Frozen Flatlands, literally

This guy was assembled near Saturday's race start.


Ted won the sprint.


Michael Costello snapped this side shot of Ted's winning sprint.


The women's field was larger than in years past.

I received an email from Martha Friday telling me I was smart, weather-wise, to stay close to home and race Frozen Flatlands. As we headed to Spokane early Saturday morning and saw at least five cars off the road in the 15 mile stretch between Pullman and Colfax, I began to question my judgement. Not long after, big white flakes began to fall and the hills turned white. Hmmmm... would Ted's race really be going of at 10? Or, at all?

The call was made to delay the start of the first race (Ted's field) by two hours. This would allow for the snow plow (!) to get there and clean off the 2.5 mile circuit. It's April, people. What is going on?

Sure enough, the plow was there at 11, and Ted's race started right at noon. Ted is normally very frisky and aggressive at this race, so I was surprised to see him sitting near the rear of the pack for most of the race. At one point he yelled to me that he was feeling "awful." Needless to say, I think he was a bit surprised when he took the finishing sprint by a large margin, coming up with the win.

The track was actually pretty dry by the time the women's race started. I had one teammate, Jenni Gaertner, and it was our first time racing together. All the women raced together, giving us a field of about 25. Jenni and I decided to be aggressive and make the race hard to get a good effort. None of the other women were very aggressive, seeming mostly to key off of us. We attacked and couter-attacked, working very well together and having fun. I got the prime I wanted for metabolic testing, and Jenni won the final sprint, taking the win. It was a good race for our team.

Sunday was wet and cold, but better than Saturday. Ted was hoping to have a good finish to take the overall omnium. Someone broke away early in his race, and very few people were willing to work to chase, so the breakaway rider ended up winning. The race came down to a sprint and Ted got a little boxed in, so he wasn't as happy with his day as he had hoped.

Jenni and I decided to take it easy for the first portion of the race, hoping some other people would take a more aggressive role. Plus, it was good to keep the cat 4 women with us for a while, rather than just trying to dump them from the gun, as I have seen other 1/2/3 women do. Our plan was for me to attack on the hill and try to get away. If that didn't work, Jenni would be there to sprint at the finish. Our pack splintered around mile 30 and we had a small group off the front. A couple miles later, I got a rear flat. The wheel change was not fast, as the car was not right behind me, and I had to do my own change. I chased for a while, catching some women, but I could never regain contact with the leaders. Thankfully, Jenni was able to win the final sprint again, making it a double win weekend for her!