Frozen Flatlands Omnium Road Race #2 - An Easter miracle?

After Saturday's involuntary solo sufferfest, my morale was a bit shaken and I wasn't quite sure to expect for the final event of this year's Frozen Flatlands Omnium.  Usually, the second mass start event at this race is a circuit race held at Spokane Raceway Park, the local car road racing track.  This year however, that venue was unavailable so the organizers set up another road race on a 25 mile loop to the north and west of Cheney.  The terrain was pretty mellow with few hills to break up the pack, but the winds were back for a second day and they did the trick.

The wind had changed direction though, and was now blowing stoutly from the southeast instead of the southwest.  We rolled out on the course which started out by following the time trial course from the previous day.  It was a wide two-lane highway with a good shoulder for the first 10 miles or so with a strong quartering tailwind.  The pace was high but steady and it was quite easy to sit in the pack and watch the miles tick by.  At the end of this stretch, the course turned onto some narrower county roads with a few small rollers, but still nothing serious enough to break up the group.  With the race now nearly half done, various riders did try their luck at getting off the front, but none of the attacks stuck.

The course gradually arced back towards Cheney and more and more back into the wind.  Most of the race thus far had passed through forested areas and therefore the winds were somewhat moderated.  Soon, we passed across about a 1/4 mile wide open field which exposed the pack to the wind and gave a hint of what was to come.  The wind was blowing from the right and soon those of us near the back were lined out along the centerline trying to get what shelter we could behind the rider ahead.  We fought through it and entered the trees again.  A couple more miles passed uneventfully and soon the course headed directly back towards Cheney for the final five or so miles.  The run in was on a fairly narrow county road with some small rollers on it and through completely open fields.

The wind was now full force from the right and as the inevitable attacks began, the pace picked up and soon the entire field was lined out along the centerline.  This was the first time I had raced in crosswinds this strong where you gained no benefit at all from the rider directly ahead of you.  At about 5k to go as we headed up a slight hill, the pace began to ease and I decided since there was no draft anyways, it was time to try and move forward in the group.  I pulled out of line and began to move forward.  Several riders ahead of me, I could see a gap in the line opening and decided I had to get across it.  Further ahead, I could see a small group of perhaps 5 or so riders going clear from the front.  The gap I was moving across was to the chase group or second group on the road.

I realized that the course dropped away a little on the other side of this hill and that if I didn't close the gap before the top, I would never see that group again.  I dug in and gave it everything I had and just caught onto the group as we crested the hill.  I sat on briefly and tried to recover from the effort.  At the 3k to go mark, I could see the breakaway several hundred meters ahead but had nothing in the tank to try and bridge with.  I traded pulls with one or two other riders in the group in an effort to make sure that no other dropped riders would get back to us.  Entering the final kilometer, I found myself on the front realizing that at least a couple of the riders in our group had teammates in the break and therefore had not been working at all the last few miles.  I swung off the front hoping to get a bit of a breather before the sprint.  Two riders pulled through giving me at least a little shelter and a chance to catch my breath.

The final 200 meters were uphill on a nice wide city street.  I was pretty sure I was hosed if I waited to sprint late as the other riders in our group had been sitting on my wheel for the most part, so I gambled at about 250 meters to go and attacked with whatever I had left.  From the spectators' standpoint, I'm sure my attack was undetectable.  I was immediately passed by a couple of riders and shortly after by the rest of my group.  Fortunately though, the work had paid off and no other riders had rejoined our group in the late going.  I ended up ninth for the day.  It was really a great surprise to me to find myself near the front of the race at the end and my biggest mistake was not recognizing the team dynamics in my group of who might have teammates in the break.  Even if I had figured that out though, I'm not sure I had the gas in the tank left to do anything differently.

It was kind of a roller coaster weekend for me confidence wise.  A great TT result had me on a high, then a dismal road race that afternoon had me questioning why I even bother, and then the next day an unexpected and strong result in the second road race had restored my faith.  After all was said and done, I finished 8th in the weekend's omnium for the 40+ Masters field.  Not too shabby at all for the first full weekend of racing for me for the season.