Race Reports: Rockabilly Gran Prix Omnium

Road Race:

Starting the race under omnious skies. 

The course was mostly flat, so I was feeling good about my chances and was looking to put on a show for my parents that got to come to this race. My Dad has never seen me do a bike race in person before and my Mom hasn't seen one since my crit win at River Gorge in 2011. We hit some patches of rain on the drive to the race that morning, so I was expecting some showers during the race. I wasn't expecting for it to get as bad as it did though. The rain really started during lap 2 of the 4 lap race. At the beginning of lap 2 I had made my way to the front so I could ride around all the pot holes and rough spots in the first half mile of the course; maybe the best decision of the weekend. Maybe a minute into lap two, I heard lots of loud clanging and crashing, carbon smacking the ground. I looked over one shoulder and saw some guys were/had gone down. I looked again over the other shoulder and realized it was a huge portion of the field that was crashing or behind the crash. I turned back around and punched it. I was moving away and only one guy was reacting and trying to come after me. I let him catch on and he immediately sat up and did no work once he pulled around me. We made the first corner and I slowly made my way up the first hill as I waited for the other 8-10 people that made it safely through the crash. We formed a decent paceline and started working to pull away. One "difficult to race with rider" jumped out of the saddle for an attack once it came around to his turn to pull in the paceline. That screwed things up for a while as no one wanted to pull hard after that. We eventually got back going, only for that same rider to attack again in the same fashion before dropping out of the back of the paceline to rest for a bit before trying the same attack as it came his turn to pull. This type of racing will make you a bunch of enemies pretty quick in the group.

We all stayed together though and came through to start lap 3 with more and more rain coming down. I actually slid my rear tire out about 6 inches in a hard right turn during lap two. I saved it but my bike felt weird for a little bit after that. It felt like I had flatted. I got a very sick feeling and worried there for bit thinking I had just blown this opportunity; it all worked out though. As our breakaway group moved through lap 3, the storm really started pouring down on us. It got hard to see due to such heavy rain and every turn had to be taken with extreme caution. About 6 miles from the finish, the race lead car pulled alongside us. They told us this would be our last lap. We would finish on 3 instead of 4. Once they pulled away, the attacks started and they didn't stop until we went under the 1K to go mark. Racing got very hard in those last 6 miles, chasing attacks, making breaks, all to get pulled back together. I had no perception of where we were on the course. I wouldn't have been worried or responded as quickly as I did to some of the attacks if I had.

As we closed in on the 1K to go mark, I was sitting second wheel feeling really good about my position and the run in to the finish. Around 500 meters to go, the race lead car had pulled alongside us again. All I could make out from him was that we were not supposed to sprint. I figured it was a safety thing and they didn't want our group standing up and throwing our bikes in a sprint that would likely cause a mass crash like before. What the lead car didn't see was the approaching truck in the same lane as the lead car. Our lead car sped up and quickly pulled back in front of our group, but not in time. The cars clipped each other as I heard clanging metal and plastic for the second time in that race. Adrenaline surged as I could imagine the cars hitting and coming to halt with me plowing into the back of the race car. A very frightening moment.

After that, I surged in the saddle as we came up to the start finish because I wasn't sure if we were still finishing or not. I came across first, but knew we were done at that point. There were no officials anywhere in sight at the line. The road race would not be scored and ended up just getting cancelled altogether. Apparently, there were tornado warnings in the area and the sheriff made the race director pull all riders off the course. Why did they let us race the last 6 miles and then cancel our race 500 meters from the line? I'm not sure, but it sure was a lot of work and effort to race for no outcome.


Time Trial:
The weather started behaving shortly after the road race course was evacuated and all riders departed the area. The time trial was set to go off as planned. Due to some unforeseen complications, I didn't make it back to the race area in time for a warm-up. I started out setting up my bike as if I would, but had to bail as I knew it was getting too close to time and it was more important to show up on time to my start than to ensure a thorough warm-up. I got in just over 3 minutes of warm-up for the 5 mile TT.

I was the last Cat 4 to go so I should have had lots of guys out in front of me to try chasing down; however, a lot of the guys were missing due to the storms and a few were even in the hospital from that morning's crash in the road race.

I started out of the gate hard, standing and putting full force into the pedals to get moving. I was going to pay for that effort about 3 minutes down the road when I was fighting with myself to back off the pace. I tried to keep pushing on, staying as aero as possible. I periodically took peeks at my computer to see where my watts were. I was putting out a stellar average so far and not sure if I would really be able to keep it up. Ideally, I thought I could average 400w if I were feeling good. Well I dug in and pushed hard through the line once I could see the finish. I clocked 11 minutes at 411 average watts on my computer: a great showing, better than I could have anticipated. I cooled down on the ride back to the start/registration area to later find out I won the TT with an official time of 10:55 with second place coming in at 11:02. I would have placed 4th in the Cat 3's. Happy to get this win as now the omnium would be decided by only the TT and Crit placing with the money from the RR being split between the TT and Crit payouts already scheduled.


Crit:
Then came the crit. We drove back to Jackson for the second day of racing with both my parents and my grandmother so all could enjoy the race. My grandmother has never seen a bike race before. Now I needed to impress with my family at the race for the first time in 2 years.

The crit started with an attack from one rider. I didn't want to jump that hard early on, but I was the one to bring him back after a few corners. We stayed together for a lap or two and then another big attack came with an unsuspecting rider taking a little gap on the field for a bit. He got brought back in shortly there after. There were a few more attacks, but nothing big until the rider that attacked off the start line threw another big attack and created a decent gap on the field that took over 2 laps to bring back in. This would have been the time to attack now, but I wasn't feeling that fresh and not sure if I could hold it. We stayed together and a prime was announced for the next lap. The field stretched out a bit, but as we approached the line I found myself sitting 3 abreast and only two wheels back from the lead. Being this close, I just couldn't let the prime go. So, I pulled off to the right and laid down some watts to surge past the leaders and take the prime. Like I said, I wasn't committed to attacking at first and still unsure of myself. I looked at my computer before I moved though and we were about 20 minutes into the 40 minute race which was exactly my plan pre-race. I kept my head down and continued to push over the flat and through corner one. Out of corner one, I was able to look back at the field and realized I had already created a sizable gap. It was now or never. Time to go! I tucked and buried it trying to get away from the field. It hurt. I was suffering out there for the next 4-5 laps second guessing myself and backing off now and then to make sure that if they caught me, I wouldn't fall off the back of the group. I tried getting a time split from the finish line officials, but instead got the 5 laps to go sign. It was the encouragement I needed. I was able to start counting down and out of corner 5 and corner 1 I could still glance back and see no one coming for me. The breakaway win was becoming more and more real with each passing lap. If I was caught now, it was over. I had to give it all I had. I pushed more. I made it to two laps to go and finally felt comfortable, but still never let up.

Crit Finish

Before the race even started, we had heard about how difficult the last corner could be with many of the earlier races having crashes there on the last lap, usually taking out the leaders. So I knew this would be a tricky point in the race every time we came through, especially as we closed in on those finals laps. How do you avoid the possibility of a crash and eliminate the need to chase down attacks throughout the race? You attack solo off the front and only have to worry about yourself. It was definitely a much harder way to win a race though. Waiting, covering, and out-sprinting everyone else at the end is much easier, but more stressful.

Crit Podium

So my family didn't get to see an exciting sprint finish all weekend, but I think they got some solid viewing time of me on and off the front. With the crit and time trial win, I secured the overall omnium and collected my biggest payout to date and earned a new champions jersey. Great rewards for solid, tough racing. 

Overall Podium

Race Report: River Gorge Omnium

What a weekend it was. Obviously, the highlight of the weekend was my crit win, but other exciting parts included catching my 30 sec guy in the time trial, my left crank arm ripping out of the bottom bracket of my TT bike, the 22 year-old stud that solo'ed off the front and won the Pro/1/2 race, and the brief time that I lead the cat 4 road race leading up to the Raccoon Mountain climb.

Saturday morning I headed up to the TT start on top of Raccoon mountain. Quickly grabbing a parking spot, I set up my trainer and got about 8 minutes of warm-up. Not exactly ideal, but I got a little distracted talking to some other guys and did not have as much time as I though I was going to. Thankfully, I made it to the start line on time and took off as planned. The first few corners didn't seem as bad as they were during the pre-ride. It might have been because I was used to the stiffness in the wheels by this point or the wind might not have been blowing as much. I was feeling good until I really got into the little climb before mile 2. I was right on my 30 second guy at this point, but the poor performance here kept me from catching him until almost the very end. Being pretty winded from the climb, it took me a bit to gear back up on top and start my descent. I didn't hit 47 mph like I did in my pre-ride. I stayed steady over the dam and then was ready to push once I made the right hand turn. I felt really good making the right hand turn and heading for the finish. Once I got to the curves I caught my guy and passed on the inside. After I crossed the line, I checked the clock and it was just after 8:50. Pretty good since I was expecting to go around 9:10 to 9:20 for the four mile time trial. My trip back to the car was not as pleasant. This is where my crank arm fell off. I knew it was loose and coming off, but I was hoping to make it back to the car where I could find some tools to tighten it down. Well, when I got to the first incline to ripped out and jacked up the drive side crank arm. I haven't been able to get it completely off yet, but I'm thinking I crushed the bearing, broke the c-clip and will need a whole new bottom bracket. Oh well.

So I came back home and switched wheels and brake pads to get ready for the crit race later that evening. I must say, I think the Tarmac looked awesome with the 808's on it. I, on the other hand, was quite nervous. The crit was going to be a field of 84 guys racing around a .8 mile loop in downtown Chattanooga. I had never ridden with a field this big let alone race in one. I lined up middle of the pack and was determined to do my best. I was told that the field would probably go really hard the first 5 to 6 laps and then back down. They did. It was fun zipping around the corners at such high speeds so close to each. Fun here equals exciting, daring, and dangerous. There was one crash behind me, I could hear the carnage but didn't see it until the next lap around. I did rub wheels with someone. I did get shoulder bumped and helmet tapped. I did get yelled at for my cornering at one point. Screw that guy. Anyway, I tried to go off the front for one of the primes and realized that was a bad idea before even half way through the lap. So at this point I decided to not try going for any of those and just focus on positioning for the finish and saving my legs for that. Coming around one lap to go I was still sitting nicely in the front of the group, probably about 12 to 15 riders back. We made the turn to the slight uphill and I jumped up a couple riders and moved to the outside. We began to take the slight left hand bend and I'm not sure if I was speeding up or if the field was slowing down, but I quickly found myself at the front of the group on the inside. About 25 meters later, I crossed through and intersection and expected to see the field right on my wheel. They were not. At this point I knew I had to go for. I cranked down and headed for corner four fast. I took it wide and barely braked. I ended up almost in the opposite side gutter once I came out of the corner. Before I could even really get the bike under control, I stood up to start my sprint. The bike was flying all over the place and I still don't know exactly how I made it all come together so perfectly. Cresting the slight rise in the finish chute, I looked back and the field was way down the road. I turned back and gave a few more sprints and checked again. I was about to win. It was awesome. I threw my hands up and enjoyed the moment across the line with the field quickly closing in. Once again, it was AWESOME. As I settled down, I began to get passed by other riders as I was taking my cool down lap. Talk about building up an oxygen debt. I was sucking for air so hard and it took about the whole lap to just get my breathing back. I then stopped and hugged all my friends that had come to watch including my mom. First cat 4 crit was a huge success.

I wish I could say the same thing for the road race on Sunday, but I am not a climber. Why did I enter the only two races in Tennessee that have climbing in them then? I have no idea. Maybe I'll plan my races better next year. I can say I did stay with the lead group the whole way and did make a jump on the descent into Raccoon Mountain hoping to go off the front and start the climb by myself. I went a little too early and didn't reach the speeds I anticipated. Therefore, I started the climb with the pack and quickly went to the back. I was getting in my groove and then started picking a bunch of people off that had obviously started too hard. Ended up finishing 28th for the road race which got me 4th place overall for the omnium. Not a bad showing.

Overall results can be found as links underneath the race information here

Here is a video of the part of the finish. I guess I sat up to celebrate a little sooner than I thought. You can just see me sit up and throw my hands to the helmet.

I guess I wasn't as close to the front as I thought I was during most of the race.

Take Two

It was a great first Friday in Chattanooga. After orientation was over, I met up with my best friend Brandon Wright and took another spin on the River Gorge road course. The course didn't seem nearly as hard or long as it did on Wednesday. Not sure if it was just because I had seen it once now or if my legs were shot from my 4 hours in Memphis on Monday. The climbs passed a lot easier and I knew where to get water this time. On the steep descent into Raccoon mountain, I was able to hit 53.5 mph this time. That's pretty close to my all time high speed I set back in 2007 in Colorado. It sure is fun descending these mountains. I also managed to make the last climb to the finish in 21:30. That's the cat 3 and the cat 5 climb to the lookout. I wasn't killing myself, but I wasn't taking it easy. Hopefully that bodes well for next Sunday's race.

I did run into some mechanical issues though. For some reason my Sram Red front shifter has been freezing up. It doesn't seem to be catching and gets stuck in the big ring. This happened twice and after enough fiddling with it and pushing on it I got it to drop back down. If that happens in the race and I have to do some of those climbs in the big ring it sure will hurt. Let's hope things go smoothly.

Now it's back to preparing for the first week of classes. The physical therapy department has already put the fear of God in us here and it's kinda unnerving. On top of the regular classes I have to prepare for, I am having to study 22 chapters of medical terminology. I never took a course in undergrad, so now they are giving us the option to clep out of it by taking the final exam this upcoming Friday. I finally found the book online yesterday and started going through some it. It's going to be one heck of a week. I really hope I don't start out behind, but I also really hope I don't have to add another 3 hour undergraduate course in the spring because I fail this final exam.

So, I might not be able to get as much playing done here as I thought I would be able to. Kinda disappointing.  I thought I was coming here to bike and learn how to climb...

East Overlook on Raccoon; R.G. RR finish

Views from the visitor center on Raccoon