Blacksburg Omnium the Crit

After signing up to race the 3/4 Lost River Classic Race, I decided against it. I was eyeing the Blacksburg Omnium very early in the season but wasnt paying attention to registration when it was. So when I saw it pop up on bikereg I made the decision the sign up and made the trek down to Blacksburg to try my hand.

With the heat still looming around it was only a few degrees cooler down there but the wind was noticeably stronger, it felt as if it was a hair dryer was blowing on you. After leaving basically at sunrise for the lonely drive down to VA Tech I arrive in just under 4 hours and start getting ready.

With heat like this I do prefer to warm up on the road, that way I dont sweat too much and dehydrate myself prematurely, plus its a good way to see the local area. So I got on the road and started warming up just doing passes on the road infront of the airport. After about 45 minutes i head back to the car to get a fresh bottle.

On the way up to the start a teammate DJ spots and calls me over to give me a few hints about the course, more importantly the uphill to the finish then the up hill that follows and pay attention to that, as everyone sprints up to the finish every lap and then burn themselves out for the continued false flat that wasnt too false.

As I make my way to the start i see exactly what he was talking about. After the whistle we go, it seemed to be balls to the wall. One thing i hate about crits that make me a horrible crit racer is the sudden pedal to the medal at the go. I was sitting mid pack but eventually dropped back even further as they kept the pace extremely high on the straights, but with the setup of turns on the parking lot it was easy to stay on by taking at speed versus the constant braking at every turn most did.

The crit was suppose to last 40 minutes, everynow and then I would look at my 705 and check the time, and it was by minute 18 that there only 10 - 12 of us left. It seemed what DJ said was true, everyone sprinted up to the start finish line and then got gassed on the left hander afterward.

Anyways it was pretty boring after that, it would be 2 or 3 laps hard, then a lap easy, i mean my heart rate was going back done to resting. I made it a point to never get up to the front and pull, I had no ambitions in trying to break or win, just survive and save some for the time trial.

On the last lap there were 7 of us, and at one point we must have been going about 10 - 12 mph waiting for some one to make a move, some one did, right before the the set of turns in the parking lot. I get on it trying to hang on to a wheel, but with having such a weak sprint i just try to rely on my conering to keep up. I did well as we approached the uphill to the start finish the two guys infront went for it and battled it out for 4th and 5th, the guy behind me was nowhere to be seen so I continued my way up for 6th not wasting too much effort as we still had a TT and road race to do.

After the race I got the car and started replacing fluids and changed into compression pants to try and aid in the recovery for the TT.