Barkin' Like A Big Dog

As is typical of a Thursday night before a weekend chock-a-block of races - Turkey Hill/Murad on Saturday and Bunny Hop/Carlisle TT on Sunday - the group for the evening ride was light on the "A group" riders. Nonetheless it was a decent sized group of about 25 riders of all abilities and jerseys. No doubt the strongest guy was Stu on his sexy Trek Equinox TT with deep dish carbon tubulars which make that signature vroooshing sound as they go by. Also on a TT bike were Rick and Ali (who would join later after doing his prescribed workout).

The pace was pretty slow going down Patuxent onto Queen Anne Bridge Rd and through the rollers to Harwood Hill.  It became pretty evident that in this collection of riders, not too many people really wanted to pull and things were a little squirrely. One of my pet peeves is why people want to just "sit in" on a training ride so they don't get dropped; getting dropped is part of ones training if you are trying to get better. This means that if you are going to work up towards the front, you have to be willing to pull through - not necessarily ACE-like pulls, just keep it steady and rotate off. Helps keep things going and safe. If you want to sit on and not work, fine, just stay in the back.




On Harwood Hill, Dan Williams and I set a decent tempo up the hill to try and keep it from bunching up. My feeling, in general is that the strongest riders in the particular group should force an initial selection on Harwood Hill and keep it fast all the way to Rt 2. That way the initial group on Rt 2 1) will be a bit smaller and more manageable and 2) should contain riders that all have a reasonable chance of holding the pace. Sure there may be additional attacks that split the group further, that is part of the fun, but the differences in abilities will not be so disparate, as when the entire group arrives together at Rt 2. Anyway, at the top of Harwood, I see that the two of us have a pretty decent gap. We exchanged pulls about every 30 seconds, but were finally joined by a group of about 10-15 riders at the High School. Someone asked if we should sit up and wait for the rest, to which I barked "NO, let's keep it as fast as we can". Woof! I saw the first example highlighted in my "Wheelsucker 101" video: the #2 guy (in the orange kit who usually joins the ride down Patuxent) pulls off behind the leader when he pulls off. I hate that so, I barked, not trying to be mean, just educational: "If you're going to be up here, you HAVE to pull through". Woof!

The paceline went down Rt 2 at a tempo pace, that is until Stu got to the front on his rocketship and started laying it down. Things started to shatter at that point, luckily there were not too many riders so when you have to go around popped riders, it's not so dangerous!) and towards the end, Stu is off the front alone. No surprise there, he probably could have done that on a Schwinn Varsity given his form this year.

More tempo down Bayard and up South Polling House - with Heff (1) starting to show his strength on the last rise - and onto Polling house. Another bark about pulling through on Polling House near the Fat Man's sprint. Woof!

Rick was starting to pull hard on his TT bike and managed to get up the hill after the Fat Man's sprint along with Stu and joined ahead by Ali. The kept the Choo Choo train down Bayard and up Sands going very quickly - it only slowed a few times when the TT engines rotated off.

Going around the sharp right where it floods, Steve Fujikawa had the unfortunate luck to be behind Ali, then Rick who did hard pulls and did not pull through when Rick pulled off right before the hill. It's always fun to bark at Steve because he doesn't often do much work in the group but is almost always there - "Aw, come on, PULL PULL!". Woof Woof! At this point, Heff rocks up that hill and gaps everyone! But its all together at 214 and most of the way up to the sprint. Just before the penultimate dip, a few gaps open and I'm near the back and given the work I've done and the fact that I don't want to be anywhere near the insanity of the sprint, I eased up and rolled back to the park and ride.

Jay has not been around recently, so someone has to bark at riders not working in the front and since there were no "big dogs" there, this Chihuahua had to try and bark like a big dog.