Wenatchee Omnium

Heading over the Cascades to the east side of the state is one of Spring’s greatest pleasures.  When the weather here in Bellingham is still a soggy dark mess, you can take a short jaunt over one of several mountain passes to find warmth, sun and a refreshing blast of Spring.  This however, hasn’t been a typical Spring in the Northwest.  It's nearly June and the thermometer has yet to exceed 70 degrees on the West side of the Cascades. 

The Forecast for Wenatchee….a small bit of sun, thundershowers, possible high winds, heavy rain, possible flooding and nothing in the radar to indicate we’d be drinking beers in the sun.

The Time Trial

I love this event and while the road race of 60 miles and over 7000 ft elevation gain was my primary target, I was hoping to perform well in the Time Trial as well.  We rolled over early Saturday morning for an “approximate TT start of 10:30.”  After making good time over the pass, I was happy to arrive with a solid hour and a half to warm-up.  The weather was absolutely horrid with strong winds and rain.  I scampered over to sign-in and a teammate came running up to me asking me what I was doing.  Couldn’t figure out the sense of urgency until he told me I was scheduled to start in 10 minutes.  SHIT!  WHAT!  SHIT!  I was in street clothes with the bike on still on top of the car ..  I will never trust the work approximate again.  SHIT! (disclosure:  they posted the start time late the night before on the website but we would have need to leave at 4:30 am to make it work)

I got my gear on (most of it), bike together and to the start line with 1 minute to spare.  No warm-up, no food, no time to think, just ready… set… go!  Fortunately there was a big tailwind to start the out and back course which was like getting a slap in the ass as I started hammering.  When everything was said and done, I rallied for a 10^th place finish.   All things considered, I  was ok with the result and at that point, I really only cared about getting warm, dry and big ass breakfast in my belly.

The Criterium

The rain continued throughout the days and the crit course was looking super slick as we started the race.  Ian Baldwin was riding up towards the front in a great position to stay out of trouble and keep a steady pace.  Brian, Chris and I were more towards the middle/back which left us susceptible to huge pace changes and a higher risk of getting tangled in a crash.  Wheels were slipping on the 4 corner course and as we approached corner 3 into the climb, a crash took down 4-5 riders in front of us.  We all made it through clean but the field was fragmented into 3 groups.  Myself and several others spent 2+ laps in the wind chasing down the 2^nd group which Brian and Chris were in but ultimately I made a call that stop the chase an live to fight another day (like tomorrow).  It was the first time I’ve given myself a DNF and I really haven’t concluded how I feel about the decision.  Ultimately the guys chasing the front group of 12 all received DNF’s despite a lot of effort devoted to finishing. Ian smoked it for a 3^rd place finish!

The rest of the evening was spent eating a 20 pound burrito (Taco Loco is amazing!) while Linds and I watched Fanatik’s Ben Rathkamp charge the 1-2 field for a 3^rd place finish as part of a 3 man break.  His performance definitely got me fired up to ride well on Sunday.

Cat 1/2 Field

The Road Race

We woke up at a friends house to the sight of raging rain and dark black clouds.  It was the sort of rain that would park most folks on the couch all day because you didn’t want to walk from the house to the car.  This race was going to be tough and attrition would be high. With 4 laps of nearly 2000 ft of climbing per lap we were destined for an Epic ride.

The rain didn’t let up a bit and before the race started we received caution from the race officials that mud had been washed over parts of the road.  I was already soaked through to my base layers but felt eager to get this thing going.  Our situation of inevitable pain, cold, wind, cloudy descents and muddy roads was so shitty it was really just comical.  In fact, most of the riders who turned out to race were in good spirits which makes it a ton more enjoyable.

We set off and got to climbing within the first 7 miles.  The group shattered on the first lap and with 6 remaining at the top of the first climb, I hit the descent hard wanting to keep our lead into the next lap.  As we cruised down the hill, It was myself and a talented junior from Victoria off the front.  This was the story of the race…..We climbed up and hit it hard down for 3 laps as our lead grew to over 5 minutes.  There was a great crowd cheering at the top of the climb and Linds was helping out a ton in handing off fresh water bottles.  The junior began to fatigue heading into the 4^th lap and simply didn’t have the legs to keep pace as I pushed on.  On the final descent, the road had flooded and were guided through 18 inches of muddy water that sprawled across the road back.  The rain let up and I was treated to a great tail wind all the way to the finish.  This was a highlighted race on the schedule and it was great to get a win.


First lap over the climb



Ian Baldwin and Skagit's Ian Gerrish





The Descent

Finishing Stretch




Flooding on the course

We cruised out of town but stopped in Leavenworth for some Bavarian brauts and a dark beer under an umbrella.