Omaha Cycling Weekend: Race Report

This weekend was the Omaha Cycling weekend. It is a 3 part omnium race with a Time Trial and Crit on Saturday and then a road race on Sunday. I didn't do the TT cause I needed to work in the morning but I did head over to Omaha for the Crit race. Crit racing has really become my thing on the road and I now look forward to them to be competitive and not just for training.

At the beginning of the Crit and leading up to it I was more nervous than I usually am at the beginning of the races. I think that the issue really was that I had expectations going into it being the crit state champ and having me be the team leader now and the team expecting results from me. I was feeling a bit sluggish during warm up and when we lined up I got to a spot right up front on the wheel of Rick my only teammate. When the gun went off I was completely in the wrong gear and had to get things sorted out and was then at the back of the group but I was quickly able to get myself back up towards the front where I wanted to be.

The pace was pretty quick and a little bit faster than I expected it to be but I just hung around the front and just wanted to make sure I was there in the end. There was some attacks but where quickly pulled back and we rode group of about 20 some riders. Towards the end of the race things started to spread out a bit and the lead group was made up of about 6 of us and it really on from that point. I had lost me teammate and was running this race solo the rest of the way. When we were going on the last lap I was getting pretty spent with my heart rate having been towards my max for a while when a rider attacked. I tried to stay with him and couldn't hold his wheel. When another rider attacked I had the same result and at this point I was trying to hold out for 3rd place. On the last turn before the finish line I didn't hit right. I hadn't hit it right all day and the rider behind me was right on my wheel and I made my kick for the line to early and for some reason I was up on my hoods instead of in the drops and the rider got around me right on the line by inches leaving me in 4th place.

I was pretty disappointed with my result. I should have been on the podium and a couple of stupid mistakes left me just off of the podium.

For the road race I was a bit less nervous and just had a personal goal of being with the leaders in the end since this was only my 2nd true road race. The race started with a 3 mile roll out and I was lined up at the back and had to work my up towards the front to get in a good position when the race actually started. Once the lead car was off a few people attacked but I was not going to chase them and eventually they were pulled back. The race was held on a loop where we did laps. We had to do 5 and in the middle of it was a huge climb that was long and brutal. The first few times up it I was fine but towards the end I was getting pretty spent on it. I was with the leaders in a good spot all through the first 4 laps but on the last lap I got caught off card on a turn with the wind and a large group of leaders got away from me. I really had to push for a long time to get back up with them and by the time I did I was really feeling it. Then right before the climb I there was a crash right in front of me which caused me to almost have to come to a complete stop which caused me to have to push to get back up with the leaders and then on the climb I was able to hang on the on the first part but on the second smaller part of it I lost contact and was never able to make it up. I had Rick my teammate come up a little behind me and if I was smart I would have waited and had us work together to get back up with the leaders. I ended up finished the race just outside of the leaders for a finishing spot around 11th or 12th. I wasn't able to wait for the official results to come up.

All in all the weekend was a bit disappointing not getting the results I was hoping for but again I did learn a few things this weekend which will help for some of the road racing I'm going to be doing in the future.