Roller Racing: Round Two

With snow still on the ground, and a forecast for more this weekend, and too much time on the indoor trainer and rollers recently, the wheelsucker needed a good excuse to ride. And a RACE was a great excuse! So off to week two of Roller Racing at Bobby Phillips place!

The group was two riders larger this week, but the format (races are very short) allows for a large group of people to race in one evening.

For some reason the five lap races are done first; that is very hard. Then the 2.5 lap races are done; these are hard but doable. Then the 10 lap races are done after everyone is tired. The wheelsucker found himself having difficulty standing, and having to sit down and hyperventilate, after efforts of about 1:09 and 00:29; that is one minute and nine seconds (which seemed an eternity at the time) and twenty-nine seconds.

Everyone says it is not about who beats whom, but about improving week to week. Who are they kidding? The wheelsucker – at least – checks his times against those of the others.

In addition to thanking Bobby for holding the wheelsucker’s bike on the rollers so that the wheelsucker did not ride off them in his efforts, the wheelsucker would like to thank Dave Bradshaw for arranging the spectacular bang-and-hiss flat on his bike, just as Stu Waring was getting rolling on Stu’s ten lap run. This was enough to put Stu off his game and opened the door for the wheelsucker to set a strong ten lap time. The wheelsucker owes Dave a leadout for this.

This is a lot of fun, absolutely no skill or prior experience is required. You can ride road bikes, road bikes with aero wheels, or fixies/track bikes. You could probably ride a child’s bike with training wheels if that was all you could handle. If one owns a set of rollers, bring them over to warm up on. Bobby makes it all work.

Speaking of Bobby Phillips; the man is unbeatable at roller racing by mere mortals; he makes a ridiculously high cadence look easy. Riding the rollers with no hands? Easy! Changing shirts while riding with no hands? No problem.

Bobby is inviting everyone back for more next week, and reports: Good turn out of 6 riders. See you guys next week at 7 PM. Steve O. and Ace.