it's always good to be home : ) st. louis is always fun.. but very hard at the same time. here's a quick recap of the weekend.. friday - fast, fun, and dangerous... mercy team rode great. chad was in the winning break but didn't call tilford's bluff and came back to the field. i was in perfect position, 4th, coming into the last corner.. botched it but chad ended up 5th. saturday - new course.. up a hill and then back down. once again, the mercy team rode great. we were able to pull back most serious attacks and launch chad into the winning move.. he ended up 3rd behind a super strong brian jensen. sunday - today was going to be hard.. we rode well.. with most of us avoiding serious crashes. i was evolved in a BIG pile-up and had to sit out four laps in the pit - not very good for the legs. got back in the race at the rear.. moved to the front and took a big pull to try and bring jensen back to within striking distance.. it worked. went back to the rear of the field to recover again. with four laps to go.. my great friend stevie cate took me 3/4 of the way to the font.. then big man doug greek took over and zipped me right up there. as we came through turn two on the last lap, i looked up to see the beautiful sight of mat ankney leading it out.. started at the bottom of the hill in 15th position - perfect. shifted to my 12.. started moving up the inside to set-up for the final two turns... then.. bam.. i'm pinned against the curb with nowhere to go. the sprint starts and i'm stuck. cagle was a few riders in front of me and was able to hang it out there for 6th.. i rolled in somewhere around 20th. monday - always the hardest day. once again, long uphill.. followed by a long downhill. felt like sheit all day. jensen, wenger, and a abd guy rolled off the front and lapped the field. cagle tried many times to get a away but was too marked. jensen won with wenger taking second... nice to see him (wenger) back. once again, chad finished in the top 10 and 4th overall. it was a great weekend and a ton of fun riding with the mercy cycling team. a BIG thanks to mat, chad, alex, stevie, doug, stefan, brian w., brian d., andreas, and hector for letting me tag along. i have a great time racing with you guys and look forward to the mercy cycling classic. surFy