Tuesday July 29th Training Ride: The Wheelsucker Report

If you are going to do something, you might as well do it well. And you might as well do something you are good at. And I suck wheels very well...

We had a large (30-40) group for the training ride. As usual there were always riders willing to pull hard early, while Ace, Doetschman and the other strongest riders were nowhere to be seen. The wheelsucker noted this and did a lot of sitting in, with a few very short easy pulls. The reduced peleton rolled down the route 2 shoulder, but the typical attack where it flattens and goes "false flat" shortly before the route 2 circle, did not happen. Somehow a group of stronger riders found themselves at the front early on Bayard and started a rotating paceline. Those who were unable or unwilling to take a turn drafted behind, but then slowly, inexorably, inevitably, the lead group opened up a small gap. Early on South Polling House it looked like Ace, Steve and a rapidly tiring wheelsucker (who was begging for mercy) in the lead group, but Stu "mountain biker" Waring and Eric "nine speed is all you need" Jacobsen soon joined. Despite the five leaders going hard on South Polling House, Polling House and still hard back on Bayard, the chase was right behind. The wheelsucker does not look back, he merely fixates on the wheel in front, so I am unable to report on who the strong people in the chase were. Steve and Ace put the hammer down even more after turning onto Sands Road, and the gap finally opened up. Somewhere in there Stu went OTB, but Ace, Eric, Doetschman and the wheelsucker (taking the shortest pulls and occasionally skipping a turn) stayed together all the way. Several short cutters joined at various points, but none of them were able to hang right to the finish line. Eric did a big time leadout, with Doetchman on his wheel and Ace on Doetschman. The wheelsucker tried to ride Ace's wheel when Doetschman and Ace launched, but to no avail. I *think* Doetschman held off Ace, but I was too far back to tell for sure.

Average speed from Governor Bridge Road back to the finish line was 24.99 mph.

Sue Estes brought some watermelon for after the ride. WOW, did that hit the spot after a hard, fast, hot ride! THANKS SUE!!!!!

Who needs Sleep? The story of the Tour de 'Toona.

At 11 p.m. last night I received a text that If I was going to be racing The Cranky Monkey MTB race today I would be alone. Another friend told me around 8 p.m. as well, so I was kinda bummed. I wanted to race a crit so I set my sights on the 'toona for the next morning. I set my alarm clock for something like 4 a.m.

I couldn't sleep though so I started piling everything into the car. When I was done I figured I should just drive, Screw it. Leaving at 11:55 pm The roads were empty.

I stopped a few times for coffee and mountain dew. When I finally got to Altoona at about 3:30 a.m. (time got fuzzy for a while) I found a field that a parked along the edge of. It was next to the Lowe's Home Improvement, how romantic. I reclined the seat and got what sleep I could

I set my alarm for 7:30 a.m. but woke at 6:30. I Rolled out with enough sleep to make me feel better then the night before. I hit Sheetz, YEAH MAN. Coffee and breakfast (I had packed some PBJ's and yogurt so my breakfast was reasonable).

I found the race. I parked and did all the sign-in stuff. I felt really tired now, so I tried to get on my bike. I remember feeling bad until the start.

**The Actual Race**

8 corners. basically a rectangle with S bends thrown in to break up the straights. It was fairly technical, not as bad as Wilmington or Reston though. There were 20 laps. The field wasn't super-huge but I planted myself in the top 5. It was really fun just sitting in, when I have teammates I feel obligated to help the team and do stuff like attack. Today I wasn't racing for anyone except me. However, I did find myself on the front for a time. I put in some hard efforts on the turns to get people breathing heavy. It worked well. Then to top that off I did attack them anyway. At around lap 3 I was making them chase me, but my HR was around 150, (my max is around 207 as a reference point) so I wasn't wasting myself.

The announcer said the field split when I finally drifted back to the group. I really wanted to see if everyone was tired, or at least more tired then I was. (Hard to do considering the night before). I was 5th again.

Laps 6-12 were nothing special. The field regrouped.

NCVC Put 2 strong guys in the front, Greg and someone else I didnt know. The first guy and Greg attacked to get away. I stayed glued to Gregs wheel. When the first NCVC rider had finished his part he pulled off and Greg continued where he left off. We rode maybe another lap like this. When Greg needed his breath We both paused. I only paused long enough to see we had a big gap. I wanted to hurt em' some more so I did a move to get away.

"Tom, only 6 (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) LAPS TO GO, Hang In there man!" I remember hearing the crowd. I remember this one guy that I saw with maybe 2-3 to go. He yelled something. I was in good shape by the time I saw him.

On every corner I looked back. I was able to get about 3-4 corners ahead, but they still saw me on the straights. (They were a few blocks long). I rode really easy on those parts. On the corners a motored and thats were a gained my time. Recover, attack, recover, attack. ITS JUST LIKE A TUESDAY/THURSDAY Ride!

A guy gave me a time-check, 30 secs. I had 100 yards to go to the finish. I thought I zippered my shirt...... can't remember. I put my hands up, everyone was excited.

I hate sprinting on brick anyway. I was interviewed by the Altoona paper. Then we had the podium ceremony. I was interviewed by the Altoona TV news. Then I drove home and slept till I started writing this. I won the Maillot Jaune for a former stage race.



Young Tom

AND CHIP WON TOO ABRT ALL THE WAY!

Mr Rolling Cooler Cooler Rolling Guy

Here's to all of you who ragged on my cooler yesterday at Hunny Bop. Man that pasta salad was delicious. Too bad it didn't help me last in that P123, I mean Mas 30/40+ race. I never did crack open any of those beers I had in there...

Enjoy:



Big ups to Tom McKay for the last minute loan of his whip so I could race. Awesome bike. I'm sorry I couldnt do it justice. I dont know whose in charge of such things, but If Cannondale doenst wanna support us in the future, I'd put Giant on the list.

Cheers,

FGR

Hagerstown Challenge - July 12, 2008

Thanks to everybody that raced Saturday. It felt great to have a lot of teammates in the race and know that everything was under control for the most part. It would have been nice to get somebody up the road, but I can't have everything in life. We made sure nobody got up the road if we weren't in it and with 1 to go Tom was right at the front and I was right behind him fighting for his wheel. In case you don't already know, Tom placed 3rd and I placed 7th, and I am positive that it was a direct result of the hard work from the rest of the team chasing people down and making others chase them down as they tried to get off the front. Saturday's race was really encouraging from a team standpoint. If Sean didn't go down on the last lap, I'm pretty sure I would have been sprinting against him for that 7th position. I hope you feel better Sean, and if you need any help working on the bike, let me know. My tools and I speak Campy very fluently.

With that said, we still have some areas to work on (e.g., bridging up to breaks that we think can stay away so that we can have people in the break, breaking up chases after getting somebody into a break, initiating breaks that will stay, and leading out the sprint). From what I saw, we have a bunch of strong riders that can ride at the front, we just need to coordinate a little better to take 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. I'm not a greedy person, I'll let the others take 4th and so on.

Another thing we should think about, is who is looking to upgrade and who needs what to upgrade. We don't want Lance racing in the 3's next year all by himself. So, for those of you that want to upgrade, send me an e-mail with what you need (e.g., points, top 10's, number of pack finishes) to get your upgrade. As a team, we should work on trying to get as many people into the 3's that want to be in the 3's.

Hope to see some of you 4's at Hunny Bop this weekend.

Where are those riders in the ABRT/Lattitude kits going anyway??

New to the team? Just a loiterer at the Davidsonville Park and Ride? Ever wonder what routes these groups of riders take on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings? Your questions are answered using Bikely.com where I have created two sets of instructions (Tuesday/Thursday and Saturday) for the rides I do. It just happens that all of the these guys and gals in ABRT/Lattitude kits coincidentally all on their own just happen to be going on the same routes. Get the idea (ie these are not officially sanctioned ABRT rides)?

Bikely.com is a Google Maps mashup and if you use the menu item Show > Cue Sheet it will give you turn by turn directions with some hints on short cuts if you get dropped. If you don't know the area and think you may not hold on (ride speeds average 21-25 mph) you might want print one out until you get to know the rides.

Concern Mounts For Missing Team Mate

Annapolis, MD - - Concern mounts within the Annapolis Bicycle Racing Team ABRT/ Latitude), as 50+ team member John Ver Bryke continues to be missing.

He was last seen on a training ride in late 2007. While there have been rumors of sitings at Jaguar parts counters and local marinas, police have been unable to confirm any of these.

"The last time I spoke with him, he was going to buy a Felt TT bike and focus on training rides and Time Trials", said team mate and friend Alexander "Ali" Meller. "But then he just disappeared."

Ver Bryke was expected to be a key member of ABRT's 50+ team this year. In his absence, ABRT has brought in newcomer Art Brown, who has been doing OK.

If anyone has any information on Ver Bryke's whereabouts, please contact ABRT President Doug Shapter.

Thursday 7/10 Training Ride: July Turnouts?

So what is it about July? The turnout for the training rides goes up and up, and more an more riders from other teams are showing up. But how come nobody seems to be racing?

Well, I'm not racing either, but that is because my preferred field has no MABRA races until Church Creek part deux.

Anyhow, back to the training ride... Some of the usual suspects (Doetsch, Pete Penzell, Keith, Lance) were not there, but Ace was on his Pimparello TT bike.

Award of the day goes to Aaron Canale for chasing Ali (also on TT bike) down early in the ride after Ali tried to go off the front by himself. Seems like not long ago Aaron was getting dropped, and now he is chasing breaks, and finishing with the lead pack.