While the rest of the team was gallivanting about the Arkansian country side, I was stuck in the Eastern time zone to dual it out with tiny fields and soggy conditions in Knoxville, TN at the annual Tomatohead Omnium - a series of 3 criteriums.
The weekend began Saturday a.m. a parking lot crit that was so bad that it was protested by several riders, yes I agreed it was a silly race course with our laps never taking over 1 minute and the fact that every point on the course was in view at all times made the 60+ laps a bit monotonous. The race started and instantly the field was shattered with somewhat tight corners and falling rain giving way to a front group of 5-7 and a string of lapped riders strewn about the rest of the course. After trying several attacks and even a few of us taking a few laps off the front only to be steadily dragged back the field conceded to twiddling around the course until 2 to go I got antsy and attacked only to immediately brake through the turns to avoid lapped riders I continued to drive the pace even after being caught in hopes of keeping it high enough to come out of the last turn first - nope Dirk Polhmann and a Krystal rider pushed me out of the last turn and into 3rd place for the finish. doh!
The afternoon race was still rainy but was at least a real criterium course with more like 2-3 minute laps and a long straight uphill drag finish with a half dozen technical turns. The race started and I followed an attack from a Myogenesis rider who dropped away after 1/2 a lap leaving me alone off the front for several laps until finally Dirk Polhmann followed by 3 or 4 riders brought me back, we lasted as a small group for a lap or two before the Krystal rider who had won the previous race attacked and brought another rider and myself with him forming a break of 3 that stuck. Early on in the break I skipped a pull which enraged the other two riders who then decided to attack me after my next turn, which simply gave me the greencard to sit on until they agreed to stop attacking me. We finally started to work together again and with 5 laps to go we lapped the field. The Krystal team had at least 5 riders in the field and so they lead their rider out for the last few laps. With 1 to go the mystery rider from our break attacked up the hill, which I gladly followed and counter attacked just before the 2nd to last turn which was a fast sweeper about 400 meters from the finish line after cleaning the wet turns I opened up several bike lengths for the win.
Omnium status:
Krystal Dude: 1st (1st, 2nd place)
David: 2nd (3rd place, 1st)
Sunday, Crit 3 - Sun shine at last! Beautiful day and a decent course with a ridiculous downhill finish! As we line up I quickly realized that my day was going to be closely monitory by the 6 Krystal riders. As expected lap after lap I am forced to chase attack after attack from the Krystal team; the good thing is however that none of them will work with me so all I have to do is chase them and they immediately give up… haha. The other good thing is that dirk Polhmann is an Master Time Trial National Champion so if anything gets up the road that I haven’t chased he will gladly bring it back for his own sake. So the race stays pretty well glued together minus the occasional lap or two flyer. So with 3 laps to go a mystery rider in blue whom I had not seen the entire weekend attacks and is allowed to stay away and quickly gains 15 - 20 seconds on the field. I am willing to let him go in exchange for not botching the sprint to ensure the omnium win, however with 1 lap to go another mystery rider attacks wildly flying around the course with me glued to his wheel taking turn after turn with reckless abandonment nearly sketching out every corner until I attacked him just before the 2nd to last turn and punch it up the hill just before the turn into the finishing downhill and as I crest the hill I notice that the flyer is just ahead and quickly fading - I give it a little more gas and catch him at the line by 1/2 a bike length for the win. haha boomyow!
Final Omnium Stats:
David: 1st
