Trying to mitigate some frustration and wanting to check if riding the bike was fun again, the wheelsucker turned up early for the Tuesday ride.
The wheelsucker’s Plan A was to warm up well and go hard from the left turn onto Rossback, and then keep going hard, alone or with a lead group; the idea was to go hard and attack, trying to hurt someone, even if it was just the wheelsucker. Another advantage of Plan A was that it required little thought or intelligence, merely the application of as much brute force as an aging wheelsucker could muster; so an excellent fit.
The other riders who arrived early may have wondered why the wheelsucker was doing hard – for the wheelsucker – warm up laps in the Park & Ride and sprinting – yes, that was a sprint for the wheelsucker – out of the lower turn. The first rider ready for a bit of warmup outside the P&R was Stephen Wahl, so the wheelsucker followed him out for a lap behind the P&R. As soon as they turned right on Rossback, the wheelsucker was at VO2Max power, with Stephen on his wheel. A few medium length pulls later (with wheelsucker power slowly decreasing) they were back at the P&R, sweating and warmed up.
Once the group was ready and Doetsch had survived the arrival of the bus (the wheelsucker only saw the final violet turn by Doetsch to avoid being hit, but does not know how this set up), the group rolled out.
As per Plan A, the wheelsucker rolled to the front immediately after turning left on Rossback, and went to VO2Max+ power; on the hoods, head low, nose nearly on the stem, not looking back. A minute or two later the wheelsucker sneaked a peak to see if he had a gap and caught a glimpse of Jay on his wheel, and no sign of the group. A little while later a slightly longer glance revealed Jay and Kyle on his wheel and a gap as far back as the Wheelsucker could see (it should be pointed out that the aging wheelsucker’s eyesight is not what it once was, and he is riding without vision correction, so cannot see s&*@ anyway!) After pulling long enough to deal with immediate frustrations, the wheelsucker thought it was time for someone else to do some work, so he flicked his elbow and pulled off. Kyle pulled through and over and then Jay went to the front, but did not pull very hard. The wheelsucker rested and then went hard (for the wheelsucker) again when it was his turn. This continued, but since it was mostly consistent with Plan A, the wheelsucker was OK with it, though it would have been nice if Jay and Kyle went hard and the three tried to stay away.
But all of a sudden the pack returned, and that was before 214! The wheelsucker was all set to go again at the light, but Jay encouraged him to sit in and recover. Somewhat reluctantly the wheelsucker suspended Plan A and reverted to wheelsucking. Being a natural talent, this did not require much thought either. From that point on the wheelsucker only took pulls when he had no alternative, took the shortest pulls he could, and even tried to jump over into the returning side of the paceline when he was riding second or third wheel. This last move drew ire from Doetsch and Jay, which merely drew retorts back from the wheelsucker.
Doetsch and Kyle went on the last rollers at the top of South Polling House, but the wheelsucker was in wheelsucking mode and let them go, content to follow wheels. The pack was slowed by a right-of-way car, so Doetsch and Kyle had a nice gap at the left turn onto Polling House, but the pack went into a long rotating paceline and reeled them in soon enough. While the wheelsucker could have attacked, he figured he would not stay away for long, as speed would build for the fat man’s sprint and the climb up the hill to the right turn on Bayard would be hard. So the wheelsucker waited for the climb and did not work hard. Jay said he would go at the top of the climb, and then changed that to the second climb (a little bump that is hard to do fast if you went hard on the first climb) and the wheelsucker should follow whoever chased Jay at that point. So the wheelsucker initially sat on Jay’s wheel, let a gap open when Jay went hard, and grabbed Kyle’s wheel when he decided to close the gap. Jay, another rider, Kyle, and the wheelsucker (no thanks to the wheelsucker) had a gap of about 5 bike lengths, so the wheelsucker yelled (from the back of the group of four, where he was doing no work at all), “We have a gap!” This was intended to encourage one of the other three riders to work hard and extend the gap, but did not have the desired effect. In retrospect the wheelsucker wonders what would have happened if he had drilled it at this point and tried to extend the gap. The trouble was that after the right turn back onto Bayard, the slight downhill makes for a very fast section, and the wheelsucker figured it would be hard for four guys to stay away if the chase was at all organized and rotating. So the group was caught before the turn, and the wheelsucker sat in waiting for an opportunity. Nothing happened on the rest of Bayard, and nothing on Sands, but the wheelsucker saw an opportunity at the last dip before the left back onto Harwood/Patuxent Parkway. The group was going medium hard, but none of the strong riders were at the front as the group reached the bottom. A lane opened up on the right, and the wheelsucker coasted up to the lead and then went to full (wheelsucker) speed. This was enough to roll by the previous paceline leaders and start a gap. As the short climb took its toll, he stood up and worked even harder. Two riders had followed him and they rolled through, but the wheelsucker was expected this and worked to keep the gap small and was able to catch a wheel (as he had expected) as they slowed to check for oncoming traffic at the left turn.
And there they were; Tom, Kyle and the wheelsucker with a useful gap. But the wheelsucker had been working hard and couldn’t do much yet. The three rotated pulls down to the dip, and still had a useful lead at the sweeping right where the road floods and the start of the climb. They were going hard but not super hard, but the wheelsucker was unable to pull through when Kyle moved over and then the wheelsucker started to go OTB at the top of the climb. What does a wheelsucker do when the going gets hard? Look for a wheel of course! The wheelsucker glanced back and decided they had been caught, so sat up and caught a wheel at the top. The wheelsucker had expected that the strong riders could bridge if they chose to, but was surprised that the entire peleton had closed up at the top of the hill. Doetsch and Jay attacked off the top, but the wheelsucker let others close the gap and hung on to a wheel part way back in the group. There was a risk that the leaders would catch the light, but since the wheelsucker has only actually caught the light at 214 once in three years of Tuesday/Thursday rides, he suspected the risk was not great, and did not try to move up. Sure enough a red light allowed everyone to regroup.
A few riders went hard on the green, so the wheelsucker briefly worked hard to catch a wheel and took the tow up with the leaders. Behind him others reacted and the entire peleton made it on easily enough. Half way to the finish, Jay suggested the wheelsucker stay on his wheel, and that they would go early at the sprint. The wheelsucker was rotating back at the time, so had a little bit of work to do to get back up to Jay, who was riding 10th or so, but he made it to Jay’s wheel and Kyle let him in.
The cool thing about being a strong sprinter is that you have so many more options; Jay was not worried about not being near the front and merely waited for riders to tire and pull off, but never actually got to the front himself. There was a bit of work to be done at the top of the penultimate climb and then again a short bit on the flat as Jay maneuvered for position, but the wheelsucker was still glued to Jay’s wheel at the last dip, albeit with a HR of 168 (wheelsucker max HR is normally about 173). Jay put in a couple of short spurts as the last climb started as he got himself (and the wheelsucker) a lane and then wound it up slowly enough that the wheelsucker could stay on. This was working remarkably well, the wheelsucker had just enough oxygen getting to his brain to think, as the remaining riders ahead of Jay disappeared backwards, leaving Jay leading out, and the wheelsucker glued to his wheel. Jay was looking back, metering his effort to avoid losing the wheelsucker, but then started to encourage wheelsucker more and more. The wheelsucker was giving it all he had left, but this was down to about 790 watts, which was not only not enough to come around Jay, but not enough to hold off Doetsch, who powered by in the last few meters to beat the wheelsucker, but not Jay. The wheelsucker nearly fell of his bike after this effort, but did notice that his HR was 178.
A good and mostly hard ride thought the wheelsucker. If he had stuck with Plan A he probably would have worked harder, but may well have been dropped when too tired to grab a wheel. But it felt good to be on the bike working hard.
Wheelsucker data:
24.25 average mph
1:14:22 and 30.06 miles from rollout to finish line
223 watts average (max 878 hit during finish sprint)
154 bpm average, max 177, which is higher than the normal max of 173, also at sprint
The other strong impression of the ride was that everyone was there the entire ride. It seemed like every time the wheelsucker looked up, the Amazing Amanda Wu was taking a pull, or he was following Rick Paukstitus, Bob or Will, almost no one went OTB.
And Tom MacKay was styling on his new Giant SL1
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