Morgantown Road RaceThe Wheelsucker Report

Most bike racers would be more than happy to spend a week training in Mallorca and wouldn’t complain. The Wheelsucker really enjoyed the week but IS taking the opportunity to complain. His recovery from seven days of riding has taken some time. The first week after he returned was very easy – per his coach – but he was still rather flat on the first Saturday group ride, finding the effort to stay on a wheel on even a short bump, quite noticeable. At one point he was wondering if he was going to be dropped before the 214 intersection, just minutes from rolling out of the Park & Ride!

So the Wheelsucker has put off deciding about races, unless registration was about to close, or his field (male geriatrics B) was about to fill.

When team mates asked him about the Morgantown Road Race in WV, he stalled, waiting for form, waiting for confidence, waiting for inspiration, waiting for guidance from his coach. But finally, Thursday afternoon, with Brian and Nick having booked a hotel room and organized transportation, and pre registration closing in four hours, it was time for a procrastinating Wheelsucker to make a decision. And with considerable trepidation he registered for his 50+ field. The Wheelsucker’s racing age is 55, but unlike MABRA, ABRA uses 40,50,60 as the age cut offs. The Wheelsucker is also a cat 3, but sad experience has removed any remaining illusions he may have about actually hanging in a cat 3 field.

It was about as easy as doing an away event could be; Nick met him at the P&R, the Wheelsucker’s bike was thrown in the back of Nick’s father’s Jeep Commander, they picked up Brian and his bike, and they were off to Morgantown, West Virginia. Sitting in the back, the Wheelsucker had lots of time to text, e-mail, post on Facebook and check who was registered, again. It turned out that Ace McDermott and Ken McDowell were registered for 40+, and then Katy Giles responded on FB saying she would be there, presumably racing W123.

In ABRA road races, the 40+, 50+, 60+, and W123 groups all start together, and are scored separately. So Katy, Ken McDowell, and Ace were all racing in the same group as the Wheelsucker. In contrast to previous away ABRA races where the Wheelsucker would get up at "oh dark thirty", drive to the venue, change, race, change, drive home, this trip was civilized. Even with a dinner stop Nick, Brian and the Wheelsucker were checked into their hotel room very shortly after 10:00pm.

The Wheelsucker awoke Saturday morning still unsure how he felt and what his form was. He continued to stew over this, trying to tell himself that the worst that could happen was he was flat and simply had a nice easy ride off the back, enjoying the countryside. But this did not really help.

JR Petsko and his crew had changed the route; details of this year’s route and the rather interesting course profile are at http://www.strava.com/activities/44274099.

The profile exaggerates the climbs and does not show short steep pitches. So not all of the climbs on the profile are real climbs, but the one starting at about 25 miles is, and so are all the climbs after this one. So the course was flat to rollers until about mile 11.5, then a steady but not very steep easier climb, but three harder climbs in the second half of the race.

There were several attacks and surges in the first ten miles – why? !! – the group would be in a pace line for a minute or two then no one would pull through and the pace would slow. The Wheelsucker HATES surges and was falling back not by choice, but simply because he could not put down the watts to hold position. But when the pace eased, he would try to move up, following wheels to do it whenever possible.

The Wheelsucker's "plan" was to somehow get into a break with the leading 40+ riders and no other 50+ riders. His plan B was to knock over the other 50+ riders walkers using his cane...

Ace was always near the front. Ken rolled out too far back and took awhile to work his way up to the front, but once there also stayed near the front and took a couple of rather long pulls. Not long after the rollout Katy rolled up closer to the front reporting lots of sketchy riding further back.

But despite the occasional surge it was mostly short lived pace lines with the few riders willing to pull getting frustrated when the majority would not, and sitting up. Single riders got away a few times, but no one in the pack seemed to worry about a single rider going this early, and they would slowly be brought back.

One time the front guys eased up again and the Wheelsucker became frustrated and jumped from about 12th wheel for the front to take a pull. Perhaps everyone else was so surprised to see the Wheelsucker on the front they did not react; no one grabbed his wheel. Twenty seconds later he had a gap. WTF? This was somewhere just over 30 minutes and 12 miles into the race. Not having a wheel to follow (he was off the front alone) the Wheelsucker was confused as to what to do. Now what? Why go this early in the race?

Uncharacteristically, the Wheelsucker decided he was not going to sit up and wait, so he went into aero TT mode, and quickly brought his power down to high threshold or low VO2Max power (tempo for anyone else) which was rather more sustainable. And then another 50+ rider came across, Victor Siegfried. This was probably about mile 13 or so, in a 45 mile race. But why not have a go and maybe have a head start on the first hard climb, and ride steady hard instead of having to deal with the short surges?

And back in the peloton the other ABRTers could block or at least decline to pull.

So they went. The gap opened. The Wheelsucker imagines Ace, Ken and Katy stopped doing any work, and most of the field did not need to chase two 50+ riders, and the 50+ riders in the field were still trying to sit in. So no one chased and the gap opened.

Siegfried was strong. He and the Wheelsucker were taking long pulls; Siegfried had to wait twice when the Wheelsucker pulled too long and was gapped (Siegfried would started his pulls hard).

Soon the peloton was a long way back and then out of site; no sign of a chase. Siegfried and the Wheelsucker were passing riders dropped by fields that had started before theirs. While they could not see a chase at all, it seemed like a big gap.

They made it up the first – not very hard – climb, clear. There was still no sign of a chase and no moto-ref to tell them what the gap was. The peak was 18 miles into the race, so 27 to go. The route trends down for the next six miles, with the hard second climb starting about at mile 24 with that peak close to mile 28.

They rolled downhill into a right turn at an intersection and while pedaling hard, working on his line and trying to stay glued to Siegfried’s wheel, the Wheelsucker noticed that there was a car upside down in the ditch on the far side of the road. One of the two flag people was pulling out a phone and the second was running towards the car, so the accident must have happened seconds before this. "Wow, did you see that? !!!"; they just kept hammering.

Most of the way up this second climb the Wheelsucker saw a small chase with 7-9 riders. Siegfried and the Wheelsucker were on a less steep section going fast. The Wheelsucker was leading and almost did not see an incomplete road repair running across the road, leaving a narrow trench. He saw it literally at the last moment and managed to bunny hop it, but behind him Siegfried hit it hard, lost a water bottle, rotated his handlebars and thought he had flatted but did not. They eased up a little while Siegfried got sorted out and were caught soon after, just before the start of the really steep bit at the top. This was an extremely poor choice of places to be caught by the strongest 40+ riders.

OUCH!! That HURTS!!

It was very hard to stay with them. The Wheelsucker was in agony and his legs were failing. Then two guys attacked really hard just before the top. While rather busy with his pain and watching the rear wheel in front of him slowly roll further away despite the Wheelsucker’s best efforts, the Wheelsucker noted – and was surprised – that Ace did not try to go with the two riders. The rest of the group tried to chase, but couldn't, but the group did speed up on the very steep section, while trying. Several gaps opened with the last one being the gap to the last placed rider in the group, the Wheesucker. He only barely hung on, somehow closing the small gap to the penultimate rider's wheel and letting others close the small gaps that had opened elsewhere in the group, once over the top.

The Wheelsucker recovered a bit on the rolling descent.

The two 40+ riders got away, partly because some riders in the chase wouldn't pull and just sat on (eg. Super Dave Osborne, but there were others not pulling). The Wheelsucker never counted the group accurately, and never determined whether there were three or four other 50+ riders in the group (wearing 5xx numbers), but the group includied Siegfried, Super Dave and a third rider in black, at least, from 50+, while the rest were 40+ (local star and ex pro mountain biker Gunner Shogren is actually 50 or 51, but chooses to race 40+).

The Wheelsucker was reluctant to do any work, particularly when some of the 50+ guys in the break were not, but he thought Ace needed help to catch the two 40+ riders up the road; so took some pulls in a paceline. But the paceline would quickly fall apart because several riders were sitting on at the back. Then Ace stopped pulling and sat in at the back.

The Wheelsucker finally chatted with him and learned he had agreed to let the one guy go and not chase, and when that guy went a second rider went with him. He was tired of others sitting on and just chasing him; negative racing. The chase group did close up on the two 40+ leaders at times, but too many guys were sitting on, and the group’s paceline efforts would only go for a minute or so, before no one would pull through.

The last climb started about 39.4 miles in and topped out at 40.4 miles, so about five miles to the finish. Though apparently a max 7.6% grade near the top (it seemed rather steeper to the Wheelsucker!!) he was struggling and was being gapped near the top, but chased back on very quickly, closing the 10 bike length gap, when no one drove the pace off the top. Maybe Ace slowed the group for a few moments; if someone had gone hard off the top he would have been off the back TT’ing to the finish alone, and probably being caught by other 50+ riders.

Ace, Brian and the Wheelsucker had pre-ridden what they thought was the last few miles of the course, but they rode LAST year's route, not realizing this part had changed, so the Wheelsucker did not know the finish. BUT he knew the race length (45 miles) and his mileage, and knew he did not want to go to the line with the bunch. The Wheelsucker decided he did not have enough left in the tank to go from 4 or 3 miles out, but inside 2 or 1 was possible (albeit perhaps improbable), He started looking for a good opportunity. Then on a flat section leading to a small climb, another 50+ rider was on the front, and the Wheelsucker found himself 2nd wheel. The 50+ leader took a long pull and the Wheelsucker thought he might be vulnerable, so the Wheelsucker jumped hard, just before the short bump, hoping to get clear and have momentum to start the climb, but everyone else saw the move and when the Wheelsucker checked his six immediately after jumping he had the one guy in trouble but everyone else was on his wheel. Being by nature The Wheelsucker, he tried to swing off, but everyone followed him. Then the bump started, and he slowed, but they would not let him off the front. So the Wheelsucker was on the front, riding slowly, on a climb, and into the wind. And half way up the bump Gunnar Shogren jumped, Ace went after him, and that was the sprint starting at about 350 meters. The Wheelsucker did not have anything in his legs to accelerate like the others and was quickly gapped and chasing with the guy he had jumped. And that rider was behind the Wheelsucker and going for his wheel.

There was a short flat after the bump and then a climb to the finish line. The gap to the riders in front was opening, and the rider behind was in the Wheelsucker’s draft, though both were going slowly despite pushing as hard as possible. The Wheelsucker swerved a couple of times to try to get the other rider out of his draft. The other rider pulled almost level with the Wheelsucker Pain! Agony!!. Failing legs! Power dropping!!

The Wheelsucker was ready to give up but instead kept pedaling as hard as he could (not hard at all). He somehow kept going and rolled across the line well behind all the others, except for the one 50+ guy who he managed to beat. It turned out there had been four 50+ riders in the group total, so the Wheelsucker was 3rd behind Super Dave and Victor Siegfried, in 50+.

Gunner had gone early, Ace had been on his wheel, and when another 40+ rider rolled by Gunner, Ace grabbed that wheel and then came around him to win the sprint out of the group, good for 3rd overall in 40+, as the two 40+ leaders had stayed away for 1st and 2nd.

The Wheelsucker saw Ken roll across the finish soon afterwards.

The Wheelsucker missed the W123 finish sprint, but Katy won.

And Scott Giles was 2nd in 123. Since the 123 group started and finished before 40+, 50+, 60+, W123, Scott was able to ride back to just before the top of the last climb and cheer riders on. The Wheelsucker vaguely recalled his encouragement as the Wheelsucker was being gapped just before the top of that last climb.

JR Petsko and his team do a great job with their ABRA Road Race Series. While the road races are shorter than MABRA road races there is much more climbing, scenic countryside, and very few cars; The Wheelsucker worries that the accident happened when a driver was startled by a flag person trying to wave them down as Siegfried and the Wheelsucker approached. The road surfaces are not ideal (neither are those of Anne Arundel, Montgomery or Frederick counties) with incomplete repairs and potholes, but these are hard races that are very hard fought. The combined fields may sound a little strange, but the field breaks up soon enough, leaving small groups racing each other. The Wheelsucker highly recommend the ABRA RR Series. In case it matters, most of this particular race is in PA

Mallorca Training Camp Day 7The Wheelsucker Report

The Fred Rompelberg organization runs rides with guides Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. If one wants to ride other days, one does it without the Fred guides.

Despite a fair bit of experience getting lost, the ABRT group and Jeroen were game to go out on their own, and it turned out to be a great day. Everyone wanted an easier day. There was no pressure to be back by a specific time, so the group stopped several times for coffee, and there was no "we make speed now" suggestions as on earlier days, from our guides Thomas and Johan, who were probably under pressure from the Fred Rompelberg organization to have the group back by a specified time.

While still windy, there was less wind than earlier in the week, so the group did not do rotating pacelines, but just put a strong rider on the front and let them drive the pace as long as they wanted to. This worked well for everyone else, except for one or two of Katy’s monster pulls that had a few riders wondering if they were about to be dropped. Scott spent most of the day on the front, but was careful to keep the pace to something that would not destroy the weaker riders. Put a Giles on the front and hold a wheel if you can!

The Wheelsucker's idea of an "easier day" was no climbing, several coffee stop shops, and no hard efforts. But somehow that view did not seem to be factored into route decisions! There were several climbs, the first starting as they rode north out of Palma, rather more climbing than a tired Wheelsucker wanted. But the descents were spectacular – more open sweepers rather than the tight S curves – and after the climbing was done it was mostly downhill and fast back to Playa di Palma and the hotel, with a stop in Santa Maria for coffee and fabulous pastry.

Matt and Nikki. The Wheelsucker was also quite tired by this time

Laura and Matt

The first round of pastry. These were so good more were ordered.

Michelle and Sue

The chocolate-covered croissants were fabulous. Maybe not quite worth dying for, but probably worth killing to get! :-)

What a week! What a GREAT group of people to ride with! While some rode with the B group early most of these came back to A after a day or two in B. And the other Rompelberg clients in A dissappeared over the first few days, with only Jeroen -- who arrived part way through our stay -- consistently riding with us. Apart from doing a huge amount of steady pulling at the front, Scott Giles was very helpful to several of the riders, coaching on descending technique, and pulling people who were gapped back up to the group. It was a privilege to ride with John Howard, who besides riding very strongly was a wealth of knowledge. Watch for his upcoming article on www.pezcyclingnews.com/. And watching Laura van Gilder ride in the group was enlightening, lessons in how to ride smooth and stay out of trouble on a group ride or race. She easily offset behind a strong rider near the front in crosswinds, and was clearly very experienced in riding in pacelines and similar.

Stuff

For whatever reason, the term "Fred" or "nuFred" has become common for a less experienced rider. The term may have been popularized by the http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com BikeSnob NYC blog. So riders on Fred Rompelberg bicycles were -- tongue-in-cheek -- called "Freds". The Wheelsucker tries hard to NOT be a Fred, and rode his very lightweight steel Ritchey BreakAway on this trip. The BreakAway case is almost legal size for checked luggage, and the Wheelsucker has never been charged extra for the case on his travels, so bringing the bike instead of renting a Fred bike was an easy decision.

However the Fred bikes are an excellent choice. They are aluminum with carbon forks, and Ultegra build, with triple chain rings. They are probably about a CAAD8 level bicycle, with the slightly tall head tube. They are not light. The guides -- typically neo pros -- all ride their own bikes.

Last year all Fred Rompelberg clients stayed and ate at the Taurus, with the bikes kept across the street in a large garage of an adjacent hotel. This year the Hotel Taurus was under reconstruction, so Fred clients were spread amongst several hotels, with at least one other providing all you can eat breakfast and dinner buffets. All the ABRTers were in the Jade hotel and ate together nearby at the Hotel Playa Golf, but John Howard and Denise were a few blocks away at the Orient hotel.

While cooler and windier than last year, Mallorca in March beats Annapolis weather wise, but then adds gorgeous scenery, great food, and cyclist friendly roads and drivers. Playa di Palma is a great area to stay, but is some distance from the serious climbs, which are mostly to the north and northwest. A typical day's ride starts with about an hour on the flat or very slight uphill, to get to the climbs.

While flying to Europe has become more expensive in the last few years, a key advantage of cycling camps there is the costs are very reasonable once there. For something like US $600, food, accomodation, and airport transportation are taken care of. Bike rental -- if needed -- costs a little more, and the guides for the group rides cost another E 20. But the point is that once air fare and the basic fee are covered, other costs are minor and incidental. And then there is the bit about Mallorca being typically rather warmer than anywhere else in Europe (or anywhere near Annapolis), with fabulous views. And the drivers are rather more tolerant of cyclists, and there are roads so narrow that cars avoid them, leaving them to cyclists.

Oh, and the buffet food is very good, and the restaurant food excellent. Wine is quite inexpensive, and a cafe con leche is about one Euro.... life is good.

Wheelsucker Summary Data:

521.05 miles, (837.941 kilomoters), 26,256 feet climbed, 31:16:38 ride time.

Mallorca Training Camp Day 6The Wheelsucker report

The Wheelsucker was not feeling fresh, probably due to his efforts of the previous day.

The normal Friday Fred Rompelberg route was out to the Randa climb, so a loop to the east, north, west and back but the ABRT group had done that on Sunday, and some had already done it a second time. After some Thursday evening discussion with the guides and with Peter (Fred’s 2IC) a new route was negotiated, riding to Deia and Soller and back, with an optional extension for those who chose to do the the Col de Puig Major climb. The non ABRTers in the A group had dissapeared with the exception of Jeroen, the strong Dutch rider.

The Puig Major climb is about 50 minutes long, perhaps slightly less for someone like Scott. It rises from sea level to 880 meters, with the climb starting at the traffic circle just outside of Soller. Last year, the group did this climb on the last day, and the Wheelsucker had had a spectacular – for the Wheelsucker – climb, and had set new high CP20 and CP30 power values, with had the effect of convincing him that he might be improving. So the Wheelsucker was hoping to match or beat those numbers on the same climb.

But the Wheelsucker was concerned about doing this climb and the additional distance, so planned to take it easy on the first part of the ride, not pushing on the earlier climbs and sitting in. But perhaps it was one climb too many for the Wheelsucker. And then the Wheelsucker was a little slow getting organized, and rolled up to the gathering point outside the Taurus hotel about five minutes after ten ... and realized the A group was gone! After wasting 20 seconds confirming that they were gone, the Wheelsucker took off in pursuit mode, as fast as a desparate aging Wheelsucker can pursue, in the direction he thought they had rolled. The Wheelsucker was passing lots of riders, but none of them were from the A group. While pedaling frantically the Wheelsucker considered his options:

He could ride on his own and hope to catch them at the known places they would ride through, particularly Deia and Soller.
He could ride easy on his own.

He had the map with him, but then realized his CO2 cartridge had been used the previous day, so he would probably be riding alone, for an extended distance, without the means to fix a flat.

But then fortune smiled on the Wheelsucker, as after chasing desperately for a few minutes, he saw another group up the road, and some of the jerseys looked familiar, at least at a distance. Unlike every other day, the A group was not going fast (some of the riders may have been deliberately slowing the pace hoping the Wheelsucker would make it) and the Wheelsucker finally made it on at the back. What a GREAT way to start a ride...

The group rode back to the road that runs along the west coast of the island, this time turning north along that road. The rollers were great, and the descent into Deia with Spencer was really fun, at least until Spencer jumped around a car that was slowing him and the Wheelsucker up, while the Wheelsucker never got around and rolled into Deia some distance behind Spencer.

A few more rollers later the group rolled into Soller, which has a wonderful harbor and beachfront where the group enjoyed lunch.

Soller was wonderful

Johan

Thomas and Laura

Most of the group was riding back together, with the guides, climbing out of Soller across the western hill/mountain range and then back to Playa di Palma. But the crazies; Scott, Nick, and the Wheelsucker opted for the Puig Major, though the Wheelsucker had serious misgivings.

Knowing what his CP20 and CP30 values from last year were, the Wheelsucker was careful to not go too hard, early. Shortly after going through the circle just outside Soller the climb steepened enough to start. The Wheelsucker hit the interval button on his Joule and went to 320 watts (he had averaged 319 for twenty minutes last year), and he immediately gapped Scott and Nick. At two minutes and thirty seconds he was averaging 322 watts and leading up the climb. But within five minutes the Wheelsucker knew he was in trouble and his average power started to drop. Soon 319 watts was clearly out of reach for twenty minutes, but the Wheelsucker kept going, perhaps hoping for a miracle, and hoping to hold some power for the 30 minutes, but after 20 minutes the power average was 290 watts while at 30 minutes he was down to 282 watts; the Wheelsucker had missed both his best CP20 and CP30 values by 29 and 17 watts watts respectively, and was blown. He was into survival mode to make it up the rest of the climb.

Part way up there were patches of snow by the side of the road. A little further up, the snow was continuous, and there were snow banks left by the snow plows on both sides of the road. At the scenic overlook just before entering the short tunnel there was at least eight inches of snow on the ground.

Scott, Nick and the Wheelsucker took some photographs, and then Jeroen rolled up, having mistakenly left Soller with the other group, realized Scott, Nick and the Wheelsucker were not there, turned around and chased all the way up Puig Major. What a STUD! If he had not caught back up, he would have had a 2-3 hour ride back to Playa di Palma, on his own.

Nick at the scenic overlook just before the tunnel at the top of Puig Major

Shortly after Jeroen rolled up, Kristin Seibert drove up. She followed the group for some time as they returned, occasionally passing them and stopping to take photos. The Wheelsucker SHOULD have asked if he could put the car in the back and jump into the warm car instead of pedaling back.

Much like last year the Wheelsucker was done in by his climbing effort. Even with every bit of clothing on, he was freezing at the top of Puig Major, and the descent down the other side was mostly in the shade, with water frequently on the road. The Wheelsucker thought it was easily cold enough to freeze in the shade, so took it easy on the descent. But it was water each time, not ice.

There were a couple of short stops, one by a nice lake.

Despite having eaten in Soller, and again at the top of Puig Major, the Wheelsucker was having trouble hitting 250 watts, and was being gapped on small bumps. Scott, Nick and Jeroen waited several times for him.

From the height of Puig Major, returning riders come down part way and then ride a rolling route before coming to the top of a climb near Liuc and descending that to Caimari. Despite the very narrow road and tight switchbacks, a full size tourist bus was working its way down. Scott and Jeroen slipped by, but Nick and the Wheelsucker could not get an opening that felt safe enough to pass, so had to follow the very slow -- and frequently stopped -- bus down the descent.

By the time Nick and the Wheelsucker made it into Caimari village at the bottom, Scott had found a cafe, grabbed a table and already ordered coffee, hot chocolate and pizza.

Even with the food and coffee, the Wheelsucker was still feeling like he had almost nothing. Scott encouraged the others by claiming it was all downhill with a tailwind on the way back to Playa di Palma, but this turned out to be a twisted route, with lots of map checking, several incorrect turns and a ludicrous effort to get through and out of Portol. The riders could see Playa di Palma from Portol, but it took at least 20 minutes and doing every short climb in the area, before they found the correct road out. The Wheelsucker had been running on empty for hours, but even Nick was getting tired and then Jeroen bonked, though he revived with some gel.

They made it back to the Jade hotel about 6:30, doing about 108 miles. A VERY long day in the saddle.

The rest of the group had made reservations for dinner at 7:00, so the four showered and changed quickly and headed out for dinner with the group.

Wheelsucker Data: Ride time: 8:30:04, rolling time: 6:28:16
Distance: 107.86 miles
Work: 4016 Kj
Elevation gain: 7478 feet
Power: 169 watts average, 765 watts max
Temperature: 57 F average, 44 F low (per the Joule, the Wheelsucker thought it was rather colder) VAM for best 30 minutes: 1026 meters/hour, VAM for best 20 minutes: 1074 meters/hour @ 4 watts/kg

Mallorca Training Camp Day 5The Wheelsucker Report

This was probably the Queen Stage with five significant climbs. It was cooler than the day before, and still rather windy. The Fred Rumpelberg "A" group has shrunk to the ABRTers and one strong Dutch guy named Jeroen.

The Wheelsucker had decided to warm up and see how he felt, but intended to go hard if he felt alright after warmup. And after sitting in for a long warmup he DID feel good, so pushed hard most of the day. But the first climb was 17-18 minutes, and took a lot out of the Wheelsucker.

The top of the first climb of the day

It was "over the hills and far away", north and then west, over the west coast hill/mountain range and then an amazing hour ride going southwest down the west coast of the island with mostly short climbs and descents and some long climbs. There were spectacular views of the Mediterranean at times, which prompted some to ease up or stop to admire the view and take photographs.

The group stopped on the first descent to admire the view.

The group stopped on the descent to admire the view

While the group was stopped on the descent, some noticed a Blanco Pro Cycling pro go by the group.

Once onto the coast road, some riders accelerated on short descents. The Wheelsucker pushed hard to close the first gap and get with the leaders, and then stayed with the lead group as it shrunk when more riders stopped for photos. The group was soon down to Scott Giles, Jeroen, and the Wheelsucker, but the Wheelsucker was at his limit and being gapped on the short climbs, and was chasing desperately to catch back on. Actually the Wheelsucker was turning himself inside out to stay on, but somehow he was very slightly stronger than Jeroen on the longest climbs, and would gap him near the top, and then try to close on Scott on the descents. Though really just rolling, there was lots of climbing and descending: what goes up must come down.

Though this group of three broke apart several times with the Wheelsucker being dropped on short climbs, it also came back together several times, probably because Scott eased up so Jeroen and the Wheelsucker could rejoin.

Scott was almost always on the front of this small group, driving the pace. And then up the road was an occasional view of a rider in blue and white. Scott continued to drive the pace, with a stretched-to-the-limit Wheelsucker holding on to Jeroen's wheel. And slowly Scott reeled in the rider ahead, who turned out to be the Blanco Pro Cycling rider who had passed the group earlier. Initially this was thought to be Bauke Mollema, but careful examination of Strava that evening, and confirmation from our guides Thomas and Johan, revealed that it was Laurens ten Dam (a climber who finished 8th in the 2012 Vuelta):http://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/1405311-Laurens-ten-Dam. He was riding a gorgeous shiny Giant in Blanco colors. Scott did all the work to reel him in, but Jeroen and the Wheelsucker both managed to hold Scott’s wheel while he closed the gap, so also made it on.

Once there, Scott looked over and said something about how nice ten Dam's bike looked.

ten Dam looked over, realized he had been caught by aging tourists; a 40+ rider and two 50+ riders; or a Wheelsucker and two Freds. So ten Dam immediately ramped it up. Jeroen and the Wheelsucker popped within seconds, but Scott held ten Dam’s wheel for about five minutes as ten Dam slowly ramped it up to shake Scott.

Members of pro tour teams are not supposed to be caught by Wheelsuckers and Freds. Can you imagine if others in the pro peloton heard about this? ten Dam would never have heard the end of it.

There was a long climb to get back over the west coast heights. A desperate Wheelsucker could not hold Scott Giles on the long climb, but eventually gapped a tenacious Jeroen (who was more of a sprinter, but was very strong). And then Scott stopped near the top to deal with a wind jacket and the Wheelsucker rolled by just before the crest, and went as hard as a not-very-good descender aging Wheelsucker can go, to keep the gap to the traffic circle at the bottom. It was a beautiful road with mostly not tight bends and excellent visibility; Lots of fun descending on open sweepers.

One by one the riders in the group rolled into the traffic circle at the end of the descent.

Scott finishing the descent

Spencer rolls round the circle at the bottom of the descent

Amanda climbed part way back up and came down again

Once the group was all together there was more riding and another climb. It was over three hours of riding and four of the day's five climbs before the coffee/lunch stop. Duane had rolled out early and was caught at the bottom of the last long climb on the one hour section down the coast. Being an excellent descender he was with the group at the traffic circle.

The Wheelsucker imagined that Laurens ten Dam's perspective on being caught might have been rather different from that of Scott, Jeroen, and the Wheelsucker:

 

Laurens Ten Dam:
I was doing a nice training block in Mallorca, going for about 180km. I was riding the beautiful road down the west coast with some rollers and a couple of short climbs; a route I frequently do. I passed a group on Fred Rumpelberg bikes – Freds -- on a descent where they were stopped. Some time later I am riding southwest on the coast road and I noticed that three riders in different team kits were slowly gaining on me. I was going easy. When they caught me one admired my bike. I looked over and realized I have been caught by three old guys, two clearly over fifty, and two of them are riding Fred bikes with triples. Oh, the shame of it!

I was supposed to be doing an easy day, but this was intolerable, so I ramped it up. The two oldest guys popped immediately, but the third hung on, so I had to go harder. The guy was riding a Fred bike with a triple that probably did not fit him and must have weighed well over 20 pounds. I kept having to go harder and harder but after five minutes or so I finally rode him off my wheel. After that I kept the pressure on to make sure they did not come back. It completely ruined my training day, I was not supposed to go hard there, but I simply could not tolerate being caught by the Freds. They would probably write some crap in a blog about it, and I would be the laughing stock of the pro circuit at the next big race.

 

Wheelsucker Data:

5:13:28, 87.18 miles, 16.7 mph average, 38.3 mph max, 3365 Kcal, 6358 elevation gain, 3365Kj,
Power: 179 watts average, 923 watts max,
HR 134 bpm average
56 F average temperature
TSS 369.2 (0.836)