Gateway Cup 2008 Bicycle Racing – Day 2
It’s just not Labor Day Weekend for me unless there is bike racing on the streets of St Louis. The Gateway Cup is an annual must-see for me. In years past I’ve made it to all four days of racing but I’m not as mobile as I once was. On Saturday I did travel the few blocks from my downtown loft to check out the final mens race of the day.
For the past few years the downtown course was a simple clockwise circle on Washington, 14th, Locust and 20th with the start/finish on Washington between 16th & 17th. This year the race shifted west and rather than a big circle it was a sort of figure 8. The start/finish was the Tap Room on Locust at 21st. The course ran clockwise on Locust, 20th, Washington, 18th, Locust, 20th, Olive, 23rd back to Locust. At times there would be riders making one turn onto 20th as other riders further back in the course making the opposite turn on 20th.
This year riders also had a new challenge. A week earlier the city put down lose gravel along Olive/Lindell. By the day of the race most was compacted into the asphalt road surface. A classmate of mine a SLU lives a block from me and rides his bike to class. When the gravel was first applied it required more work driving a car and safely riding a bike in it had to be a challenge. Nice of the city to wait until classes were back in session.
OK, back to racing. The top mens riders always have the last race of the day. Typically they ride for 75 minutes plus five laps. Saturday when they started the final race they recognized they were behind on their schedule and losing light quickly so they cut 15 minutes off the time — 60 minutes plus five laps. On the very last lap a car heading east on Washington didn’t see the orange metal barricade and crashed right into it. I had just crossed the intersection 5 minutes earlier. Thankfully nobody was injured.
So for all of you that were cutting your lawns or attending your grandson’s 2nd birthday I put together a 7:53 minute video of the final race on Saturday.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-15S3jgEZek[/youtube]
The Gateway Cup starts on Friday evening of Labor Day weekend in Lafayette Square. Saturday is downtown while Sunday is on The Hill. The racing continues in the Loop on Monday. See www.GatewayCup.com for more details.
Have a great Labor Day everyone!
Great that the area, Big Shark, THF and others promote cycling competition. However, it’s too bad that local leadership/organizations fail to promote everyday cycling for commuters and those who prefer to run errands on bikes. The latest street pavement methods create safety problems and more inconveniences for cyclists in an area that fails to support fair/effective STR. Infrastructure matters and the City again uses financial shortcuts to excuse lowering our standards.
2nd Birthdays are very important. They should never be missed.
Why must you slam the birthday party? Can’t you leave the kid alone! (kidding)
I guess he is just lucky that you cooked him veggie corn dogs during your busy weekend! (Just so you know, I told him that he was going to see you this weekend and he got excited.)