race and the short 60 minute + 5 lap race went by quickly.

Only 1 breakaway really formed throughout the 70 minute event, to which Kevin masterfully covered. It was a dangerous move with a Borrajo, Cole House, 2 Cashcall riders and others to total 8-9 riders. After amassing a lead of twenty seconds, work by Jelly Belly neutralized the break with twenty minutes remaining so a bunch kick, as expected, seemed to be the day’s entree. Of course on such a hectic course, a bunch kick would mean only one thing...crashes.

I guess you could call them crashes if you were kind, they were more like flashes of horizontally spinning bodies and fractured bikes catapulting through crowd control barriers and sweeping 20-30 riders out of contention at a time. Stressful... well just a little. After picking himself up from a large accident on corner 3 with 6 laps remaining, Quinn watched one rider try to untangle his limbs, one leg jammed in between the triangle of his bike and the other wrapped up inside the hook of his handlebar. Needless to say, the bike was in poor condition.  Fortunately however my teammates and I avoided critical injury although Quinn and Tino did crash and didn’t return to the race as neutral pit laps ended with 5 laps to go.

At this moment, Jelly Belly hit the front with all six riders.  Jamis-Sutter Home lined up behind but I still had Conor and Kevin with me around 15^th wheel. With 3 laps to go, control at the front started to dwindle but we were looking to go very late because we were down to 3 riders, so instead of control at 1 to go, we’d have to wait crazy late, like into the final corner.  However through corner 2 with 1.8 laps to go, a massive crash on the outside isolated all those outside the top ten, unfortunately Conor and Kevin were both stopped. The large empty black and quiet space behind me made it clear that no one would come back from the that crash to contest the sprint, so the race was with only those that I could see. 

Over the line with 1 to go I followed Joseph Schmalz (Elbowz Racing) up into the top 7, Jamis-Sutter Home riding with three at the front including both Borrajo brothers. Exiting corner 2, the motor bike stopped suddenly at the scene of the previous lap’s accident, riders and bikes laying all over the right hand side of the road. Of the top ten riders, a few were forced to split the hole between the motorbike and the crash victims = crazy...what in the world was that moto thinking? If he was going to neutralize the race, it should have been done at the beginning of the final lap, not halfway through it! Down the back straight, the paced slowed just ever so slightly and Cole House moved from 6^th wheel up the right hand side of the blazing paceline. I followed and he was about to jump early for a 500 metre attack when the Jamis leadout man pulled off and Alejandro Borrajo sprinted up to speed. This let Cole slot in 3^rd wheel but Huff out braked me on the bumpy outside line into corner 3 so into the last complex of corners it ran Alejandro, Annibal, Cole, Brad and I.

All of a sudden, Annibal slid out and hit the deck hard, leaving his bike to the whim of its momentum. Up besides Huff’s head, Annibal’s bike whizzed by and came down just in time to hit my front spokes. Shattering 2-3 spokes and destroying the front wheel my race was over, fortunately I stayed upright. Moving off the racing line to the left, the rest of the sprinters moved by and I crossed the line at the back of the top ten thinking of what could have been. In the sprint, Cole House moved past a tired Alejandro (from his early leadout acceleration that turned into a sprint for the line) but Huff came by in the final metres to take advantage of the nature of the parcour’s big-gear slightly uphill drag to the line which favors a powerful acceleration and a late move out of the draft. Congrats to Jelly Belly and Brad Huff!

Annibal Borrajo went to the hospital with a broken scapula (shoulder) and received 8 stitches for a dangerous wound on the back of his head. Stefano Barberi (CashCall Mortgage) also went to the hospital (crash w/ 2 laps remaining) but his injuries are unknown at this time. Who says criterium racing is boring? 

We just need some television coverage with good camera angles and then maybe we could all move out of our parent’s houses!

Thanks for reading!