2010 Wenatchee Omnium

I have conflicted feelings about the Wenatchee Omnium.  On the one hand, I really enjoy racing in it, but on the other, I've had very little success at it, other than strong time trials.  The criterium is a particular nemesis of mine as I have never made it much past half distance without being lapped.  The road race course, with its climb to the sky, is a gas to ride, but because I'm a big guy, its usually a lonely ride.  This year's event went pretty much along those typical lines.


The time trial was a slightly different experience for me.  I had broken my computer mount on my TT bike recently so I did not have a computer to tell me distance and speed and my heartrate monitor chose to act up reading only about 60 beats per minute for most of the race.  Having these "distractions" eliminated, I just rode by feel and actually turned in a very strong ride for me.  I was nearly 30 seconds quicker than last year and ended up 5th out of 48 in the cat 4 field.  I sometimes tend to think too much during TTs and, at least this time, being forced to just race based on feeling may have helped me get on with the job at hand.

There's not much to say about my criterium.  I got a better start than in the past, but my lack of speed work and cautious nature on this course led to another early departure from the race at the official's whistle.

Sunday's road race was slightly different this year than the previous editions I had done.  Instead of one large loop with a really long climb, we did two smaller loops with 1/2 the previous climb.  The race starts with an out and back on the flatish 9 mile long TT course from Saturday which generally makes for a nice warm up as everyone knows whats coming.  This year, however, the boys from the dEVo team had other ideas.  Within a mile or two of the start they lined up on the front and started hammering.  I guess the big tailwind to the TT course tailwind was making them feel good, but I'm not sure what the tactical purpose was.  As soon as we turned back into the wind, they disappeared for the most part.  The rest of the race was pretty unremarkable for me.  The second time up the climb actually wasn't as painful as I expected.  I ended up being about 33rd or so out of the 55 riders that started, so not too bad for a "big guy" on a climbers course.

On the strength of my TT result, I ended up 16th out of 55 in the cat 4 field for the weekend's omnium.  Despite my challenges with this race (or perhaps because of them) I'll be back next year!