Saturday April 3rd Davidsonville rideThe Wheelsucker Report

Not having done many long rides over the winter and spring, the wheelsucker was thinking he needed to get some longer rides in. His assigned workout was the Saturday Davidsonville ride, but the wheelsucker decided to add some miles by riding there with Alex Pline, doing the ride, and returning home via Alex’s place.

The ride from Alex's place to the Park & Ride should have been an easy 11 mile warmup, but the wheelsucker felt compelled to push the pace on the 450 climb; at least the wheelsucker was warmed up when the actual ride started.

A huge group rolled out of the Park & ride, with a field that looked stronger than some MABRA races, with Jay Murphy, the Doetsch, Marc Frazer, Team Hayfever standout Lance Lacy, Pete Penzell, Keith Reeder, Ryan Guttridge and a number of other strong riders. If readers feel slighted by being left of the list above, contact the wheelsucker and he may add you to the list.

The pace was tame at first; the wheelsucker "attacked" on Harwood, on the climb out of the area that floods, before the right onto Sands. Unlike a Lance Lacy-get-out-the-saddle-sprint-and-keep-sprinting-until-people-give-up attack, the wheelsucker simply pulled out to the left and went to aging-wheelsucker-VO2Max power, and slowly pulled away, perhaps because no one else noticed or cared. Shortly after the first short climb on Sands Ryan Guttridge and Mike Wagner bridged up -- the wheelsucker immediately got behind them -- followed by Chris Harshman. Mike took a long pull, followed by Ryan who pulled hard. When he pulled off shortly before the left on Ed Prout, the wheelsucker was about to pull, but he checked and realized they had been caught by the main pack, so he pulled through and off. The main pack was noticeably smaller by this time.

The wheelsucker was not feeling fresh or strong, so tried to avoid doing a lot of work, but distinctly remembers being attacked several times while he was on the front taking pulls. The trouble was that he was unable to jump hard enough to get a wheel, and was looking for others to do it. This happened shortly before the rest stop (they stayed away), again on the climb out of Rosehaven (they were caught on the downhill thanks to Louis Helms), and again on Harwood road (the wheelsucker went OTB with Matt Albanese, but managed to chase back on by the Sands intersection).

Chris Harshman flatted twice in North Beach and that scattered the group with some -- including Keith, Lance, Amanda, the wheelsucker, Bob, Dave -- waiting, and others -- including Pete Penzell, the Doetsch, Jay and Marc -- continuing.

Lance was attacking a lot, and taking short fast pulls that hurt, but not pulling for long. The last attack was shortly before the finish, Lance, Keith and two others went hard. The wheelsucker missed the move but found himself pulling desperately trying to close it, alternating pulls with Tom Aga. After several hard pulls he overtired, and went off the back of the chase, shortly before the finish. The wheelsucker waited for a rider behind, and the two worked together to catch a rider ahead who had also been dropped after chasing too hard, and the three rolled across the line together. The wheelsucker does not know who got the sprint out of the group he had been with. Marc Frazer and a couple of other riders were just up the road, so the wheelsucker's group had closed on them.

The ride back to Annapolis with Alex was slow and easy, as both Alex and the wheelsucker were tired.

Wheelsucker Data:

Distance: 89.71 miles
Riding time: 04:45:30
Power: 163 watts, average, 876 watts max (average for D’ville route was 181 watts)
Highest power for 60 minutes: 224 watts