Gateway Cup - St. Louis

Vanderkitten invited me to guest ride for the Gateway Cup, four crits in St. Louis, MO over Labor Day weekend. Pete said the races were fun, the prize money was good and I had a super fun team to ride and travel with so I was stoked.

Friday's race was at 8:30 pm and was my first race ever under the lights! I raced aggressive and 3 of us finished in the money!

                                          
Elevators with 4 girls and 4 bikes are a bit tight!

The second stage was around a downtown park.

People were everywhere picnicking, BBQing and enjoying the long weekend. I was a bit frustrated after the race as I felt I was racing well but, despite my efforts attacking and bridging to some promising moves, the second race ended in another field sprit; not my forte.... We had a renegade photo shoot in front of the famous arch in the evening (photo above) which was super fun.

We did a spin to the arch and along the waterfront the next morning. What an amazing piece of architecture! Such a different feel up close.

                        

Sunday's stage was the highlighted race of the event: the biggest prize money as well as the race's 25th anniversary! The Giro Della Montagna ("The Hill") is the only stage with a hill and is held in the Italian District of the city; the race has a great atmosphere. I was a bit nervous before this stage because I thought that with battle for the leaders jersey and the course profile, it might be a good day for a break to stick and I wanted to be in it!

I was right... :)

The 3rd of 4 prime bells rung and I was in a good spot. Laura Van Guilder and another rider were already battling it out but I was able to come around in the downhill draft and take the $100 prime! I had a good gap along the bottom stretch and a few riders came around... but soon realized that the rest of the pack was a ways back and so 5 or 6 of us starting working together. After a few more laps we were down to a four person break. Laura Van Gilder and I worked hard together, increasing our lead to over a minute. Going for the win, I jumped first just before the last corner, hoping to get a gap on the sprinters in the break, but Colavita and Laura came around and I came across the finish line in 3rd. Not too shabby :)

                                                              

The race holds a dinner at the local Bocci Ball club in the evening and we celebrated our team's great ride and podium finish playing Bocci ball until way too late in the evening...

The forth stage was a fun, technical 1.8 mile course that ran so close to a brewery that I could smell the fermenting hops while racing... ummm beer. We raced great as a team, attacking and covering moves and Starla sprinted to a 4th place finish!

We enjoyed beers in the park with friends while watching the men's race and followed park beers up with a delicious lunch/dinner at a restaurant on the course.

The ride back to the hotel was bit... hummm, interesting ;-)

The race promoters did a fabulous job, St. Louis is awesome and I am planning on coming back next year!

Photos taken by the famous Jason Perry (www.JasonPerryPhoto.com) and Jake Drevs! Thanks guys :)