Frozen Flatlands Circuit Race

As promised, I signed up for and competed in the Frozen Flatlands Omnium, but added the Only Fools Run at Midnight, a 1500m swim TT and some other training. It was a crazy weekend with far more experiences to write about than I had expected. The beginning would be a good place to start.

Frozen Flatlands turned out to be just that. After a night of snow, the race track at Spokane Raceway Park was a bit too dangerous for a morning race. They ended up pushing everything back a couple hours. I was fortunate to be in the next to last group, when it was much warmer outside. Unfortunately, the delay forced me to swim before the ride because of pool hours. My training is intensity based, not endurance based. I just don’t have the time for the long stuff, so I have to admit I was lazy in my swim to save myself for the rides. I started off at a comfortable pace and never picked it up, so it didn't end up being a TT. The trip back to the track was spent topping off on water and food.

In a triathlon or road race (running), I’m completely at ease. Showing up to a bike race was quite the opposite. Despite racing as a Cat 4/5, it was something completely new. To make matters worse, there were a few top triathletes there. These triathletes are the ones that find their success on the bike. My goal was to use this two-day event for a training race to familiarize myself with bike racing; however, I hoped to find a bit of success as well. To top it all off, I’d be riding my road bike, which I’m familiar with only because I see it every day. The Softride gets all the training time. With 5 turns and a couple other key spots, bike-handling skills, which I really don’t have much of, would be key to safety and success.

The race was a 60-minute event on the 2.5-mile track. With about 70 riders flying through a series of turns, with riders shoulder-to-shoulder and wheel-to-wheel, I was a nervous wreck! They say it’s best to stay up front to avoid the crashes, mark the breaks and keep yourself in position to control a race, but I rode safely off the back. In the front, people want to pass on the turns and straights, which left me quickly surrounded until I was spit out the back. There were several attempts at a break, which were all chased down. When caught, the pack would slow, causing the riders to bunch up since the ones in back can’t tell the ones up front are slowing. I saw it as a waste of energy, but probably ended up wasting more myself after having ridden a bit too far off the back and surging to keep in contact.

My big excitement was lap four when there was an accident that involved at least a half dozen riders. I saw a bike sliding without it’s rider, then others going down in front of me. Somehow, I was able to ride right through it … at about 3 MPH. After quite a chase, I caught the pack again, selfishly thinking the wreck had thinned out the pack slightly. Another break spit a few riders out the back, but they weren’t able to hold my wheel as I rode myself back into this thing. I tried to help the riders back, but they just weren’t strong enough, so I had to let them go. Finally, they called out “three laps to go.” I found no need to mix it up for very long, so I stayed in the rear for another lap before making my way toward the front. I’m still not sure what happened, but I found myself in the lead with a big gap with about 4.25 miles to go, so I went for it.

The wind was pretty strong on the long straight, so the pace line caught me shortly into the final lap and I was quickly spit out the back again. Not even winning is worth risking an accident, so I decided to play it safe until the home stretch. As expected, the field spread out and riders fell out the sides and I was able to move up. On the other hand, I was completely boxed in and finished 11th in the sprint. The unfortunate thing about 11th is that it nets me a sum total of nothing. First through tenth get points and are in the results, but 11th through 70th don’t even show up on the results. It’s not a big deal, but it’s frustrating to be so close and not have it count. I learned a lot and hope things turn out better tomorrow.

I went for a brick run with Bassett from Team Stampede. We ran two laps plus a little in the opposing direction of the track while watching the pro 1 and 2 men race. There were a lot fewer men in that pack, about 20, which would have suited me much better.