ABRT Wheelsuckers: 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.