Saturday January 12th Southern HS Training RideThe Wheelsucker Goes Early Out of Fear

With the unseasonably warm weather, there had been several possibilities for a Saturday ride discussed on the ABRT listserver. As each new idea (ABRT, Rock Creek park, ABRT on fixed gear) was brought up, the Wheelsucker dutifully asked his coach if that new idea would work for his current training plan.

After LOTS of e-mails, the final decision was the ABRT Saturday ride -- which per the calendar was starting at Southern High School –- on fixed gear.

The Wheelsucker's coach was skeptical that the Wheelsucker would be able to hang on.

The Wheelsucker’s fixie was set up with 39x15 for the Sunday Ellicott City fixed gear ride, but that seemed much too low to handle the ABRT ride, so the Wheelsucker worked on the bike. And what he came up with was 48x16. But the Wheelsucker was unsure about the gearing, so brought additional chain rings with him.

He rolled out a little early to check and quickly realized he was somewhat over-geared, but back at the HS he no longer had time to change down, as the group was about to roll out. Handling climbs and surges with the big gear had the Wheelsucker scared.

Being slightly warmed up, the Wheelsucker rolled out at the front, and very shortly after turning right onto Harwood Road, he realized he had a small gap. The Wheelsucker was not trying to ride away, but the gap opened and then the Wheelsucker started to think. And the Wheelsucker thinking can be dangerous!

The Wheelsucker’s first thought was that he could use a bit of a head-start for the Harwood Hill descent, so he wasn't gapped when he could not pedal fast enough. He was still clear at Harwood Hill but his tall gear was enough to get down Harwood Hill without spinning ridiculously high. And then the Wheelsucker thought he could continue to go steady, and the later he was caught, the less surging he would have to do. So he continued...

A little over an hour later, the Wheelsucker rolled into the rest stop by himself, wondering where the group was. After some text messages, and a decent wait, the group rolled in together having waited for Denzil to fix a flat.

But the Wheelsucker was back to worrying about handling the surges on all the rollers on the way to North Beach, never mind the wall, so when Rick P. called to him and suggested they roll out early, the Wheelsucker was interested. Rick reported that the group HAD been surging hard.

Off to North Beach they rolled, first just hoping to make it to the beach; and they were clear at the Beach.

Then the goals started to grow; what if they could stay clear to the climb out of Herrington Harbor? And once up that climb, they were thinking what if they could stay clear to the wall?

And once up the wall (it took the Wheelsucker some time to get up it pushing his 48x16, and then catch up to a soft pedaling Rick) they were wondering if they could go all the way?

Rick and the Wheelsucker dutifully took the right turn for the extra loop into Deale, and as they were rolling up Bay Front Road to the right turn onto Nutwell Sudley Road, they saw some short cutters crossing Bay Front Road.

Shouting "cheaters!!" at those ahead, the Wheelsucker ramped it up a bit to catch them, and quickly did. But then he saw two more ABRTers further up Nutwell Sudley.

Now no one had caught and passed Rick and the Wheelsucker, so anyone further up the road had shortcut, but the Wheelsucker seeing ABRT kit up the road was much like a bull seeing the matador waving a red cape, and the Wheelsucker ramped it up a bit more to close the gap.

Rick stayed with Denzil and Patrick, and the Wheelsucker closed the gap to Bob and Tom, but just as he caught them he realized that Denzil, Patrick and Rick were back on his wheel, and there was ANOTHER ride in ABRT kit a bit further up the road. But the small group soon reeled Brian in.

The Wheelsucker was worried about handling surges on this section as it was mostly climbing from there to 255, but the pace was steady. The Wheelsucker was also worrying about being caught by the non-shortcutting main group, so was frequently looking back, but no chase was in site.

A tired and sore Wheelsucker hung on at the back trying to recover and waited for the last sweeping right turn before the sprint line, just before crossing 255. He considered that everyone in this group except Rick had short cut. At the turn he launched as hard as a sore, tired, aging Wheelsucker pushing too-big-a-gear on his fixie can launch. And no one else responded, probably because no one else cared! And slowly the Wheelsucker rolled past the group on the left, overtaking a non sprinting Denzil very shortly before the line.

Having ridden to the rest stop alone, ridden from the rest stop with Rick but doing most of the pulling, and having sat in from Sudley Road to the line, the Wheelsucker had mitigated the risk of riding the group ride on his fixed gear, by not really riding the group ride at all…

Wheelsucker Data:

Roll out to rest stop:
1:24:08, 28.12 miles, 950 feet elevation gain
142/159 bpm
84/141 rpm cadence
20.06/33.17 mph

Rest stop to cooldown:
1:35:32, 33.43 miles, 976 feet elevation gain
150/164 bpm
88/161 rpm cadence
21.0/37.98 mph

Next time, lower gearing ...