Smooth sailing in St. Louis

Posted by Kori Seehafer

Primal Pro Women arrived in St Louis, MO, for Tour de Grove and stop #5 on the
USA Crits calendar this past weekend.

We were greeted with great Gateway city hospitality.  It started with Big
Shark Cycling so graciously accepting our bikes being shipped to and taking over
their shop.  Thanks Mike Weiss for inviting us to come to your event and taking such great care of the women!

Hot Mama and Kaytie in the Dutchtown Classic

Then, Steven Wilkes of SRAM NRS, nabbed our bikes from Big Shark and helped set-up our BH's.  I met my new teammate Kaytie and her husband Austin who picked me up from the airport.  They were our logistics experts extraordinaire and Austin treated us like a pro tour team by cooking for us each day.  Thanks for spoiling us Austin!

I was then introduced to our awesome host family Brad and Paula and their pups.  Brad is a distributor with SRAM and had trainers set-up at the race course everyday.  He was there for everyone, and hadvery long days so everyone could have a place to ride.  Thanks for your efforts Brad!

I even met a nice lady gardening while I was doing a ride in the local area.  I was
adjusting my saddle and broke the seat bolt and she drove me to Big Shark to repair my bike. Thanks random resident of St. Louis!

Finally on the last day of the races my good ol friends from St Louis took
care of me.  Kerry Soraci with IScream Ice Cream gave me nice treats and story time
and Carrie Cash hauled off my bike to help me deliver my bike at the next venue.  I’m
truly grateful to everyone there for being so supportive.  It makes me love this sport
even more. Thanks past and present bike racer chicks!

Our goal for Tour de Grove was to defend our USA crit team overall 1st place lead
and help Joanie Caron and Tiffany Pezzulo move up the individual rankings.  At the
end of the week, we dropped a place in the individual standings but still held onto
our 1st place team lead.   The points are tight in the individual competition and we look forward to the challenge. Thanks USA Crits for providing an awesome series in which to compete!

On Race Day (Tour de Grove on Saturday), it was very windy.  We had a few mishaps, Kaytie flatted and then crashed but neutral support got her back in the game, and Joanie and Mel crashed the day before and were a bit battered and sore from the experience.  During the race, Mel was assigned the job to cover major attacks and the team wanted to work on moving more as a unit and being cohesive. Mel did a stellar job at covering moves and the field was all together with 3 laps to go.  The team got to the front and started to control the pace.  With two to go, the wide roads and wind caused the peleton to jostle a bit and teammates to lose each other.  Kaytie and Mel were able to get our
sprinters back up to position somewhat but in the end our top finisher was Joanie Caron in 9th. Thanks teammates!

There was great fan support at the races and it was fun to see old faces in the cycling community.  Thanks St. Louis for making it a fun weekend!

After being unable to ride for most of the year due to health issues, it was exciting being at the races again.  Thanks body on-the-mend!

We finished off the weekend with a third race: the Dutchtown Classic. While our results were somewhat ho-hum (Tiff Pezzulo in 14th); the girls are getting to know and trust one another more during the races. We look forward to building on these experiences and being able to put it all together to pull off a win in the near future!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!