March 21st Elite Team/Elite dev Team Training RideThe Wheelsucker Report

As part of the three-day Elite Team Training Camp, the development team members were invited to ride with the Elite Team on Sunday March 21st, riding from the school in Walkersville Maryland where ABRT stages the Walkersville Road Race

The wheelsucker was the oldest rider there, and given that the objectives of the dev team – cat up to 2, and get on the elite team – may well be impossible for an aging wheelsucker to attain, he was wondering if he should really be there at all.

As per "El Hefe", it was a relatively easy no attacks and no drops ride for the first hour or so. The wheelsucker carefully avoided getting on the front and rode at the back as much as possible.

We look just like a pro team, thought the wheelsucker, as he rode last in the double line, not far in front of the team car. And then he even tried calling the team car by raising his right arm like the pros do, AND IT WORKED!!! The team car came zooming up as the wheelsucker dropped back, and the wheelsucker told the DS – Dave Bradshaw – "I just wanted to see if this worked," and, "may I be first in line for massages tonight?". Then, laughing, the wheelsucker pushed a little harder and got back into his sheltered spot at the back of the double line.

At one point the wheelsucker accidentally found himself riding second wheel behind Kyle Pittman on a fast descent, and just about the point gravity and being thin had him rolling by Kyle on the left a medium wall (steep climb) appeared up the road. Oh, dear, thought the wheelsucker, what now? The wheelsucker went into it as fast as possible, pedaling as hard as possible, hoping a miracle would occur and he could hold 700 watts to the top. No such miracle occurred, and in a remarkably short distance and time, the wheelsucker went from first to second last on the short climb (Kyle was still behind him) and had to chase hard to get back to his usual spot at the back of the line. OUCH!

The team rolled back to the Walkersville course, turned left onto it and rolled past the finish line to the corner where the neutral roll out ends and racing starts.

As per "El Hefe", the plan was several one lap races, with the blue team riding against the white team. The white team wore their jerseys inside out, except Eric Krause who – planning well ahead – had won a BAR Championship in 2006 and was wearing his white BAR Championship jersey.

The races started from the corner which marks the end of the neutral rollout, and finished on the normal finish line, so not quite the full Walkersville lap.

Race 1:
In theory races one and three were supposed to have no one going off the front before the turn onto the finish stretch, to keep them close and focus on setting up for the sprint. But 1/3 of the way through the lap two blue team domestiques – Chris Harshman and Aaron Canale – pushed a little hard on some rollers and the wheelsucker, being a dutiful white team domestique, went with them glued to one of their wheels. A little while later the wheelsucker checked behind him and saw the gap was growing. The blue riders wanted the wheelsucker to take turns pulling, but the wheelsucker declined, claiming; advanced age, just riding for his team leader (whoever that was), and being outnumbered two to one. He was eventually shamed into taking a pull on the second last leg, but pulled off quickly. At the last right turn Chris was pulling – he had been working the hardest – with the wheelsucker riding second and Aaron third. The wheelsucker faked being an aging, tired, out of breath wheelsucker (it was actually quite easy to fake this, because he was all three) as they went up the short climb, and let a gap open up between him and Chris. And to the wheelsucker’s pleasant surprise, IT WORKED!!!! Aaron came around the wheelsucker and grabbed Chris' wheel, while the wheelsucker tucked in behind Aaron, breathing appropriately hard. Scheming frantically, the wheelsucker decided he wanted to jump hard, shortly after Chris pulled off, so before he had time to recover, and after Aaron started to tire by pulling. And of course since the wheelsucker cannot sprint but can roll medium hard, this had to happen before sprint range. This seemed a workable plan except that Chris never pulled off!

With the finish line approaching the wheelsucker had to do something, so on the spur of the moment he jumped hard to the left and rocketed – well, rocketed for an aging wheelsucker – up the road past Chris. With his head down, going as hard as he could, the wheelsucker was hoping that he had opened a gap. After a few seconds, and nearly out of breath, the wheelsucker sneaked a peak and saw that Chris was gone, but a young, strong and eager Aaron had closed the gap and was nearly on his wheel. Drat! Thought the wheelsucker, damn all younger stronger riders! But being out of breath and spent gave the wheelsucker an idea, pull off and play dead, not hard to pull off when it was not far from the truth. AND IT WORKED!!! Aaron pulled through and went for it, and the wheelsucker dug deep and found enough watts somewhere to grab Aaron’s wheel. Aaron was going hard and ramping it up into his sprint for the line, with the wheelsucker glued to his wheel and hyperventilating, and then the wheelsucker launched into his most powerful sprint, trying to go by Aaron on the left, but almost nothing happened. Both riders strained to keep their front wheel in front, and inch by inch a desperate wheelsucker drew level with Aaron, and then drew slightly in front as they crossed the line overlapped.

Omigod, thought the wheelsucker, I just won! He was too tired to raise both arms in victory, but tried anyway, and nearly swerved off the road before putting his hands back on the bars and regaining control. No pistolero moves without some practice!

Two days later the wheelsucker is still wondering how this race went the way it did. Where were all those strong elite team guys? Sitting in talking about driving to Jeff Cup? Admiring each other's calves?

Race 2:
The next race started at the same corner and at the first surge within the first minute, Chris, Aaron, and the wheelsucker found themselves off the back, too tired to chase. But the main pack slowed and they somehow got back on, recovered and tried to take part in the race. The wheelsucker does not remember much about this race, or how it ended, probably because the winner was too far in front for the wheelsucker to see.

Race 3:
The white team's ace sprinter, Stephen "Stevie Wonder" Wahl rolled off the front with blue team's Chris early on the first leg. Midway in the leg the white team captain, Yanni Papadopolous, said, "Ali, get up there, but don't take anyone with you." The wheelsucker jumped right on the shoulder, got a few bike lengths, checked to see if anyone was on his wheel – no one was – went hard and TT’d up to them and caught them a little before the short climb before the turn onto the backstretch. Two days later the wheelsucker is still wondering why the blue team let him do this without covering the move, or did not chase this all down later.

Stevie Wonder ramped it up on the short climb and Chris let the gap open. The wheelsucker was still recovering from bridging up and did not want to try to close it towing Chris, so he stayed on Chris's wheel. Part way down the backstretch with the gap to Stevie opening, Chris told the wheelsucker if he didn't pull they were both going back to the main field, so the wheelsucker was shamed into taking a few pulls, though making sure Chris worked more than the wheelsucker did.

On the nice dip before the climb to the right onto the wide road with the bridge the wheelsucker took several deep breaths, opened a gap, accelerated into it and jumped as hard as he could at the bottom, going by Chris on the left up the short climb. Somehow the wheelsucker got a gap and then tried to TT away. After the next turn, Chris closed the gap on the short climb at the beginning of the finish leg, but the wheelsucker got it going off the top and held the gap to the finish, crossing second behind white teammate Stevie Wonder.

Race 4:
The wheelsucker was tired and nearly went OTB several times. The blue team had a single rider – Matt Neigh – off the front, so the wheelsucker took some pulls with Eric and Yanni to bring it back. It was close at the right turn onto the finish leg. The wheelsucker had been resting at the back after getting really tired, pushed by on the left going into the turn and caught Matt part way up the climb. The wheelsucker had thought as he rolled by that Eric and Yanni would grab his wheel and he would pull them up, but when he got to Matt there was a small gap. The tired wheelsucker made a tactical error here and sat up once he caught Matt, waiting for the pack. A better choice would have been to go by Matt and keep going hard as long as he could, forcing blue to chase.

The main field went by, and the sprint was set up with no participation from the wheelsucker, who rolled in behind the sprinters and their last lead-out men, and ahead of everyone else.

So white dominates blue with a 2:2 score ;-)

And the wheelsucker SOMEHOW won one of the "races"! Go figure …