Tour of Washington County Stage RaceA Wheelsucker Special Report

Long before the wheelsucker "took up" bicycle racing (if you can call what he does bicycle racing), he would watch the Tour de France on a friend's TV and marvel at what those pros could do. His view of bicycle racing was largely formed by watching TdF coverage. The wheelsucker had no idea what a crit was.

And now the wheelsucker is himself a "bicycle racer". And he is not going to be selected for a grand tour or a pro team (and truth be known should probably not have been upgraded to a cat 3), but he CAN race a stage race, because here in MABRA-land we have one stage race, the Tour of Washington County. The wheelsucker was eligible for the cat 3, the cat 3/4 35+, even the 123, but knowing that he was somewhat of a "pretend" cat 3, he chose the 45+ race, joining Ace McDermott, Mike Brown and Ted Harris in that field.

It is a long drive to the Hagerstown area (Smithburg MD for the road race), but the 45+ race started at 16:05, so it was easy to get there ahead of time.

Saturday June 19th, Smithburg MD, 14:00: It was hot and humid. The 123 prologue had gone off at 8:00AM, but by the time their road race started it was rather hotter, and the attrition in that field was significant. The race officials decided to shorten several of the afternoon races, so the combined 45+/55+ race changed from a short four lap (of a six mile loop) to a nearly ridiculous three lap race that was shorter than most crits.

Last year in a combined 35+/50+ field two riders had gone the moment the neutral rollout was over, and they were never seen again. This year ABRT's Mike Brown pushed the pace during the rollout and Ace pushed the wheelsucker over and forward in a gesture that even the wheelsucker understood meant he was to get to the front NOW, so he got on Mike's wheel and was second at the left turn that starts the race.

With only three short laps there was no time for the strong men to lose, and the pace was going from the beginning. It was not too bad on the flats and the downhills, but each of the steeper climbs was one of just a handful of opportunities for the strong men to dispose of hangers-on, and they relished each and every opportunity. There were also attacks off the front that had to be countered, though the wheelsucker was usually able to follow wheels on these. The climbs were another matter. When the pace ramped up it was pedal hard enough to stay on, or be dropped. The wheelsucker was OK on one of the false flat climbs but the two steeper/longer climbs had him at or past his limits each time, with gaps opening and frantic chasing to get back on a wheel before it was too late.

At one point, on the false flat climb, the wheelsucker pulled through to the front and no one followed. Feeling slighted the wheelsucker slowed the pace down to something he could sustain and waited for someone to pull through; no one did. So the wheelsucker eased up a little more and waited for a move. When it came, it was Mike Brown and another rider jumping left. Feeling good the wheelsucker sprinted (well, sprinted for the wheelsucker) after them, hoping to catch on and thinking that he would happily bury himself in a break with Mike (or Ace) in the hope of staying away. The wheelsucker initially had the gap behind him and was slowly gaining on the two in front, but unknown to the wheelsucker Grant Soma had decided two ABRTers trying to get up the road was one too many and Grant had jumped out after the wheelsucker and closed up on him. The wheelsucker belatedly realized what was happening and sat up, forcing Grant to come around him, but from that point Grant was able to get to the two in front and neutralize the attack. Oops, mistake number one for the wheelsucker; he should have kept going easy at the front and then tried to get a wheel when someone else started to chase.

The next time through the same area the wheelsucker was riding third or fourth wheel with Art Brown riding second and Randy Thrasher to his left. Art was riding second wheel to an EVO rider who slowly rode away, with Art making no apparent effort to stay on his wheel. The wheelsucker watched this happen and wondered why, but nearly 100% of his effort and energy were devoted to hanging on, so he wasn't looking for reasons to expend more energy. Then a voice behind him yelled "close it!" to which the wheelsucker retorted that he was looking at two BAR Champions (Art and Randy) and THEY could close it. The voice behind did not like that response, and after extricating himself from being boxed in, Mike Brown jumped around and closed the gap, with everyone in the lead group accelerating to follow. Later the wheelsucker was told that the rider rolling off the front easily was Mike Bradbury (probably the strongest TTer in the field) and that he and Art had exchanged words a few minutes earlier, so this was a planned move. Oops!

The hardest climb of the loop is a false flat that leads to a climb that ends in a short wall, almost at the very end of each lap. This climb is followed by a dip and a second lower roller, then a descent to the right turn to begin the next lap (at the end of the last lap the field goes straight to the finish at the high school). This was the climb that was shedding the most riders. On the last lap, knowing this was the last hard climb before the finish, the strong men went even harder. The wheelsucker dug deep and desperately tried to hang on while several others were gapped, but at the top the wheelsucker was completely spent and a gap of about 2-3 bike lengths had opened. The lead group accelerated down the dip with the wheelsucker trying to spin it up to get enough speed to catch the draft, but not quite getting on. From there to the finish the wheelsucker was in oxygen debt, hyperventilating and going at 100% of whatever little he had left, trying to close the two bike length gap, but he couldn't quite do it. The gap opened up to three to four bike lengths on one of the bumps on the way to the finish, and the sprint started at the base of the last climb with the wheelsucker about four lengths behind Randy Thrasher. The wheelsucker cannot sprint at the best of times, and this was now the worst of times. Art Brown, owner of one the best snap sprints in MABRA, and a lightweight at 135 pounds put everyone into slow motion as he launched, with Ace going after him. The group spread out slightly on this short last climb/sprint. Art won with Ace close behind, while Mike Brown rolled by Grant Soma for a close third. The wheelsucker has been told that Randy Thrasher cannot sprint, and he was in fact last in the lead group, but was still opening up a gap on the knackered wheelsucker.

At the finish it was Art Brown, Ace McDermott, Mike Brown, rest-of-group-to-Randy Thrasher in same time, and the wheelsucker 10 seconds back. The wheelsucker consoled himself thinking that he had given it everything he had during the race, could not have done any better in the sprint, and that several well known strong riders had gone off the back on the last hard climb and the closest was 35 seconds behind the wheelsucker. It was a good showing for ABRT, the only team with three riders in the top eight, and with finishes of 2,3,8. DC Velo had two riders in the top eight at 5th and 7th. Ted Harris rode strong and though gapped finished not far behind the lead group.

With time gaps hard to open on the road race and the crit, and only some limited time bonuses on the table, the time trial would be critical for the leaders. The trouble was that three of the riders in the lead seven at the same time, were renowned time trialists. Mike Bradbury, Grant Soma and Randy Thrasher were all known as very strong time trialists, and Art Brown was not slow on a TT bike either. ABRT had two very strong riders in Ace and Mike, but Mike did not have a TT bike. The wheelsucker was generally better at time trialing than road races and crits, and was hoping to gain time on some of his rivals, but was not expecting to gain time on the strong time trialists.

Sunday June 20th, Boonsboro MD, 06:45: Boonsboro was just about dead to the world Sunday morning. No cafes or restaurants were open, and it was only when driving up to the TT start area that hundreds of riders and volunteers could be seen preparing. The first riders were off at 7:00AM. The wheelsucker had to deal with a flat tire (a tube died while he was pumping up his tires), which along with the frequent stress-caused bathroom breaks, limited his warmup time. 08:14:30 came all too soon, and the wheelsucker rolled out of the TT start house and up the first hill. Thirty seconds behind him was time trial legend Randy Thrasher. The adrenalin kicked in and just like he does on every TT start (the wheelsucker never seems to learn) he went out hard, rationalizing that he could recover after the climb, on the first descent. At 57 seconds into the race the wheelsucker was still averaging 416 watts (hint, this is WAAAY over what an aging wheelsucker can sustain) as he crested the hill and backed off. But it was not much of a descent and the wheelsucker did not get much of a recovery. The organizers had shortened the TT somewhat, perhaps to make it less decisive in the overall GC. Most of the way through the outbound leg the wheelsucker checked his average power and saw 300 watts (hint, this is still rather over threshold for the wheelsucker). The wheelsucker's challenge would be to hold that average on the way back. The turnaround is at the top of a climb, so a spent and hyperventilating wheelsucker slowed and made the turn, realizing as he turned that a rider was right on his wheel. The wheelsucker had past at least two riders on the outbound leg, but one of them was Super Dave riding a road bike, and in the quick glimpse the wheelsucker had he was quite sure it was not Super Dave behind him. The return leg started with a descent (back down the climb up to the turnaround) and the wheelsucker tried to be fast, aero and not use too much power on the descent, trying to recover. Up ahead he could see more riders in range. Up the next climb a rider – it turned out to be Randy Thrasher – went by pushing considerably more watts than the wheelsucker wanted to push, or was able to push. The wheelsucker slowed briefly to avoid drafting and grabbed a drink from his water bottle. Randy was clear at the crest. But then an interesting thing happened; the wheelsucker backed off the power for the descent and went into his aero-while-recovering mode, and started to reel in Thrasher. A little while later, the wheelsucker was alongside Thrasher, being careful not to draft, and then he was ahead again. The next two riders were just ahead and the wheelsucker threaded his way through them, and then on the next climb Thrasher went by pushing a lot of watts and looking a bit like Jens Voight on a TT bike; bike rocking, big gear slow cadence, lots of power. The gap to Randy slowly opened as the wheelsucker struggled to hold power. On the last climb to the finish the wheelsucker ramped the power back up to 400+, but did not gain on Randy and was passed by one more rider shortly before the finish. He did not know if this was a rider he had passed earlier, or another rider that had started behind him.

An exhausted wheelsucker figured out his time was about 23:47 (it was actually 23:47.4). While this lost him time against the strong TTers like Mike Bradbury (22:50.04), Grant Soma (22:59.4), Randy Thrasher (24:09.3), Art Brown (23:41.8), and Ace McDermott (23:34.6), it did move him up a place into 7th on GC, as Paul Mittelstadt had 24:39.6). The big loser was Mike Brown (23:57.7) who dropped to behind the wheelsucker after riding hard on a road bike with clip ons rather than a TT bike like all the other stronger riders.

Ted Harris went 28:37.8, while MABRA legend Super Dave went 31:15.7 on a road bike.

Brian Fouche had graciously allowed some of the ABRTers to stay at his condo, and Mike, Ted, Ali and Sara cooled off and ate breakfast while relaxing and preparing for the crit.

The 45+ crit was at 14:15, which was not nearly enough time to fully relax and recover (the wheelsucker needed days and weeks, not hours)... The ABRT 45+ team had a tough job to get Ace onto the podium. He was about 40 seconds behind the rider in front of him, and there were only about 17 seconds available in time bonuses. Ace needed to ride away from the strongest riders in the field to get on the podium and they had no intention of letting him do this. It was a short crit, and it started fast and got faster. There were lots of surges and each one found the wheelsucker digging deep, desperately trying to hold on to a wheel near the back of the lead group. Other riders were unable to hang and were going OTB, but the wheelsucker did not see them, as all he was fixating on was the wheel in front. Several times there was a split in front of the wheelsucker, but each time the wheelsucker thought his goose was cooked he realized Randy Thrasher was also behind the split and he grabbed Randy's wheel. Randy would ride hard at the front and sooner or later the lead group would slow and Randy would lead the back half up to the leaders. Slowly the size of the lead group dwindled. The wheelsucker was usually at or near the back. Early in the race Mike Brown had been behind him, but somehow Mike knew when he had to move up to avoid the splits (and was able to do it!), so now when the lead group was together the wheelsucker was often riding on Mike's wheel.

As the laps counted down there were sprints for time bonuses and sprints for light beer, none of which the wheelsucker contested (he couldn't). But each was a surge that somehow had to be countered. Then it happened, there was another gap and no Randy Thrasher. The wheelsucker struggled to get across, but the gap opened, the wheelsucker tired and he was OTB. He chased down the hill, but could not close and the gap grew coming out of the sweeping right turn. The motorcycle ref rolled by on the backstretch (this is next to a cemetery, which seemed highly appropriate). The wheelsucker checked behind hoping for some help, but the next rider was another 4-5 bike lengths and fading fast. The wheelsucker had lost hope and was resigned to his fate, but then a miracle occurred. The leaders approached the hard right turn and slowed. No one wanted to drive the pace at that point, and amazingly the wheelsucker chased back on, yelling at the moto ref to warn him, and swept around the sharp right turn and used his very last watts to sprint up to the wheel of the last place rider in the lead group and held on up the hill.

About two laps later, with four to go the lead group slowed again at the same turn and the wheelsucker sensed an opportunity. Knowing that every rider in the lead group would probably outsprint him, and his only chance to beat any of them was to get off the front, and even suspecting that the gaps behind the group were enough that even if caught and dropped, he might hold his position, and that it might help Ace and Mike if they did not have to work 'cause a team mate was off the front, the wheelsucker went into his sprint (well, sprint for a wheelsucker), passed the entire lead group on the inside and jumped into the sharp turn as hard as he could, then sprinted up the hill through the start/finish line. And an amazing thing happened! It worked! A little while later the wheelsucker sneaked a peak behind him and saw a significant gap. The next time through the start finish line it was three laps to go. The wheelsucker could hear his team mates cheering him by name on from the sidelines, and others cheering the ABRT rider. Announcer Joe Jefferson was checking his notes for what unknown rider this was, and was referring to him by number only.

Digging deep and going hard, while resting on the fast downhill, the wheelsucker rounded the sharp corner still with a gap; hammering up the hill the lap counter said 2, and Joe Jefferson had checked his notes and was now yelling the wheelsucker's name, while the wheelsucker was still hearing his team mates and the crowed cheering him on (the wheelsucker is still getting shivers up and down his spine thinking about this). Around the right at the top of the hill, hammer the flat, and get it going on the fast downhill to the right sweeper… the wheelsucker was dying, but giving it everything he had… around the sharp right and through the start finish line on the climb… a peak or two had revealed the gap was closing, and then the wheelsucker heard an excited Joe Jefferson yelling "he’s got a team mate coming across!!!!!!" and in a blur Mike Brown went by on the left shortly after crossing the start finish line, with just under one lap to go. The wheelsucker had given it everything he had. He had probably gone too hard and had nothing left. He could not find the watts or will to try to get Mike's wheel. A few meters later the chase caught him too. This was at the top of the hill and wheelsucker tried to catch on at the back, but did not really make it. Gapped by a bike length or two the wheelsucker struggled to stay in contact with DC Velo's Paul Mittelstadt ahead, and could do nothing when Paul let a gap open in front of him. Around the last sharp right and into the finishing straight the entire group ahead was sprinting. Mittelstadt sat up but the wheelsucker came to race and he was going to sprint even if it was pointless, so he launched, passed Mittelstadt and crossed the line second last out of the lead group, well behind the real sprinters. It was the very best he could do.

The time gaps from the Time Trial proved decisive. Ace could not gain time on the riders in front of him and finished fifth. Mike Bradbury won, Grant Soma was second, Randy Thrasher third, Art Brown fourth, Ace fifth. Winning the crit with a great 1.5 lap move had pulled Mike Brown into 6th, and the wheelsucker was 7th on GC. ABRTers had gone 2,3 in the RR and won the crit, but the TT was decisive.

GC Results: http://www.avcracing.com/uploads/Masters_45__GC.pdf

TT Results http://www.avcracing.com/uploads/Masters45TT.pdf

RR Results: http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?event=2010-1573