I t’s easy to hear the excitement in Michael Sencenbaugh’s voice when describing his passion for bicycle racing.

Sencenbaugh, 23, is a Category 2 racer, which means that he’s earned points for participating in races that go a required distance.

Now, after spending the spring racing in places like Kent, Wenatchee and Enumclaw, Sencenbaugh gets to compete just blocks away from where he has lived while completing his college education.

Sencenbaugh graduated from Western Washington University last month with a degree in fitness and exercise science; his next cycling competition will be as part of the Skagit Valley Omnium on Saturday and Sunday.

The Omnium essentially has three parts. The first is the F & S Road Race on Saturday, a group of six races which begins at Samish Elementary in Sedro-Woolley. Start times vary from 10 a.m. to 2:10 p.m.

Second is the Skagit River Time Trial, a 10.5-mile race starting at 9 a.m. Sunday from Clear Lake Elementary south of Sedro-Woolley.

Third, and the part that Sencenbaugh is looking forward to, is the Bellingham Criterium. Start times for that race begin at 2 p.m. Sunday with the Women’s Category 4; the sixth and final race (Men’s Categories 1 and 2) starts at 6:20 p.m.

“I’m definitely excited to do it — there’s no travel involved,” Sencenbaugh said.

The only traveling Sencenbaugh will have to do is the kind that includes whistling through the streets of downtown Bellingham at speeds approaching 28 miles per hour.

“It’s a very good spectator sport,” Sencenbaugh said. “It’s really exciting, very fastpaced. It’s a fight to stay near the front, we’re continually sprinting, so it makes for a very, very fast race.”

The Omnium is presented by Team Fanatik, under a permit from USA Cycling. Sencenbaugh is a member of Team Fanatik, which has become active in racing circles in the past two years, Sencenbaugh said.

It’s perhaps fitting the map showing the route Sunday’s Bellingham Criterium looks a bit like a rocket, with the Bellingham Library at the center of the course. The longer, parallel straightaways are Grand Avenue and Commercial Street, with one-block crossovers on Flora Street and at the corner of Girard and B streets.

There’s more to the race than constant speed, Sencenbaugh says.

“The criterium is the most skilled race,” said Sencenbaugh, who added that with a such a large group going full blast for 60 minutes, there might be a spill or two.

“There’ll be some guys that might get some road rash,” he said.

From his vantage point atop his bike, Sencenbaugh has seen firsthand how cycling is growing in popularity.

“At the race at Enumclaw, had a great huge turnout, probably about 500 people over the weekend,” he said. “The category I was in had about 60 riders, and they all want to stay in the front.”

The more skilled a rider is, Sencenbaugh said, the more likely they are to be part of a team that employs a plan.

“In the higher categories you see a lot more team tactics,” Sencenbaugh said. “You’ll see a whole team get their guys in front, so you’ve got to look at the guys with the same jersey. The higher categories definitely have a lot more strategy.”

Stewart Bowmer, 39, serves as the Team Fanatik manager; he’s responsible for the race volunteers and infrastructure, he said. He’s fairly new to the Bellingham racing scene, and saw the need to put together the team.

“Just knowing who you’re racing with …” Bowmer said with a chuckle. “It made sense to me that we’d train here together.”

As for the criterium, “this is kind of bringing back some racing back to Bellingham,” Bowmer said. “Hopefully, it will get bigger and bigger.”

Craig Parrish can be reached at craig.parrish@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2279.