Mike Sherer Report: Tour De Grove

It was hot and steamy in St. Louis this past weekend as the team headed south for some NRC action. Saturday was a 4 corner criterium in a downpour with flats and crashes all around. Despite two trips to the wheel pit our man Hogan kept it upright and powered in for a 9th place finish. He would go on to take the win in on Sunday in the 2/3 race with Danny Robertson right behind him in second. After watching a performance like that the rest of us were super-motivated for our race later in the day.

Sunday’s race was a 13-corner 2.8 mile “Circuit” Race that can best be described as an 80 mile criterium. When Will, Ryan, Brian (Dziewa) and I lined up for the start at 3 p.m. it was almost 95 degrees and our main focus was staying hydrated and cool. It was definitely going to be a race of attrition and we didn’t have a big enough squad to afford to lose any body.

Just like a criterium, the race started off quick with lots of attacks. A couple moves got away that I thought might stick but no dice. Ryan, Will, and I took turns going with moves and eventually two Kelly Benefit Strategies riders, Scott Zwizanski and David Veilleux, got away with Andy Crater from AeroCat. Jelly Belly had a full squad of seven riders at the race so missing out on the break meant that the onus fell on them to bring it back or send riders across. We were willing to work with anyone to get across, and Ryan Freund attacked hard in an attempt to get across, but we couldn’t afford to burn through riders just to set pace.

So, Jelly Belly went to the front and set tempo for the rest of the race trying to bring the break back. They really didn’t seem to be looking for any help either and lap after lap went by with Jelly Belly pretty much team trialing on the front of the field. At one point they almost brought the leaders back to within 12 seconds, but then the gap quickly blew out to 30 or 40 seconds again by the next lap. Crater cramped out of the break and came back to the field, unfortunately for him only to cramp again and drop off the quickly thinning field. Will, Ryan and I stayed toward the front and tried to stay out of trouble. Even though it was only three miles per lap every rider in the field was taking a bottle or a stocking stuffed with ice each time through the feed zone.

As the laps ticked off the sky kept getting darker and darker. We all knew it was going to dump on us at anytime and with 10 laps to go the rain started falling and suddenly four Jelly Belly riders all slid out in a corner on the back stretch. The wreck caused a bit of confusion in the field because since the race was run under criterium rules the Jelly Belly guys would jump back in a half lap later. So, for half a lap there wasn’t really enough organization or motivation to do any work, not to mention the rain made it slow going. Ryan and I tried to use the lull as an opportunity to attack, and for a while we were away with ABD alumni Reid Mumford (Kelly Benefit Strategies). The field caught us within a lap and soon the rain started falling even harder and we could see some lightning. Unsurprisingly, with what would have been 6 to go they have us the bell, cutting it down to one lap and three miles to go.

Ryan and I were already at the front of the race and Will came up and joined us with half a lap to go. They traded off hard pulls while I stayed glued to their wheels. Will drilled it into the last turn with Ryan and I on his wheel, and he actually over cooked it a little which let Ryan and I sneak by on the inside. I jumped around Ryan 20 feet out of the turn, dropped it into the 11 and didn’t chance a single look back. I came across the line for third place, with Ryan finishing sixth and Will in 12th.

This was by far the biggest result I’ve ever had in my cycling career, and I feel like I’m coming into some good form in perfect time for Tour of America’s Dairyland. None of this would be possible without a great group of teammates, our amazing sponsors, and a lot of hard working people behind this team.

More to come next week from Wisconsin.

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