Fixie=Russian Roulette?

Question: When is riding a Fixie like playing Russian Roulette?
Answer: When you ride it for the Saturday D'ville group ride.

Yesterday after ACE asked about who was riding today, there were a few exchanges about the possible pace for the D'ville ride. I think I proposed "sane and steady", whatever that means, but Ian responded correctly with "Give it up, old habits die hard". Having been riding my fixie a bit, I think sure, I'm ready to give it a try, especially if others are doing the same (Ian, Doug, Greg et al). I'll just take my chances with the pace - Russian Roulette.

So I show up at the park and ride with my Steamroller. Given that I have a Corolla and no rack, I can only bring one bike, so I am comitted. At this point, I'm feeling like I have a revolver against my head with 1 bullet somewhere in the rotation. I'm looking around and not seeing any other fixies. I try to talk Tom Aga into riding his fixie (he's smart, he brings 2 bikes). No dice. Uh oh. Luckily Ian and Doug roll in on theirs. Click. Nothing. Whew.

We roll out down the hill and onto Patuxent River Road. Then the pace starts to ramp up with some of the ususal "we have to go at some ungodly power level (for me anyway) beacause that's what my coach says" types on the front. Uh oh. Then as the gap opens up they go off the front and the rest of the groups sits back, "steady and sane". Click. Nothing. Whew.

The pace continues sane and steady, even Bill Neumann appears to be enjoying it! Then we get to Brooks Woods; towards the latter part of it, I'm starting to spin pretty hard, some gaps start. Uh oh. After the turn, it slows and regroups, and I make it comfortably to the store. Click. Nothing. Whew.

We leave the store with ACE leading the charge. All of a sudden I realize that I'm working really hard to keep the wheel in front of me. ACE is doing an interval. Uh oh. He finishes before we get to Boyds turn and I catch my breath. Click. Nothing. Whew.

At Boyds Turn, there is some quick talk about who, if anyone, is doing the shorter route. Looks like no one is, so I keep following. The tandem goes by and I'm on the wheel. We start going down the first big roller, I'm spinning at a gazillion rpms and about 37 mph. Uh oh. Big gap. Click. BANG!

I'm gone. Oh well, I made it 4 rounds. I figure its all for the better anyway as it will spare me the indignation of being left for dead over the wall. After the first roller, there's a cut in the road so I quickly do a 180 and high tail it for Boyds Turn as the north wind alone all the way from North Beach would not be pleasant. I'm enjoying my "sane and steady" pace through Fairhaven, up the horse farm, over the wall and as I come the stop, I see some ABRT jerseys up the road. Sweet, I guess some people DID take the short cut. I work hard to catch them. It's Ian, Doug, Heff and John. This will really help with the wind. Nice to have some company all the way back.

The "beach crowd" gets back a few minutes after us, so they must have been hauling the mail to make up 6 miles in a little over an hour as we were not lollygagging. All in all, a nice December ride, and I'm better for the bloody experience.

The NOT Bill Neumann Ride ;-)

After Bill posted an e-mail saying that while others might do the ride this week, he would not be leading it, I showed up anyway.

So I get up at 5:20am, drive 2.5 hours ... I was in NJ .... and at 9:00am I am sitting in my car in a snow and ice covered parking lot, watching the snow-driven wind....and no one else is there. Hmm. Plan B is a fixie ride at noon with Alex Pline.

Alex and I rode most of the Pete Penzell Saturday ride route, on our fixed gears, starting from Alex's home at around noon. The temperature was above freezing -- barely -- and it was windy. We made up for this by cutting the ride slightly short, and heading to downtown Annapolis and hot chocolate at The Hard Bean.

For those keeping score, both Alex and I are currently running close to 74 gear inches.

The Original Snow [Patapsco] Valley Ride

Greetings all, Today the MTB team banded together once more and made a terrible, windy, cold and brutal day into a very very solid ride opportunity.

After arriving at the CCBC tennis courts on my cross bike, the Raleigh RX1.0, I tried hard to tell myself the pain was just weakness leaving the body. After standing in the cold, we rolled and thankfully, gracious Mike did not take us on the technical loop right off. The technical stuff isn't a problem for me on my normal bike, but on a road bike, a little much.

After a few hard, hard diggers, I finally got into a rhythm. This is basically how the ride would go:

First the fat tire boys would fly down the hills like they were supposed to. The snow that was on the ground didn't seem to slow Kidd or anyone else down. I would find myself off the back, yes off the back of a mountain bike group.

Typacially I made great time on the climbs, even the technical ones and was actually clearing stuff on the 700x32's (in the snow) that I have trouble occasionally with on a nice day with my 29x2.2's. At one point on the ridge trail I was just tearing it up the side of the hill till my admittedly worn-out rear tire finally just refused to grab the earth any longer. I'm almost certin that I climbed better because this bike weighs 21 lbs, and my monocog flight 29er (SS I might add) weighs 27 on a good day.

Logs were of little problem for the RX1, the reasons I hate this bike on the road, were the very reasons it took so well to the dirt. Namely its very high bottom bracket gave mondo clearence over stupid stuff and the forward position made bunny hopping easy.

Biggest tip for riding a cyclocross bike at Patapsco-Avalon, THORN RESISTANT TUBES. Yes my cross bike has clinchers, cause I tend to break nice stuff. These tubes are 10x the thickness of what most recognize as a road tube, making it **Impossible** to pinchflat. I was actually bottoming out on my rims a few times (at 45psi) and still no problems. The one drawback is weight, they are very heavy but I noticed this less in the woods then I did in a cross race or on road.

Last point, cross bikes are slow as a turtle going down. Its their nature unless you're Jeremiah Bishop. Because of the carbon fork, high pressure tires and narrow contact with the ground (on a muddy snowy day) you have to just deal with it. The benefit, center pull brakes were the original anti-lock devices and I never skidded out, at all.

My wrists, forearms and neck all hurt from going over the bars about twice, crashing into a tree once. However I would certainly try riding out in the woods on my X bike again, let me just true my wheels up again first.

or

You Decide.

Bill Neumann’s Howard/Carroll County Ride On a Fixie

The wheelsucker was on his way back from Collingswood NJ early Sunday morning and decided that since Bill Neumann’s ride was North of Annapolis, it would be better to go straight there, rather than go home first and do some other Sunday ride. But the wheelsucker’s coach was calling for a fixie ride, so the wheelsucker rode his fixie. He had checked this with Bill earlier:

"Is your Sunday ride still on? 9:00AM? Can I show up on a fixed gear?"

To which Bill had replied:

"Yes, yes, and yes!"

09:00 start time? You’re kidding, right? It was rather cold (26 degrees) and windy, but not as cold or as windy as Saturday morning in Philadelphia. The ride had a convenient starting point from a school parking lot, on route 97, a couple of miles south of interstate 70. After driving into the parking lot, the wheelsucker immediately noticed that no one else was riding a fixie. The wheelsucker became mildly concerned when some of the other riders expressed surprise that anyone would try it on a fixie.

Bill described the ride as "rolling". How long does a climb have to be before it stops being "rolling" and starts being "a lot of climbing"? The ride seems to cross the Patapsco River an inordinate number of times, mostly so one could enjoy the climb out of the valley. In theory one should enjoy the descent INTO the valley, but in practice, on a fixie, fast descents are not that relaxing. The ride pace is less than a hammerfest, which is consistent with what the wheelsucker’s coach was telling him to do, get good sub-threshold hours in, with a bit of pushing on short climbs. These are not "junk miles", but the ride generally avoids the frequent crossovers into anaerobic territory that the Saturday Davidsonville ride has. The course is much more rolling/climbing and turning than the Davidsonville Saturday ride, but at a slightly easier pace. This makes it a great winter training ride. This is NOT at a recovery ride. It is more like an Ellicott City ride at less than race pace.

The route is available on bikely.com at: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Western-Howard-County-Carroll-County. Bikely.org reports elevation gain as 2793 feet.

There is somewhat of a cumulative damage concept riding the fixie on a "rolling" ride; each time one forces one’s way up a hill at a slow cadence, the legs complain a bit more, and the next hill is a little harder. The wheelsucker was finding it hard not to think about this, as the other riders would urge him on with encouragements like "there are only two more walls to go." But a determined wheelsucker found that going slowly up a hill on a fixie was worse than going medium-hard, so the wheelsucker attacked most hills and was pleasantly surprised to find himself in good shape at the top on most of the climbs. Being a civilized ride, those to the top first would wait for the others. As per the wheelsucker’s coach, most climbing on the fixie is done seated, at least until that stops working and one HAS to stand.

Wheelsucker data: (no Power data on the fixie) 49.33 miles, time 2:57:38:

	Average	Maximum
HR	126	170
Cadence	74	163
Speed	16.66	36.2

Whe wheelsucker reports that doing 36.2 mpg with a cadence of 163 on the fixie is VERY exciting; but not relaxing.

Just Who Was that Mystery Latitude Rider

Several members of the 20-20 club (20 degrees, 20+ mph winds) gathered at the Dville park and ride to set off for a few hours of misery. Ace rolled in a bit late having been the only one to show up for the 45 mile Annapolis ride. Dave B rolled in with a couple of friends, and several other riders rounded out the group. It was a pretty good turnout given the weather. Notably absent was Lance who was supposed to be there collecting money.

The ride set off at a pretty good clip. There is significant motivation to go fast when the weather is so nice. Just before we got to the light there was a yell about riders off the back. Ace, Dave, and possibily a few others doubled back. The rest of the group sat up for awhile, but they never rejoined. Adding to the confusion was Kyle who's coach had told him to go fairly hard today (where have we heard that one before?) We rolled at a fairly good clip into the rest stop. At that point there were five of us left. Tom "fixie" Aga, Michel, Rick P, Kyle, and myself waited around for the others to join us. No one else showed, and we made our way back into the impending doom of a stiff headwind. The group did some pretty hard pulls into the wind even on the downhills, and Rick P finished it off with a nice piece of tempo work up Leetch Rd. It was at that point just before the wall that we encountered the "mystery Latitude" rider. He had to be fresh because both bottles were full. He did a quick 180 and joined the group up the wall. Actually he drove the group up the wall, and then doubled back at the next intersection. Rumor had it that it was Heff 2, but that was impossible since he was out with Chris "the ice man cometh" Harshman several miles away. Perhaps it was Heff 1, perhaps we'll never know. It is hard to recognize anyone in this weather when they've got 20 layers on.

The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful with Kyle taking the sprint just ahead of Rick P. Then the one legged pedaling drill competition started.

The parking lot was empty when we returned so we're assuming everyone else got back safely, and took shorter routes.

The weather is bound to get better. This would have been a marginal day for January, and was totally unexpected for November. The good news is that the long range forecast calls for a cold early start to winter with a much warmer ending. This means we might actually see Fabrizio in January this year!

The Wheelsucker Rides the Vino Velo Ride in Philadelphia

The wheelsucker’s girlfriend is very tolerant. So tolerant that even when the wheelsucker visits for one day on the weekend, he can go for a bike ride (the wheelsucker claims his coach forces him to do this). So tolerant that she says nothing when the wheelsucker heads out at 8:00AM when it is significantly below freezing and very windy.

The Vino Velo ride meets at the Art Museum in Philadelphia on Benjamin Franklin Parkway; of course ALL rides in the Philadelphia area start there. A small group, a surprising number of whom were first timers, followed an overly energized Bryant out of the circle behind the art museum. The wheelsucker was cold; everyone was cold. It gets worse first as the windchill takes its toll, but eventually the wheelsucker’s body warmed up, blood started to flow to extremities, and the feeling in his thumbs and fingers returned. The ride is apparently somewhat of a hammerfest in the warm season, but this was at a civilized pace. Riders joined on at some points, and dropped off at others. Though the wheelsucker was warming up (and congratulating himself on buying and wearing the ABRT warm winter jacket), it was still rather below freezing, as evidenced by the frozen-solid water in the gutters, and ice on the roads. While the group rolled through a number of intersections with the leader yelling "clear", the group also stopped at many; the wheelsucker noted with regret that Bryant was happy to jump after every such stop, forcing everyone else to jump to stay with him.

The ride returns along the river, and was partly into the wind. With only four riders going the distance, the two leaders pulled off and the wheelsucker and a still-recovering-from-some-horrible sickness Brit on a folding travel bicycle pulled through and took the lead. The wheelsucker had been careful to watch his power and his pulling all ride, but with the barn door in site, he held 240-300 to the Art Museum dragging the dying Brit with him, and somehow dropping the other two riders, without ever going hard.

This would be a great ride, thought the wheelsucker, if it was 45 degrees warmer.

High 36, low 27, WINDY, 44 miles, averages: 18.27mph, 168 watts.

The Wheelsucker Report on Riding Fixies in the Extreme Cold in a Park so Dark You Could Not See Where You Were Going

It was very dark as there were no lights of any kind in Quiet Waters park other than those attached to bikes and helmets; it was also very cold and windy. Despite a fully charged headlight the wheelsucker could barely see the road and only just managed to swerve to stay on the road and avoid riding into the grass and trees several times. The brightest things in the park were the deer’s eyes reflecting back bike headlights. Do the lights attract or repel the deer?

How crazy do you have to be? Very crazy. Need we mention that Quiet Waters Park is closed on Tuesdays, so riders probably should not be in there anyhow?

Four riders on fixies of various ages, sizes and gearing, with various strange and wonderful lighting "solutions", most of dubious value, rode the Quiet Waters loop last night. The wheelsucker’s light was not bright enough for him to see the road clearly, while Sue Estes had a green glow that would have worked well for a Martian Invasion B movie. Dennis’ NiteRider light was so bright that when he rode behind someone, the rider ahead cast a shadow that looked like a giant on a bicycle, dwarfing Quiet Waters Park. One hoped this apparition kept the deer off the road.

The wheelsucker was worried about overdriving his headlight and hitting a deer, a tree, or just riding off the road, but apparently the deer were also concerned about this possibility, and stayed out of the way. It is not clear who would have come off the worse in such a crash. Lars assured the other riders that the suicide squirrels were not out after dark, so that was one blessing.

Could this be any more dangerous? Sure, the deer could have been armed, there could have been black ice on the road, riders could have been in a serious pace line, or the wheelsucker could have been riding alone, so only would have been found the morning after the bad crash.

The wheelsucker is searching for more lights and hopes to be better prepared -- and faster -- next Tuesday evening.

Wheelsucker data:
35:12, 10.75 miles, 18.32 mph (including warmup and cooldown), 132/154 bpm, 83/113 rpm, 15.66/24.82 mph. 48-17, which is 74.2 gear inches.

Deer 0: Riders 0.

Saturday on Sunday: A Wheelsucker Report

As per Steve Owens' Saturday ride report, the only people to show up for the usual Saturday ride were Doug Milliken and Steve. Ryan, his friend David, Alex and Ali did the Pete Penzell ride instead, but without Pete.

Perhaps ABRTers were feeling a little contrite about missing the Saturday rides; the proposal to do the Saturday ride again on Sunday met with wide support,and a significant number of riders started from the Davidsonville Park & Ride at 10:00AM Sunday, including John K, Lance, Kyle, Aaron, Bob, Steve, Mike Wagner, Ali, and Greg Smith.

Different riders have different training objectives at this time of year, and the group quickly split into Steve Owens and Mike Wagner doing the 2TT off the front, the wheelsucker by himself behind them trying to hold steady power numbers, and the first chase not far behind him, followed by a second chase.

Mike, Steve, the wheelsucker and the first chase all recombined shortly before crossing route 2 before the rest stop, but the wheelsucker was leading into the traffic circle, got a gap in traffic, and got away. By upping his target power band for a short while the wheelsucker was able to stay away to the rest stop.

When Mike, Steve and the chase one group rolled in, the wheelsucker announced he would continue without stopping and left, assuming the rest of the group would follow, and would probably catch him as there was a strong headwind to be dealt with on the way back. But the wheelsucker had a long and tiring ride by himself.

When he finally arrived back at the Park & Ride all the ABRTer's cars were gone. Greg Smith was still there and reported that the entire group had short cut the course or turned around at the rest stop. No WONDER no one caught the wheelsucker...

The "Other" Saturday Ride, a.k.a the Pete Penzell ride

Given the wet roads and chance of rain, and looking at the workouts my coach gave me, I decided to do my Sunday MTB (or fixie) ride on Saturday on the fixie, and ride the Saturday group ride on Sunday. That is why I was not in the Davidsonville Park & Ride at 9:55AM on Saturday. Rather, I was at the small parking area just off 450, close to the naval academy bridge, with Ryan Guttride and his friend David. Alex Pline rolled in a few minutes late after flatting on the way over. Ryan, Alex and Ali were on fixies, Dave was on a nice old road/commuter bike with fenders and GEARS.

As Alex reported on e-mail:

"Ryan, Dave, Ali and I had a nice ride (45 fixie miles) on the "other
ride". Hopefully, we'll see a wheelsucker report!"

It would appear that we are NOT seeing a wheelsucker report.

I was trying to avoid high intensity and was hoping to stay in aerobic zones, so was slower on the short hills. Ryan and Dave apparently do not believe in an off season or pre season where you work on aerobic rather than anaerobic systems. Or perhaps 340 watts is still aerobic for Ryan :-)

A Lesson in Meterology?

For the third Saturday in a row the ground was wet at 10AM when the Davidsonville ride was supposed to go off. For the third Saturday in a row the temperatures were unusually warm, and while rain was threatening later in the day, it wasn't an immediate issue. How do I know this? It's called radar. Perhaps we should drop a link to the current regional radar on this site. That way riders won't have to rely on the "groundhog method" of poking their heads out of the door seeing wet ground, and going back to bed. For those of you who have missed any, or all of the last 3 Saturday rides you've missed some good ones. I don't want to hear any complaining later in the year when the wind is howling and the temperature struggles to break 40. We'll see if this is Fabrizio's true threshold.

In any event I rolled into the park and ride around 9:50 to see Doug Milliken already riding around. After getting ready it became apparent that no one else was showing up so we set off. I hit some glass just past the trailer park (no comment) and flatted about half an hour in, but the rest of the ride was uneventful. Every so often Doug, or I would remark how nice it was outside. In fact after fighting a persistent headwind for the first hour the sun came out. Once we rolled out of the rest stop it was mostly tailwind all the way back. Somehow those rollers just don't seen all that significant when you've got a 25mph wind at your back.

Doug and I managed to get a good 3 hour endurance/tempo ride in, and wondered what happened to everyone else.

Night Out With The Homies

Friday night as I was riding home in the car with my wife, Dana, I get a call from one Lance Lacy at around 4:30pm. He tells me some of us who live with 10 miles of each other were gonna be getting together with spouses and girlfriends for dinner at the Sakura Japanese Steakhouse on Housley Road (near Westfields Mall) in West Annapolis and follow it up with some drinking and fun at Stevie D's house in Millersville. My wife had a long day and didn't want to go, but I was up for it, so long as I got a ride in before. Dana gave me a pass and told me to have lot fun. So after doing a 45 min stint on the rollers, I got dressed, put on the sharp, new Team Latitude polo and headed on over to the restaurant. I got there and everyone except Sue Estes had already arrived. Ali, aka The Wheelsucker, was there sans date too. That's good, so now I wont feel like a total loser being by myself.

L to R: Amanda Wu, Amy Jones, Lance Lacy (partially hidden), Kyle Jones, Sherry Collison (Lance's girlfriend), Ty Wu (mostly hidden) and Ali Meller. Not shown, is me who took the picture.

They seated us pretty quick and took drink orders. I was kind of disappointed at the beer choices so I ordered the old standby, Sam Adams. Mind you they had every Japanese beer and Sake, but I'm not a fan of either.

They seated us a a really large grill horseshoe style. I took and end seat directly facing the Teppanyaki chef so as to get the best opportunity to get my eyebrows singed off. He did warn me...



Amamda, Ty, Sherry and Lance



Kyle, Amy and Ali



Me, and Amanda. Only Sue is missing.



That's Sue on the right.

I ordered the Filet Mignon and Chicken combo with Teppanyaki Shrimp and fried rice appetizers. The chef did all the usual stuff, the egg on the spatula trick and the onion volcano. It was pretty cool to see a Teppanyaki chef work the grill in person versus watching it on The Food Network. The food was excellent. I left nothing on my plate.

After we were done, we all packed into our vehicles and headed to the beer store and then Steve's place. While at the Waterbury there was much discussion about the proper 40 to pick up. I was looking for a 40 of Bass, but ended up with a 24 oz Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Kyle Jones on the other hand went right for the good stuff. We all thought he was getting these for Amy, but he said they were for him. You draw your own conclusions...LOL.



When we all got to Steve's he was out on his back deck blowing off fire crackers and bottle rockets at his neighbors. Seems the party was already going. After tiring of lighting off noisemakers a hasty retreat was made back into Steve's kitchen for some shots of Bourbon. Doetch went all out and picked up a bottle each of Makers Mark and 1792 Ridgemont Reserve. First up was the Ridgemont. I took my shot and slugged it down expecting the burn and gag, but not this time. It was like drinking a shot of ice tea. 1792 is probably the smoothest Bourbon I've ever had. I'm normally a vodka guy, but I will buy this. The Makers Mark was next and it was quite good also, but not nearly as smooth as the Ridgemont. Just to be sure we had another shot of Ridgemont. Did I mention this stuff is really smooth? After this I was ready for a beer so Steve handed me Grolsch to go along with the Sierra Neveda. Needless to say I drank them both and I think there was more Ridgemont too. After awhile things were getting really warm and fuzzy. I also think there was some guitar playing going on too, but I don't think I could call what I was doing guitar playing. It's been 13+ years since I played out with a band, and when I stopped gigging, I pretty much stopped playing for myself too. I've picked it up for longish stints on occasion over the years, but I'm very rusty to say the least and being drunk doesn't help.

All in all we had a great time and around 11 pm we all took off. I live 5 mins away from Steve, so my ride home, while not kosher, was not a big deal.

So now I've learned a few things about my teammates. Outside of racing, they're all great people and lots of fun to hang with. I need to start practicing my guitar on a more regular basis. And lastly I still get hangovers. I didn't do my 3 1/2 hour training ride until 1pm. By then I was able and the weather had cleared up. I did a pretty decent solo ride from the Park & Ride to North Beach and back. Using my TT bike I stayed mostly in zone 1-3 and came in with a nice 18 1/2 mph avg with 2500 feet of elev. gain for 60 miles. Maybe I should drink more often.

One last thing before I forget. There is no such thing as a free lunch when your married. Dana had off work on Sunday and her birthday is tonight. Happy 39 hon!

Even so I spent the whole day with her on Sunday and we went to Stitches 2008. A yarn and knitting expo at the Baltimore Convention Center. I think we actually spent more time at the light rail stops waiting for the damn train then we did at the expo. Still any day I get to spend with my wife is a good day.

Cheers,

FGR

ABRT Mt Bike Ride 11/9

On Sunday, 9 members of ABRT showed for a great mt bike ride on a beautiful day at Patapsco. It was a spirited but not-too-hard pace for me and easy pace for the experts. It was pretty cool to be sportin' the team kits in mass as we came across a fair amount of on-coming bikers and hikers! The woods sure afforded some nice protection from what seemed like a windy day everywhere else. I may be missing someone, but those in attendance included Mike Cunningham, Kidd Manville, Sean Sullivan, Dennis Scanlon, Dee (Mike’s wife), Dave Bradshaw, Tom Mackay, Rick P, myself, Jonathon Seibold (from Family Bike shop), and Jim McNeely from Coppi. Kidd, Sean, Jonathan, and Jim had already been out with some others for an hour or so before we joined forces along the way.

The woods were beautiful with bright fallen leaves everywhere; they added to the challenge because they were hiding some sneaky ruts and obstacles here and there. We crossed several small streams that were *COLD* but refreshing enough on my toes (that is, if you splashed too much as you were attempting to get across). It was a great workout for me, especially since my mt bike muscles have atrophied over the past few months...that and my brake was rubbing, among a few other mechanical excuses (not to mention that I am slower than everyone else, of course). I was busy bitching about my gears not shifting down when I needed them to, yet there were several others on freakin' single speeds sans a single complaint. There were a few logs that I didn’t bother to ride over- but I did ok on some of the smaller uphill logs that I would typically have avoided. It's always fun to watch Young Tom and all the others who are more technically savvy out there! I felt pretty good w/ the occasional rock garden and seemed fine with my rear shock locked out.

Mishaps along the way included Rick w/ a flat pretty early on the ride. He was straddling his brand new Cannondale 29'er with tubeless tires- so probably just squeezed some air out on one of the more significant rock edges (but I am not sure)- he managed to get air back into it without a long wait or incident. Later however, Dave broke his derailleur! This was followed by his having to convert his machine to a single-speed, using my trusty chain tool. I think I have loaned out that tool to at least 4 or 5 folks in the past... never actually having to learn how to use it myself. I had one spectacular endo- but of course it is not spectacular unless there are witnesses. Thank goodness I was in the back, so no one else saw me (blush)! I still have no idea what reached out and grabbed my front wheel. It was fast and silent. I slammed my diaphragm on my bars hard enough to painfully knock all the wind out of me. I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs to squeeze out even a feeble attempt at “help”! All that I accomplished was a comical whimper and faint whisper- I might have done just as well to have thought the words instead. So I laid there and thought real hard as I watched the rest of the group ride off up the trail ahead without me. Eventually I was breathing again and back on my bike wondering when they would figure out that they had one less rider. But it wasn't but a few minutes later that I encountered Mike coming back to look for me. This as Dennis went off on an adjacent trail thinking I had simply made a wrong turn (very likely since I have no clue where I am out there). But I was fine and ready for another hour or so and off we went. Shortly before the finish, Rick went down somewhere and lost his pump. So he doubled back to find it. Rick is apparently getting used to the way his shiny new 29'er handles out there...(whereas I'm getting used to the way a bike actually handles out there...). I noticed Rick had some slightly skinned knees peeking through some newly "vented" tights. But it was all in a day's fun on the trail and I think everyone had a good time or workout. Let's do it again and again! And remind me to bring my helmet cam along next time...

Not sure how long or far we went exactly, but it was just enough for me.

SuePer

This Week's "The Other Saturday Ride"

Not sure who was at the Davidsonville Park n Ride yesterday, but Peter P, Doug Shapter and Alex Pline did the "other Saturday Ride" from the B&A Trail Park n Ride. I had been watching the radar map which showed a brief shower at 9:30 being the last of the rain. Regardless, I was going to ride my new Surley fixed gear bike. I had been doing a few shorter rides just to get acquainted with the fixie and was really looking forward to a group ride, so I was riding, rain or shine. At least it was pretty warm! I got there at 9:55 and after doing a few laps around the parking lot figured I'd be riding alone, but in rolled Doug and a bit after 10, Peter. The three of us rolled out and did the same loop as last week (see the full course on bikely.com), cutting it short a hair (to ~37 mi) by turning on Chesterfield Rd and then going south on Crownsville back to Md 450.

Towards the end of the ride, I was feeling the effect of the fixie. Going downhill was increasingly becoming difficult so I was feathering the brake more. On Sunday morning, I was definitely feeling a little beat up, way more tired than almost double the mileage for the regular Saturday ride. Better workout for less time?? I think I still have a ways to go before I attempt the regular Saturday ride on the fixie...

The other Saturday ride has worked well for me when I (like Peter and others) am a little constrained by family obligations, especially now that the rides are all starting at 10. I encourage others to attend if this works for you! Very fixie friendly.

Alexander Cyclocross Superstar

I had the pleasure of officiating at the Rockburn CX race yesterday out in beautiful Rockburn Park in Howard County. This was the site of Ali Meller's first cross race. I managed to get quite of few pics of the ole' boy tearing it up on his mountain bike. He looked like he suffered quite a bit, but as this after race pic shows, he looked like he had a blast. So did Chris and Pete. Pete bagged a season best (?) 6th place in the Masters B. Hef #1 looked like he was having an off day I'm sad to say, espcially since he did so well last week at DCCX. I'm sure he be back on form for Tacchinno and the MABRA Champs race at the end of the month. Chris raced the 9am Cat 4 race and I'm afraid I didn't get any pictures during that one. But I did get him looking all gangster after the Masters B. Great job fellas! Race results are here.

The rest of the pictures are here. In there is a seqence where you can see Ali almost making out of the sand pit before he fell over. Dont feel bad Ali, the only guy who made it thru the pit without dismounting was KBS/Medifast pro Jonny Sundt in the Elite Men's race and he only bagged a lonely 4th place.

Cheers,

FGR

The Rockburn Cross

When the wheelsucker told his coach he wanted to try cyclocross, he meant in general, perhaps hypothetically, not NOW! But Coach Mike apparently misunderstood and scheduled a Sunday workout that was the Rockburn Cyclocross race. The wheelsucker's coach is VERY enthusiastic about cyclocross. The wheelsucker even tried to beg off by pointing out that the team had a great hill ride planned for the same day, but Coach Mike was adamant.

Did we mention that the wheelsucker does not have a cross bike?

So after some last minute advice from Mike Heffernan and Peter Jensen, the wheelsucker started near the back of the 3/4 35+/45+/55+ pack, riding his mountain bike, with the new wider-and-much-more-aggressive tires (the stock tires were not up to Patapsco riding as per an earlier wheelsucker report). The pack sprinted over the parking lot to the first turn and then jammed on the brakes and unclipped and waited, 'cause there was no way 80-plus riders were going to fit around the turn into the narrow grass lane at the same time. The rest of the race is a daze. The wheelsucker believes the race was supposed to be 45 minutes long; it seemed rather longer. The wheelsucker's HR monitor (when the wheelsucker was even able to take a look) was showing a heat rate 3-8 beats below the wheelsucker's maximum. The wheelsucker was slowing a lot going into corners, and slow through the corners, slow at the obstacles, and was losing distance/time, but could gain on the climbs. Early in the race as the course wound back and forth, the wheelsucker could see his team mates Mike Heffernan and Peter Jensen near the front of the race. But the field spread out, with the wheelsucker close to the back. Peter ended up 6th, Mike was 29th, and the wheelsucker was rather further back, actually near the back. In fact the wheelsucker was in such a daze he did not realize it was the last lap, and did not accelerate/sprint for the finish (rather he was setting up for the right turn to start the next lap) and an opportunist sprinted by him just before the line. But the wheelsucker took some solace from passing rather more riders than passed him, despite some early losses at the sandpit (the wheelsucker hopes that he did not get sand inside the bottom bracket) and the obstacles.

The wheelsucker's takeaways:
1. Use the faster tires
2. Do NOT try to pedal through the sand trap unless you know how to pedal in sand
3. Work on the dismount and mount technique so one loses less distance at the two "carry bike over" obstacles.
4. Carefully consider if he wants to do cyclocross again
5. Wear as little team kit as possible when you suspect you are not going to do well

Chris Adair rode an earlier race, but the wheelsucker neglected to ask him how he did.

Peter and the wheelsucker had a nice ride in Patapsco afterwards, which left the wheelsucker believing he was a little better at MTB riding than the first time he was in Patapsco. And the forecast rain will probably wash the blood off the rocks and trees.

Latitude Thurmont Ride

Question: is it considered wheelsucking if there are no wheels to suck? More on that later...

We had a great turnout for today's Ace, rip the legs off hill ride, apologies for anyone I've missed: Ace, Tom A, Rick P, Stu, Bob W, Chris H, Steve, Eric, Mike W, Mike H, Ty, Amanda, Alex, and our two token riders in Red, Dave and Greg Smith.

The weather was cool with a moderate wind from the northeast which proved to make the second half of the course harder. Chris H and Mike H, both had a couple hours riding in by the time we rolled out of the Mountain Gate Restaurant a little after 10am. Pretty much out of the box we were going up Catoctin Mountain on MD 77. Alex led up the bottom of the climb at a very reasonable tempo (purely self centered preservation!), but after swinging off, the pace ramped up and promptly split the group in half, a theme that would repeat throughout the day.

The temperatures were fairly warm while there was some sunshine, making me wonder whether I had over dressed. After regrouping at the top, we continued on eventually stopping again to regroups at about the 20 mile mark, which was about at the bottom of the first climb.

Regrouping at Gathland State Park

We just kept trucking over the rollers and up to the top of the intermediate climb to Gathland State Park, then decending into Boonsboro, where we stopped for drinks. A few decided to take a "short cut" back. Chris H unfortunately had two broken spokes in addition to an additional 2 hrs on the bike so he was happy to take a route that he thought would avoid the long hill on 491 to Fort Ritchie. Turns out it really didn't save much and was perhaps just as hard if not harder according to Mike Wagner.

Things split up pretty quickly on the last climb up 491, with the me being in the B group. Back to my question:

Q: Is it still wheelsucking if you are so OTB that there are no wheels to suck?
A: No, it is NOT wheelsucking. It is just sucking... (thanks for the answer-you know who your are!)

Anyway, the group waited for me at the top at the corner of Ft Ritchie Road. The A group decided to deviate from the cue sheet and follow the "new" Civil War Century route up Wise Rd (I think that is it), which according to Steve O, was a couple very hard miles. Our group short circuited the route a hair by going down Ft Ritchie Rd, which dumps out on 550 in Sabillasville. From there, a clean shot back to Thurmont. By this time, it was cloudy wit 4+ hrs in the saddle and getting very cold. I am very happy I had the gear that I did.

Yeah Baby, all you can eat fried chicken!

The "short cut" group got back to the cars a little before the B group, followed shortly thereafter by the A group. After changing, 6 of us went into the Mountain Gate for the all you can eat buffet. Restraint was difficult, but Ace was the only one who gave into the pie table! We all joked about eating dinner again when we got home. I'm not sure who else did, but I polished off the Chinese food leftovers!

It was a great hilly ride. I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly suffered on the last climb. Thanks Ace and Chris for organizing the ride! Hopefully, this is reasonably coherent as I am really, really tired.

The New "Other Saturday Ride"

Six riders cam out for the inaugural "Other Saturday Ride" led by Peter Penzel: Peter P, Peter, a West Annapolis Neighbor I never knew I had, Ty and Amanda Wu, Alex Pline and another rider who's name I did not catch (sorry!). We departed the B&A Trail Parking lot on MD 450:


View Larger Map

The route will be familiar to most team members: through West Annapolis, down Bestgate Rd, out MD 450 to Rutland Rd, Left on Rossback (away from the Dville park and ride), left on St George Barber, looping around to Governor Bridge and back to Rossback, over 424 and back down to MD 450. Because I was going to do the Team Thurmont Ride Sunday, I chose to pretty much wheelsuck the entire ride. I was chatting with Peter P (who rode the whole ride on the front) for a bit, but had to work too hard, so promptly went back to wheelsucking! As such, I made a bee line back to Annapolis on MD 450 with the other Peter, while the 4 remaining riders added a loop through Crownsville. and based on the suffering in Thurmont, I'm glad I did (see next post). Up St. Stephens Church Road, right on Chesterfield, north on Crownsville to Sunrise Beach, River Road, Generals Highway, Bestgate and back to the park and ride, for about 40 and change miles. A very nice course. If you short circuit and eliminate the Crownsville loop it's more like 35 miles.

As Peter P explained, he wants to have this be a real training ride that is very focused on making best use of 2.5 hours for training, rather than the rather unstructured standard Saturday ride. So if this appeals to you, come on out, Peter will be there.

Thursday October 30th Training Ride: The Wheelsucker Report or "We're Not Sprinting!"

This was it, the last weeknight training ride of the year. With the Daylight Savings Time clock change coming this weekend, there would not be enough daylight to ride any more. Actually even without the DST change, there was not enough light to finish the ride.

The wheelsucker kept on going on Patuxent Parkway when the others split off left, as he wanted to do his 2x20 @ 80-90% of LT workout, and would have been going too hard if on the front, and way too easy if sitting in.

By happenstance and some careful timing by the wheelsucker, just after he crossed 214 on his way back, part way through is second 20 minute interval, he saw a target -- the other riders -- some distance up the road. It was dark enough that the wheelsucker's aging eyes could not read the power numbers on his computer clearly. He was supposed to be averaging about 250 watts, but with a target up the road, a
"7" looked a lot like a "1", and the wheelsucker was probably seeing 27n, deciding it was 21n, and pushing harder. It took him all the way from 214 to the last level before the sprint to catch the group, though the chase was a little quicker once the 20 minute interval ended and the wheelsucker gave up all pretences of keeping his wattage in the target range and PUT THE HAMMER DOWN! (well, put the hammer down for the wheelsucker), and rolled up to the tail end of the group, huffing, puffing, hyper ventilating and wheezing, just as they were setting up for the sprint. But then a strange thing happened; no one seemed to be sprinting. The wheelsucker rolled up to Stu, who told him no one was sprinting. This was a little hard for the wheelsucker to believe, so he rolled past Stu and Steve, and accelerated to catch Ace who was in front a few bike lengths ahead. The wheelsucker pulled up next to Ace and asked him what was going on. Ace replied with "GO! He's jumping!", as Steve Owens (who it turns out WAS sprinting after all) whizzed by at speed. Gosh!, said the wheelsucker (well, not really, but this is a family blog so we'll leave it as "gosh") as the gap to Steve opened. But then the wheelsucker launched into the signature wheelsucker sprint, and went after Steve. But Steve was at speed and had a gap, and the wheelsucker could not get to him, and in the meantime someone else who was not going to sprint, was in fact sprinting. In the fading dusk light, the wheelsucker's eyesight was not good enough to distinguish who was second between him and the other person "not sprinting", but Steve was clearly first.

"Gosh!, so much for not sprinting", thought the wheelsucker, considering that it would be months until Tuesday/Thursday training rides started again, and provided a chance for revenge.

Tuesday October 28th Training Ride: The Wheelsucker Report

The cold! The wind! The suffering, the misery!

Four certifiable "hard men" did the training ride. It was so bad, Steve Owens was not there. There was so little daylight they turned right off of route 2 onto Polling House, for the short-short version of the route. Despite the shorter route it was still nearly dark when they returned to the Park & Ride.

Saturday on Sunday, A Fine Piece of Wheelsucking

Since, according to Steve, we all screwed the pooch on the weather on Saturday (he had a fine ride with the Navy riders) and the rain that did eventually come washed out the proposed Sunday mountain bike ride, we gathered on Sunday morning at 9 for a "do over" on the Saturday training ride. The weather was glorious albeit a bit cool, but not bad for the end of October.

Steve, Ryan, Rick, Tom A, Ali, Ian, Dave, and Alex left for a nice tempo ride. The pace was nice and steady, not too fast for the first half to the store, though Ryan, Dave and Ali showed occasional alarming tendencies to take longer harder pulls. The wheelsucker stopped doing this when he very nearly went OTB after taking a long and hard (for the wheelsucker) pull, but Ryan and Dave were frequently at the front.

While rolling by the beach in North Beach the wheelsucker goes off the front pushing a steady 260 watts. Knowing it was just the wheelsucker, no one cared. The chase let him go, but kept him in easy range, and carefully timed the catch for just about the middle of the hill out of Rosehaven, after the wheelsucker had pedaled hard by himself all the way from North Beach to the hill. But the wheelsucker had "upped" his power on the climb to 310-330 watts and so was caught by a flying chase led by Ryan, but about 2/3rds of the way up the climb. "Oh, sh**!" muttered the wheelsucker as Ryan led the chase by, but he dug deep, and found a few more watts from somewhere to catch on the back and wheelsuck for all he was worth, and not go OTB. Dave and Tom Aga kept it fast up Leitch Road. The pace was high enough that the wheelsucker accused Dave of being nasty. Steve Owens and Alex Pline led down the hill to the wall, but Ryan and Dave put the hammer down, and rolled by everyone on the wall. The wheelsucker went to wheelsucker maximum power in an effort to stay with them, and did get to the top in third, just a couple of bike lengths behind, but thoughts of off season, leg pain, lung pain and wondering why he was doing this took over, and he gave up, and sat up, letting the gap open. The wheelsucker rolled to the back of the chase and let others do the work. Alex took up the chase and just about closed the gap at the stop sign, setting the stage for some successful wheel sucking shortly thereafter. The pace up the short climb after crossing the second road was not excessive, but no one was able to relax and catch their breath.

On the rollers after the dump, the bill from the chase over the wall was coming due. Alex went very quickly from garden variety wheelsucking with the Wheelsucker and Rick (who was tired from his previous days running), to a "grim determination" must-follow-the-wheel-in-front, to must-wheel-front... While riders were tiring, Ryan and Dave seemed to be in energizer bunny mode, taking long, fast, high cadence pulls while the rest hung on in varying degrees of pain. And if the others were pulling and not going fast enough, Ryan and Dave would simply roll by and take over. Alex finally did recover, but it took until after turning on Harwood.

The wheelsucker found himself leading up his favorite hill after the descent to the sweeping right, and was giving it a good, but–not-too-hard-in-case-someone-put-in-an-attack-at-the-top effort; he made it to the top, but just as he got to the false flat, Alex rolled by him (with a sh-eating grin) with the rest of the group on Alex's wheel. The wheelsucker was just able to gasp "You're dissing an old man!" while pushing hard to grab on at the back and wheelsuck some more.

The group stayed together across 214 and all the way to the sprint. Ryan and Alex did last leadout, while those who were maneuvering for the sprint jockeyed for position, with the wheelsucker wheelsucking at the back. Ryan got the group up to 28 mph on the climb to the finish turning it over to Alex before the would-be sprinters started rolling by him. The wheelsucker was hanging on at the back for dear life, as the sprinting group rolled by Alex. Every time someone pulled out to the left to pass a rider ahead, those following all stayed on his wheel. And so it came to pass that as the dwindling sprint group approached the finish line, it was down to only two riders, with Tom Aga doing the classic Tom Aga-I-can-spin-at-150-plus-seated sprint, while the wheelsucker, still glued to Tom's wheel, was standing and going as hard as a tired aging wheelsucker can go. All the passing had been to the left, so Tom was lined up fairly far left in the lane. But the wheelsucker was too tired and too focused to notice or care, and in a desperate move rolled a little further left, crossed the yellow lines he did not see, and inched past Tom Aga, and rolled across the finish line first, with Tom perhaps half a bike length behind his wheel.

Tom pointed out the wheelsucker's error, but the wheelsucker was gasping too hard to respond, and was way too tired to care. A remarkably strong Steve Owens held steady power up the climb to Davidsonville Road, easily pulling away. The wheelsucker gave chase after catching is breath, but could not catch Steve, and was caught by the others just before the right turn onto Davidsonville.

Later in the Park & Ride a quick comparison over average power was made. Ryan was the clear winner at 225, and the lowest figure was Rick's at 170 (with the wheelsucker only slightly above that). As Ryan put it, "a fine piece of wheelsucking!"

Saturday October 25 Training Ride

Under cloudy skies with warm temperatures, a stiff wind out of the South, and no rain (did I mention it wasn't raining?) Steve was the only ABRT rider to show up for the ride. As he put the bike together contemplating a 3 hour tempo ride several Naval Academy team members showed up for the ride. A bit after 9AM it was apparent that no one else was going to show so Steve, and 4 Naval Academy cycling team members set off.

Early in the ride it became apparent that the Navy team had an old school coach as they were just out to do base miles, and Steve's tempo was breaking the group up. There was a bit of dissention in the group about who wanted to go hard, but it was agreed upon that things would start out at a fairly relaxed tempo. After a brief pause for a flat tire early in the ride things continued at an endurance type pace until the first rest stop. As the ride progressed it was obvious that unlike ABRT the Naval Academy team actually waits for their women. A women's collegiate "A" rider from the team was doing a good job hanging in, but the team would slow up for her after some of the short hard efforts on the hills.

At the rest stop knee warmers and arm warmers were disappearing as the weather had warmed a bit. The sun would make an occaisional appearance at various times throughout the ride. As we hit the light at the beach a glance at the flag revealed that we'd have a very nice stiff tailwind for the remainder of the ride. The pace picked up a bit, but things were still fairly relaxed. Coming up the hill out of the beaches Steve was sitting comfortably on the wheel of an Academy rider who was cranking out a fairly steady 350 watts. This was the smoothest trip he could remember up this hill in quite awhile, but alas after less than a minute there was a cry from the back about reducing the pace.

The group continued to do a nice steady pace on the rollers with several riders taking long even pulls. After the light at Central Avenue Steve was informed that only two of the Academy riders would be participating in the sprint, and that he was welcome to move up in the pace-line. He happily sat on wheels until the sprint, but not knowing who the best sprinter was he ended up picking the wrong wheel, and finishing second.

Just as the group finished the sprint the wind picked up, and the rain started. It was light at first, but by the time the group made it back to the park and ride things had picked up considerably. The Academy riders decided to try, and fit all four of their bikes into the one vehicle as 3 of them had ridden to the start, but none wanted to deal with the 20 to 30+ mph crosswinds on the way back to the Academy.

The Academy team will most likely be attending some of our future rides this winter, and a brief discussion on the merits of "old school" training versus "new school" ensued. There was definitely some interest in the "new school" philosophy.

Another interesting thing about riding with the Academy team is that aside from the usual bits of useful insight shared by motorists we actually did get a "Go Navy" a couple of times. Somehow I never remember hearing a "Go ABRT" on any of our rides although I do remember several phrases that started with the word "go".

Those of you who were sitting on the couch (gee I guess that would be all of you) missed a really nice off-season ride.

Mountain Biking: A Wheelsucker Report

Apart from the two road racing bikes, the rain/indoor trainer bike, the TT bike, the fixie and the Powercranks bike, the wheelsucker has a mountain bike. So far he has mostly ridden it downtown for coffee, as it is nice in traffic (one sits more upright, and can be seen better). In fact he has only been off-road with it once, in Quiet Waters park. The dirt on the tires has been left on so others would not immediately realize the wheelsucker was a poseur when it came to mountain biking. The wheelsucker has wanted to try riding off road, but his cycling workout schedule has either had him on road bikes of one kind or another, or recovering, every day since last November. But all this changed after the Deep Blue TT; the wheelsucker was – and is -- free to try other things. So when the Latitude/ABRT mountain bike team started e-mailing about a ride, the wheelsucker thought, "Why not?", and "I’m in!"

The wheelsucker showed up at the appointed parking lot at the appointed time, let young Tom adjust his tire pressure and front fork (thanks, Tom!), and then they were off.

But it turns out there is no place to hide in the woods, no way to wheelsuck and let others do the work; no way to hide the wheelsucker’s weaknesses.

Whoever came up with “It is hard to teach an old dog a new trick” was on to something, thought the wheelsucker as he struggled after his teammates, who were somewhere well up the trail. Mountain biking is not easy, and it is not easy to learn either.

The quiet of the woods was rent by loud “Uhhhh” sounds as the wheelsucker fell, hitting rocks and tree roots and temporarily deflated his lungs on impact, or simply fell into a tree (same “Uhhhh sound on impact) he was trying to go around. The rocks and stones were unhurt, and the tree he ran into did not appear to be damaged; the wheelsucker did not get off as lightly.

When he wasn’t hitting rocks and trees, the wheelsucker’s helmet was fending off low hanging braches. This seemed a useful feature to the wheelsucker, until the time he partly hooked a branch with the helmet, and had a very strange sensation as the helmet slowed down while still attached to his head.

Why was the wheelsucker falling all the time you ask? Perhaps it was his failing eyesight; unable to notice the tree roots and rocks partly hidden by sun-dappled leaves, or maybe it was the trail his team mates picked which apparently went through many streams/creeks (or maybe the same stream over and over again), and over some number of large logs, a section paved with logs (BTW, the origin of the word corduroy.. cord du Roi.. were roads built for the king of France). Then there was the difficulty steering while the front wheel was in the air, having bounced up over a large log, or lifting off the ground as the wheelsucker frantically tried to propel the bike up a steep section.

As the wheelsucker tired and overheated, he started to wonder if he was going to get lost in the woods. His teammates would tire of waiting for him, or they would not stop at a fork, and the wheelsucker would take the wrong turn, and ride down a trail by himself. Eventually, realizing he was lost, he would use the GPS in his iPhone to try to navigate his way to a road, but the iPhone battery would die before he made it, and would be stranded in the woods with winter coming on. :-)

Fortunately for the wheelsucker the others were willing to stop and wait for him many times. They would rest, and then when an exhausted, bruised and battered wheelsucker would roll up, they would be ready to go on. Eventually, after two and a half hours, the wheelsucker made it back to his car.

By that time it hurt to pedal and hurt to walk. The wheelsucker had difficulty removing his cycling clothes to put on dry clothes. When the others noticed that there wasn’t any fresh blood dripping from him, they offered to take him back out for more (I am not making this up).

Getting into his car was hard. The wheelsucker could barely drive it home as his right leg was so stiff and sore. Once parked at home, he was barely able to get out of the car.

The wheelsucker’s thoughts on mountain biking:
1. Thanks to the guys for waiting so many times
2. Riding over large logs is a skill the wheelsucker needs to work on
3. Clipping in an out of the pedals gets harder as the wheelsucker tires
4. Apparently the bike can take rather more than the rider
5. The bike does not steer well when you are braking
6. Not braking means you hit the next tree/rock/ground a LOT harder
7. Perhaps the wheelsucker’s weight weenie tires need to be replaced with wider tires
8. Maybe the wheelsucker is too old a dog: For Sale: one Motobecane 9627 Fly weight weenie mountain bike ;-)
9. It all feels better with ibuprofen and Goslings rum (for medicinal purposes only, you understand).

Saturday October 18th Training Ride: The Wheelsucker Report

The wheelsucker cannot remember the last time he rode 60 miles. Certainly last winter, but there have been few MABRA road races this past season, and few long training rides since last winter. The last few races were crits or time trials, the first typically under an hour, while the Deep Blue TT was only a 25 minute ride. This has left the wheelsucker ill prepared to deal with the rigors of a Latitude Saturday training ride.

A wheelsucker firmly in off season, who had not ridden 60 miles in some time, pedaled out of the Davidsonville Park & Ride on a cool morning, not feeling super strong. While Ace, Doetsch and Keith were not there, Ryan Guttridge, Tom MacKay, a strong rider from Florida, and Mike Wagner were part of the large group of (mostly Latitude/ABRT) riders.

Overall it was not a super fast pace, but it was fast in places, with times when the wheelsucker was hard pressed to hold a wheel (frequently when Ryan, who must not have gotten the e-mail about it being off season, was taking a pull).

The lead group had shrunk substantially by the time it re-crossed 214. Some riders had turned around at the rest stop; others may have been strewn through south county. A suffering wheelsucker was still with the lead group; he was impressed with how well Ted Harris and Alex Pline were riding.

Ryan did lead out; a number of riders started sprinting early. The wheelsucker was doing what he does best, wheelsucking at the back, as the group approached the sprint. He moved up a few places just before and during the last downhill. Riders started winding it up early, and the wheelsucker gratefully moved over behind the sprinters and rode the entire way to the finish line, wheelsucking, or at least shielded from the breeze. The wheelsucker believes that the Florida rider won the sprint, with the wheelsucker overtaking several sprinters who went too early and sat up before the finish, to cross 3rd.

Tuesday October 14th Training Ride: The Wheelsucker Report

The wheelsucker LOVES the Tuesday/Thursday training rides, and with the days shortening, and the imminent arrival of daylight savings time, the wheelsucker believes these training rides are something to be treasured while one can. On the other hand, two days of bouncing around on a fixed gear were not kind to the wheelsucker; so it was a conflicted wheelsucker riding out of the Davidsonville Parker & Ride, wondering if the soreness in his legs would go away as he warmed up.

The Doetsch was a no show, but with Ace and Invincible Nat to drive the pace, there was certainly enough horsepower to make it interesting. The ride started with a medium sized group including a couple of non Latitude riders, one wearing team kit. There was a minimal warmup and the pace was “solid” not long after crossing Governor Bridge Road. The peleton started to take casualties shortly after turning off Patuxent Parkway, on the first climb. The wheelsucker was trying to ride at the back early, but people kept letting him in before he rotated all the way back, and he was also concerned about early attacks from strong riders, so was not entirely comfortable riding all the way at the back. Ace rolled by and off the front at the top of Harwood hill, but the wheelsucker found Nat’s wheel and took the pull up. The pace stayed solid-but-not-too extreme to route 2, faltered a little on route 2 as the paceline had to stop rotating and slow down to go by some cars parked in the shoulder, but then started to ramp up on Bayard. There was not enough daylight for the full course, so Ace charged past the right turn for South Polling House, trying to put the hurt on riders. The peleton had been weeded down to the stronger riders, and everyone left was determined to hang.

The wheelsucker’s legs were thoroughly warmed up, and the tightness was gone, but he was still not far from the limit, and was being careful to take short pulls and have enough in reserve to get back on. Ace rolled off the front on one of the rollers on Bayard, everyone looked at each other wondering who was going to close it and then Nat went hard. The wheelsucker had been waiting for just such an opportunity and just as any wheelsucker would do, was on Nat in a flash. The trouble is that Nat is young, strong, fit, and has been riding a LOT with a pro team. The wheelsucker took the tow up to Ace, but then decided enough was enough, as Nat kept accelerating and went right on by Ace. This created a predicament for the wheelsucker, as there were no more wheels to suck, and Ace was having none of it, and was on the wheelsucker’s wheel. With exhortations from Ace in his ear, the wheelsucker put in a nominal pull and rotated off to let someone else (the peleton had caught up) take a turn. Nat was soon reeled in (no thanks to the wheelsucker) and the peleton continued down Bayard. The wheelsucker was leading at the turn onto Sands, but sat up immediately to let the paceline go by, so he could wheelsuck at the back. The group continued up Sands, with the wheelsucker taking short pulls when he had to, and conserving his limited strength to cover attacks.
The boys gather round to tell stories after the ride


But then a possible opportunity presented itself. As you know the wheelsucker’s sprint is less than impressive, so the wheelsucker hopes to “thin the herd” and make the break smaller, so he can finish something like 6th instead of something like 9th. So when the rider leading the paceline pulled off just before one of the Sands road rollers (Rule #7, NEVER pull off just before, or on a climb, as you will struggle to get back on and are vulnerable to the next guy pushing the pace!), the wheelsucker pulled through, stood and just HAMMERED (well, hammered for the wheelsucker) up the short hill. A quick glance under his arm revealed that people were on his wheel, so the give-it-everything-you-have burst from the wheelsucker had not shaken much loose, EXCEPT for the poor guy who had just pulled off. The wheelsucker’s victim was Aaron Canale, who had been riding hard despite not feeling 100%. So once again age and treachery do in youth and strength.

Hammering up the hill took it out of the wheelsucker, so he promptly pulled off and caught on the back of the paceline and caught his breath.

The wheelsucker AGAIN found himself leading going down the dip before the "T" where Sands ends at Patuxent, but carefully coasted and then pedaled easily encouraging the next rider to pull through as soon as possible. The wheelsucker was able to grab on the back (though it was a near thing) and was still attached at the top of the climb.

And then a random car turning left from Patuxent onto Sands forced the group to slow right down, giving the wheelsucker the break he needed. Ace was the first onto Patuxent, with two riders on his wheel. The wheelsucker briefly thought about closing the gap himself, but then saw Nat to his left, and decided to let Nat do it (with the wheelsucker on his wheel). Up the wheelsucker’s favorite climb things were looking good, except that the wheelsucker’s burning legs refused to accelerate as fast as the riders in front, and the wheelsucker was very nearly gapped, but somehow struggled back on. The light at 214 turned red just as the break arrived, so it sat up, looked both ways, waited for the green light (No WAY!!! It looked both ways and crossed). But then a funny thing happened; everyone sat up while Ace was having a conversation with another rider. This suited an aging and tired wheelsucker very well, so he did nothing to disturb the relaxed pace. One of the non Latitude riders asked if that was it for the ride, and the wheelsucker reassured him we still has about 12 minutes to go, and it would probably get fast again. Then Steve Owens ramped it up a little, and the wheelsucker reluctantly grabbed his wheel rather than let him go. The respite was over, and soon the group was hammering again. The group was reasonably large, so there was lots of recovery time, but the pace was fairly high when Ace or Nat were pulling, and there was still a risk of being gapped on the hills. The wheelsucker actually lit it up HARD (hard for the wheelsucker) on one of the climbs, opened a gap, and then realized that no one in the group was worried about it, knowing the wheelsucker would come back quickly. The wheelsucker sheepishly sat up and caught on the back again.
more 'revisionist history' about the ride


As the group approached the finish line, Ace asked the wheelsucker if he wanted to sprint. The wheelsucker was tired, winded, sore and not feeling super strong (even for the wheelsucker), but having Ace as a leadout man was tempting, so the wheelsucker said "YES!" and sucked Ace’s wheel in the paceline. Going down the hill, Nat went early with Steve Owens trying to hold his wheel. The gap behind Nat opened. But without appearing to be working hard, Ace’s speed was increasing, with the wheelsucker desperately trying to stay on his wheel. As Ace passed Steve, the wheelsucker found himself without quite enough room to stay on Ace’s wheel -- he was forced over to the left -- and found himself working MUCH harder than he wanted to, to stay on Ace’s wheel, and then, as Ace’s speed continued to increase, the gap started to open, and the wheelsucker lost the draft, and howled in misery to Ace that he was off. Unencumbered by having to wait for the wheelsucker, Ace turned on the afterburners and reeled in Nat, going by him so fast that Nat sat up. The wheelsucker in turn passed Nat, just as Stu rolled by him easily at a higher speed. So Ace won easily wth Stu second and the wheelsucker 3rd.

Stu assures the wheelsucker that "it's only money!", and that he should buy Bill's SRM Pro

The wheelsucker is enjoying freedom from the tyranny of the Powertap (and the additional weight in the rear hub), so had no data for the ride.
Despite not feeling 100%, Aaron rode hard



But others did: 23.6 mph average from the Park & Ride to the finish line, and a ride of about 28 miles.
Tom rode strong, and was first back to 424


Ace cannot BELIEVE that the wheelsucker could not stay on his wheel at the sprint

Monday Post Party Ride: The Wheelsucker Report

Being new to the sport, the wheelsucker does not fully understand how to train, the seasons, when the off season starts, and what one does during the off season. Hiring a coach has helped, as the wheelsucker simply checks a website to check what today's (or tomorrow's) workout is, and does it.

But the wheelsucker's coach has not assigned any workouts since the Deep Blue TT, just over a week ago, and has simply told the wheelsucker to do what he wants, "ride your bike if you feel like it." Well, the wheelsucker has a somewhat addictive personality, and after two or three days off the bike, the wheelsucker NEEDED to get back on the bike! GIVE ME THE BIKE AND NO ONE WILL GET HURT!!!!

Another point that confuses the wheelsucker is when to ride a fixed gear and how. There seem to be different schools of thought on this. So the wheelsucker was a little lost as to what to do for a bike ride, and chose to ride the fixie because ... well maybe it was just that he had not ridden the fixie in awhile. So the wheelsucker rode the fixie on the Sunday ride, and when he heard about a MONDAY ride, he decided to use the fixie again, but changed the gearing from 44-18 to 44-17 so he would not be spinning QUITE as fast going down hills.

Stu Waring suggested the Monday ride. The wheelsucker had trouble getting out of work, but Stu, the amazing Amanda Wu, Ty, Jeff "Ace" McDermott and Alex Pline were all still waiting for him when he turned up at the Bike Doctor Annapolis parking lot. How could you NOT want to ride on such a nice afternoon!

Alex was NOT wearing his team kit, and it turned out that a sore back was keeping him off the bike. So Alex jumped on the team photographer role.
The wheelsucker is happy wearing Latitude/ABRT kit with blue socks (the wheelsucker prefers higher wool socks for fall training rides) and riding his matching Cannondale Capo with blue bar tape and blue Michelin tires. But the wheelsucker is NOT happy with his tummy bulge!


The Latitude squad rode out of the parking lot and turned right onto Bestgate Road, and there was the official Latitude photographer blocking the left lane (we already had the right lane blocked) taking photographs. NO WONDER Annapolis drivers are so aggressive towards us!
Less traffic on Ridgley
Rather than ride down Rowe Blvd, we made the left and then right onto Ridgley, quickly "zagged" onto Annapolis, went over the Naval Academy bridge and out the St. Margaret’s Road route.
It was just KILLING photographer Alex Pline to NOT be riding!

Despite being advertised as "we're going to the beach!", we did NOT turn into Sandy Point State park, but simply turned left onto East College Parkway, after crossing over route 50.

East College Parkway is easy; almost no traffic. College Parkway has more traffic, but a wider shoulder until it gets closer to route 2. It then gets interesting with lots of traffic and no shoulder, so we turned off it as soon as we could, used back roads to get to route 2, crossed it, and came back on the B&A trail, stopping at Asquith (our local version of Ilchester) to do the climb seated.

It was twentyeight miles round trip @ 19.5 mph. The wheelsucker was grateful for his 44/17, particularly going down the hills! He was bouncing too hard downhill to read the cadence on the bike computer, but was taking pulls at a cadence of 100+, and distinctly recalls holding 115-120 for some time while riding at the back while Ace took a faster pull.

October 12th Team Ride and Party/BBQ

A large number of Latitude/ABRT riders descended on Lynn and Steve Doetschman's home near Millersville at noon today, first for a relaxed team ride, and then a party/BBQ.

Despite concerns that Latitude/ABRT could not have an easy civilized no-drop ride, no matter how hard it tried, we ended up with a good ride with no one dropped. The long lost John Ver Byrke was there, as was new member Larry Dieran. Doetsch had a nice rolling route chosen which took us just over two hours to cover at a good, but not killer pace. Not only was no one dropped, but it was even a "fixie friendly" ride, as Ryan, Tom and Ali all rode their fixies.

Beer is a recovery drink. Who knew?

We were back at Lynn and Doestch's by 2:15, but the party did not really get rolling until about 3:30, as riders returned with spouses and family, and others rolled in.


The correct recovery behaviour after a ride. Sit down and drink your beer! Tom did not ride, so is drinking cola


The people playing volleyball had not done the ride!





Between multiple courses of Red, Hot and Blue, and several beers, President Shapter gave the volunteer of the year award to Dana Mellerio (club secretary), who helped keep ABRT going through some shaky times in late 2007 and early 2008, and recognized Sue Estes for rebuilding Latitude/ABRT's junior program from a standing start of zero riders, to a BAR winning program. Members present did concede that some of the credit might also go to the riders ;-)


While some considered this to be an afternoon party, others hung on for the evening.


I left before things got out of hand, but Monday rumours of late night drunken hair cutting, Jack Daniels shots, more shots, etc. are circulating.

Great company, great food, multiple kegs of beer, wine, and shots of Jack Daniels; a good time was had by all. We should do this more often!

Tuesday October 7th Training Ride: The Wheelsucker Report

A few months ago the wheelsucker followed a link in an e-mail and found an amusing cycling blog. One of the posts that have stuck in the wheelsucker's memory was something like:

All roadies know they are supposed to have an off-season to rest and recuperate. For most roadies it was last Sunday, at 4:00PM

Being new to the sport (this is the wheelsucker's second year of racing and being a Latitude/ABRT member), the wheelsucker has heard many references to the "off season", but is confused as to when it occurs, how long it lasts, and what about one's cycling changes, during the off season.

Since the last MABRA race was this past Saturday, and some of the die-hards have switched to cyclecross, and the wheelsucker's coach has stopped giving him workouts and told him to do whatever he wants, the wheelsucker could perhaps be excused for concluding that we were in the off season. He even left his primary race bike at home and took out the ultra light but twitchy Scott CR1 SL (and it IS superlight), and left all instrumentation off. The sense that it was off season and was going to be an easy ride continued when, early in the ride, the peleton caught up with Doug Milliken who was riding a cross bike. So Doug thought it was off season, too!

Frankly the first part of the ride met the above description. With Doetsch yelling encouragement from the back (the wheelsucker does wonder why Doetsch rides at the back at lot early in a ride) about "single file!" and "car back!", the ride was steady, smooth and even relatively easy. Feeling relaxed and not worried about being dropped, the wheelsucker took a couple of good (well, good for the wheelsucker) pulls, and was rewarded for his efforts with Doetsch telling him, "that was a wussy pull!" Actually, that is not quite the wording Doetsch used, but it was similar sounding and rhymes. Now the wheelsucker knows that Doetsch usually only rags on the people he likes, so took this as a compliment, though he did have his doubts.

On his next pulls the wheelsucker went a little harder just to be sure he was not being a "rhymes with 'wussy' ", but the peleton simply let him roll off the front and kept its smooth steady pace. The second time this happened (soon after going through the circle and turning onto Bayard) the wheelsucker concluded the group simply did not want to go any faster and sat up to wait. But then there was a WOOOSH as Doetsch went by grinning, towing another two or three riders at a high rate of speed. The wheelsucker gave it everything he had and managed to latch on the back and wheelsuck for all he was worth. But Doetsch eased up, and the remains of the peleton (which was shrinking fast) caught back on, and the rest of ride down Bayard was fast, but not crazy. Doetsch was still leading as the peleton stayed straight on Bayard, skipping the right turn on to South Polling House. Then Ace hit it HARD at the turn onto Sands doing an 800 meter sprint out of the corner, with one rider (Steve Owens?) trying to stay on his wheel. The wheelsucker was at the back, but noticed that Doetsch was organizing a chase and made sure he was wheelsucking on the correct wheels and took the tow up. It took a little while for everyone to line up after the corner to start the pursuit, and Doetsch waited for the chase to form, while drafting the amazing Amanda Wu. The amazing Amanda Wu simply does not know that she is not supposed to be able to catch Ace by herself when he jumps (very few riders in MABRA can), and was trying to do just that, rather than get to the back of the line and recover for the chase. This effort must have been so far beyond what she could sustain, that when Doetsch got the chase moving, she went OTB. How fast was the chase going? The wheelsucker rides an 11-26 on his CAAD9 and has a 12-25 on his Scott CR1 SL. And he normally time trials with a cadence of 95-99, so is comfortable with a high cadence. But once Doetsch got going, the wheelsucker was riding at the back of the chase, spinning out in his 53-12 gear, and wishing he had an 11 or smaller! Ace was soon caught by the Doetsch-led chase. But the peleton was shrinking fast as more and more riders were OTB, typically in pairs.

The next attack, a team effort from Doetsch and Ace, had a couple of other riders (including the wheelsucker) bridge up, but was quickly countered by some of the chase, though it took a fair bit of work by the stronger chasers to bring them back, and the effort tired out the wheelsucker, who was at the front of Doetsch and Ace's paceline slowing up so someone else could pull through, when it was caught. Doetsch and Ace quickly rotated to the back, and a careless wheelsucker (still not quite realizing that the ride had completely changed) was taking a decent pull when WOOOSH!!... Ace and Doetsch went by at a VERY high rate of speed. The wheelsucker learned later that the two had started scheming as soon as they got to the back with Doetsch urging Ace to "hit them again!" Having been pulling for a little while after bridging up to Ace and Doetsch, the wheelsucker was in no condition to respond (the normal response would be to accelerate hard and either lead the chase or catch a wheel and go with them) and was left yelling S...! (expletive deleted) and then pulling off so someone fresher could start a chase. He nearly went OTB as the chase accelerated, but somehow stayed on the back. Ace and Doetsch were going hard, but were not very far ahead as the chase tried to organize itself. The chase had Steve Owens, Matt Albanese, Rick Paukstitus, Tom Aga, Aaron Canale and the wheelsucker (and perhaps one or two more), so working together pulling them back WAS possible. But the chase did not fully organize, and the rotations were not happening quickly enough, and the chase was tiring, and Ace and Doetsch were not coming back. The wheelsucker saw all this from the back of the chase (where he was wheelsucking HARD and trying to catch his breath), and then, just as Ace and Doetsch were part way up a roller, and the chase was slowing down as it started to climb it at the bottom, the wheelsucker saw Matt Albanese pull out of the middle of the line and HAMMER! The wheelsucker wishes he could jump and sprint like Matt. The wheelsucker, in a doomed-before-it-started attempt to catch Matt's wheel, launched a monster (by wheelsucker standards) sprint up the hill, and was rewarded by seeing Matt open the distance between them only slowly. Matt caught Ace and Doetsch not long after the top of the roller. It took the wheelsucker rather longer but he somehow made it up and grabbed a wheel, just as Ace pulled off and rotated back. A spent wheelsucker managed to mumble "skip" loud enough for Ace to understand, and Ace graciously pulled back in, in front of the wheelsucker. Hoping for a few more seconds to catch his breath, the wheelsucker tried again as the next rider rotated back, but this rider was Doetsch, who in response to the wheelsucker's plea, yelled "GET UP THERE!!", and then pushed the wheelsucker forward. The wheelsucker wobbled but did not fall, and accelerated just enough to keep his place in the rotation, take a pretend pull at the front, and rotate off. Ace and Doetsch were still keeping the hammer down, and the wheelsucker's effort to stay with them was so great that various wheelsucker body functions were starting to shut down, presumably so the oxygen the wheelsucker was extracting from air with his desperate gasps could be dedicated to the wheelsucker's quads. All the wheelsucker could think of was staying on a wheel, taking the shortest pretend pulls he could, and rotating back and grabbing a wheel. Given the very limited oxygen reaching his brain, it is perhaps understandable that the wheelsucker did not see what happened to Matt; at some point the wheelsucker realized he was gone, and the wheelsucker was by himself, trying to stay with two of the strongest riders in the region.

Ace pulled off shortly before the last dip before Sands rises to the Patuxent Parkway intersection, and the wheelsucker found himself leading down the dip, and up the other side. "This is it", thought the wheelsucker, "this is where I will be slowly, painfully, inexorably, unable to keep the small gap to the wheel in front of me, and the gap will open and I will struggle manfully for a few more seconds, go off the back, sit up, and the pain will end." But though the gap opened a little near the top, the wheelsucker was somehow able to stay on.

The wheelsucker was leading again down the last hill before the sweeping right at the low point that often floods and the wheelsucker's favorite climb, doing his best. He continued pulling around the sweeping right and part way up before rotating off and grabbing a wheel. "This is it", thought the wheelsucker, "this is where I will be slowly, painfully, inexorably, unable to keep the small gap to the wheel in front of me, and the gap will open and I will struggle manfully for a few more seconds, go off the back, sit up, and the pain will end." Sure enough the wheelsucker could not stay with Ace and Doetsch at the top where it gets steeper before starting to level off, and he muttered "So long, boys" as they accelerated off the top. But Ace and Doetsch decided to be merciful -- or maybe they were enjoying the wheelsucker's suffering and wanted to continue it -- and slowed up a little, forcing the wheelsucker -- who had pretty much given up -- to stand and accelerate as hard as he could and get back on. They took it easy on him for awhile, and then hearing the gasping rate slow slightly, ramped it back up. The three caught the green light at 214 and hammered across. The wheelsucker was taking only token pulls, and was feeling bad from the effort. It seemed like more body functions were shutting down; one second the wheelsucker was expecting to "toss his cookies", the next he was wondering if he really needed to stop NOW and run for the trees to go to the bathroom. Several more times the wheelsucker thought "This is it; this is where I will be slowly, painfully, inexorably, unable to keep the small gap to the wheel in front of me, and gap will open and I will struggle briefly, go off the back, sit up, and the pain will end, and I will run for the trees." But each time Doetsch and Ace slowed just enough, and yelled at the wheelsucker to get back on.

All the wheelsucker remembers of the ride from 214 to the finish is back wheels and jerseys from the back; it was all he could do to hang on; his token pulls were probably ten seconds long. Then, on the last flat before the dip and the sprint, a miracle happened. NO, not the "I can suddenly sustain 1300 watts for 30 seconds miracle", which the wheelsucker has often hoped for, but the miracle where Ace sits up, turns to the wheelsucker and says "lets go back and pick up the others." Given that the alternative would have been to try to close a gap to Doetsch and then sprint against him, the wheelsucker gratefully accepted Ace's offer, and rode slowly back towards 214 with him, seeing first the chase group charging by, then some stragglers, and then turning to ride in with two of the last stragglers.

Later that evening, as the wheelsucker poured himself his preferred recovery drink -- hot skim milk with chai tea powder and Goslings rum -- the wheelsucker wondered how fast he had been going, how many watts he had put out, and more. But this was an off season ride, and the wheelsucker had no instrumentation at all on the bike. So it will just have to go down as an epic ride, and the wheelsucker will just have to make something up about the numbers... How fast are you doing when you spin out with a 53-12?