Rocky Mountain Omnium – Road Race

This past Sunday was the final day of racing for the Rocky Mountain Omnium. It was going to be the longest day of racing, the road race. This race had an interesting dynamic from the start. It was the Colorado State Maters Championship Road Race and because of that there were a lot of new racers that had not raced the previous days. You see, as an omnium it’s like a stage race but the biggest difference is it’s not a requirement to do all of the races. As a result the number of racers at the road race was going to be double what had been racing all weekend. This made planning a strategy for the race, interesting. It also made for races within the race. There was the race for the overall omnium win and there was the race for the day, which happened to be the state championship. Not all the racers are going for the same ‘race’, so you can see it was a little complex.

After losing David in the crit, Tom and I had to think this one through. Tom was in second place overall for the omnium but of course wanted to win the state championship. Dane, the guy currently in first place for the omnium had demonstrated his strengths all weekend. He did a fantastic time trial and won the crit. He was sprinting all over the crit and no one had an answer to that. The road race presented us with an opportunity; about half way through there’s a 10% hill followed by a longer 5-6% hill. Dane is a big strong guy that’s gravitationally challenged, he even told us about his Superior RR troubles with the “Wall”. So, we had to exploit that weakness and get Tom free.

At the beginning of the race a number of the other racers came over and asked about Dave’s crash during the crit. It was nice and very appreciated. People were genuinely concerned. Most of us are fathers and have a day job making accidents something we all want to avoid. The race started slow, my legs were tired before we even got started. We had 50+ miles to go and no one was in a hurry. I was happy to set the pace for a lot of the outward ride. I stayed near the front and when the pace slowed I would move up and keep things going. About 10 miles in the road turned to dirt. The dirt was smoother than the pavement and not a factor at all. I continued to patrol the front, chase anyone thinking about getting away and kept the pace moving.

Before the right hand turn towards Burns I took the front. The climb was only a few miles away and I begin to push the pace. There were a couple of turns and I drove through each of them. I continued to push but not too hard, I wanted everyone to chase. I wasn’t trying to get away. The plan was to get the pace high so that when we hit that hill the gravitationally challenged would already be at their limit making the hill harder. I hit the hill and continued to keep the pace as long as I could, then I pulled off and watched the field shatter into three groups. Tom was in the lead group and Mike another teammate for the day was in the second group. Low and behold, Dane (first on the omnium) was in the third group and hurting. The gaps were opening up so I jumped on his wheel and let him pull away. I wasn’t going to help chase until that lead group had some distance.

The gaps opened up and once we got back down to the river valley I was comfortable that the race lead was too far up the road so I started to pull through. We were rolling down the river valley picking up racers that had obviously over exerted themselves on the hill but managed to hang on a little while longer. After the weekend of racing and the effort going out I was quickly running out of steam and ended up getting dropped. I found a new friend and rode in with my new partner in pain Kurt. It was more of a parade to just get it over with, we worked together so we didn’t have to be out there any longer than necessary.

I struggled in about 8 minutes after the finish to see Tom holding up his second place prize. Amazingly Dane did catch the lead group in the final miles, which blows me away. It’s a real testament to his strength. That effort however totally neutralized his killer sprint as he had given everything to get back in the group. So, sadly the strongest finisher may have not won but in the end but the strongest team did. Tom got second on the day but it was enough to win the overall in the omnium. I finished 15th and managed to get enough points for 5th overall in the omnium. The winner was someone that had not raced all weekend. Too bad, he missed out on a lot of fun, loser. (I’m just sad I didn’t get a chance to meet him)

Looking back it was an emotionally interesting weekend. The time trial on Friday was a lot of fun even if I didn’t have the right equipment. I feel like I did well coming in 2 minutes behind people with professional grade time trial equipment while I was full on retro (that’s right Merkx style, no aero equipment). The crit was hard both physically and emotionally because of my teammates crash. By the morning of the road race I had no idea how my body would react. In the end it did what was needed, maybe more. I really enjoyed racing with the team and meeting everyone else in our category. I’d also like to tell Dane, sorry dude but there’s an opening on our team for you anytime, you’re a hell of a strong rider and a great guy. J

Rocky Mountain Omnium - Criterium

This weekend I've been in Glenwood Springs, CO participating in the Rocky Mountain Omnium. My team has had a good group of three racing. It's been a lot of fun. Yesterday was the time trail and the team was in 1st, 3rd and 7th overall. I was in 7th, so today at the criterium my plan was to attempt and keep our lead racers in a good position. I spent a lot of time on the front going as hard as I could. My plan was simple, make it a hard race. Our guys had proved they were fast so I just needed to reduce the field. Things were going well until the last couple of laps. My friend David who was sitting in 3rd place had been riding on the back of the field for most of the race attacked. He got a good lead and I quickly got to the front and tried to block. A couple of racers were yelling at me but hey "come on around, if you can." Adventually they caught Dave and I immediately counter attacked. I was on the front going into a fast corner when there was a crash a few racers behind me. I looked back but I couldn't see who it was. I sat up because I knew I had two teammates back there and if they did crash I wanted to give them a chance to get back on.

The next lap around I saw David laid out on the road not looking good at all. They kept us racing but basically neutralized that corner. We all took it really slow. The ambulance and race EMTs came out and eventually helped him off the road. The race kicked back into action with about 3 or 4 laps remaining. I went to the front and ramped it up. I really didn't feel like racing and just wanted it over. I also needed to help my last teammate Tom. The last laps counted down quickly and I let the race go to sprint it out while I soft pedaled around through the finish and over to the crash corner. David was getting put on a backboard. It sounded like when the crash happen he was hit low and basically flipped over and landed on his head and shoulder. His helmet was blown out and he didn't remember the race. His collar bone was pretty obviously broken and he has skinned up.

We gathered our things from the race and went to the hospital. He was looking a lot better there. He'll be ok. Likely need surgery on the shoulder and a couple of painful nights with the road rash. Makes me wonder why I do some of these races. I have another hard road race tomorrow but my head really isn't in it. I'm just sad it happened. He's worked really hard to get in shape this year and it was clearly paying off. Keep him in your thoughts.

Winter Park Epic Singletrack Race #1, The Hill Climb

The 2011 mountain bike series kicked off with the Winter Park Hill Climb. I was a little uncertain it would happen with all the snow still on the ground in the high country. But this hill climb is on the service road that goes from the base of Winter back up to the top. They ploughed the road to get service vehicles up so we were in good shape. The road was in perfect condition, all the trails however were still under snow or water run off.

The weather was fantastic. Much warmer than I anticipated. I decided to ride the 29er this year because two years ago when I did the race it was on a CX bike. I felt over geared and needed another gear or two smaller. The climb is just over 2020 ft altitude gain in 5.2 miles. That works out to be an average of about 7% but there are a few flat places, a couple of sustained grades around 10% and two pitches over 15%. Therefore I went with the 29er because it had the gears and it's only about 7 pounds heavier.

There were about 26 racers in my category. I got a center front start. At the start a group of about 10 seemed to leap off the front. I settled in behind them hoping the group would stick around a little while. I was wrong, after about a minute the group started to shatter. I ended up riding around racers as they peeled out of the group. Three racers quickly shot up the road and I decided their pace was too hot for me. I was in fourth within the first 4 minutes of the race. I was truly surprised how quickly the race fell out.

Hill climbs, for me, are a lot like a time trial. Just get give it all you have to the top and tactics don't really come into play. About half way up a racer from my group caught me and we stayed within a few seconds all the way to the top. Right at the final 15% climb to the finish I herd another rider behind me. Knowing if I had a rider pass me at this point it wouldn't be good, I gave it all I had. I ended up finishing 5th. The 3 riders that got away early finished 4+ minutes ahead, the 4th place guy I was chasing finished about 13 seconds ahead and the guy behind me was only 9 seconds back.

Two years ago when I did this race I finished in 48:21. I was hoping I could get my time under 45 minutes. I ended up finishing in 44:00. Pretty good! On a side note I think I was abducted by aliens on the way down the mountain. My butt cheeks felt like someone drove nails into them. Poorly executed annal probe? Time to recover.

Check out the new blog header photo taken right at the top, heading up the final 15+% climb. I was way deep in the pain cave.

New Toys

Mountain bike racing starts tomorrow. I'll have a review on these baby's soon.

Fountain of Youth

Made it back over to the Golden Bike Park for a little refresher after the recent mountain bike clinic. The pump track was dry and ready to roll. I had so much fun. I was planning on a short little ride but ended up riding everything for about and hour. I felt like a kid back when I used to spend all day at the "dirt hills" on my BMX bike. Only this time the kids were watching me rail the corners. See the two sitting in the upper right hand of the photo. One of them had crashed and cut his elbow. (Yes, I checked he was ok. Minor cut but I think he was done for the day. Funny, these two geniuses rode to the bike park with their helmets on then took them off to ride; that's thinking.) They just sat their watching the old man on a 29er cross country rig rip around the pump track. Ha Ha