The Oak Ridge Velo Omnium was this past weekend. It consisted of a road race and time trial on Saturday and a criterium on Sunday. I was the only one from my team going to this race, and Karah had decided to race the Raccoon Mountain MTB race in Chattanooga, so I decided to leave early Saturday morning to drive up instead of spending an extra night in a hotel on Friday. My first race wasn't until 10:15 Eastern time, so I left my house around 5:15 Central time and made it there with plenty of time to get ready.
The road race was about 50 miles consisting of two loops of around 23 miles, and then a few miles to the hill top finish. It started raining shortly after we started the first loop and rained off and on during the whole race. The field pretty much stayed together and was cautious on the wet descents and turns. The finish was 1K up a hill with a kicker at about 300m to go. I was where I wanted to be going into 500m (top 10) to go. There the road turns to the right then back to the left and then straight to the finish line. As the group turned right two guys directly in front of my bumped together. Luckily neither went down but I had to slow down and go way left into the other lane to miss them. By then the there was a gap to everyone in front of me. I started my sprint then and was able to pick off some of the guys in front of me and finish 6th.
The time trial was a 7.6 mile loop. I've done okay in the TTs so far this year, but there had always been a decent time gap to the top 2 or 3 guys. This was the first one I've done where I've had a power meter on my TT bike. I've only ever had one on my road bike, but I had ordered a disc cover so I could use Karah's power tap wheel and this was my first chance to use it. I knew what watts I was aiming to keep for the entire thing, and in the end I finished with a NP within 2 watts of my goal. I had no idea how my time would stack up against everyone else. I did pass two guys on the course and almost passed my 30 sec guy who had gotten second in the RR (I was within 3 seconds of passing him at the finish), so I thought I would be in the top five. I was a little shocked and very happy to see that I had won when they posted results. This was my first win on the road. Unfortunately it doesn't count for upgrade points to Cat 3, but it's a good confidence boost nonetheless and scored me points in the TBRA BAR points series (where I'm currently 3rd) as well as the omnium.
The criterium course was less than a mile with a tight 180, slight uphill, right corner with more uphill, left slightly downhill, and then a left downhill very long straight to the finish. My plan was to sit near the front the entire race and do little or no work on the front. Mid-way through the race I did attack out of the 180 to see what it did to the field but everyone stayed together. Going into the last lap I knew I didn't want to be in the pack going into the 180 for the last time, so I got on the front and went just hard enough where I figured no one would want to come around me, but not too hard to where I wouldn't have anything left for the last lap. I went into the 180 first, and then heard a crash happen behind me. I think only one guy went down (he was luckily ok), but it did slow down the field and those caught behind it had to work to catch back on down the straight. I was happy with my decision to be on the front. My plan (based on what others that had already raced had told me) was to attack out of the next to last corner and see if I could hold it for the rest of the distance. It was a long way but it was also downhill. The guy that was the favorite to win the race (he had also won the road race the day before) attacked on the uphill. One guy was on his wheel and I was able to respond although they had a gap on me. He slowed down on the downhill before the last corner so I just keep sprinting hoping that the gap I would get on them was enough to hold. I was out front down the very long last straight. It lasted forever but I thought for a moment I might get the win. As we were almost to the line he along with someone else passed me but I was still able to hold onto 3rd. From the pictures I saw the entire field was strung out so overall I was happy with my choice to go when I did because if I hadn't, I don't know that I would have been able to finish any better. The 3rd place also gave me enough points to win 3rd in the omnium.
Overall this was a great weekend of racing. I earned upgrade points in both the road race and the crit and earned my first road win, my first podium in a criterium, and my first podium in an omnium. There's only a few more races left in the season and I'm already looking forward to training hard over the winter to see what I can do in Category 3 (after I upgrade at the end of the season).
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