2011 Frozen Flatlands Omnium

Finally! This past weekend it was finally time to get out and race on the road. I made my annual trek to the Frozen Flatlands Omnium in Cheney, Washington. The weekend’s events included a short time trial and a 24 mile road race on Saturday and a 50 mile road race on Sunday. Points are awarded for high finishes in each event and the rider with the most points at the end of weekend wins. This was the fourth year I had raced in this omnium and as usual I approached the weekend of racing with training as my primary goal. I wanted to ride a solid time trial, but I had no expectations of results in the road races. As a bonus, I would be introducing two of my Methow Cycle & Sport – Blue Star Coffee Roasters Cycling Team junior teammates to the world of road racing as this would be their first time racing on pavement.


In all my previous visits to this race, weather has been a factor at some point and this trip was no different. Saturday we awoke to temperatures in the upper 30s and sideways rain with high winds. By the start of my time trial, at least the rain had ended but the cold and wind was still in full effect. This year, the organizers had required that “mass start legal” bikes be used for the time trial which meant no specialized time trial bikes with aero handlebars. Essentially, everyone rode their regular road racing machines. When the weather is crappy, it tends to dampen my enthusiasm and I’m a little slower to get my act together for my pre-race routine and thus my usual 45 minute warm up was more like 15 minutes. Despite that, my time trial went pretty well and I managed an eighth place in the Masters 40+ field.

The weather continued to improve and by the afternoon we had sunshine and dry roads for the weekend’s “short” road race of 24 miles. The wind was still howling and as the conditions had been identical last year, I was pretty confident of how the race would develop and where I would need to be when. Last year, the race broke up during the last 5 miles of rolling hills and crosswinds. I expected this year to be no different. Unfortunately, some inattention on my part found me bridging to rejoin the main field as we entered the last five miles when I realized that the half-dozen riders around me were no longer attached to the main group. I rejoined the main pack soon enough but the damage was done. As the pace hotted up and the wind and rollers did their part, I yo-yoed off the back a couple times and then was gone for good. I trailed into the finish off the back.

The “long” road race on Sunday was blessed with sunny weather and significantly lighter winds. Although it was another off-the-back finish for me (I’ve never finished the long road race in contact with the pack), I was very encouraged to have ridden comfortably in the pack for the first 40 miles to the key climb in the race before becoming detached. The weekend had met my goals going in: a solid time trial and some valuable road race training miles which will serve me well as the season progresses. As for the weekend omnium standings, my time trial netted me enough points to finish 19th in the Masters 40+ field.

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.

2010 Frozen Flatlands Saturday Road Race - Wind sucks as it blows!

After my solid result in this morning's time trial, I was cautiously optimistic that this afternoon's road race might be an enjoyable affair.  I've yet to finish in the pack in my previous two attempts, but hope springs eternal!

As we lined up for the start, the day's wind was still howling 20+mph and a very dark cloud seemed to be headed our way.  Most of the riders were chatting about how much clothing they had on and would it be enough with the wind, precip threatening, and temps in the low 40s.  I opted to start with my rain jacket on and that proved to be the right decision even though the dark cloud staring us down at the start missed us.

The course started through a forested section for the first few miles and was fairly directly into the wind.  This and masters proclivity for easing into their races made for a comfortable pace early on.  Soon though, someone had had enough and launched an impressive solo attack.  The pack chased intermittently, but seemed content to let the rider go up the road a ways.  Soon we emerged from the trees and onto a more windswept landscape.  The wind was still from mostly ahead, but had a pretty good cross from the right which meant I spent a lot of time trying to hang near the centerline and get as much shelter as possible.  I'm always amazed at how unaware of wind direction some riders are.  The pack steadily shed a few riders in this section as they were unable to figure out where the draft was, even though the pace was still reasonable.  that was about to change.

Soon, the course made a 90 degree turn to the left and entered a rolling section.  The wind went to being a quartering tailwind.  The collective will seemed to be that it was time to reel in the break.  The pace spiked and their was almost no shelter from the wind at all.  I yoyoed a bit, but was soon dropped for good after only about 15 miles of racing.  With the wind and squall clouds all around, I seriously considered pulling a 180 and heading back to the start.  Many other dropped riders were choosing this option.  Stragglers off the pack were tantalizing close and I continued on hoping to catch on and have a group to ride with.  Alas this was not to be and soon I had passed the halfway point on the course and the shortest way home was to finish.  The wind and occasional bouts of hail, some heavy, made the solo ride less than enjoyable, but I finished it off.

I'm sure I was the absolute last finisher in my field as surely no one else was stupid enough to ride the rest of the course after being dropped that early in today's conditions.  Tomorrow is a short road race of only 25 miles, so hopefully that will go better.  At any rate, its all good training mileage which is what I need most this time of year.

Frozen Flatlands Omnium TT - Where the wind comes blowing across the plain

The weather forecast for today's racing was quite fear inspiring.  Temperatures in the 30s, snow showers, and wind.  Fortunately, we only ended up with two out of three.  At this morning's TT it was in the mid 30s and partly sunny, but the winds were 20 to 25 mph.  The first challenge was finding a windbreak in the parking lot to set up the trainer behind so that warming up might actually be possible.  I found a fairly sheltered spot and set up camp.

The next issue was wheel selection.  With the wind howling I wasn't super psyched about trying to control my usual TT setup.  I chickened out and decided to run just a standard low profile alloy rimmed front wheel instead of my usual deep section carbon wheel.  I'm so glad I did!

The course was a nearly flat 12.4 miles (out 6.2, back 6.2) that was a mix of crosswind and headwind on the way out.  The first mile or two of the race (and therefore the last couple miles) featured a nearly dead cross wind in the vicinity of 25 mph.  On the way out, I was forced to get off my aero extensions a couple times in this section and for nearly all of it coming back.  With the deep section front wheel, it would have been really, really scary and not all that fast given the control issues.

At this race, they just start racers in alphabetical order, so I'm the first one off in my class with a nearly 4 minute break ahead of me so there is no one to chase.  As such my race was pretty uneventful, fight hard into the headwind on the way out, try to make the most of the tailwind on the way back.  Oh, and try to stay on the road and out of traffic in the crosswinds!

My time for the race was 31:57, about a minute and a half slower than last year, but it was good enough for 4th in the 40+ masters group so that was a great confidence boost heading into the season.  Next up is this afternoon's 48 mile road race (also in the wind!)

Frozen Flatlands Omnium Day 2 - Taking it easy

Today was the second day of the Frozen Flatlands omnium put on by Baddlands Cycling Club. It was the third and final event of the omnium, a circuit race on the car road racing track at Spokane Raceway Park. Unlike last year, when the race was postponed for two hours while the track was snowplowed, the weather was great. The course was a little different than last year though. Due to resurfacing on the track's main straightaway, which doubles as a dragstrip, the organizers were required to be a little creative in creating a circuit. The resulting course used nearly all of the track except for the dragstrip and utilized about a quarter mile of narrow, infield road with some bad pavement. Certain sections were delineated by numerous cones and a 180 degree turn on the main straight about 400m from the finish line was also a necessary feature. An additional highlight was the "fence" running along most of the straightaway, including the area where the 180 was, that consisted of rebar set up for the new concrete walls to line the dragstrip. Certainly not something you would want to fall on or into. The organizers did a good job making do with the situation on the dragstrip and I feel the course was reasonably safe, but it did provide for some additional stress in a large Cat 4/5 field.

I felt quite good, even after yesterday's sufferfest in the road race, but decided not to take any chances in a nervous pack on a slightly sketchy course. I spent the race just sitting in and finished near the back, but comfortably in the bunch. My single point from the TT did net me 27th out of 77 competitors in Cat 4/5 for the weekend and just like every Baddlands event I've attended, this weekend's racing was well run. They do a great job with their races.

Last year was my best season ever and I didn't see anything this weekend to concern me that I am off my pace of last year. This season is off to a great start for me. Next up is the Wenatchee Ominium in a little less than six weeks.

Frozen Flatlands Omnium Day 1 - a long, hard day

Today, I got my road racing season started for real. I am competing in Baddlands Cycling Club's Frozen Flatlands omnium this weekend in the Cat 4/5 field. When I raced in this omnium last year it had just two events, a circuit race at Spokane Raceway Park on saturday and a road race through the rolling hills south of Cheney on sunday. This year Baddlands decided to add a 12.5 mile time trial to the mix as well. Since both the time trial and the road race course start and end in Cheney, they moved the road race to saturday and the circuit race to sunday. Having both the TT and the road race on the same day makes for a very long and tiring day.

Last year, this race weekend had snow, hail, rain, and wind. The forecast for this year's race was much more favorable and I looked forward to competing on some great courses in decent weather. When I left my hotel in Spokane this morning to head for Cheney, it appeared like mother nature might still have a trick or two up her sleeve. While it was a beautiful sunny morning, the roads were coated in treacherous black ice. I passed several accidents on I-90, including a nasty looking roll-over, from drivers losing control on the ice. A time trial on ice didn't sound like a whole lot of fun. I got to the race site and went about my normal preparations, I went and drove the TT course and found several shady sections that were still icy. I hoped that they would thaw as the sun climbed higher in the sky. I saw one rider warming up crash on a shady patch of ice. Always good to bring a trainer to warm up on.

My time to start came and fortunately it had warmed to the point that not only had the ice thawed, but the roads had nearly completely dried. I started well and quickly settled into a good rhythm. On the way out I passed a rider who had crashed on his return trip and was being tended to by several people. The outbound trip loses a little elevation and had a slight tailwind, so it really made you feel heroic. I was riding around 28mph. Having had experiences like this before, I tried to keep a little in reserve for the return trip which was sure to be harder and slower. Sure enough, on the return trip, getting up to 22 mph was a challenge. I passed by the crashed rider who was still down and in the same position as when I passed by earlier. Later, I would learn he had been riding with his head down and crashed into the back of a parked car on the shoulder of the highway we were on. A lesson to all, keep your head up!

My return trip went as well as could be expected. I had been hoping to be around 30 minutes for the 12.5 miles but could only manage a 30:27. Still, that's 24.6 mph for an average and really quite good for me since I've only got a little over a month and a half of training in so far. Better yet, the time placed me 10th of 52 riders in my field and netted me one point in the omnium competition.

On the afternoon's agenda was a nearly 50 mile road race through windy, rolling terrain. I ate a bowl of my new recovery snack, grapenuts with chocolate milk (kind of looks like stucco, but it tastes pretty good), and rested up as much as I could before the start. The road race starts with about a 2 mile neutral section while we wind our way out of Cheney and get across two sets of very bad railroad crossings while leaving town. It didn't seem like a good omen when one of my two bottles bounced out while crossing the tracks leaving me with just one small bottle for 2+ hours of racing. Oh well.

It was clear pretty early that I didn't have a lot in the tank for this event. Unlike a lot of omniums, this one doesn't require riders to start each event, so although we had 52 riders for the TT, for the road race we added another 20+ sets of fresh legs to the field. This made the pace pretty high. I was solid for the first 20 miles or so then began to yo-yo off the back on the climbs a bit. At about the 30 mile mark it was all over. I came off the back and was left to ride in by myself the last 20 miles. Soon after being dropped, I began to bonk and the suffering really set in. I had plenty of gel with me and my one bottle of energy drink, but they just made the ride survivable. At least the weather was nice and I got some good training volume in.

Tomorrow is a 50 minute circuit race on the car road racing track at Spokane Raceway Park. After a large dinner this evening and a good night's sleep, I'll try to see if I can add to my single point in the omnium.

The 2008 racing season so far

On the whole, this racing season has been an enjoyable and satisfying one for me so far. I've competed in a couple of races that were new to me (Frozen Flatlands omnium, Wenatchee omnium) and raced the Methow Valley omnium for the second time. Going into the season, my plan was to use Flatlands and the Wenatchee omnium only as preparation for the Methow Valley omnium, but I enjoyed both of them so much, I think I'll target them a little more seriously next season.

The Frozen Flatlands omnium consists of a circuit race held at Spokane Raceway Park (a car road racing track) and a road race on the roads south of Cheney. The races took place the first weekend in April and coming so early in my season, my hopes were just to finish with the bunch. This proved to be no problem in the circuit race on Saturday, but the 5o mile long road race on Sunday was a little taller challenge. The road race had it all weather wise. We had wind, rain, and hail. It was definitely the harshest conditions I have raced in on the road. Around the midpoint of the race, the pack fractured into three main groups. I found myself in the third group. We set to chasing and were able to regain the second bunch which I suppose would be considered the main field. Shortly after this, we came to the last significant climb on the course which was maybe 12 miles or so from the finish. The group basically dissolved on the climb and the rollers following it and for the last 10 miles or so it was small groups of 2 or 3 heading for the finish. Riding in solo felt like I had been dropped and had failed in my goal to finish with the bunch, but I actually finished the road race in 25th out of 58 starters in the Cat 4/5 field. If there had been a true bunch, I would have been in it. At the time, I felt I had ridden strongly for the first race of the season and after seeing the results, I was quite pleased with my weekend's efforts.

The next race I competed in was a Tuesday night training race at Pacific Raceway in Kent. I raced in the Cat 4/5 field and to my surprise was able to manage a third place finish. This was my highest placing ever in a road race. With these early successes under my belt, I headed to Wenatchee.

I raced Masters C at the Wenatchee omnium and had a sense of quiet optimism for the weekend's racing. The time trial course was nearly flat and I expected to do well based on my strength as a time trialist. I managed to nearly screw up my start by being a little too relaxed during my warm-up and arrived at the start line only about 20 seconds before my start. The outbound trip went well and felt great due to a substantial tailwind. The trip back as you might guess was quite a bit tougher due to that wind. I had hoped to be well into the points for the TT an was a little deflated to find myself in tenth, the last points paying place. I noticed that eleventh was less than a second behind me and decided that my single point was better than if I was that guy in eleventh wondering all weekend where I lost eight tenths of a second.

The crit was later that afternoon and although I felt pretty recovered from the TT, I wasn't overly confident as it has been a long time since I've finished a crit. Since I don't have the opportunity to ride a lot of them, the speed is always a shock. I had a bad start when a rider a few places ahead of me had a difficult time clipping into his pedals. After that, it was chase, chase, chase in an effort to regain the main field. I never did get back and was pulled with about 5 minutes left in the race. From a fitness point of view, I felt good about my effort as I was able to hang in there for a long time, but results wise a dnf is a dnf.

The road race course filled me some trepidation as I approached the weekend as it features a very long and difficult climb. It would definitely be the hardest climb I had ever tackled in a road race. The saving grace about the course is that due to the difficulty of the climb, there really is no group from which you are dropped. As soon as the field starts up the climb, it just sort of detonates and breaks into small groups. I was able to stay somewhere around the middle of the field until the detonation occurred and then hold that relative place in the race as I fought my way up the climb at my own pace. I was definitely at my limit several times during the climb and really didn't have a sense of my placing by the time I reached the top. The descent off the top of Wenatchee Heights is like descending off the roof of the world (or at least North Central Washington). I managed to hook up with a couple of Cucina Fresca riders and we drove the pace all the way down the descent, occasionally catching and sometimes dropping other riders. Once back down by the Columbia and on the flat, tailwind endowed highway back to the finish our group had swollen to about six or seven riders. With only a couple miles to go, I began to feel that me and maybe one or two other riders were doing all the work and that the rest were just being towed in. I was trying to figure out how not to get outsprinted by these "passengers" when I looked over my shoulder on a rise while sitting second wheel and saw that we had opened a gap of about 150 meters. They were passengers because they were cooked. I let the guy pulling know it was time to go and we just kept pushing the pace all the way to the finish. I ended up 17th out of about 40 starters and felt really good about that result because I am not what I would consider a climber. For the weekend I managed to tie for 15th out of 35 in the Masters C field. I really enjoyed my weekend in Wenatchee and look forward to trying to improve next year.

Next up on my racing calendar was my home race, the Methow Valley Omnium. As the Masters field was all categories and I didn't feel the need to get killed by Cat 2s, I chose to race in the Cat 4/5 field. Again I felt very confident going into the time trial and expected to be well into the points, likely as high as top 5. Also again, my scatter brain took over and I rolled to the start without the proper focus. My tt helmet has a clear shield or visor on it which drops down over the eyes to make it more aero. Because I was wearing sunglasses on the trainer when I was warming up I didn't notice when I put my helmet on that the visor was flipped up out of the way. About a mile into my race I thought to myself something seems different. I realized that I was still wearing my sunglasses and that my visor was in its less than aero position. I had a few moments of indecision. Should I throw my glasses on the shoulder and hope I can find them after the race? Should I just leave the visor up? I tried pulling the visor down and luckily it cleared the glasses. Also luckily, it was a sunny day as the combination of the sunglasses and the tinted visor would have made things quite dark on a cloudy day. The rest of the tt went well although I felt I struggled more than I should have getting over the hills on the course. I'm sure the visor episode didn't cost me any significant time, but I was certainly annoyed with myself for allowing it to happen. My time was about 35 seconds faster than I had achieved the previous year so I felt good about that, but I managed only 8th which was a little lower than I had hoped for.

For the crit that afternoon in Twisp, I was determined to give it my all and try to get near the front early as a way to deal with the speed and yo-yoing that usually dooms my efforts in crits. I got a good start and stuck to my plan of trying to stay up near the front, but soon the inexorable slide down the field started for me. I lost contact with the bunch and realizing that burying myself to finish off the back in a non point paying 30-somethingth position didn't make a lot of sense with a long road race the next day. I eased up and just cooled down until I was pulled by the official.

For the road race, I had high hopes of finishing in the points. Earlier that week, a few of us local riders who were doing the race without the benefit of a team had met over beers to discuss our expectations of how the race would unfold and how we could best pool our talents and efforts to ensure some good results for the locals. The first two laps of the Chewuch Loop course passed well and we were all riding well and feeling quite confident. It all changed on the third lap of the scheduled four. Beginning the third lap, it was clear that riders were getting antsy and waiting for an invitable attack to occur. There was a little more crowding and a little higher pace up the hills and then ........the inevitable tangle of bikes and bodies hitting the pavement. I was on the opposite side of the field from the initial crash and thought I was going to get through when a rider came tumbling across in front of me. I got slowed down considerably before I hit him but still ended up going down and landing on my hip. I got up as quickly as possible and started chasing. The large number of riders in and behind the crash created a lead group of about 17 riders. According to other reports I've read, those 17 immediately started trying to drive open the gap. As one of my friends put it, for Cat 4/5 racers, the sound of a crash is like a starter's gun going off. This is in direct contrast to my experience last year in the Masters field at this race where after a couple of riders fell, the field sat up and waited for delayed riders to rejoin.

I never did see the main field again, but managed to drag myself in 19th place for the road race and finish the weekend in 21st position overall. As for the rest of the local contingent that had met at the pub to carefully discuss this race. They both went down hard in the crash and were unable to finish. Next year we'll try again and try to get it right. I felt pretty good about the weekend, but was certainly disappointed to have missed out on the opportunity for a good result in the road race.

That's for my race season to this point. The next big goal: The Washington State Time Trial Championships in Tenino on August 3rd.