After a winter of racing on indoor tracks in freezing cold cities, this felt like a vacation
18 months, 12 races, 9 countries, and 5 continents. It’s hard to believe this Olympic chase is almost over. In September of 2010, I flew to LA for the Nationals to learn about this new event, called the Omnium, that was to run my life for the next year and three quarters. Fast forward to today, and I’m just a few short weeks away from securing a start position for America at the Olympics.
The process has been full of ups and downs, big progress followed by big setbacks. I got a rude awakening in Cali last year when I turned up for my first World Cup omnium. The enormity of this challenge set in really fast. All of last winter, I kept coming painfully close to pulling of a good result and scoring big Olympic points, but always came up just short of the goal line. After a miserable performance at the World’s last year, I made some dramatic shifts in my training and refocused on this winter. It was clear that was I was doing wasn’t working, so I went all in and changed just about everything I could change. The results were almost immediate and I saw significant improvements very quickly. Maybe the slow start was going to be okay, after all.
The London Olympic Velodrome
I was sure that everything was going to work out better this winter. But again, I was snapped back into reality at the opening round of the World Cup, in Kazakhstan. So I doubled down and placed everything on the third round of the World Cup in Beijing. Even though we have had a wonderfully mild winter in Pennsylvania, our track was under construction so I was left with no choice but to commit to a big block of training in LA. A challenge in this whole process is the delicate balance of racing enough to keep earning valuable Olympic points and minimizing travel and the lost training time that comes along with it. I skipped the second World Cup in Cali and let everything ride on Beijing.
The gamble paid off! Beijing couldn’t have gone much better than it did, and the points I earned there gave me a small cushion so I could withstand some minor setbacks in the final few races. Now, to cap it all off, my third place finish at the Pan Am Championships in Argentina last week has set me up very nicely for the World’s, and ultimately the Olympics.
In 2 weeks I fly to Melbourne for the final race in this 12 race qualifying process. And while I’m looking forward to the trip to Australia, I am really enjoying this 2 weeks of down time at home. It’s been a long winter with a lot of travel that has seen me on the road much more than I have been home. It’s been a fun ride, and the real fun is only just beginning.
Following Jack Simes into an industrial park for some improvised track training
For now I need to extend a huge thank you to USA Cycling and their wonderful coaching staff that has been so patient with me. I also have to thank my supporters, without whom none of this would be possible. So, thank you Pure Energy Cycling, Cervelo, ENVE Composites, D2 Shoes, Oakley, Champion System, Doug Eldridge of DLE Agency, and all of my friends and family at home that have been so supportive throughout the entire process.
Bobby Lea 