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!"
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