The wheelsucker has been taking it easy, not racing, and backing off on training, for a few weeks, hoping to make it all fun again. While he did not miss intervals, he did miss the group rides, so started doing those again two weeks ago.
After a vacation week (which included a good Tuesday evening group ride in Guelph Ontario Canada) and no riding at all Friday through Sunday, the wheelsucker went out and tried to beat up the Monday Bike Doctor ride, and then showed up for the Tuesday Davidsonville ride. But the D’ville ride is very different from the Monday BD ride, with rather stronger riders. And the wheelsucker was still hoping to race Giro di Coppi on Saturday, so did not want to overwork himself.
The wheelsucker did have a go at pushing his CP1 higher before the ride, something he had tried to do a couple of weeks earlier and failed at. This time it went well, and the wheelsucker finally has a higher CP value, the first new high CP value he has set since the Spain training trip.
With Keith Reeder, Steve Doestchman (what is this, an Altlantic Fitness ride?), Jay Murphy (AABC) and Ace along, it was not looking as easy as the Monday BD ride. It was a large group with Sue Estes back, the amazing Amanda Wu and ex ABRTer Heidi von Teitenberg, lots of Team Latitude Riders and a number of visitors. The size of the group may have been a problem, as it took forever to single or double the group up when a car wanted to pass.
The wheelsucker was careful to sit in and conserve energy. This was clearly not the plan of other riders, as plenty of others took pulls, tried to ride away early, etc. The wheelsucker was content to take a pull when he got to the front, follow wheels when he could, and only close part of a gap, letting other riders pull through to finish the job. While Jay was taking pulls early, Keith, Doetsch and Ace were not, and why should the wheelsucker tire himself out early if they were not?
So the wheelsucker sat in to wait (and wait, and wait, and wait) for the inevitable attacks from Keith, Doetsch, Jay and Ace. But a strange thing happened; there were no effective attacks. Not at the end of route 2 before the circle, not on the last rollers on South Polling House, not climbing the hill after the fat man’s sprint. There was a half hearted attack on Sands when Keith jumped, but just as the wheelsucker (riding several places back) was starting to become concerned about the gap opening, Lance (no, not that Lance, Lance Lacy) went hard from behind to close the gap, and the wheelsucker merely accelerated and took the tow up, the rest of the peleton came along. Lance Lacy’s new aero wheels make so much noise when he goes that it sounded like there was a car trying to pass! There was another half hearted attack on the nice climb before 214, but with a timely push from Ace, the wheelsucker pulled through and grabbed a wheel at the top, and once again the entire peleton was still there. In fact the peleton was still there as the sprint opened.
Ty and Amanda were on the front in the early leadout, keeping the pace high.
Ace led out with Jay and Doetsch (or maybe it was Doetsch and Jay) on his wheel. Aaron, Jerry and a couple of other riders were up there as well. The wheelsucker knew he should be on Jay or Doetsch’s wheel, but couldn’t figure out how to get there, as Ace had the group strung out in a line for most of the last kilometer, and the wheelsucker did not want to burn his last matchsticks before the sprint, just trying to pass three guys and then finding that whoever was on Jay or Doetsch’s wheel was actually happy to be there and would not want to let the wheelsucker in.
Ace led through the final dip and part way up the other side and then pulled off to the right. Jay (riding a fixie!!!!!) and Doetsch launched; the next few riders tried to go with them, but were quickly gapped. The wheelsucker wheelsucked until point blank range, and then went around the last rider, probably crossing a distant third. He was so far behind Doetsch and Jay he could not tell who won it.
Wheelsucker data:
Average power 206 watts, maximum 902 watts
Average heart rate 139 bpm, maximum 174 bpm (at sprint)
Average cadence: 95 rpm
Average speed: 24.0 mph, maximum 39.8 mph
New CP1 (Critical (average) power for one minute): classified
It was such a nice evening that lots of people hung out in the Park & Ride afterwards, chatting with friends. Heidi handed out some awesome blueberry banana bread (maybe we should let her back into the club?) :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment