USGP 1-2, Gateway Cup Cross

I'm pretty late getting this race report out. It's been kind of hectic ever since the build up for the first USGP started. Left KC on Thursday, drove to Madison on Friday, raced sat/sun and drove to Omaha Sunday night. Got back in the car early Monday morning and drove back to KC. Wednesday morning it was time to get back into the car and headed to St. Louis for the Gateway Cross Cup. Since it was such a late finish to the Elite race we opted to stay the night and drive back in the morning. With all the travel and trying to get some work done at the shop I was just a bit fried by this weekend.

As for the races, USGP #1 went pretty well. A fast dry course was similar to last year with a few more turns. Off the start I was up front and early on my teammate Mark Legg took off and was gone. I had a good battle with Jeff Weinert over 2nd place eventually ending up 3rd.

Day 2 didn't go quite so well. Once again Mark took off and was gone but this time there were 5 riders battling for 2nd thru 6th. It was a tactical battle the whole day and I tried to bust up the group a munber of times but in the end I was 6th. Not a bad weekend at all.

45+ podium Day 1

35+ podium

Tim Johnson on a dry, dusty course

Katie Compton hopping the boards

Jeff and I hopping the boards on Day 2

 

Gateway Cross Cup

 

Another early start had Joe and I heading for St. Louis for the Gateway Cross Cup. We arrived and quickly got a prime location for our pit. Teammate Mark Legg arrived and we got ready for our 40+/50+ race. Mark and I both got slow starts but soon we were on the front. Once Mark got to the front he slowly started pulling away from me. In the end Mark finished 1st in the 45+ race and I was 1st in the 50+.

Joe was the real trooper. He got up early to travel with me when I was a early race and he was the last race. I think there was 5 hours between our races. 9th place and some UCI points was the outcome for Joe's first race of the season.

50+ podium

 

Missed out on Boss Cross this weekend for a number of reasons. Kind of a bummer but I think I needed to reset.