This past weekend, Ben Gramling, and I headed over to Oklahoma City for two days of racing put on by the students on the OU collegiate cycling team. The weekend started with a road race and a time trial on Saturday and concluded with a criterium on Sunday afternoon.
Road Race
The road race was five laps of a 13-mile loop around Lake Stanley Draper. There were a few small hills, but the biggest factor in the race was the steady 20 mph wind, coming in as a crosswind on the most exposed section of the course, followed by a few miles of fast tailwind. In a somewhat unique format, the P/1/2 race was combined with the Collegiate Men’s A race.
On the first lap, a collegiate rider for North Texas got away solo. Then on the second lap, Nic Penrod (Hodges Bend) and Jeffrey May (Cadence) joined him. The three riders had a lead of about 45 seconds at the end of the second lap. On the third lap the pace in our group slowed slightly, and I was eager to establish a smaller chase group that would really work together to bring back the breakaway. I attacked over the dam in the crosswind and a few more times in the tailwind. Unfortunately, every time we got a smaller group established, there wasn’t enough cooperation to establish it into a real breakaway. Eventually I got alone solo, which wasn’t my intention, but I had no choice other than to push on alone. I was alone in no-man’s-land for a few miles before the group got organized and reeled me back in on the headwind section early in the fourth lap.
From there, some of the collegiate teams took up the chase, and we could see the lead group of three riders about a minute ahead of us. We didn’t go fast enough in the tailwind stretch, though, and crossed the finish line with a lap to go 90 seconds behind the leaders. Nobody took control of the chase as we turned into the headwind, and our chances of racing for the win vanished. As we hit the crosswind and tailwind the attacks started happening. For a while nobody could get clear, then Pablo Cruz (Midwestern State) attacked over the top of a small hill followed by Cole Layson (Texas A&M). I quickly bridged across with Tucker Nickols on my wheel. We held the peloton off for a little while, but as we turned and got a crosswind again there was just too much power and motivation in the group behind and it came back together. I tried an attack on a hill with one kilometer to go, but didn’t have the legs to create a gap. It may have helped to tire the legs of the other riders though, because I ended up being able to out-sprint the rest of the non-collegiate riders in that group to take third place in the road race.
https://www.strava.com/activities/3163172993
Time Trial
Just a few hours after the conclusion of the road race we lined up for the time trial. It was a mostly flat course along the first 6.3 miles of the road race course, which meant the majority of it would be into a strong headwind. I chose not to eat any “real food” between races, instead fueling myself with some Clif bars. I arrived at the start line five minutes ahead of my start time, only to find out they were four and a half minutes ahead of schedule. This cost me the opportunity to make some last minute adjustments to my shifting after the recently installed cables had stretched out some. For me, time trials are mostly a mental struggle, and the early start and poor shifting of my bike did nothing to help that. I wanted to experiment with not looking at my power numbers during the race, but that backfired and I didn’t ride nearly hard enough. On the plus side, I did feel quite comfortable in my new TT position on my first time riding the TT bike since last June. I ended up in fifth place which was good enough to put me into a a tie for second place in the omnium with one event to go.
https://www.strava.com/activities/3163392452
Crit
The crit would be 60 minutes on a go-kart track. Temperatures were cool with cloudy skies and a strong wind blowing across the course. The forecast showed a chance of rain toward the end of the race. There would be two intermediate sprint points that could play a huge factor in determining the omnium winner.
The race started fast, with Evan McQuirk (Bike Lab) pushing the pace early, but eventually the pace settled down with the group still intact. Then, 10 minutes in, Jeffrey May (Cadence) was able to attack and go away solo. He was the leader of the omnium after the first two events and when he took the first point prime he had basically assured himself the omnium victory. I tried to pick up points for second or third in the first prime but was unable to. After missing out on points there, it was critical that I pick up some points in the second sprint. As Jeffrey began to pull farther ahead, I attacked hard down the home straightaway. A couple riders were able to follow, and soon we had established a good chase group of Evan, Paul Papin (Boxcar), Tucker Nickols (Cadence), and me. Evan and I did almost all of the work in this group, as we were the ones in contention in the omnium. The bell rang for the second point prime before we were able to catch Jeffrey, and the 10 points he took sealed the overall victory for him. I sprinted across the line second for seven points, putting me back into provisional second place in the standings.
We finally caught Jeffrey with about 15 minutes left and by this time we had dropped his teammate. Around this time, a light rain started to fall. We had a nearly insurmountable lead on the next group behind us, so the four of us were racing for the win. I threw in a few attacks, but wasn’t able to get away. Evan attacked with four or five laps to go, and opened up a gap, but I was able to close it. He attacked again almost immediately after I caught him, and the few moments of hesitation where I looked for one of the other riders to pull him back this time was all he needed to stay away. I tried for a lap to bring him back, but just wasn’t able to make enough of a dent, and also wasn’t willing to haul two other riders to the line on my wheel. As we hit the bell lap, Evan had secured the win. The three of us racing for second were engaged in a game of cat and mouse. I was waiting to make my attack after the sharpest corner of the race, as the turns were beginning to get a little slick. I went with about 400 meters (and one corner) to go, but Jeffrey and Paul were onto my wheel quickly. Jeffrey led into the final corner, when Paul tried to take a shorter line and slid out into him. I went down as well and the three of us were scrambling to get back on our bikes and race to the finish. Paul took off running while Jeffrey got his chain back on and rode in pursuit. I took me a few seconds longer to get my chain back on, and I crossed the line in fourth.
https://www.strava.com/activities/3167189038
Even though I wasn’t able to repeat my road race win from last year, I was happy to land on the omnium podium and learn what I need to improve as I continue to build fitness ahead of the big targets of the season. The guys on the OU cycling team did a great job putting on this event and I can’t wait to try to get back on the top step next year.
by Becca Godman 
by Becca Godman
Andrew Evans 