Team R.A.C.E. Pro headed to Rochester this past weekend for the Rochester Omnium stage race. The race started out as a twilight criterium held over the last 5 years. (I think) t and this year it was expanded to include a short prologue-type TT and a 100mile point to point road race with 2 finishing circuits in town.
Pozzy, Thuss, Walters, Timmerman, Frank, and myself all lined up for the 4mile TT on Friday afternoon. We managed to have 4 in the Top 20, with me on the top step just ahead of the Toyota duo of Rollin and Johny Clarke. Definitely a good way to kick things off. However, instead of having a nice cool-down ride back to the hotel I was driven back with my USADA chaperon. Nice to see they are testing here after one of two other events this year saying there would be testing, but had none.
The crit on Saturday didn’t start until 8:30 pm, so I went out with Steve and a few others to see the next days road course, since no one had raced on it, it could be important to see just how hard the course was and if it had any surprises. We drove out there, hoped on the bikes for about an hour then headed back for some lunch. During our team meeting the sunshine had gone and it started to pour. Since racing in the dark is pretty sketchy on it’s own the fact that it would now be soaking wet added to the nervousness. Things started out good, with Walters getting up the road with Charles Dionne (Successfulliving.com) a group bridged up a little later however that was not so good for us. Dom Rollin was in there and in the darkness it took a bit of time to realize we were in danger of losing the lead. At the finish Dom took the stage and the overall, while I managed to hold onto 2nd. Disappointing? yes. But losing the lead to a such a strong rider is nothing to be put down about. Besides, we still had a tough road race to tackle the next day.
With all the diffucult hills in the first half of the race, it was tough to decide how the race might play out. We wanted to try and win the stage, but also keep 2nd overall. Trying to win the GC was mathematically impossible for the entire field except me and it would take a lot to pull that off. Because the overall is scored on points, all Dom had to do was finish the race and keep and eye on me. This also has the effect of making the time gaps irrelevant. Soon enough a break was established and that was pretty much it. Mark made the move as it opened up a 12min lead, but afer the group split and the stage win was up the road he did as much as possible to keep the higher placed members of the break from scoring too many points and potentially jumping ahead of me. Back in the field some damage was done by the climbs but the motivation was low as the time gap didn’t matter and we sprinted it our for the minor points with Francois and Pozzy helping to lead me out.
Stage winner Tony Cruz (BMC) moved into 2nd bumping me to 3rd. Mark ended up 5th overall thanks to his aggressive riding.
