Omro Cycling Classic

I found out the hard way that back-to-back road races are a lot harder than back-to-back criteriums. The morning after the Whitewater road race I drove up to Omro for the 4^th annual Omro Cycling Classic. This race is part of the Wisport series and was an open category race that really made for a lot of fun… and pain… and misery. The field was 112 strong (remember open category) and I’m glad I was able to line up at the front. A number of Pro/1/2 riders came out for the race and I knew from the start it was going to be fast. The race started out easy but quickly turned into repeated attacks and pace changes to cover those attacks. I sat near the front of the field as the attacks didn’t get to far out to worry about them getting away. A Brone’s team member and two other riders went for another attack and I made the choice to go with them on the 2^nd lap of the 17 mile loop. I picked the right attack to go with as we were able to break away from the peloton for a good 13 miles. We were caught at the start of the hills and I was already seriously suffering. We held our break averaging 27 mph and I was gassed when the road pitched up. I managed to hang on in the middle of the field the rest of the way. Going into the final two corners (both very tight) I was behind a rider who had a wide-open line to the front on the outside going into the second-to-last corner. I shouted at him to pull up but he wouldn’t go. I had no room to go around and was boxed in. To make matters worse, this same guy braked into the last corner. Two words… race over. After making the final corner it was a push to catch as many in front of me. Only made up 5 places and finished 20^th. The legs sure hurt and still do… I will need some recovery miles on Monday and Tuesday. We’ll see how next weekend goes with the uphill finish at the Greenwood road race.