Franklin Omnium: race report

Race Report by Emily Joyner
The Franklin Omnium is a new race this year, and were are very thankful to the hard work of the VBVK team and Celerity Cycling for all the work that went into it. The Omnium consisted of three races, anyone who registered for all three races was entered into the omnium. The other option was to sign up for individual races, people who did this were not eligible for omnium points.



Time Trial: the course was a 10 mile route that went out and back, flat and fast with not too much wind. We had one rider who came out for the TT, Erin, so all our omnium hopes fell to rest on her shoulders.... all the sprinters had really good excuses for not being able to make it. When the dust had settled and the results were posted Erin placed 2nd in the time trial behind Ali (VBVK) and 1 second in front of Laura (VBVK).

Glad I got new tires before the corners!

Criterium: A very technical course with 5 left turns and 2 right turns, some of which were faster than others. The field was a strong but small group of women with VBVK well represented, plus Tripower, Fat Frogs, and VA Asset Group now had 3 riders present. After several attacks (including our own Leslie off the front for the first 1/4 of the race) there was a break with Ali (omnium leader), Erin (2nd in omnium), and Emily (Erin's helper) that was able to push off the front and stick. Erin and Emily tried several strategies to get Erin off by herself, but Ali kept it together for a 3-person sprint. With 2 1/2 laps to go Emily went to the front and held pace. With 1 lap to go Emily started winding up the lead out and Erin kicked it into full gear after the final corner and won the crit. Ali placed 2nd and Emily placed 3rd. Back in the field the VBVK team attacked regularly and Leslie responded, however, Jen (VBVK) eventually got away solo for 4th, and the rest of the field sprinted. Leslie showed her skill and jumped first with a strong acceleration that gave her the field sprint for 5th overall. Erin and Ali were now tied going into the last race of the omnium, the road race.

The happy team after some great team work! 

Road Race: All the same faces as at the crit, plus one more from our team, Ava, who was busy all day Saturday selling people great bikes with great service with a smile on her face at BikeBeat. Laurel Larson (SynFit) was also there as a fresh face for the weekend and competitng only in the road race. We started the race late, but eventually were off and rolling on a nice Sunday pace-line for the first eight miles of lap one (14 miles/lap). Erin and Ali (VBVK) were marking one another and both teams seemed very focused on the competition for first in the omnium rather than the road race. Leslie got up the road with Laurel briefly and VBVK quickly pulled it back. Emily responded with another attack that got a big gap with no one interested in chasing except Laurel (SynFit), who bridged up. By the time Laurel and Emily received a time gap a lap and a half later the gap was up to around 10 minutes. Back in the pack the several attacks were launched to try and get Ali away, both Ava and Leslie helped cover these with Erin, but mainly the pace was casual. With a few miles to go for the leaders we were informed that the race would be shortened to 3 laps and we were to finish when we crossed the line. Laurel took the win and Emily came in second. The field sprint would determine the omnium winner, at about 1K to go Leslie got to the front and gave a killer lead-out getting Erin close enough to sprint for the win, which she did!

Omnium Results: Erin won the omnium, Ali (VBVK) placed 2nd, and Emily placed 3rd.