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
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