The wheelsucker tries to follow his coach’s workout instructions with the commmitment of a religious zealot following dictums in sacred religious writings. The wheelsucker is not trying to qualify for some sort of better afterlife, rather he hopes that doing the workouts properly will lead to another ten or fifteen watts when he really needs it, which might ultimately lead to winning a race. And that would be worth something!
So when the wheelsucker read his instructions for the Saturday ride and saw
"Settle in the pack today and do as little effort as you can get away with. Focus on conserving energy." He was determined to obey (and in truth, happy to have the excuse). A later e-mail from coach Birner had emphasized the point about doing no work, but had added "win the sprint". Hmn, the wheelsucker had no idea how he could accomplish that.
The wheelsucker showed up on his weight weenie CAAD9 and his new super bling deep dish aero wheels with Powertap rear hub. Lance Armstrong may have written a book entitled "It's Not About the Bike", but the wheelsucker was not taking any chances, just in case.
So all the way down Patuxent Parkway, most of the way down Sands, and up Ed Prout, the wheelsucker was dutifully sucking wheels at the back of the group. Once in awhile he accidentally found himself near the front, at risk of pulling through and taking a pull, but he carefully pulled out of line early and rotated back. Sure, the wheelsucker had to put down some power for short periods on climbs, or to make sure he was on a wheel in front, but by and large he sucked wheels most of the way to the rest stop, and let others do the work of chasing Dave down, whenever he went off the front. A couple of times he could not resist the temptation to close down a gap as someone – almost invariably Dave, sometimes the tandem – tried to go off the front, but after a short hard (for the wheelsucker) pull, the wheelsucker would flick an elbow and let someone else finish the job. And if that didn’t work and the tandem was behind him, the wheelsucker would look for the tandem, and take a tow up.
At the bottom of the climb out of Rosehaven, the group was in a double line with Mike Wagner and the wheelsucker leading; they pulled off and started to rotate back, but Dave came through and ramped it up. No one was inclined to close the gap, so Mike and the wheelsucker stopped dropping back and tried to ride near the front so they could grab a wheel when someone tried to close the gap. The wheelsucker was behind the tandem in the right hand line, and climbing is the tandem’s only weakness, so the wheelsucker looked for a gap and pulled out into the left line, and was perfectly positioned when -- sure enough, near the top of the climb -- Ace went by seated and pushing a big gear. The wheelsucker was in a quandary: Follow instructions and let Dave, Ace and perhaps others open a gap, or go after them. Even religious zealots can be tempted, so it is hardly surprising that the wheelsucker went after Ace, rode past the front of the group and quickly found Ace’s wheel. Ace was on Dave’s wheel, and the three had a gap. Ace rolled by Dave, and ramped up the pace. But the wheelsucker, having proven to himself that he could get to a safe wheel (and enjoying having an excuse to not work), decided he did not need to hammer with them, and sat up. Four chasers rolled by, and the wheelsucker grabbed the back of that train and rested, while Michel, Mike Wagner and others did all the work.
Dave and Ace continued to open the gap up the rest of the climb. Shortly before the right turn, the wheelsucker’s temptation to close the gap overcame his commitment to sitting in. He rolled to the front of the chase, checked that the next rider was on his wheel, and went to maximum wheelsucker power. Not much happened; maximum wheelsucker power was not enough (this should not be a surprise, as the wheelsucker was admitting before the ride started that his lactate threshold power was lower than that of anyone’s late grandmother). But the wheelsucker was feeling good, and felt fast with his super bling deep dish aero carbon wheels, and kept pushing. The gap had closed slightly by the time the wheelsucker led the chase group through the right turn, and he continued hammering down the hill, pedaling hard in a big gear, and the gap started to close! Once he’d got it a little closer, the wheelsucker conveniently remembered he was supposed to be taking it easy and flicked his elbow, letting Steve Owens close the rest of the gap. Steve did a magnificent job of holding about 500 watts and 30+ mph downhill, to lead the group up to Ace and Dave, all while the wheelsucker rested. The tandem went OTB on some rollers, so the group sat up climbing past the horse farms. Steve Owens rolled off the front and made the hard right turn that led to the wall with a gap, the wheelsucker waited (and wheelsucked) till the very top, to roll by and get to the front, then waited for a good wheel to grab. Conveniently, Ace rolled by. Down the descent before the wall, the wheelsucker was trying to hold Ace’s wheel, but the rush of wind as the tandem went by knocked him off. Ace climbed the wall seated, pushing a big gear. The tandem faded on the climb. Ace caught Steve, but the wheelsucker was somehow still glued to Ace’s rear wheel (this is what wheelsuckers do). At the top Ace was leading, but did not accelerate as hard as he sometimes does, and the wheelsucker was able to hold his wheel and catch his breath… and then wait for the right moment to rotate to the back.
Somewhere near Nutwell Sudely, Dave went off the front for about the seventeenth time, and Ace, Steve and the wheelsucker went after him (rest assured the wheelsucker was on the back as someone else punched it to close the gap). The four opened a gap on the peleton, and rotated pulls. Steve popped shortly before they crossed 255. The wheelsucker was rationalizing to himself that his coach’s instructions justified him taking very short pulls, and he let Dave and Ace do most of the work. The three had a nice gap at route 2, though Steve was still in sight. They survived the left turn off of route 2, then shortly after going down Harwood Hill, Dave’s long pulls took their toll, and he popped. The wheelsucker was glued to Ace’s wheel, so when Ace slowed down to let Dave catch up, the wheelsucker gratefully caught his breath. The three continued down Patuxent Parkway, up the wheelsucker’s favorite climb shortly before 214 and then sprinted across 214 as the light turned yellow. The wheelsucker continued taking short aging-wheelsucker-trying-to-follow-his-coaches-instructions pulls, while Ace took monster pulls, and Dave also took long pulls. The long pulls wore Dave down, and he popped half way from 214 to the finish. This time Ace thought they were close enough to the finish to make it without Dave, so he continued, with the wheelsucker still glued to his rear wheel. With at least second across the line almost guaranteed , the wheelsucker turned his thoughts to how on earth – short of some sort of divine intervention – he was going to beat Ace in a sprint. On the last flat - between the penultimate dip and the last dip - Ace pulled off after another monster pull, and the wheelsucker jumped. Well, jumped for the wheelsucker; Ace was so scared by this move he did absolutely nothing, and simply rode alongside making it clear he wasn’t worried at all, and the wheelsucker quickly gave up and assumed his usual wheelsucking position behind Ace. Ace led down the dip and up the other side. The wheelsucker was expecting Ace to go early on the climb to the finish, as Ace seems to like a long sprint. The wheelsucker’s first idea was to let Ace accelerate and try to hold his wheel, hoping for the best; but Ace didn’t go. As they neared the finish, the wheelsucker had another idea: If Ace wasn’t going to go long, but was thinking shorter sprint, what if the wheelsucker waited until they were close enough that even an aging wheelsucker could get out of the saddle and hammer as far as the line, and then try and jump Ace? This was the best the wheelsucker’s aging and tired brain could come up with, so from nearly point blank range to the finish, the wheelsucker launched – well, launched for a wheelsucker – from behind Ace, and jumped to the far side of the road, standing up and going as hard and as fast as an aging wheelsucker can sprint. Ace was either slow to react or not particularly interested in winning the sprint, because the wheelsucker got a bit of a gap. Ace refused to get on his line, close the gap and then jump out, but rode on a parallel line, gaining on the wheelsucker with each revolution of the pedals. But somehow, the wheelsucker still led by a wheel as they both lunged for the line. Ace had a much better lunge, but the wheelsucker still got it by about eight inches. Go figure! Ace said afterwards his legs were tired (and he had pulled about 75% of the time in the break), but the wheelsucker thinks Ace just let him have it.
Wheelsucker Data:
Time 2:50:04 (P&R to P&R including a couple of cool down laps in P&R).
Average speed 20.87 mph (slow early, fast late).
189 watts average, 899 watts peak.
No comments:
Post a Comment