It all started four years ago as the Rochester Twilight Criterium, a pro cycling race through downtown Rochester at dusk. Cyclists from across the country descended on the city to essentially sprint at break-neck speeds around a one-mile-long, closed-loop course for two straight hours. The course, with the help of the fans who filled seemingly every inch of downtown with feverish, deafening cheers, started gathering momentum within the cycling world.

By the second year, the race became a national event, moving up in prestige and importance in the cycling circuit. And just last year it gained international status and recognition from cycling's governing body, the International Cycling Union, which also oversees races like the Tour de France. Now in its fifth year, with an estimated 60,000 spectators expected to cheer on the more than 100 participating racers, the one-day race has morphed and evolved into a three-day cycling extravaganza known as the Rochester Omnium. The event now includes a time trial, a 102-mile road race that takes cyclists over some of the region's steepest inclines, and the original twilight criterium.

"[The criterium] is like NASCAR on two wheels," says Scott Page, race director and promoter of the Rochester Omnium. Page - who owns Full Moon Vista, a local cycling store on St. Paul Street - started the event with the intention of bringing a professional cycling race to his hometown. Unlike other pro sporting events, spectators at the criterium are literally inches away from the competitors, many of whom are Olympic, world, or national cycling champions. And according to Page, "once they see it, they're totally hooked."

"Criterium" is a term used to describe a short, high-speed bike race. Rochester's looping course begins on Broad Street Bridge and takes riders eastbound over the Genesee River to the first turn, a right onto Bausch & Lomb Place. The racers whip through a roundabout before hanging a sharp right, heading westbound on Court Street past the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, over the Genesee River again, and finally turning north onto Exchange Street. The course continues to bend and loop around Irving Place, West Main Street, back down Exchange Street, and eastbound once more onto Broad Street, to end the first lap and begin the next.

The criterium starts at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, and should last roughly two hours. As in past years, officials will count the number of laps riders complete until the one-hour mark, at which point they will begin counting backwards until no laps remain, according to Page. For example, if the riders complete 29 laps at the one-hour mark, officials will then begin counting backwards (announcing the laps remaining) from 29. For that last hour, the teams will jockey for positions, set up small peletons (groups of cyclists that ride in a fairly straight line to minimize the wind resistance), and try to out maneuver and out pedal the rest of the pack.

For the past two years in Rochester, no one's done that better than Australian cyclist Hilton Clarke. The two-time winner of the criterium will be back in town this weekend to defend his back-to-back victories and work toward a three-peat. "The criterium is really my specialty as an event," Clarke says.

"A lot of it is positioning," Clarke says of the criterium. Because the course is so short and so technical - with lots of quick, sharp turns - the race becomes a true team effort. Clarke's team, Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team, will, like most other teams involved, have cyclists that draft for other riders in the beginning of the race and let others cut through the air toward the finish. "The person that wins tries to keep out of the wind as long as possible to win the race," Clarke says.

The short loop around Rochester - all eight corners included - might be enough to make a technical specialist like Clarke embrace the course, but the enthusiastic fans seal the deal. "I really fell in love with that course because it really suits my riding," Clarke says. "And on top of that, I really love racing in front of a big crowd... It's just such a buzz to win in front of so many people. It's a race that's really special to me."

Perhaps one of the most unique aspects to the criterium is the time it occurs - at night. The competitors begin riding in the last drops of natural light and finish the race with the help of large, specially placed lamps. Page says there will be state-of-the-art lighting around the course, and one daylight-mimicking lamp flown in from Germany that will be used at the finish line to make it easier on officials. One thing is certain: racers come to race, whether it be day, night, uphill, or flat. "All I do is take my sunglasses off and put some clear glasses on," Clarke says jokingly about his approach to nighttime racing.

What likely will prove difficult to the riders comes just a few short hours after the finish of the criterium - the 102-mile road race. The course starts in Honeoye, heads south to Springwater, passes through towns like Dansville, Nunda, Geneseo, and Avon, and then finishes with two laps around a 6.1-mile loop around the south end of Rochester. Some of the climbs on the course rise for 1000 feet or more in what Page describes as the hardest of the three events in the Omnium.

After coming off a nighttime race with the criterium, the cyclists will begin the road race at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Clarke describes the recovery between the two races as difficult. "You're so psyched up that night, and it takes a while to get to sleep, but everyone's in the same boat," he says.

And because the road race is new this year, all the riders will see the hills, the flats, and the rest of the course for the first time on race day. As professional cyclists, the riders are already prepared for a road race of this nature, and will use things like profile maps to get a sense of the steepness of the inclines and the overall feel of the course. "Unless you're actually local," Clarke says, "every rider's in the same position - whatever climb comes in front of us, that's what we've got to tackle."

The 3.9-mile time-trial precedes both the criterium and the road race. Riders, who each have to compete in all three events, start the sprint Friday at 1 p.m., leaving the starting line at the Port of Rochester in one-minute intervals from each other. Riders will race out to roughly a halfway point and make their way back to finish about 100 meters from the start. Page points out that this adds a spectator-friendly aspect to the day, with fans able to see each racer both start and finish. There will be no drafting from teammates, as typically happens in the other two events. The racers all take this flat-out sprint solo, and the cyclist with the fastest time of the day is declared the winner.

Because the time trial is so different than the road race, the cycling teams will bring different equipment, and even different riders, for the course. The sprint bikes are typically more aerodynamic, as every second of the race can mean the difference between first place and the rest of the field. Teams also will bring cyclists that specialize in the short event. Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team will have riders that specialize in the sprint, riders like Clarke that specialize in the criterium, and ride as a team through the road race - something that everyone is accustomed to racing.

As a major cycling event, the Rochester Omnium will host teams of riders from across the globe, as far away as Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Italy, Ireland, Germany, Uruguay, and Argentina. The riders don't have to understand English to appreciate the support of the crowds. "There's certain languages that are the same," says Page in reference the screaming fans that have lined the streets year after year. And if the crowds reach the expected 60,000 mark, the Rochester Omnium could move from one of the largest criterium races around to the largest in the entire United States.

Though there may be riders from across the world racing in front of the streets packed with supporters, the Preferred Care team is a locally based group of Category 1 amateur cyclists that will race the three days along side the pros. "Cat 1" riders, as they are referred to, have reached the highest-ranking amateur level possible before turning pro. The difference, though, is huge, according to Todd Scheske, who competed with the team last year, and is serving as assistant race director for this year's event.

"It's like grabbing a basketball and shooting hoops against Michael Jordan," Scheske says, comparing Cat 1 cyclists to the world-class pros riding in the Omnium this year. Last year the team held on through the first 30 minutes of the criterium - no small feat - before pulling out of the race. The goal this year is to again hang on for as long as possible against some of the world's best, Scheske says.

Many of the teams will come equipped with their own team car and spare parts that will patch a flat for riders in the road race. Because of the space constraints a short urban course like the criterium presents, a single, neutral car, will circle the track and help riders who take a tumble or lose a wheel. In the event of this, the riders will be given a free lap to fix, repair, or bandage what they need to before jumping back in to the race. This, according to Page, is done because the pace is so fast that riders would not stand a chance of catching up.

This, along with the ample room for spectators, is what Page says makes the race great. "That's where I see cycling [in the United States] going in the future," Page says. "The American public wants a little more excitement." That idea was the primary driving force behind the design of the out-and-back time-trial, the winding road race, and the criterium. All three events give spectators plenty of opportunities to see cycling in action, and push a little more adrenaline into the racers as they come screaming by time after time throughout the course.

Rochester Omnium

Friday, August 8-Sunday, August 10

Time Trials: Friday, August 8, 1 p.m., Port of Rochester, off Lake Avenue

Rochester Criterium: Saturday, August 9, 2:45 p.m. (amateurs) & 8:30 p.m. (men's pro), Broad Street Bridge

Road Race: Sunday, August 10, 11:30 a.m., starts in Honeoye

rochestercrit.com