2006 Rocky Mountain Omnium

2006 Racing results here.

An omnium is like a stage race except that they don’t keep track of overall time. You earn points based upon your finishing position and the one with the most points wins the overall title. This race consisted of the following stages:

Evergreen Time Trial
Red Rocks Criterium
Golden Criterium

Points are assigned in this manner:

PLACE	POINTS	PLACE	POINTS
1	30	11	10
2	25	12	9
3	22	13	8
4	19	14	7
5	17	15	6
6	15	16	5
7	14	17	4
8	13	18	3
9	12	19	2
10	11	20	1

Evergreen Time Trial - results

I had a couple of poor training days on Wednesday and Thursday and so rode easy on Friday to see if I could regain some power. It didn’t seem to help that much and I had trouble getting going on this TT. Here’s a profile of the 9.5-mile out-and-back course:

I was the second to last rider of the 35+/Cat. 4 riders to go, but Gene, my only teammate riding in the TT, had a start time that was 40 minutes after our group finished. I think all riders in the same category need to start in one continuous block because of changing conditions. When I rode there was a significant headwind on the way out. Of course, Gene might have had worse conditions.

I only warmed up for about 15 minutes, continuing my trend of just not giving myself enough time before a race starts. I need to get down there much earlier so that I’m not rushed. I pulled up to the start a couple minutes early. I was riding my Fuji with some TT bars strapped on. I had the lowest tech set-up in the field, I’m sure.

The starter held my bike while I got both feet clipped in. They counted me down from five seconds and then I was off. I had trouble getting into a rhythm with the wind and the deceptive road. I knew I was going to climb five hundred feet, but the road never looked much like a climb. It seemed like I was going so slow and I guess I was. I was struggling to ride 21 mph.

The last TT I did, at Rabbit Mountain, I passed five riders in only 11 kilometers, but here it didn’t go so well. I never caught my 30-second man. The only person I caught was my 90-second man. I know this because we started in order of our bib numbers. I was number 432 and the guy I caught was wearing bib 429. Out of just 36 starters, this guy finished 27^th, so clearly he wasn’t too strong. I calculated that I did gain the rider in front of me (and this turned out to be true, as he finished 11 seconds slower than me) and at the turn-around I thought I more than 30 seconds ahead of my chaser (this was also true as he finished 33 seconds slower than me).

After the turn-around my speed went up considerable, frequently topping 30 mph. I averaged over 24 mph for the TT and finished in 22:34, good enough only for 6^th place. The winner rode 21:12 and two other riders broke 22 minutes. Gene finished in 22:17, good enough for 4^th place.

Red Rocks Criterium – results

For this race I had three teammates: Matt, Chris, and Gene. Matt is a super strong man whose days in the 4’s are numbered. I can stay with him only if the course is relatively flat. If he had done the TT the day before, he could have probably won the overall title. This crit course was the hilliest course I’d ever seen. In fact, it was really more of a circuit race and played out that way – perfect for Matt. As we warmed up before the race I asked Matt, “So, do we have a team strategy?” He answered, “I think it will be a race of attrition.” He was exactly right.

I queued near the front with about forty other riders. When the gun went off and after my usual pedal problems, I made my way up to around 5^th position. This is where I like to be: not doing any work, but ready to cover any moves or to make a move. The course was a 1.3-mile loop with about 130 feet of climbing. This long hill wore people down from the very start. The course really only had one turn of consequence: a 130-degree turn around a round-about.

I was surprised not to see Matt at the front of the race on the first couple of laps, but I didn’t have to wait any longer for him to appear. A Pine Sports rider, Justin (a known strong rider), and teammates Chris Thompson and eventually Matt were driving the pace. I was just sitting 4^th or 5^th wheel and trying to hang on. Each time up the hill hurt badly and I was doing all I could to stay at the front and trying not to blow up. After 4 or 5 laps, I finally took a look around and saw that we were in a 6-man break and the peloton was out of sight and likely blown to smithereens. This isn’t your daddy’s crit.

Knowing we had a break, I took a couple turns at the front before realizing if I kept that up, I wouldn’t be there long. I then just tried to hang on. Just before we hit 5 laps to go, in the round-about 200 meters from the start/finish line, Justin, hit his pedal doing through the turn. His bike jerked erect, wobbled, lost its line, and he nearly crashed, but held on. Just before this, Matt had been on the front and he attacked then, opening a gap. I came out of the turn in 3^rd, but wasn’t about to chase down Matt, mainly because I couldn’t. Justin was really teamed with the Pine Sports guy, though they didn’t wear the same kit. I think they just struck up an alliance because the Sear/Dr. Horton team had six riders and we have four. Anyway, four us were now in a chase group going after Matt. Kris had just fallen off the back of our group so in a moment the lead group of six went to two single riders and a pack of four.

I hung onto the group until the top of the hill and then couldn’t hold their wheel. I dropped off and would ride the last 4.5 laps solo, as Kris did behind me and Matt did at the front. Matt won the race by 35 seconds or so. The third rider in the chase pack got dropped with two laps to go and Justin dropped the Pine Sports rider with half a lap to go. I finished in 5^th, 1:51 behind Matt and 19 seconds ahead of Kris, who got 6^th. Gene finished 11^th, but was lapped by Matt just before the finish. So, out of about 40 starters, only ten didn’t get lapped! That’s one hard course. We did 15 laps and I finished in 52 minutes. As the heart rate graph shows below, there was ample suffering, as I went over 170 bpm each time up hill.

So, I now have a 6^th and a 5^th place. The Pine Sports guy, Keith Fox, who finished 3^rd in this race, was 2^nd in the TT. He led the Omnium with 40 points. In second was Carter Faber, the guy who won the TT with 30 points. He didn’t get anything for this race since he finished in 26^th place and only the top 20 get points. I was sitting in 2^nd place at this point with 32 points. Matt was tied for 3^rd with his 30 points for his win with the winner of the TT.

Golden Criterium – results

This morning I ran the Bolder Boulder out of the AB wave in 45:45. My goal was to break 44 (my age), since I had done that for the past four years. This should get much easier each year and I was sure I could do it, but I didn’t even come close. What’s more, it killed me. My legs felt as beat up as they did after the Lake City 50-mile trail race. I could barely hobble back to the car. I immediately changed my plan to run with Derek. There was no way I could keep up with him and strong doubts I could even do it again. I got on my bike instead. Derek more than made up for my lack of performance. He smoked to a 56:21 finish. Running 2.5 minutes PER MILE faster than last year. Astounding. He’s 8 years old. He ran negative splits the entire way. He could have a future. Daniel ran very well also, setting a new PR of 1:02:30 or so.

I had to leave the stadium early and run back to my bike (locked at the 9 kilometer mark – I ran the last kilometer with Derek). Then I biked back to the car and drove home. I immediately changed into cycling clothes and headed for Golden and the final race in the Omnium. 11 miles of running would be my warm-up for this race. Perfect.

Gene and Kris were back for this race and even Matt and Shawn were there. He decided to drop out of the Bolder Boulder and do this race instead. That was a smart move, but Matt’s so strong I don’t think it would have affected him.

This Criterium course was the same as the one used in the old Coors Classic race – the same course that Greg LeMond raced on. It’s right in downtown Golden and the course was lined with tons of spectators. It was very cool. Here’s a map of this very technical course:

I queued at the front, but had my usual pedals problems and slipped way back in our field of fifty. With so many corners and pace going so hard right from the start, it was extremely difficult to move up. The field was stretched out all in a single-line for a good portion of the race and I was suffering immediately. At times like that thoughts of being dropped and then lapped went through my head. I was going so hard. I didn’t think I could maintain it for forty minutes. Thankfully, I settled into a groove and gradually adjusted to the pace. I was watching the race clock on each lap urging it to move faster.

On the third or fourth lap, a S.E.A.R. rider in front of me drifted out left on the right turn onto Washington. I had to move left as well to avoid touching wheels and crashing. The rider behind me got moved so far left that he ended up riding down the wrong side of the barriers that split this street in half. He yelled a profanity and I don’t blame him. I think his race ended there…

By the time we had been racing twenty minutes, I had finally moved myself up into the front five riders. I’d pretty much stay there, with few, brief exceptions, for the rest of the race. Matt was on the front of the race for about a third of the laps, I’d say. Incredible. The guy is ridiculously strong and really needs to move up. He’s not only winning a lot of races, but he wins then and then says, “I never went about my LT.” That’s sandbagging. His time is the 4’s is over.

I was the last Rocky Mounts rider for the first half of the race, but in the second half it was just Matt and I at the front. I wondered how the others were doing. We were going so hard the whole time that more than a few of us on the front expected a break to open up, but it never did. Of the 50 starters, 40 finished in the lead group, all within 9 seconds of each other.

I rode Matt’s wheel in second position on the 4^th to last lap. I slipped back for the 3^rd and 2^nd to last laps a bit, but was 3^rd wheel for most of the last lap and positioned perfectly with 300 meters to go when the first attacked was launched. Everyone went berserk at that point and I dug with all I had. Matt chased the first guy down and won the race by just a foot! There is nothing he can’t do: climb, time-trial, sprint, pull, chase. He’s invincible in the 4’s. I kept slipping and finished 9^th, with Gene just taking me at the tape for 8^th. I just didn’t have it at the finish. Shawn finished 20th and Kris was 34th.

By virtue of Matt’s two wins, he won the overall with 60 points. He would have won the TT probably as well. Keith slipped to 2^nd overall, getting no points in this race with a finish in 22^nd. If I had held on to 5^th, I’d have been second overall. As it was, I finished 3^rd overall. Gene finished 5^th overall and in the money. Shawn finished 12^th or so and rode super strong. This was a bit of surprise to me because in the other road races I had done with him, he got dropped. Apparently he used to be a Cat. 3 crit specialist and he sure showed how to ride one today. Kris rode strong and finished well.

This was a fun 3-race event. Matt picked up another 14 points and should be forced to upgrade. Since Cat. 4’s get nothing for overall placement, I only picked up 2 points (for my 5^th place on Sunday), and so I’m still safely a Cat. 4. Yeah for being weak! Wait a minute. That isn’t a good thing… The Golden Crit was the first race this year where I could have picked up points and failed to do so.