Another LARGE group started at the Park & Ride. The wheelsucker missed a lot of the action (Mr. Wu's front wheel washing out on a curve on South Polling House, and the resulting crash), as he was trying to get his average power numbers a little higher than usual, and decided to do this by going off the front early rather than the usual wheelsucking at the back while watching the strong guys intently waiting for them to move....
So the wheelsucker rolls off the front at Governor Bridge Road, but finds Steve Owens, Matt Albanese and Super Sue Estes on his wheel a little while later. OK, why not? We go with the four "man" TTT, except Super Sue is nowhere to be seen when we cross 214 ON AN OLD GREEN LIGHT, so we're doing the 3TTT.
In case you're thinking, "this could work!", let me point out the main pack included: Ace, Doetsch, young Tom, Ryan, Lance "tutu" Lacy and several other notables, so it was NOT lacking in firepower. But the 3TT group continued to roll fast, hoping they were opening up a gap, but not really believing it. Except... everytime we looked back there was no one there. We could not see a chase on route 2 or Bayard, could not see a chase on Polling House or on South Polling House. After the fat man's sprint and the climb up the hill, the wheelsucker started to think the 3TT might have a real gap. After the turn back onto Bayard he looked back across the corn field trying to see if anyone was coming up the hill, but the view was blocked by late summer corn stands. He thought no one was there!
The wheelsucker had pushed hard up the hill to avoid the embarassment of Matt or Steve rolling by him on the climb, but gratefully pulled off at the top to let someone else pull, only to hear Steve ask for the pace to slow down for a little. Fair enough, Matt pulled easily on the flat-slightly-down section on Bayard with Steve and the wheelsucker resting... Matt pulled off after the turn onto Sands, and the wheelsucker did his usual reasonably fast short-to-medium pull, accelerating the 3TT up to 26 or 27 mph. The wheelsucker had finished his pull and was about to pull off to the left when to his shock, surprise, dissapointment and fear, an evily grinning Doetsch led the chase pack by at 3-4 mph more. All the wheelsucker could do was exclaim, "Oh Sch##$&(%TTT!!!! as a large chase went by, shedding people off the back. The wheelucker jumped for a wheel, but could not get it. Matt and Steve had slightly more warning, and were slightly more rested and made it. But within seconds, the wheelsucker was out of range, out of breath, out of ideas and starting to accept the idea that he had been dropped.
Just like that, from hero to zero!
A couple of riders, Will and John, dropped by the chase's acceleration were still trying to catch back on. The wheelsucker gratefully grabbed their wheels, but just as quickly realized they were losing ground. Then Ryan Guttridge, who had apparently just finished a monster pull to set Doetsch up for the pass and then could not get back on when Doetsch jumped, started an "I'm going to make it up to them or die trying" move, and the wheelsucker abandoned his erstwhile friends and made it onto Ryan's wheel. The trouble was that Doetsch was still trying to keep his group of 10-15 going at warp 11, and a tired -- and tiring fast -- Ryan was only gaining on them slowly and then stopped gaining. Finally even the wheelsucker realized he was going to have to take a pull, and suggested Ryan grab his wheel. Ryan was nearly dead and declined. Realizing he was going to have to try and bridge the last bit by himself, the wheelsucker put his head down, shifted into a higher gear and went into his best I-can-hold-400-watts-for-a-few-seconds mode and somehow made it onto the back wheel of the lead pack. Ryan was nowhere to be seen. Gasping for air the wheelucker continued to let people in in front of him until he felt strong enough to rotate to the front and pull off immediately. Unfortunately for the wheelsucker, Doetsch was watching, and was unimpressed by the wheelsucker's non-pull, and pointed this out to the entire group. The wheelsucker was doing his best to ignore Doetsch when Doetsch changed tactics and started commenting on the wheelucker's ass. Working too hard to think, and breathing to hard to speak, the wheelsucker was unable to reply. Humiliated, he drifted to the back of the group to do what he does best, wheelsuck!
That was that. The group stayed together to the finish, with Matt doing the last pull and leadout. The wheelsucker was second wheel, and jumped to go around Matt, but was only going about 0.0001 mph faster and only JUST got his wheel in front of Matt's by the finish, while those who really could sprint went around Matt AND the wheelsucker and fought it out. The wheelsucker was so far behind, he could not tell who crossed first.
Good read. The way I have been riding lately, I would have been dropped at the beginning of the story. Ever since that damn cold and over a week off the bike because of it, I cannot get back into form for some reason.
ReplyDeleteHey... SuePer Sue had to chase you guys down quite a ways, all by herself, just to get there (you missed that part)... only one rider came with her and he died before making contact. She never even had the chance to recover before she had to abandon ship and revert to plan B.
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