Benton Park- Gateway Cup Day 4

The final day of Gateway was muggy and warm and included the most technical course with the crappiest roads of the bunch, laden with recessed potholes in the turns. Each long-ish lap included 10 turns, a quick descent and a long uphill drag to the finish. I'm happy to say today was also rain free. It would have been a nightmare otherwise.

With GC pretty close, Kristen LaSasso, single-handedly kept the race together protecting her teammate Laura Van Guilder, who ended up winning the overall as a result of her work (and the stage, and all the stages. What a badass). Nevertheless, Kat and I were both pretty active throughout the race. I almost got the first $100 prime solo, attacking half a lap before, but Carrie Cash bridged solo to me and then outsprinted me. Ouch. I went for the others, but it would have been better if Kat and I were able to connect and go for them jointly. It seemed that attacks were fruitless in this race, nevertheless we each attacked throughout. On the last lap, Kat and I moved up to the front, but the pace also slowed. We (or I) should have probably just gone at this point, but instead, we let groupthink get in the way and we were swarmed and spit out the back in the next mad-dash mile to the finish with fellow racers taking some crazy risks. We finished 17th and 20th, putting Kat top 11, we think.  It was a bit disappointing but we did come up with some strategic things to work on together and also on our own before we unite again for Mayor's Cup in three weeks.

We pedaled the 40 minutes "home" as quick as possible, before a quick shower and pack up and headed out to the airport for our respective journeys home. It was a really great weekend with some great results. I finally feel like I'm back to where I was ability-wise and I know I'll still get a teensy bit stronger between now and Mayor's Cup. Thanks to Billie and Leif for hosting us again and all the extra support above and beyond. Till next year :)