Tulsa Tough Day 3

The final day of Tulsa Tough was gonna be a small hill crit alongside the river. It was a 1,2km loop including a 30s climb at the start of the lap.

The infamous Cry Baby Hill was already packed with drunk people when our race started. The first lap of the race was immediately quite hard as there was an attack straight from the gun. Again our strategy of the day would be to mark every move and make sure we would be at the front in the final. Either with Sven for a bunch sprint (and GC), or any of the other 5 in a breakaway. Luckily Luis was feeling a bit better, which meant he could also join us in racing for the last day of the weekend.

In the second ascent of the hill, my chain dropped and I lost contact with the bunch. After waiting in the pits for a free lap, which they did not grant me, I rejoined the race. Since I was technically not in the race anymore I focussed on trying to move up some of our guys and motivating them for what was to come.

The scenes on Cry Baby Hill were something I had never witnessed before. Entering the bottom of the hill at close to 50kph and then blasting your way to the top trough a wall of screaming, beer, and weed smoke was an experience I won't quickly forget. When the race timer hit 30 minutes I decided to step out to not hinder the guys actually racing. On my last passing over the hill I treated myself to one of many beer cans held out by the partying people turnt soingeurs for a day. I chugged the can and threw it away. The beer was gross but the people loved it. 10/10 would do it again.

On the top of the hill I stopped to watch the rest of the race. I found out crit racing is a lot more fun to watch compared to races on a bigger loop, as you can see the whole race every 2-3 minutes or so. With a bottle of water in hand I cheered for the guys as I emptied my bottle over the thirstiest guys. Unfortunately I was not allowed to hand out bottles during the race. This often led to disappointed faces whenever I had to ignore the hands of riders reaching for drinks (Sorry Domi). It was nice to see the guys giving it their all at the front of the race.

In the end, two guys went of the front and held it until the end. Sven managed to get a nice top 10 and this concluded our weekend. Now it was time for an easy spin home, get a shower,
eat mcdonalds, and to quote Pösti; GET SOME DRINKS IN FOR THE LADS!

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