Gateway Cup Race Report

The Gateway Cup is a 4 day race series held over Labor Day Weekend in St. Louis MO and as I learned firsthand, a highly contended and hugely attended series.

I made the 4hr drive down to St. Louis on Friday afternoon for the first race of the series held on the streets surrounding Lafayette Park. Races were already underway when I arrived 3 hours early for my race slotted at 7:15pm, now you may be thinking to yourself “hmm… 7:30pm this time of year, isn’t it pretty dark?” well… YES it’s very dark!

These types of races are commonly referred to as twilight races and usually take place middle of summer in the late afternoon/evening sunshine, but for twilight races held late in the season, the higher category elite races normally held last get to race in the DARK.  Don’t get me wrong, darkness falling on the final few races of the night is NOT an oversight by the planning committee nor is it a surprise to any returning riders or the community of fans that show up in the thousands to line the streets with glow sticks, light sabers, and beer.

I had read in the race description that the latter categories race “under the lights” to me meaning that the entire course would be sufficiently illuminated to facilitate a large peloton at high speeds. Well… half of that was right…the half about a large peloton at high speeds, not the part about being sufficiently illuminated. 

 Here is a clip of the race...

Well enough about the conditions and on to the race. As the whistle blew the last remaining light had disappeared off the horizon and the 80+ rider peloton tore off down the course. Knowing that my fitness has suffered over the past two months, and my novice of racing in a 80+ rider group at NIGHT I decided to stay tucked away in the upper third of the group thinking to myself I would stay out of the wind and still be able to keep tabs on the front of the group.

The first couple laps were nail biting and fun all at the same time, once I figured out that the majority of the group knew what they were doing and had the same priority of self-preservation I felt more comfortable staying tight in the group and rounding the corners at 27mph+.

The most interesting challenge of racing at night with inconsistent lighting (besides the obvious) is the ever changing and deceptive shadows. Over the past year I have learned to keep my peripheral vision locked onto my flanks in an attempt to predict moves coming from behind me but during this race I had to do my best at ignoring my peripheral vision and focus only on what was in front of me.

The rest of the race and the following day’s race are pretty anti-climactic, I finished upper half in both races and left empty handed. I’m glad I made the drive down and pinned the numbers on but it’s a hard pill to swallow when you realize that you just don’t have the legs or the lungs to get yourself into position for a good finish.  My success during the first ¾ of the season came from having the fitness to not only get myself into position but also dig deep when it counted in the race to the line. No excuses should or will be made just a lesson learned for next year.  

Next up… ICA Cup review and my first Cyclocross Race.