I just arrived back home from a great weekend of Bike Racing near Bristol, Tennessee. (Piney Flats). The event was hosted by the East Tennessee Junior Cycling Organization (ETJC) and it was their first year. Dennis Ley and the ETJC volunteers did an awesome job hosting and running the event. Congratulations on their successful event. The ETJC racers were out in full force. It was great to see such a large group of junior cyclist and their supportive families at the event.
This was also the first time I have competed in an Omnium event. It was certainly an experience for me. Until now, I have mostly competed in single events including Time Trials and Criterium events. The Omnium events inlcude TT, CRIT and also a road race.
The ETJC event started on Saturday with a CAT 5 – 21 mile road race. I rode with the pack until about mile 7 where I messed up and led the group up a nice 3 mile climb. My theory was to see if I could break up the pack a bit. Unfortunately, I broke myself. I spent the next 5 miles working with a few riders until they fell off my wheel. Of all things a train track crossing flashed in front of us and threatened to stop us. Fortunately, I had a chance to see down the tracks and hurried thru the crossing arms. The bad part is that my wheelman stopped and I was all by myself from there on. With no other choice, I hammered down all the way home and managed a 6th place finish.
Garmin graph for ETJC 21 mile Road Race
Next came the 11 mile Time Trial. After 4 hours of rest I was back on the bike and ready to go. Still a bit pissed at myself from the RR mess up, I was in ride it like you stole it mode. This was an open road course and riders started every 30 seconds. When the whistle blew, I just kept telling myself to catch the rabbit, catch the rabbit. The front side of the course was super fast and smooth with some nice descents. I think my fastest speed hit 39 – 40mph according to the Garmin. Before long, I had clipped off 4 other Cat 5 riders and figured I had a shot if I managed a good pace. Then the hilly side of the course appeared (dangit). The fatigue in the legs from the morning ride started to kick in as well. I finally crossed the line at 27:20 and took the Cervelo back to the truck. After patiently awaiting the USAC officials to post the results, I learned I had finished first by a margin of ten seconds. WooHoo!! My First win in an Omnium event.
The CAT 5 class competes for either medals or prizes. My prize was a nice gift basket including a Profile Design Time Trial Aero bottle and mounting kit worth about 40 – $50 bucks. I know, because I recently purchased one. The event coordinator also threw in a free RoadID gift certificate. I will be cashing that in within the next 20 minutes.
The Criterium events were held down in Bristol, TN on Sunday morning. The course there was mostly flat with a couple of false flats. The turns were tight and manhole covers were right smack where you didn’t need them. We had about 25 riders in the CAT 5 group including quite a few of the ETJC juniors who were allowed to compete. On lap 3 I hit a manhole cover and heard a loud POP. My immediate thought was that I cut my rear tire. After slowing down and inspecting seeing that it was OK, I picked my pace back up. A lead group of 5 or 6 riders had separated from the pack. I spent the next 12 laps in chase mode and eventually pulled my group back to the lead pack.
The funny thing is every time I tried to get out of my seat and sprint something was hanging my cycling shorts preventing me from standing. Needless to say this hampered my speed quite a bit. We finished with a group sprint back to the line and I managed a 9th place finish although there were only 6 riders in front of me. Oh well, next time, I should put myself closer to the front.
After the event I was standing next to my bike telling a fellow rider about my shorts hanging. He happened to look down at my carbon seat and noticed that my seat was broke in half. The loud POP that everyone had heard earlier was actually my seat of all things. To make matters worse, my brand new Cool Breeze Cyclery bib shorts were torn up pretty bad. Maybe Cool Breeze will throw me another pair before my next event. (fingers crossed).
I ended up with a 5th place finish in the Omnium event. Not great but I’ll take it especially with the TT event win. Now that I understand what events score the most points, I will focus on improving in those events. I had the opportunity to meet several fellow riders from both Virginia and Tennessee as well as some of the USAC event officials. They were all very accommodating and thanked me for traveling up to the event. I certainly look forward to racing with them again soon.
Here are a few more pics from the event.
ETJC Cycling in front of Historic Bristol Post Ofiice
ETJC womens crit event - leader
ETJC Junior Women Crit start
ETJC Women Crit start
ETJC Women Crit Tight Corner