The July 4th Parvilla Shop RideThe Wheelsucker and Some Team Mates Survive a Suicide Attack From a Groundhog

This was the July 4th Parvilla Shop ride. There were a number of ABRTers, a few triathletes and some non racing cycling enthusiasts; it was a large group.

As per the organizers, the plan was: Go easy to the rest stop in North Beach (as in easy/no drop), hammer back if you want to.

What actually happened was: Easy roll out, easy ride until we hit the wall (reverse direction) and "game on" from there to Sweet Sue's in North Beach. The lead group was going into the sprint at just over 30 mph!

Somehow, despite the plan, the Wheelsucker was expecting the hammer to go down on the climb at the reverse wall on Franklin Gibson Road. Rather than wait to see if it happened, and then struggle to stay with the leaders and risk being gapped, the Wheelsucker worked his way to the front of the group and then waited until the group had rolled across the last intersection – at Deal Road – before the wall, and went solo off the front to get a nice headstart on the wall (which is rather longer in the reverse direction).

And it worked!

The Wheelsucker was going easy in the section off the top where it starts to almost flatten out when the first three riders came by, pedaling hard. A rested Wheelsucker tagged on at the back and followed. Down Leitch Road the Wheelsucker was leading, but was encouraged to take it easy and let others back on, but then riders started jumping by and the Wheelsucker had to jump hard to get a wheel and stay on. The lead riders were in a slowly-rotating paceline to the base of the Fairhaven Road climb. The amazing Nick Vita attacked solo (no one could go with him) at the base of the climb, with the group working hard together to bring him back. Near the top the Wheelsucker took a late hard short pull to close the gap a little more and then eased up expecting the recombined group to ease up at the Friendship Road "T" intersection. Nick was caught and sure enough the Wheelsucker was able to coast up to the others stopped at the intersection and rejoin.

It was fast on the long Friendship Road descent and stayed fast through Herrington Harbor and onto Walnut Avenue/Bay Avenue. Strong riders drove the pace from Herrington Harbor to North Beach, with the group averaging 30 mph for the last 45 seconds before the sprint started. Mike Faber took the sprint.

The next groups on the road were close behind and soon everyone was gathered in the shade at Sweet Sue's.

Despite promises that everyone would have time to enjoy a coffee the Wheelsucker somehow dawdled enough that he had to throw his half finished latte away and jump on his bicycle to roll out with the last two riders. Knowing that the leaders would be tempted to ramp it up soon, the Wheelsucker powered past each little group until he tagged onto the back of the lead group part way up the first Chesapeake Beach Road climb.

Iain asked everyone to ease up after the right turn onto Boyds Turn Road, but a few riders were unconvinced and the leaders paused for just a moment and then chased down the two or three who had continued. The pace stayed high-but-survivable back down Fairhaven, though Brian put in a long hard pull on the way to Leitch Road. The Wheelsucker was thinking ahead about the wall, and tried to jump clear near the top of Leitch Road so he could get a head start on the wall, but the Wheelsucker's best jump was not enough to get clear of Nick Vita and Sean Easley (who had pulled all the way up Leitch and STILL grabbed Nick's wheel), though the three had a small gap at the top.

Despite following a hard driving Nick all the way to the start of the wall, the Wheelsucker could not hold on and was dropped by Nick and Sean and then passed by several others who were chasing hard (Patrick, Brian, and more). It was looking like a small group might get away, but the Wheelsucker grabbed Mike Faber's wheel and gratefully took the tow up to the leaders. Whew!

Others made it back on as well, so it was a decent-sized lead group on Nutwell Sudley, which becomes Sudley and then Owensville Sudley. In addition to Nick, Sean, Patrick, Brian and Mike driving the pace, Bob Walters, Sara Clafferty and Alex Pline also took their pulls. The Wheelsucker tried to keep his pulls as short as possible.

The route was to turn right off of Harwood onto Wayson Road for the two camel humps. The irrepressible Nick went hard on the first hump and opened a gap with Mike going steady-hard to try and close it. The Wheelsucker put his head down, gritted his teeth, and followed Mike. After Mike had pulled most of the way to the Queen Anne Bridge Road intersection, a few riders jumped around him and closed down Nick. The Wheelsucker was gapped slightly on the short steep bump on Queen Anne Bridge, but chased back on.

The lead group was rather smaller now.

The flat run into the 214 intersection was just too tempting for Nick and another rider (Sean?) and a long sprint duel ensued. Everyone else in the lead group looked at each other and shook their heads. These two riders were caught soon after the right onto 214 as they had sat up, but then Brian countered immediately with the others reluctantly chasing. And then a red light at the Davidsonville Road/Birdsville Road intersection brought the lead group back together and allowed several who had been gapped in the last few miles to get back on as well.

The recombined larger lead group hammered down the 214 shoulder and made it through a green light at Brick Church Road.

And then the groundhog made his move.

The attacking groundhog ran clear across 214, left to right, and stopped abruptly two or three feet from the paceline, apparently to zero in on a specific rider. The first three riders made it by due to the groundhog’s stop, but the rest were locking brakes up and diving left and right to avoid the groundhog and each other.

The groundhog quickly decided Rick Paukstitus was his target and went for him. Amazingly none of the riders went down or touched each other, though it was a near run thing. Rick went over the groundhog.

This really was a suicide attack, as the groundhog did not survive the encounter; the ABRTers in the lead group were very fortunate. ABRT 1: Groundhog 0. However the groundhog did inflict some damage as Rick's rear tire lost enough tread that it only just got him back to Parvilla!

The terrorist groundhog did not survive the attack

With not far to go the pace stayed high. Brian put in a massive pull that took the group most of the way there. The Wheelsucker took the last (short, even for a Wheelsucker) leadout pull just before the sprint started, reaching 30 mph before pulling off and letting the sprinters go by. He was too tired and too far back to even see who took the sprint, though Sara may have been third.