Tomato Head Omnium

The last week has been hectic. I thought when I finished school last Monday, I would have a break for a while. Turns out that break may not happen until July. More on that later.

I spent the weekend back in the old 'hood, Oak Ridge and Knoxville, Tennessee, for Mom's day and a crit omnium. I had planned for the trip to be a surprise for my mom because that's how we get down in my family. She was suspicious when I told her I came home to surprise her for Mother's Day, and she gave me an “I knew it” when I told her I'd also be doing three races over the weekend. Whatever. She still got to spend Mother's Day with her baby. In any case...

I did a three-race crit omnium in Knoxville over the weekend, the Tomato Head Omnium. I was expecting to a difference in field sizes between MABRA and TBRA and maybe a difference between the quality of the racers, but I wasn't expecting to see a criterium course that looked fundamentally different from any I'd seen up here. Of the three courses in the omnium, I raced on two with six corners and one with eight corners. The first race—the eight corner T—was on a .5 mile loop. Crazy. I don't know if I was still tight from the 9 hour drive a couple of days before, or if I just made a huge rookie mistake and didn't eat enough in the morning, but I started to bonk about 15 minutes into the race. Totally unacceptable. I got dropped and finished somewhere in the back half of the field of 17.

After about three bowls of cereal, an avocado, a can of Pepsi, and a nap, I was ready for the Saturday afternoon race. This one was cool because it was three blocks away from my old apartment in Old City Knoxville. The course had six turns spread out over about .7 miles and a 300m 4-5% grade climb to the finish. Aside from all the turns, racing in a small field also completely changes the dynamic of the race. We almost immediately lined up instead of riding in a bunch. I was able to take advantage of the downhill on the backside of the course to move up in the paceline when riders started to get dropped, and stayed with the lead group for the duration of the race. I finished 7th in a SUPER close finish. Don't believe me? Check out the picture. The two black lines at our front tires represent the gap by which the guy in bib 502 beat me, bib 500. Boils down to about .04 seconds. It's a cool picture, just kinda sucks that my wheel isn't the one in the front. See how my bike is more condensed than 502's? That's because I was going faster across the line. Dammit.

Sunday morning's course was another six-turner through downtown Maryville, Tn. “Downtown” is a funny word to use for a courthouse, two churches, a gas station, and a neighborhood. This was another course with a sustained uphill portion. I was determined this time to take advantage of the hill, and I gained about two positions each lap for the first two-thirds of the race. With about 10 minutes to go, I got stuck in 7th wheel behind a guy who got dropped, and I just didn't react quickly enough to catch the lead group. I soloed the last 10 minutes to coast into an easy 6th. My sister brought her two little ones to the race, and lemme tell ya, nothing makes you want to kick it into an extra gear like hearing "go uncle Dickie!"

I still don't know my overall results from the weekend, but I imagine I finished 8th or 9th of 17. I can't say I'm upset with my results, and I definitely learned a little bit more about how to race all kinds of crits. Also, big up to the Bike Zoo guys, racing for a shop on Kingston Pike (or Copperhead Road, for you Steve Earle fans). They could definitely hold their own racing on the MABRA circuit.

A couple more pictures from the weekend taken by Bart Nave, TBRA photog. Fair warning--the website plays music, so mind your speaker volume.

So school's out for now, getting my legs ready for BikeJam this weekend, and my mind ready to be on vacation. I'm thinking about registering for a summer class that starts Monday (ick). I just can't say no to a class called War & Conflict in Africa. Could you? Didn't think so.

Listening to Daylight by Matt & Kim, because I can finally bask in it.