Thursday March 18 Training RideThe Wheelsucker Report

There is nothing like the first nice warm sunny day coinciding with the first official Tuesday/Thursday ride to bring everyone out of the woodwork ... A large group gathered in the Park & Ride for the first evening training ride of the season. It was sunny and almost 70 degrees, so most were wearing shorts and short sleeved jerseys, though a few long sleeved jerseys and arm warmers were being worn by those who could not quite believe the weather.

The wheelsucker was committed to doing his scheduled workout, a single twenty minute interval at 80-90% of his threshold power, so rolled out with the group, riding at or near the back. Either the wheelsucker is out of shape, or he has not recovered from the Spain training camp, or the group was not really doing a warmup; the wheelsucker was going 500+ watts one minute to close a gap in front of him, and on the brakes the next, to avoid running into the back of the riders ahead of him.

Shortly after crossing 214, the group took the normal left turn from Patuxent River Road onto Queen Anne Bridge, but the wheelsucker continued on and started his interval at the bottom, then climbing up the hill and taking the right turn onto Sands. So while the wheelsucker was riding twenty minutes at a nice steady and easy pace, the rest of the group was hammering up the road on the normal route.

The wheelsucker's interval ended after he turned left on Bayard and passed the Polling House turn where the ride rejoins Bayard. He turned around and waited for the group. The first riders to go by were dropped riders who had short-cutted; the wheelsucker let them go. The next to roll by were Stu and Matt on their TT bikes; they had rolled out late and presumably short-cutted as well. The wheelsucker rolled slowly and easily along the ride route, waiting to be caught by the front of the group. And then, looking back, he saw a non-ABRT uniform on a rider working hard. It was Lance Lacy in his Hayfever uniform. Lance rolled by panting, "I've been off the front since route 2!" Not far behind Lance the wheelsucker could see an ABRT chase of 5-6 riders. He joined those (at the back), and once everyone else had rotated off, found himself on the front of the chase. This is normally a worrisome situation for the wheelsucker; people are expected to pull when on the front. But the wheelsucker had not gone hard yet and was very fresh, while everyone else was on the rivet from the chase. The wheelsucker slowly ramped up the pace and took a long 300+ watt pull that brought the chase most of the way up to Lance. Thinking that someone else would like the glory of reeling in Lance -- and not wanting to over tire himself -- the wheelsucker pulled off and let the next rider in line, Alex Pline, take over. It took Alex awhile to pull the group up to Lance, and Alex was standing up and going as hard as he could by the time he passed Lance, and pulled off. Lance simply grabbed the wheel of a rider rotating back and hung on. The group slowed slightly now that Lance had been caught, and then a few moments later, Lance went again. The wheelsucker was still very fresh, and several of the other ABRT riders were still strong, so they quickly chased Lance down, but Alex had pulled a little too long and was gapped and dropped.

The ABRTers were content to let Lance drive the pace, but as he dropped down into the dip before the climb to the left turn back onto Patuxent River, the wheelsucker looked back at Denzil and asked him how he felt. Denzil replied that he was good, so the wheelsucker told him he was going coming out of the dip. Lance was still driving the pace at the bottom and starting up the climb, but the wheelsucker pulled out, went to full wheeslucker power, stood up and sprinted (well, a sprint for the wheelsucker) up the short climb. This is normally a part of the route that Lance can easily hammer up (Lance has gapped the wheelsucker many times here), but Lance had ridden 80+ miles by this point in the day, and the wheelsucker had been going hard for all of four minutes, so the wheelsucker opened a small gap. Unfortunately there was no Denzil or anyone else on his wheel.

Now the wheelsucker may have been feeling good, but he was not feeling so good that he thought he could ride away from Lance and four to five ABRT riders including Steve O., Denzil and Ty. But looking up the road a short distance the wheelsucker saw two short cutters, Hef1 and a new junior member, and he yelled at them to jump. Shortly after making the left onto Patuxent River road the wheelsucker caught on with these two and wheelsucked while catching his breath. Hef1 was driving the pace, but it was not quite fast enough to hold off Lance and the chase pack. The wheelsucker reluctantly pulled through and set the pace, but he felt compelled to go easy enough that he would make it up the next climb, and that was not fast enough; Lance and the chase caught the wheelsucker, Hef1 and the junior just before the dip.

So the wheelsucker found himself on the front, climbing a hill, with strong riders behind him. Sure enough Lance jumped 2/3 of the way up, with Steve Owens going after him "with grim determination". The wheelsucker was still relatively fresh -- he had been going hard for all of six minutes total at this point -- so was able to ramp it up, catch onto Steve's wheel, and roll around Steve onto Lance's wheel when Lance gapped Steve at the top of the climb. Lance was sitting up as he was turning right on 214, so the wheelsucker gratefully sat up and the group merged again at the 214 traffic light. At this point, with Lance gone, it could have been an easy ride to the finish, but just up the road were the two TT bike riders. The chase crossed 214, took a good drink from their water bottles and got back into pursuit mode. Again the wheelsucker pulled them part way there, but got off the front before tiring. The group reformed with Stu and Nat at the front, Hef1, Ty, Denzil, Steve and the wheelsucker (the junior did not make it across 214 with this group, but joined up with Alex). Stu and Matt were able to go quite fast on their TT bikes, and there was some work to be done closing small gaps. The wheelsucker managed to avoid most of this work, letting Hef1 handle it until he popped, and then letting Ty have a go until Ty hit a pothole hard and pulled out of line. By now the group was on the short flat before the last dip and the sprint. Stu led to the bottom and pulled off for Matt. The wheelsucker was on Matt's wheel, perfectly positioned to ride hard, hold his wheel until the last few meters and then try to come around him, but the wheelsucker's legs were reporting ongoing Spain fatigue so when Matt launched into his sprint, the wheelsucker sat up and soft pedalled for the line, still crossing second.

Single riders and small groups of riders were rolling into the Park & Ride for some time after the lead group arrived. It was still warm and sunny and everyone was so pleased to be back on their bikes doing a group ride, that many hung out in the Park & Ride chatting with friends, until after dark.