Not being strong enough to stay with the leaders on the first hard section had meant that the Wheelsucker ended up working with Brian McLean in the fourth group on the road, and finished well back and a lot of time behind the winners, despite going as hard as he has ever gone.
This year the Wheelsucker decided to race 50+ rather than being useless to his team mates in 40+. But racing 50+ probably meant racing without team mates. And then the race opened on bikereg while the Wheelsucker was away from his laptop, and he was only able to get 18th on the 50+ waitlist. So he gave up on Battenkill and did not train for it.
But after riding the Saturday 10:00am Rock Creek ride, the Wheelsucker checked his e-mail, and had an offer for one of three available spots in 50+. He replied almost immediately, beating out the others who had been e-mailed, and on a week’s notice, had a spot in 50+ at Battenkill.
The Wheelsucker checked the entry list and saw that the only rider he knew was ex ABRT team mate (now Battley Harley/XO Communications rider) Art Brown.
Matt and Ace had room in the car and hotel room for the Wheelsucker, so it was on.
Most of the ABRTers were at the race site Friday, and pre-rode the last ten miles of the course.
This included the last – and steepest – climb in the race.
Saturday morning at 11:19:59, the Wheelsucker was lined up with a large number of geriatric racers from sixteen US states and two Canadian provinces.
While there were a few detail changes in the course, it was very similar to last year. And the challenges from last year were vivid in the Wheelsucker’s memory. The first challenge on the course is a narrow covered bridge, shortly after a left turn off the main road. Last year, the Wheelsucker went into the bridge area mid pack, but could not force his way into line, and ended up going through almost last. Just after the bridge is a right turn onto gravel and the first climb. The Wheelsucker had started the climb on the back and had struggled to stay on, losing contact with the first groups and forming a chase with other stragglers.
So this year the Wheelsucker was determined to know exactly where the left turn was, so he could be near the front at that turn. While he was unable to convince anyone else to ride or drive out to the bridge, he was able to determine that the left turn was at 5.1 miles, based on Matt’s GPS track from 2011. The Wheelsucker also checked the 2012 course elevation profile carefully and had a race “cheat sheet” showing mileage to the left turn, the beginning of each of the eight significant climbs, the end of each of the climbs, and the start and end of several significant descents. However the writing on the cheat sheet was too small, and it was hard to read while in the middle of the peloton!
At the start, the Wheelsucker was in the middle of the pack, but as he clipped in and started rolling, he worked right, and rode on the shoulder. When the rider in front moved up, the Wheelsucker followed. Occasionally he did not block the shoulder well enough and someone would come by on his right, and a few times riders decided to try some cyclecross moves and ride in the grass to get by. There was fluid movement within the peloton, but the Wheelsucker timed one of his moves closer to the front particularly well and found himself near the front when one rider decided it was time to accelerate prior to the left turn. The acceleration strung out the front of the field, but the Wheelsucker was securely holding third wheel and the pace was high enough that no one was inclined to pull out of line and try to go by. So the Wheelsucker was third at the left turn, third (and completely unimpeded) going through the narrow covered bridge, and third at the right turn onto the gravel and the first climb.
Perhaps the 50+ field is a little more sedate and surges less than the 40+:
the winning time in 30+ was 2:45:19,
the winning time in 40+ was 2:46:26, and
the winning time in 50+ was 2:48:05
but this year though straining at his limit, the Wheelsucker made it to the top of the first series of climbs still in contact with the large lead group, though he was the last rider to stay on.
The Wheelsucker kept trying to move up when he could, looking for opportunities to do it without having to go hard in the wind, but he was mostly near the back for the early part of the race, sometimes going around fading riders on the climbs, but somehow getting to the top of the climb near enough to the wheel ahead to stand and sprint to get back on. And meanwhile the group was shrinking as, one by one, riders were gapped and dropped.
There were attacks and chases and counter attacks. But this all happened at the front of the field, and the Wheelsucker was too far back to respond, so simply hung on during the surges, and tried to move up when he could. Each time he looked up the road he would see the white pickup truck lead vehicle.
Thirty miles into the race the group had shrunk substantially, but there were still 40-60 riders together. None of the attacks had worked; everything had been brought back. The Wheelsucker could occasionally see Art Brown some riders in front of him.
The Wheelsucker had seen a few riders pull off and raise an arm, usually for a flat.
Somewhere around 32 miles Art Brown pulled out and raised his arm. There was a brief conversation as the Wheelsucker rolled by:
Wheelsucker: What happened?
Art: flat
Wheelsucker: F**K!
For a fraction of a second the Wheelsucker considered offering Art a wheel, but then decided that he was racing for himself.
Art is a very strong, experienced and intelligent rider, with an amazing snap sprint. There are few 50 year olds who can outsprint him, and the Wheelsucker believed Art had a great chance of winning the race if he was in the lead group coming into the finish line, but now he was in the right shoulder waiting for Mavic’s neutral support, while the Wheelsucker was still racing.
This year most of the ABRT group had not ridden or driven the entire course. The group had ridden the last ten miles backwards and forwards. But what the group did not know was that two sections of the course had recently laid gravel, and were worse than last year. The second of these sections was somewhere around 45-48 miles into the race. In this section, the Wheelsucker was preoccupied keeping his own bike going straight and avoiding riders around him who were unable to keep their bikes going straight. And the peloton was creating a dust storm. And somewhere during this section a few riders got off the front.
When the worst of the section was done, the Wheelsucker looked up the road and saw the lead vehicle was some distance ahead, with a small number of riders following up a shallow climb. What was worse was that no one was doing any chasing and the gap was opening. The peloton was still riding on gravel. The Wheelsucker decided that this could be the winning break and that he needed to get to it if he could. So the Wheelsucker rolled by the group on their extreme left (in the absence of a motoref the field was taking the entire width of the road despite being warned about real and virtual yellow lines), and eased into the climb at higher power without actually trying to jump away.
AND IT WORKED!!!
The Wheelsucker looked back briefly after a few seconds, and he had a gap. The road was still gravel, albeit not as bad as the section had been. The Wheelsucker felt the climb was the best place to go, as the group ahead would not be going fast enough for riders to rest in the draft of the lead rider. After some time of hard effort, a rider rolled by on the Wheelsucker’s left and said “grab my wheel!” A tired Wheelsucker tagged on, but following this rider was requiring 350-400 watts at times and the Wheelsucker was running out of watts. At one point the other rider looked back to see if the Wheelsucker could help, and realized the Wheelsucker was doing all he could just to stay there. The Wheelsucker was gapped slightly on a bump, the gap opened, but he chased back on a shallow downhill, and then two or three more riders rolled by, but the Wheelsucker couldn’t quite stay on any of their wheels. But they were catching the group ahead, and the Wheelsucker was tantalizingly close. And with a final effort he made it back on a wheel. There were 6-8 riders there, and the Wheelsucker did not see a white pickup truck, so perhaps another smaller group was further up the road. The Wheelsucker had been working so hard he was barely able to think clearly. And then the group rolled onto pavement and the pace picked up, and the Wheelsucker did not have anything left to accelerate and he went off the back of the group with 2-3 other riders. These four formed a chase, using a rotating paceline and worked very hard to close the gap. When on the front the Wheelsucker would rest his forearms on the tops of his handlebars to get as low as possible and as aero as possible. Once or twice he gapped the other three by a bike length or two, but the Wheelsucker was not keen on trying to ride the last 10+ miles on his own, so waited briefly each time for the others to catch on.
Very soon the group was inside ten miles of the finish and the Wheelsucker recognized the roads from the pre-ride. And he knew the last (and steepest) climb was coming up, at a shallow left turn onto gravel. At one point the Wheelsucker’s plan had been to conserve energy for this last climb, but he had been forced to make a very hard bridge effort and was now chasing hard in a four rider group.
As soon as the climb started the Wheelsucker knew he was in trouble as the three other riders gapped him. There was no way the Wheelsucker could hold the power to stay on their wheels, so he went as hard as he could sustain and tried to keep them close.
AND IT WORKED!!!
Half way up the climb one of the three ahead faltered and slowed and the Wheelsucker slowly reeled him in and then passed him, and then he slowly gained on the other two as they tired, and caught them just before the gravel ended and the climb ended.
Under five miles to go! The fourth rider was too far back but the Wheelsucker and the other two accelerated into the descent, sped down in their most aero positions, and then went back to the rotating paceline.
Not far ahead were two riders, one of whom was recognized to be a 50+ who had fallen out of the group ahead. The two riders were working together, and even got a draft from a car for some time, but the Wheelsucker’s group slowly closed the gap.
At the one kilometer banner, the Wheelsucker was taking a pull, and the two ahead were still clear. The Wheelsucker swung off and then coasted when no one pulled through. The next rider came by, the rider behind him declined to take his wheel and opened the gap. Too tired to argue, the Wheelsucker took the wheel. That pull closed the gap to the two ahead, just before the last turn, a sweeping right at 350 meters.
While doing the course “recon” the previous day, going from the corner had occurred to the Wheelsucker, but that had been a rested and fresh Wheelsucker. And the Wheelsucker was far from rested and fresh after his efforts. He swung wide at the turn, and repositioned himself on the back of the line of five. The rider in blue who had declined to come through a few moments ago was strong and accelerated. Once the line was up to speed the Wheelsucker tried to launch and come by on the right.
IT ALMOST WORKED!!
The Wheelsucker got close enough to the rider in blue who was leading the sprint, but that rider drifted right causing the Wheelsucker some alarm as he did not want to be pushed into the right barrier. He eased up and lost one more rider by a wheel, at the line. The two riders who had just been caught were behind him, the two he had worked with were ahead of him.
A short time later it turned out that they had been sprinting for 9th through 12th, and the Wheelsucker had crossed 11th, one place past the payouts.
But the Wheelsucker considers 11th in 50+ in a marquee event like the Tour of the Battenkill, to be a very respectable finish, though he now regrets not being closer to the front of the group through the second bad gravel section, when the winning break went. He had managed to get up to most of the first eight finishers, but had not been able to stay with them.
The 40+ squad, which had finished earlier, had an impressive result with Ace sprinting for second in his group and 7th overall.
Looking at his power data, the Wheelsucker saw that his CP5min, CP6min, CP10min, CP12min, CP20min and CP30min all started at the same time, almost certainly where the Wheelsucker started his bridge effort. CP60min was the last 60 minutes of the race, and includes this effort. CP120min was the last two hours of the race. The Wheelsucker figures he gave it everything he had …
By the numbers:
62.21 miles
132 50+ starters, 125 finishers
Race time: The Wheelsucker crossed at 2:49:56, 1:51 behind the winner of 50+, and about 2:30 behind Ace’s time for the course.
Average power: 221 watts, 270 watts normalized
Average HR: 145bpm
Average speed: 22.03 mph, maximum 49.75 mph
Climbing: 5034 feet
Results: http://velocityresults.com/results/376/tour-of-the-battenkill-cambridge-ny
The Wheelsucker has been going over the race in his mind, trying to learn as much as possible from it. After some consideration he has a list of things he did well and things he could improve upon.
Things he did well:
o Learned from the 40+ race last year and was very well positioned for the covered bridge and the first climb, by knowing the left turn was at 5.1 miles.
o Drifted back on climbs when he could though early on, conserving energy for later in the race. Though he was also at max anyway and had no alternative.
o He did no work (sat in and wheelsucked) until he started bridging to the lead group, other than chasing back onto the wheel in front of him at the top of climbs, and very limited work to move up when he could do so.
o He let others attack and others chase, and followed wheels.
o He moved up when he could follow someone; He very occasionally went into the wind for a short time to move up.
o He worked very hard to bridge when he realized 5-8 riders were off the front and gaining.
o He worked hard to chase in a group when behind the lead group.
o The ABRTers pre rode the last ten miles, which included a different finish line stretch than last year. Knowing this section of the route was very helpful. The Wheelsucker wishes he had seen the two really bad gravel sections before the race.
o He became relatively stronger as the race went on.
o He rode his lightest weight weenie bike (a 2009 SuperSix) with a compact crankset, 11-28 cassette, his almost-lightest wheelset (American Classic 350s with a Powertap). Despite all the weight weenie parts, the bike was fine. And he always had a gear or two in reserve, even on the steepest climbs.
o Rather than going with the conventional wisdom (Gatorskins and fluid in the tubes) for tires, he went with a wider/fatter version of his favorite tires. The 25mm Pro Race 3s actually measured 27mm wide. He used latex tubes. He ran 85 psi front and 90 rear and next time he rides gravel he is going to try even lower. He thinks the handling in the loose gravel was better, and the tires should be much lower rolling resistance and weight than Gatorskins with fluid in the tubes. He was probably at higher risk of a flat, but was going to be faster if he did not flat.
Mistakes:
o He missed the key move in the bad gravel section. He was conserving too much and riding too far back, and with head down in the gravel and dust, did not see them go.
o Partly because he saw it on the pre-ride and did not see the two bad gravel sections, he decided to wait for last climb and was not prepared when the winning break went in the second bad gravel section. The 40+ field split at the same point, and his team mates in cat 5 and cat 4 may have had similar experiences in the same gravel section. In other words, that was the most likely place on the entire course for a winning break to go.
o He should have driven the entire course and seen how bad the gravel sections were. He was also too focused on determining the distance to the left turn, but was eventually able to determine that without driving or riding out to it.
o Maybe he started the bridge attempt too early on the climb, and maybe he went too hard. The guys who caught and passed him started their bridge efforts after he did.
o He should not have let the blue rider skip rotation going into the last corner.
o Maybe he could have attacked the other two riders inside 3 miles to the finish and tried to TT alone away from them, and reel in the guy ahead on his own.
It appears the peloton shattered after he started the bridge effort and dribbled in in very small groups; the finishes are all strung out. It looks like the guys in front finished more or less together in a group of eight, and he was in the next group, 1:50 down.
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