Thursday September 23rd Training RideThe Wheelsucker Report

With thoughts of the Tuesday break in his head, the wheelsucker was determined to go early and go hard and see what happened. He managed to arrive at the P&R early and had over 20 minutes warmup when he met the group rolling out, just after they turned left onto Rossback Road. The wheelsucker had been stopped at the side of the road zeroing his Powertap, but turned around, chased back on, and then rolled passed the smallish group, telling them there was a car back. Alex Pline and Iain Banks were on the front chatting, but Alex ignored the wheelsucker's gesture to come with him.

So the wheelsucker rolled off on his own, pushing at wheelsucker threshold. Wheelsucker threshold power is nothing that would alarm a strong cyclist -- the wheelsucker is not Louis Leon Sanchez or Phillipe Gilbert -- but it is the best power an aging wheelsucker can sustain for 20-60 minutes, and it is hard work!

Now it would be easy to accuse the wheelsucker of being a dreamer, and thinking he could ride away, but the wheelsucker was not actually thinking he could stay away to the finish. Initially he was hoping a few riders would come with him, but as the gap grew it became less likely that anyone would try to bridge the gap; soon the main field was out of site. The wheelsucker was now thinking he would be caught once the main field got serious, perhaps shortly after 214, or at Harwood Hill, but was hoping to stay away for as long as possible. Every now and then the wheelsucker checked behind him looking for the chase. But there was no chase at 214; no chase at the top of Queen Anne Bridge; no chase at the top of Harwood Hill, no chase at the turn onto route 2, and no chase down route 2 when he first checked. The wheelsucker was pacing his effort so as to go as fast as he could while still having something left to grab a wheel when he was caught. And he was planning to soft pedal as soon as other riders were close, to get a little recovery.

There is one spot on route 2 where there is a straight view back for quite some distance, and when the wheelsucker checked there he thought he saw two riders a long distance back. The wheelsucker was now thinking that he might be caught by a small chase, not the entire main group. The gap was large enough that it was going to take some work to close, and the wheelsucker thought Ace would not want to tow weaker riders and give them a free ride so would jump and try to bridge on his own, or with a small group of riders.

So the wheelsucker kept going at wheelsucker threshold, with his forearms resting on the tops of the handlebars and his hands dangling forward or holding onto the cables, getting as low in front as he could to be as aero as possible. Actually the wheelsucker got so low and so aero going down one small hill he knocked his Powertap off the handlebars and had to turn around and go back for it, losing perhaps 45 seconds.

At the route 2 circle he could not see a chase; at the bump on Bayard he could not see a chase. And to the wheelsucker's surprise he never did see a chase. Once he turned onto Sands the wheelsucker figured the group must have taken one of the shortcuts due to the lack of daylight, but just in case, he kept hammering up the road.

The wheelsucker was working hard and had to rinse sweat off his sunglasses (with low light lenses) to see properly. The tops of the handlebars were slick with sweat and his forearms were sliding. His legs and lower back were sore and the wheelsucker was breathing hard and struggling to hold threshold power, but he kept going.

He finally crossed the finish line and rode slowly and easily back to the Park & Ride.

There was a small group in the P&R who reported a crash on route 2 when Brian MacLean and Patrick Hogan both jumped to get on Ace's wheel when Ace jumped. They tried to occupy the same space and Patrick went down. While Patrick was a little scraped up but insisting he was not hurt badly, his bike had ended up in a route 2 traffic lane and had a couple of paint dings, and his Garmin was a fatality.

This group had short cut and returned to the P&R by a shorter route. Very soon after the wheelsucker arrived at the P&R another group who had ridden the entire course (though also stopped for the crash) rode in.

The wheelsucker thinks this counts as a solo win, but he is not quite sure.