TKO Omnium Race Report

It was a great weekend for bicycle racing and many took to the roads to make the pilgrimage north to Indianapolis and surrounding burbs to do battle with the best of the Midwest. Planet Adventure put on a nice event and it was well attended with over 500 showing up for the weekend. Official race results aren’t posted yet (go here for them later http://planetadventurerace.com/bike/index.shtml, but here’s what happened – unofficially.
On Friday, we raced the Lawrence criterium, a fast, technical 6 turn physical exercise in pain that had the 200m mark before the final turn. So place was everything going into the final laps. I raced the 3/4 and there was a lot of jockeying for position and the type of pushing and shoving that’s typical in desperate situations. The Scholars Inn Bakehouse managed field finishes here in events entered as we were just outgunned by the teams that had a little more experience in getting their riders set up and off the front than we did. But it’s early- read on!
Saturday’s circuit race was held in the pristine suburb of the Village of West Clay. The residents in their beautiful homes, perfectly manicured lawns and late model foreign cars welcomed a few hundred colorful bicycle racers into their hamlet for a battle royale. The course has been used successfully before as a state championship course so many of us have raced here before and knew the lay of the land. The long stretched out straight-aways and off-cambered turns combined with gale-force winds were the perfect recipe for breakaways. In the Women’s event Hannah Calvert managed a 4th place in a strong field of about 25 women, supported by Lauren Gowdy and Emma Caughlin. In the Men’s Cat 3 / 4 event, Ryan Shanahan surprised the field with a mid race attack that stuck, burying an early break-mate and soloing to victory! Aaron Pilling followed up with a 4th place in the field sprint, followed by Gary Palmer, Ryan Preske and Tom Saccone. The next event was the Masters 3/4/5 and Ryan joined in as well as a lone rider and again attacked the field in the third part of the race leaving the field caught offguard and scrambling for organization. They wouldn’t be able to answer in time and Shanahan soloed to victory again in an incredible display of power and – may I say- sangfroid! In the 1/2/3 event, our boys held their own and RJ Stuart and Clayton just missing the break and finishing in the field.
On Sunday, the venue was in the streets of Broadripple which offered a short, fast, pot-hole riddled 3 corner course with a 145 degree last corner that was essentially a contorted oval from hell. Liz Cobb produced a great finish riding without teammates in the Women’s open finishing 5th.
In the 3 / 4 event, the men worked well together and were able to position RJ Stuart for a great 2nd, place finish and Aaron Pilling for 11th. Aaron also claimed 6th place in the overall standings out of over 40 riders in this category. In the 1/2/3 event the men looked polished and began to look comfortable in their new kits as the one hour race with about 50 top caliber racers covered nearly 27 miles! The eventual winner was Texas Roadhouse’s Adam Leibovitz, an elite track national champion who rode away from the field in the final laps. Scholars Inn Bakehouse riders Fred Rose, Clayton Feldman and Scott Catanzaro finished high in the field-what was left of it- with 10th, 11th and 13th respectively.
In the final analysis, the new Scholars inn Bakehouse has shown that it can win races, dictate race strategy and race as a cohesive unit. As someone who raced with you this weekend, and saw many of the other races, I couldn’t be more proud of your accomplishments and the manner in which you both won and lost. I am looking forward to a fast and successful season!