La Crosse Omnium

Jim Merrifield

Although "it could have been worse" is generally not a glowing report, although I really liked the La Crosse Omnium, "it could have been worse" is what I walked away thinking. Mike M and I drove up together and while in the school registering, I kept hearing on the radio what seemed like non-stop storm alerts. Hmmmm - hope they are not headed my way! I elected to do the M3/4/5 to try to help Glen who is in the points lead for the 55+ M3/4 series. I considered doing the 50+ but Gordie, Barney and Mike were doing it - a good team! The M3/4/5 was only about 35 people - maybe. David S was the other TMT member in the field. Where is everyone? Yeah, it's a long drive but with so few road races on the calendar and in a nice area, I expected more, lots more. There was a long gradual climb each of the 3 laps and while I was with the chase pack at the top of the climb, I was not recovering fast enough and when they tried to claw back to the lead group in the tail wind section, I fell off but at least saw Glen and David rolling up the road. I quickly got in with a few chasers - Andy S from LAPT and others and that was the race. I was a little stronger on the climbs but not as strong into the winds so it all worked out. And no rain! Yet!

I checked in at the hotel afterwards and started to think about the uphill time trial (my favorite - NOT!) when the storm rolled in. Wonderful! But at a little after 5, I rolled out, rain still pouring down with the occasional lightning and thunder, thinking I am SO not gonna enjoy this. Got to the race site and what do I see but Glen and Eric parked in front of a church with a big eave, setting up their trainers out of the wind and rain. It pays to have smart teammates when you can follow their example. Soon enough, I was high and dry and trying to work the road race kinks out of my legs. Still raining but at least it did not seem so bad as I watched others warming up in the rain. And what is that? The trailing edge of the clouds is headed our way? Sure enough, by the time my rain delayed start time arrived, it was not a bad evening - no rain! And unfortunately, I knew I would be going SO SLOW up the climb that I would not be effected by road spray! Oh, but it hurt! "Only" 2.37 miles, climbing 686 feet according to the race bible but more than long enough to go into the pain cave.

The next day, Sunday was the crit and an early check of weather radar was not good. Staying dry was not going to be an option today. I signed up for the 50+ crit hoping to help out Gordie and Mike and loosen up for the M3/4. It quickly became apparent that it was either help out Gordie and Mike OR loosen up for the M3/4/5 cause the field was small (aka no place to hide) and Gordie took off early with all in hot pursuit. I decided to save it for the M3/4/5 even though it looked like the 50+ race might stay dry and the M3/4 was surely going to get drenched. The M3/4/5 field was also smaller than it should have been. I am sure the forecast had a lot to do with that but as we lined up, I was thinking "so far, so good". I do not mind doing crits in the rain but I did not have the highest confidence in many of my fellow racers that day. It started out pretty active with a number of people trying to go up the road and stayed that way thru most of the race. Glen, David S and I were more or less taking turns minding the store - there was always one of us going with moves. But at the end, the field was together and it was going to be a matter of position thru the last couple corners. As luck would have it, I caught a move on the outside on the back stretch and moved up into good position and was thinking "oughta launch" while I had momentum on the pack but let the thought of old legs hold me back (and was kicking myself later for it, just a little). So I came thru the last corner doing my best to hold on to younger wheels to finish a little out of the money - and surprisingly, a little behind Glen! He had gotten pinched but had the legs to claw back. Excellent! That put him as the first 55+ finisher and should be firmly in 1st place after being the first 55+ finisher for the RR and TT also. And it never did rain! Could have been worse!