Blacksburg Omnium the road race

What the whole weekend was building up to.

With temperatures approaching 95F at the start at 12:15 this was surely going to be a race of attrition, even more so for the Cat 4s who dont usually race these distances, well majority of the cat 4 races i have done werent this far. But in preparation for other events i have been focusing on my maintaining power outages for up to 3 hours for events like this.

A lot of people thought this was going to be a 45 miles group ride followed by a 4 mile hill climb, I on the other hand had a different opinion. Everyone knew about the 4 mile climb at the end, but not many people were aware of the 3.5 - 4 mile climb that started around mile 7 or so and went up close to 600 ft. It wasnt a long steady climb versus lots of pitches some longer parts but rolling up wards and then a great descent.

And if the crit was going to be any indication of how the race was going to be, it was going to be who can hang on for the longest. The Cat 4 race was combined with the 50/60 guys making the field a good size, but also I had quite a few masters teammates in there and moved up to the front of the start to stay near them.

The whistle went off and away we were. The pace was quick, I know we had a tail wind but damn. Quite a few Cat 4s made their way to the front and started hammering. They just kept going aand the masters guys were going to let them do all of the work until the eliminated themselves.

Which was completely the case, one we start hitting the rollers it was like some one set a bomb off in the group, people were just falling off everywhere. By the time we finished the climb there were maybe 20 -25 of us and I just sat in. There was a 3 man break up the road, which I thought were masters guys but turns out in the end it was just two and one was a cat 4, who got second place.

By the second and third lap there were maybe 10 -15 of us, we kept the pace cordial there were some attacks to try and catch the break but then there were times going up the hills we just took our time. I spent some time up front just trying to keep the pace, there were a couple cat 4s who would try and hammer it which I knew many wanted to hurry up and get to the climb but at the risk of tiring themselves out.

As we me made the right to start the climb I hear "EVO" and go to grab a bottle, but it slipped out of my hands. I was so pissed. I felt how cold it was on my fingers and needed it badly. But i did have about a quarter of a bottle in reserve for just in case. Then as we made the left to really start the climb it was like who ever was in our group just kind of blew up. Just taking their time. There was a small break on the third lap with two cat 4s, one Paul Low I think went on the catch the previous cat 4 i the first break and won. but the other I caught quite quickly. The climb wasnt that bad as I suppose I didnt push my self too hard as I knew I wasnt going to catch the guys upfront once I saw all of the numbers being the 600 series (masters) there was no reason to kill myself. I passed 4 or so and one stayed with me until the final hair pin. I was sure glad to have my 28 that i bought from a teammate last month as I was able to just spin.

As I crested the top they decided to put the finish just after the crest so all i had to was roll down. After talking with the other finishers at the top I was third. Luckily Paul Low had some one up there with water and was very happy to share, many thanks as it was much appreciated.

After a few minutes of rest I headed back down, man what an amazing descent, really it made the whole climb worth it and topped off the weekend.

After waiting a couple hours for the results, I confirmed I was third in the road race. All in all it was an amazing weekend.