Getting Ready for the Wenatchee Omnium

This weekend is another multi-day race, the Wenatchee Omnium. I like the multi-day races since I hope I have a little advantage in the recovery from day-to-day riding given my randonneur background. (And future - I promise I'll see some of you SiR's at some point this summer!)

Stage Race vs Omnium?

Glad you asked. A stage race is ranked off of accumulated time (like le Tour or Giro), whereas an omnium is done from points. And you have to finish all stages within 20% of the winner's time in a stage race, whereas you don't even have to do all of the events in an omnium.

And to make things even more confusing, this race is labeled the "Wenatchee Valley Velo Omnium Stage Race 2010" - anyway this is an omnium we're doing. You get points for each start, and points also go 10-deep for each race.

Here's what the schedule looks like:

Saturday

9 mile morning TT - I hate TT's, though I know I need to get better at 'em if I have any plans to compete in the 3's. And if I get better at TTing, perhaps that would make me better at break-aways too?

25 min afternoon criterium - I guess you could say if any of the basic formats of road bike racing (TT, crit, road race) this is the one I excel at. Shooting for at least a top 5 like at Walla Walla.

Sunday
44 mi RR - normally I go into a road race thinking there's no good reason I shouldn't be in the top 10, if not better, at the end of it. But when the road turns upwards for an extended period of time, the outlook changes a bit. (I can climb, but not that great at it)

I mean take a look at the road race route/profile! (click the "Show Elevation" checkbox in the upper-right of the map) That's about five miles of sustained climbing, 5-7% grades. Ugh.

Oh and a 15% grade kicker for 100 meters! This is gonna be.... a challenge.

Hopefully in the end I'll have a good story to tell though, stay tuned.