Tour de Winghaven

Since there weren’t really any Iowa races today, a few of us Atlas members decided to head for O’Fallon, MO (a suburb of St. Louis). It was the Tour de Winghaven. I must say, it was a well organized event. The fields were decent sized and there were tons of volunteers. I was impressed. We arrived to the St. Louis area in the rain. It would continue raining until after my race was over. It wasn’t a down pour like Snake Alley, but enough to make it sketchy.

My race was at 12:30, but didn’t start until 1:00, and was 9 laps (each lap was approx. 3 miles). There were 16 women in the field. I recognized a few (Emilie Duchow, Molly Vetter-Smith, Kathren Walburg, and Samantha Schneider). The first lap was really tame. We weren’t able to pre-ride the course so everyone decided to take it easy to get familiar with the corners, especially since it was raining. The course had two gentle slopes and a decent uphill for the finish. There were two round-abouts on the course, which made things even trickier.

There was a “King of the Mountain” (or Queen in our race) competition. That split things up each lap as there was basically a sprint every time we came up the hill. A few people attacked and there were a few times people were off the front. Nothing stuck until the end. I actually was off the front for a lap with the eventual winner. I guess she’s a pro-triathlete. Anyway, she attacked on the 2nd to last lap and stuck it. We couldn’t real her in. It almost seemed like no one wanted to work. I noticed that a few times during the race. When I got off the front with the triathlete, we really didn’t attack, just kind of rode away.

Since the course was sketchy, I made note of the people who were slowing me down in the corners and tried to stay in front of them once we came to a corner. Sometimes it didn’t work and I ended up chasing to get back on. Spent a lot of energy doing that.

The last lap came and I found a decent sprinting wheel. Coming through the last corner, which happened to be part of the round-about, a rider lost control of their bike and went sliding in front of me. I grabbed the brakes, making sure not to lock them up. Unfortunately the rain also caused my bike to slide out from underneath me. I went sliding across the pavement. I quickly jumped to me feet and checked out my bike. It was alright so I headed up the final stretch of hill. By this time there was a group of 10 or so of us. I think a total of 4 or 5 girls went down in the carnage. I know at least one got back up and finished.

I ended up 9th after crashing. Not what I was hoping for at all, but considering the conditions, I will accept it. Yes, I was pretty annoyed that I wrecked again. But hey it happens. In both my wrecks, I feel like I had no control over avoiding them. I suppose that’s what has kept me at racing. I came out of the crash pretty good. Just a little road rash on the right leg. My bike came out decent too. My shift levers were crooked and scratched up, but fixable. I really wish that it hadn’t rained for my race. I hate racing in the rain, but since we drove 3 hours to race, I felt obligated to.

It was a good time and I definitely recommend you all to do it next year. There’s a huge purse involved. The Pro/1/2’s raced for $10,000 20 people deep. First place was $2700. In the Women’s Open race, we raced for $1000 10 people deep. First place was $500. This race was one of the higher pay-out races I’ve been in. Anyway, that’s all I have for now. Thanks for reading! Up next: Not sure?? There’s nothing in Iowa this month for some odd reason so I’ll be doing quite a bit of traveling. Proctor Cycling Classic is at the end of the month. Not sure though what I will do the weekend of the 24th. I’d like to go to Nature Valley, but you have to be a 2 to race. I’m not one yet. Maybe someday!

-A

Nick took the "King of the Mountain" win in the Cat 3's.

Tracy at the front in the Pro/1/2 race. He grabbed a point towards the "King of the Mountain" competition in the 60 mile race.

Dan Schmatz took the overall win in the Pro/1/2 race.