The Wheelsucker Goes Long on the Saturday Ride

As per his coach, the wheelsucker's assigned workout was a five hour group ride. The wheelsucker decided that riding to and from the Park & Ride and doing a loop of the Harwood RR would lengthen the ride enough. Despite not getting a full night's sleep, the wheelsucker was feeling pretty good as he rode from Annapolis to Davidsonville.

The group was dawdling early on, so he rolled off the front with Tim Shaffer on the way to 214, but they were caught at the light.

The wheelsucker went again after 214, on his own. It was not like the wheelsucker was going at full wheelsucker power; he just wanted to get a workout rather than sitting in and chatting, and he was hoping to steer the group into a left turn on Bayard so as to include the Harwood RR loop. And the group was clearly dawdling. The wheelsucker waited at Sands and Bayard and determined he had opened a 1:45ish gap. The group did not want to add the loop and continued south on Sands. The wheelsucker sat in briefly to recover but was getting bored with the pace and then pushed a little harder (nowhere near maximum) on Ed Prout and rolled off the front with Tim Shaffer. At the top they decided to keep riding but without killing themselves. They could not see a chase and they gradually increased their effort as they started to think they might stay away to the rest stop.

They finally saw a chase of five to seven, well behind them, just before the dip on Wilson. The chase was a lot closer as they climbed out on Wilson, but only two were coming across, Ace and ex pro Pete Penzell, as Ace had pushed it up the climb and only Pete could stay with him. Tim and the wheelsucker were both a little tired and did not fancy their chances of staying away from Ace and Pete but pushed up the climb to make sure they were not caught and immediately passed on the climb. They timed this well, and were caught just after the top and grabbed Ace and Pete's wheels and hung on.

While Tim soon started taking pulls, the wheelsucker reverted to what he always does, wheelsucking to make sure he stayed on. The four rolled in to the rest stop together.

Tim and the wheelsucker agreed that sitting in and recovering would be a good plan, but the wheelsucker could not resist when the guy leading on a downhill on the way to North Beach was sitting up and trying to pedal and going too slow. So the wheelsucker went one climb early on the way to North Beach. The wheelsucker jumped around him, accelerated, went into a tuck and opened a gap. Now committed, the wheelsucker started to push harder. He still had a nice gap half way up the last climb but saw that no one was coming with him. The wheelsucker believes he could have gone all the way to the top and perhaps held them off on the flat and led on the downhill to the traffic light, but as it started to hurt he recalled the plan to sit in, and sat up. Others may know that the wheelsucker simply does not have that kind of strength.

The group dawdled again on the way to Rosehaven, but Ace went hard on the climb out of Rosehaven with only the strongest riders able to hold his wheel. A gap opened several riders in front of the wheelsucker and he tried to sprint around but could not get to the last wheel. The wheelsucker continued at full wheelsucker power, leaving those behind him, but not closing the gap to the lead group. As the wheelsucker tired on the false flat a chase caught him and he gratefully grabbed the last wheel and took the tow.

On the downhill the lead group eased up and as the chase got close the wheelsucker jumped around most of the chase and got to the lead group, with the chase making it on a few seconds later.

The group dawdled up the horse farm climb, and two riders got off the front. The wheelsucker was expecting Ace, Pete, Ryan et al to attack on the wall, so he hammered (hammered for the wheelsucker) off the top of the horse farm climb to get to the wall with enough of a gap on the main field that he would be over the top and recovered by the time Ace, Ryan et al got there. This worked very well and the wheelsucker was safely on the back of the group of strong riders shortly after the wall, with the two riders still off the front and everyone else gapped. The wheelsucker thought this group of strong riders might ride from there, but they eased up again, letting gapped riders back on. Ace was planning an attack near the dump, but first Ryan flatted and the group slowed and then Ace noticed a stem bolt had broken and chose to ride easy.

Wanting more ride time and miles, Tim and the wheelsucker split off from the group at route 2 and Polling House and road 1.5 laps of the Harwood RR course, before heading back to the Park & Ride. The wheelsucker's aging legs were complaining by this time, so it was an easy ride back to the Park & Ride and then Annapolis.

Wheelsucker Data:
Ride Time: 5:06:38
Distance: 98.16 miles
Average power: 189 watts
Average HR: 137 bpm
Average cadence: 78 rpm
Average speed: 19.3 mph