Crosstown Cycling: Huntsville, AL- Rocket City Omnium

Saturday/ Sunday May 19/20, 2012

This past weekend ST3 Cycling showed up in force to race in Huntsville, AL at the Rocket City Omnium sponsored by Spring City Cycling Club. We had 6 guys racing in the 4s, 2 in the 5s with this being Mike Soto’s first time racing road, and 1 in the women with Lynn racing in her first time trial. The weather was hot and sunny all weekend with not much wind either day. Here is a link to our facebook page with all the pictures from this weekend. This was my first time racing on tubular tires and I've got to thank Joseph from Pro Cyce and Tri for doing a great job re-spoking and gluing up this set for me.

Time Trial- Monte Sano State Park

The course was an 1.8 mile uphill with an average gradient of 5% for the first 1.3 miles, then it flatten out with several rollers for the last half mile. I was looking for some redemption from my last time trial at MSGP where I lost 45 seconds and took myself out of the overall so needless to say it was go time. I got a quick warm up in then lined up to go. No pre-ride left me with the mentality of just going full throttle for the first 4 minutes then holding until the finish. I was shooting for a sub 6 minute time so I knew I could push for 2 minutes if I could just get through the first 4 minutes. I was able to put up a time of 6:08 for 4^th place, although I lost almost 20 seconds to the leader, this was an omnium and based on points, not time so I was able to stay in contention in the points overall, which was more important than anything. Here is a link to my strava.

Me grinding it out going over the last roller before the finish of the 1.8 mile time trial

Crit- Downtown Huntsville (State Championship)

The course was a 6 turn .8 mile loop with 5 right turns and one swooping left at the bottom of a one block long downhill and a finish with a slight downhill. The field was in the low 30’s with BPC and ST3 Cycling being the two most represented teams. Here is my strava.

ST3 was able to keep several riders up front, keeping the pace high and chasing attacks back for the most part. We let one rider go on the second prem thinking he was just chasing it down but he was able to keep the pace high and eventually able to hold off for the win.

I was able to stay top 5-10 for the entire race and lead out several attacks but no one was willing to work and we were eventually caught every time. Every one of the ST3 riders made attacks at one point or another during the race and kept the tempo high for the rest of the field. On the last lap the field began to set up and Alan gave an attack going into turn one to get the speed back up for a brief moment but then it sat up again with the field spread across all lanes of traffic. Turn 2 came slow with me sitting on the front anticipating a jump, then spread back out across all lanes. About 200m before turn 3 an attack went and I jumped to get 7^th wheel, we hit turn 3 to the downhill and rolled turns 4 and 5 at 30+, I saw a gap open at 3^rd wheel so I shot hard to the inside on the straight away and got the spot just before the last turn. I was able to pedal through the turn without losing any speed and came out hard. By this time first and second had opened a gap of 10m and I was out of the saddle chasing as hard as I could go. 300m to the finish and it was all out and in the end I was able to hold off the chase and lock down 3^rd place.

Although I got 3^rd overall, since the first place rider was from out of state I was awarded the silver for the State Championship. This finish put me in 4^th place for the overall, 1 point behind Kyle (NSAT) and Kyle (Snapple) and 2 points behind Kevin (Steel City). This put me in a little on edge for the circuit race Sunday knowing to get the overall win I needed to make up these points by beating these other riders.

Alan keeping the pace up on the front

Taking the turn 6 on rails with my new tubulars

Stalking Kyle (Snapple) who ended up taking home 1st place

Taking my turn up front to do work

Sitting in nicely

Alan setting the pace again

Taking home 3rd place after a vicious chase

Circuit- Research Park

After carefully reviewing and re-reviewing the results and points from yesterday’s tt and crit, I felt comfortable with my position in the overall in 4^th. I was able to get a good night rest and a good warm up ride in before the race so I was looking forward to getting the race going. The legs felt great and I was ready to go get a win for the team. Here is my strava.

We had a team meeting before the race and everyone was excited and ready to help do work and protect me on the day. We had a great showing by Mick, Mike, and Mike, leading out attacks from the first lap and keeping the pace high. This kept the attacks from other teams limited and the pace high. Once we got through the first couple laps and everyone got settled in Alan came up front and began doing work. Alan kept the pace high and took several long pulls while the rest of the field wanted to sit in without working. Every time ST3 would come off the front the pace would slow to sub 20 and everyone would just sit in waiting for someone to attack. John Soto was able to get away once and get a chase to go, Kyle (Snapple) attacked and got away solo once but Soto was able to bridge the group back to him, and several others made some attacks but Alan was always quick to jump on their wheel and bring the group up to them. This kept me out of the wind for the most part and left me with only a couple attacks to chase down, thereby keeping my legs feeling great and saving them for the end.

The team was able to work great together and keep the race in control for most of the day with attacks coming from all team members, Alan stepped up with 2 to go and pulled me until ¾ of a lap to go. As he pulled off I was stuck on the front and launch a ghost attack to get someone else to pull through but no one wanted to work this close to the end. I started to get the pace up while still looking around when I noticed Soto coming up on the outside to position himself to lead me out. However an unfortunate wreck by Soto with less than 2 miles to go left me on my own. I moved to the front of the pack going in to turn 1 to keep a safe position and kick the pace up to low 20’s but still waiting for the attack to come. About half way up the hill BPC took off with a lead out of 4 guys, I was able to move in about 6^th wheel and we began hammering. We crested the hill and the speeds crept into the low 30’s. Hit turn 2 and the paceline was getting pretty strung out in single file. There was about 1km until the last turn and BPC was hammering hard, no one was able to come out and counter so I prepared for the last turn and sprint. I marked the BPC rider who was being lead out and looked for his wheel coming through the last turn. The two lead out riders pulled off over the last 500m and left two more BPC riders for the sprint. I came through the last turn and jumped Kyle (Snapple) and two other riders and was chasing Kevin (Steel City) but just couldn’t come around him. I ended up 4^th on the day but was able to lock down 2^nd place in the overall omnium.

I was extremely proud of all my teammates and their willingness to work for me all weekend to keep me fresh and protected. Great weekend all around and look forward to getting back into training this week to keep this momentum going.