Friday, August 31, 2007
River Gorge Omnium
This past weekend Tyler, Nick, Chris and Matt headed up to
Chattanooga, Tennessee for the. Followed by
Charles and Darren for the crit on Sunday.
The RR was a 62 mile loop that finished with a 3 mile climb up to the
top of raccoon mountain. Besides that there were two KOM's in the
first 30miles of the race where a small break got away. That put
Tyler on the chase when he plowed his way up to the front of the
meandering field so that the break wouldn't get too far away for Matt
and Nick. Just as predicted the 2nd KOM totally destroyed the field.
It created a split of about 15 riders and the rest of the 70 starters
were chasing from there on out or dnf'ing because this is an omnium
where time doesn't matter. But Matt made it over the climb with the
leaders and Nick was in the chase group.
Basically it was a brutal, relentless uphill, with a 200m descent
thrown in the middle just so you can go up that much more in the end.
Matt had a podium slot in the bag behind Trent Wilson of Jittery Joe's
who won and Eric Murphy of AEG-Toshiba JET network which would have
been the best result of his career, when two riders from the group
latched back on right before the final sprint to the finish and nipped
him at the line. so out of the final group of 5 Matt finished 5th,
uggh. 5th place isn't bad but 5th out of 5 isn't good. Behind that
group was a mishmash of battered riders and haggard legs fighting for
omnium points 15 deep and 2's and 3's coming in to pick up the lower
category bonus prize money. Nick finished a few minutes down followed
by Chris and Tyler.Chris' knee is still bothering him and he is
basically beating half the field with one leg, just wait till he gets
two! And Tyler's pride got the best of him forcing him to finish the
race up the brutal climb when his legs would have been best saved for
the evening time trial but he couldn't bear to see himself on par with
Tiago's DNF so he trucked it on up to the finish.
The Time Trial later that evening was spectacular! It was held on a
loop around the reservoir at the top of Racoon mountain and it wound
around a wooded preserve area before it climbed up the top of the
mountain and then descended to the dam which we rode on top of all the
way around the reservoir! then we took a steep dropping 180 degree
turn down to the final finish straightaway. It was a 4 mile course
that ended up losing a bit of elevation but boy was it brutal. The
hill at the beginning was just a couple hundred meters too long to
really power over it and boy did it hurt. And go figure, going
slightly downhill is not easier than flat or uphill, you just go
faster!
But it sure was a fast course, the winning time came in just over 8
minutes but the 4th through 7th (Matt) riders all came in within 6
seconds of each other. Matt finished in 8min15sec just a few seconds
behind Eric Murphy of Toshiba-Jet Network and Trent Wilson of Jittery
Joes. Nick, our 18yr old phenom finished in 11th and Tyler finished in
12th, 2/10's of a seconds behind Nick! haha, brutal, should have
shaved the arm hair.
So, our TT squad isn't throwing down the podium places yet, but 3
riders in the top 12 this week and 3 in the top 10 last week, that's
consistency, and the TTT's are only going to get better!
The crit on sunday was a bit of a daunting proposition for Tyler,
Matt, Nick, and Chris considering the hard day beforehand. Matt was
tied for 3rd on GC and the huge omnium points up for the top spots in
the crit put the team in a tricky tactical situation considering
Matt's chicken climber sprinting legs.
Luckily enough, the heat wasn't really an issue because it had rained
late that morning so it cooled off a bit and it was slightly overcast
up until about an hour before our start. So the only thing to put a
damper on the day was the 300 meter drag race sprint straightaway,
dead flat, ridiculously fast course taunting the team.
However, it was the newcomers to the team that really threw down for
the cause. Tyler's legs were having none of it and Chris' knee is
still giving him crit troubles, but Charles, Nick, and Darren were up
there with Matt all day. Charles was gunning solo considering his
ridiculous sprinting abilities and Darren and Nick were looking out
for Matt with 10 to go.
With about 3 to go, Nick made a strong move to the front to string it
out but no one wanted to be 2nd wheel to that train and he took a
flyer!
Fine by us, somebody else can bring the field home, our team to soak
up points, and a carrot to keep it fast so Matt could keep his top 10
position. With about 1.5 laps to go Darren got in a great position and
slotted Matt in on Eric Murphy's wheel, who was on Trent Wilson's
wheel and Darren set up shop behind Matt.
With about 800 meters and 2 turns to go, the field caught Nick and his
job was done for the day, now Matt and Darren were looking to put the
finishing touches on the race.
Going into the last turn Matt and Darren were 8th and 9th and no one
moved an inch, it was a 300m drag race with all the horsepower of a
pack of Colombian mules after the two all out events the day before.
So Matt stayed in 8th and Darren got 9th.
Given the points for the win and some shuffling, Matt ended up 5th on
GC and the team got a good chunk of prize money for all the hard work
over the weekend!
All in all, another great weekend. I got fantastic team support, got
to ride on some amazing courses and a beautiful part of the country,
it wasn't too hot, had some beers in downtown Chattanooga, and even
did well to boot.
Till next time...
Christian Leask
3:58 PM |
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