Part 2: Insights from the Kiwis racing in the US

Jun 21th, 10.  Blog: An insight into the life of a “full time” cyclist racing in America. Part 2:  On the road again, by Taylor Gunman.

Riding in St Paul's, Minnesota ©All photos Taylor Gunman or team

Their last check point was Junction City, Kansas.

(Part 1: Three Kiwis and a Canadian)

Part 2: On the road again

Taylor Gunman

I write this second post in the exact same place I wrote the first, and most likely the remainder of the updates, in the back of the Land Rover as we roll along the tedious countryside. The seats are becoming to feel like a good bike saddle - nicely moulded after clocking the hours seated.

From Junction City in the middle of nowhere of Kansas it was another early morning and another solid 7hr drive across state to arrive in St Louis, Missouri.

The first thing we noticed once arriving in St Louis was the humidity and the increased temperature. Not a combination that can be too friendly, especially when you are used to the mild temperature of Portland, or have just arrived over from the beginning of the NZ winter.

A ride along the waterfront of the river saw many different sides of St Louis that a typical tourist wouldn’t see.

The legs seem to be best described as a block of cheese after all the sitting around all day, so before the Tour de Grove on Sunday we entered another race, the Midtown Alley GP, on Saturday for a ‘hit out’ of sorts - hoping this would return some life to the legs.

The usual view

Podium for Mid Town Alley GP in the heavy rain.

Midtown Alley GP was dominated by more heavy rain and thunder, nothing like a bit of thunder and a flooding course to encourage hard racing and to ensure we were all kept on edge. A chaotic sprint resulted in Ben [the Canadian] placing 2nd and myself slotting into 3rd from a bunch sprint.

The spoils of placing at these races mean very attractive young ladies on the podium, and kisses all round. What a TREAT!

Tour de Grove was something different. Nothing I have ever experienced in my short cycling life. 40 degree heat and 96% humidity sure made things difficult as you couldn’t feel yourself breathing.

It was easily one of the hottest days I’ve experienced, but to see the race shortened due to more torrential rain, and lighting hitting buildings, was an ironic way to finish the day off - from one extreme to another. Mike did incredibly well and fought to the very end and placed a very respectable 7th.

We're not in NZ now

No team mechanics here

Again as a routine of life on the road, the next morning we were back on the concrete highway. This time we aimed at a solid 9hrs of driving as we headed towards St Paul's, Minnesota for Nature Valley GP.

LIVESTRONG work

Rubicon-Orbea cycling team benefits Lance Armstrong’s cancer foundation LIVESTRONG. So pre Nature Valley the team paid a visit to Kid Cancer ward here in St Paul's.

We handed out LIVESTRONG bands to the kids and popped in to say Hi and spin a yarn with the kids to help talk to them about something other than their treatments.

It was my first time doing this trip and visiting a hospital for this purpose, and to see Mike, Jason and Roman walk into the rooms and cheer up these kids was awesome to say the least.

To cap the trip off the entire team starred on the hospitals live TV show. We all got our 25min of fame talking about what we do on the bike and answered a few questions. Apparently photos and a DVD to follow soon....

Nature Valley Grand Prix begins

Nature Valley has started with a bang with a nasty 9km time trial followed by a technical hard and fast Criterium darting in and around the buildings of downtown. To get an idea of how fast the race was, the average speed was a slick 48km/h and we clocked a respectable 60km in a slim 1hr and 15min.

The big field involves a lot of America’s best riders and teams who have come from competing on the Tour of California and recently returning from short escapades in Europe. There is a high quality field here that takes everything to another level.

Part 3 ... Nature Valley was one intense race. Loved it. I'll follow up quickly with part three - hopefully.

Taylor Gunman

See also: Part 1: Three Kiwis and a Canadian