One year ago the Wheelsucker was back, racing 50+ without team mates, and somehow pulling a rabbit out of the hat, finishing 11th.
This year the organizers had Masters fields with 5 year increments rather than the previous 10 year increments, so the Wheelsucker registered for 55+, which was on Saturday. Then he learned that some of his team mates were going to race 40+, which was on Sunday rather than Saturday. So the Wheelsucker started to consider doing a Sunday race. His earlier experiences convinced him he would be wasting his time and energy in 40+, but there was a 50+ field on Sunday. And in what seemed like a good idea at the time, the Wheelsucker added a registration for 50+, so planning to race Saturday and Sunday.
As the days slid by and the race dates got closer and closer the Wheelsucker was wondering how smart racing two races was. He did not feel his form was quite as good as last year, and his beginning of season race results were OK-but-not-great. Battenkill is an epic race; the parcours is difficult, and the caliber of the racers in the field make it much harder.
There was somewhat of a mad scramble in the last week to nail down logistics; who was driving with whom, in what vehicle. Who was sharing hotel rooms with whom, etc.
In the end, the Wheelsucker teamed up with Scott Giles of Bike Doctor (and perhaps honorary member of ABRT as he more-or-less comes with the Katy Giles deal). Going with Scott was ideal as he had also signed up for two races, and had a large SUV. Nick Vita joined in. Scott had Friday accommodations sorted, with some Bike Doctor riders staying at a farmhouse right on the race course; shortly before the last climb started. And the two ABRTers were welcome. In the end, only one other Bike Doctor rider made it to the farmhouse.
Tour of the Battenkill 55+
Saturday April 13, 2013
It rained most of Friday as Scott, Nick and the Wheelsucker drove up. GET CLOSER!!!!!
Scottt was coaching the Wheelsucker on drafting.
SleetThe rain turned to sleet at one point. The rain was easing up about the time they arrived in Cambridge NY. So the dirt sections of the route – something like ¼ of the route is dirt roads – were well soaked. They decided it was too wet to pre-ride and no one wanted to ride 64 miles the day before they raced anyway, so they drove the course in Scott's SUV. There were minor route revisions from last year. In particular the freshly laid loose gravel section where the breaks got away in most fields last year did not show up. It was not clear if the loose gravel disappeared in a year, or if a slightly different road was used this year.
The Wheelsucker scribbled notes on the organizer-provided queue sheet as they drove the route, so he knew some of the key points on the route, including the initial left turn and the covered bridge, but there were too many climbs and dirt sections to list all on a piece of paper for the top tube.
Scott, Nick and the Wheelsucker did a warm up ride Friday evening, riding from the farmhouse. The temperature was in the mid to high 30s. The Wheelsucker was wearing almost all the cycling clothing he had brought with him, and was still very cold. Nick has less on and was freezing.
After the short ride they were looking at the forecast and wondering what to wear for the race Saturday morning. The Wheelsucker’s 55+ start was at 10:10 and the temperature was forecast to be 42 degrees F increasing to 54 during the race. Scott's start and Nick's start were shortly before the Wheelsucker's.
While there were 105 preregistered for 55+, the results at: http://velocityresults.com/results/437/tour-of-the-battenkill-day-1-cambridge-ny show 71 starters and 70 finishers. The Wheelsucker was on the only ABRTer in the field, but there were several teams strongly represented with three or more riders. Looking at the Bikereg registered riders list: https://www.bikereg.com/NET/Confirmed/17502, the Wheelsucker counted riders from 17 states and 2 provinces.
Saturday morning came quickly. Scott rolled out early to get to his start. Nick and the Wheelsucker rolled out a little later. It was a nice warmup ride though a little harder than ideal, as they had to climb the last climb on the race course, before riding the last five miles into Cambridge.
At the 55+ rollout it was clear that the field was quite a bit smaller than the 105 registered, so the Wheelsucker was less obsessed about having to be very near the front going through the covered bridge. The Wheelsucker was dressed for racing, not for standing around waiting, so was quite cold by the time the race started.
In his never-ending efforts to mitigate his lack of power, the Wheelsucker tries to lose weight – generally unsuccessfully – and tries to make his bike as light as possible. So his 2009 Cannondale SuperSix may be the lightest 58cm bike in MABRA. But getting the bike to that weight requires spending a fair bit on weight weenie parts and using parts with less strength. While waiting in the staging area, another rider noticed the M2 Racer skewers on the Wheelsucker's bicycle, and commented on them. But that was nothing, there were riders with deep dish carbon wheels, and not just Gigantex or Zipp, one rider was on Lightweights, that probably cost upwards of $4000. This is to race IN THE DIRT, GRAVEL AND POTHOLES!!!!!
The 55+ field rolled out through the neutral zone until the lead car accelerated at the end of the neutral zone. The Wheelsucker was trying to ride second or third wheel, but no one wanted to go hard in the first five miles, but everyone wanted to be at the front for the turn and the bridge; he ended up pushed back, but with the smaller field was OK going through the tunnel.
The first crash was when two guys went down at the right turn just after the bridge; they probably touched wheels. They were on the right on the inside of the turn, and the Wheelsucker made it by on the outside. While this was the only 55+ crash the Wheelsucker saw, there were others reported afterwards, as well as crashes in other fields.
The field was not going steady fast, rather it was going hard on climbs or difficult sections, so losing riders through attrition, but easier the rest of the time. There were moments when it felt like a Sunday coffee shop ride. When a group would have a small gap at the top of a climb they would not keep the pace high enough to break the elastic. The Wheelsucker was straining to stay on on the climbs, sometimes making it with no gap in front of him and a gap behind, other times being slightly gapped and chasing desperately to catch back on. But typically some of the riders gapped behind him would also chase back on. So the peloton shrunk slowly as riders went off the back, but the elastic never broke splitting the main field. The climbs and some of the dirt road sections were full of pain and suffering, but other times it was back to the easy Sunday coffee shop ride pace.
While most of the dirt road sections were fairly hard packed, there were some muddy sections, and a couple of rougher dirt road sections. Typically riding one of the wheel ruts was good (no loose gravel), but there were potholes in places, so one had to be looking.
While on a dirt section around mile fifteen whoever was on the front was going easy and no one was inclined to go around him. It had been awhile since the last desperately hard climbing effort and the Wheelsucker was growing frustrated with the coffee shop ride pace, so he pushed harder, rolled past the rider at the front who was soft pedaling, and no one followed. A few moments later everyone was back on pavement and still no one closed the gap. It was rolling, trending uphill and with some headwind and crosswind. The Wheelsucker got into his most aero position with his forearms resting on the bar tops a la John Howard, and opened the gap. Fifteen miles into a 64 mile race is a bit early to go solo unless one is REALLY confident of one’s form (and the Wheelsucker was not), but the Wheelsucker was getting annoyed sitting in an easy pace on the easy sections, and thought maybe he could do something. Besides his sprint is pathetic, so he needed to do something, anything, other than sit in and wait for the sprint. Then two riders started bridging to him. The Wheelsucker did not ease up to wait but kept going, though it was quickly apparent that he was going to struggle to hold threshold and he did not want to dig too deep this early the race, so was not trying to actually hold threshold power numbers.
The two eventually caught him; the Wheelsucker skipped a couple of pulls to recover and then worked with them. The field had probably ignored the lone Wheelsucker, figuring him to be a fool for going off by himself on a section that trended uphill and was into the wind, but a three rider break was not to be trifled with. The field probably started taking things a little more seriously when the two started to bridge and had kept the gap to the two under control, so it was not a large gap when the two caught the Wheelsucker. Thee three kept at it a little longer, but were caught very roughly 20 miles into the race. The Wheelsucker sat in to recover, but stayed near the front of the peleton. This attack was by far the longest anyone got off the front of the peloton, so would qualify for “most aggressive rider” but that was not awarded at this event. It might also have qualified the Wheelsucker for “dumbest attack”, but that was not being awarded either. The hardest climb of the race is probably the paved climb on Joe Bean road. There is a left turn onto Joe Bean at 26.0 miles and the climb starts almost immediately. It is probably the longest climb top to bottom (with the last climb on Stage Road a close second) and reaches 9-10% according to the organizer-provided data. There are two slightly steeper sections earlier in the race, but they are much shorter. The Wheelsucker was really really suffering on this climb. He was probably riding somewhere in about 14 – 24th up the climb, with the elastic stretching in front of him and behind him. He was gasping for air and his legs were burning, and it seemed like each pedal stroke had less power than the one before it. It was really hard, but the Wheelsucker was able to close up on the wheel in front of him as the climb became shallower. And very fortunately for the Wheelsucker, all the riders in front of him were able to close the gap to the rider in front of them, so it was all back together for the descent.
The Wheelsucker was gasping for quite some time as he went down the descent, tagged on at the back.
Every time he made it to the the top of one of the harder climbs it felt like he was the last guy still in contact, but apparently a few more riders behind him would also chase back on each time.
The Wheelsucker’s weight weenie rear water bottle cage shook loose after crossing a railway track roughly 30 miles into the race, after the first of the two feed zones. It appears the special rivets that the fasteners screw into failed, leaving part of the rivet in the frame. The 2/3 full of Skratch labs drink bottle, the weight weenie BTP carbon cage and the aluminum M5 fasteners all went, probably with a piece of the rivets still on each fastener. The Wheelsucker’s front bottle was nearly empty and he was almost finished with the third (larger) bottle he had in a jersey pocket. But he was able to pick up a water bottle at the second feed zone at mile 42.
The road with freshly laid gravel at about mile 43 where most winning breaks went last year was not used this year, or maybe the road had reverted back to dirt. So there was no decisive place were breaks were getting away in most fields. There were many attacks in the 55+ race, but nothing got away. As above, the Wheelsucker’s attack was by far the longest anyone got away. It was much more a race of attrition, with riders gapped and then disappearing after a hard climbing section, or a tricky dirt section.
At mile 51.1 the paved road angles to the right, and Meeting House road continues on gravel. The Wheelsucker was chasing the break on this section last year. The route is a series of bowls, with steep climbs and descents at the edges (where the cross roads are) and it trends upwards until it ends at a right turn back onto pavement. The gravel descents are steep enough to alarm some riders, while the steep climbs before the next cross street can really hurt. The Wheelsucker was again going to the limit on those short steep climbs, but did well here, staying near the front, closing the gap to the wheel in front, and occasionally passing riders who were easing up on the descents, so he could get closer to the front and the stronger guys driving the pace. The Wheelsucker doesn’t know if any more riders were dropped here; he was not looking behind much.
The lead group was down to 20 riders or a few more as the last climb, Stage Road, started at mile 58.6. The Wheelsucker was near the front and tried to avoid spiking power too high early on the initial steep section. But halfway up his legs felt like they were failing and he thought he was done for, and was going to be gapped and dropped by the leaders. But somehow the Wheelsucker kept going. Near the top he was slightly gapped by maybe 3-5 bike lengths. Scott Giles had finished his race and ridden back along the course, saw the Wheelsucker, and shouted encouragement. The Wheelsucker was in his own pain zone, trying to will his legs to push a little harder, and will himself a little closer to the rear wheel he could see in front of him. Somehow he chased back on as the climb became shallower, and then recovered very slightly on the little dip between the twin peaks, enough to go harder again for the last short climbing section and stay on. So he made to the top in the lead group of 20, but it was a very very near thing. Behind him some other riders had been dropped on this climb; the Wheelsucker did not look back so did not know how many. The second of the twin peaks on Stage Road is just inside five miles to the finish. There is a short fast downhill, and then it is basically flat with some small rollers on the way back to Cambridge, though trending very slightly uphill/false flat. There is a sweeping right turn at roughly 200 meters and a straight sprint. If the downhill continued for a longer distance it might be easier for a solo rider or small group to stay away, but the descent runs out very quickly and then it is shallow false flat for more than 5k. With no more hard climbs the Wheelsucker knew he could make it to the finish with the lead group, though there was still room for attacks. And he was thinking about what opportunities he might have as the group started the short fast downhill. With 20 riders in the group that had to be a number who could outsprint the Wheelsucker. The effort to hold on to the leaders on the Stage Road climb had drained the Wheelsucker, so he sat in to recover, and then decided to attack before the sprint, but not too early as he did not have much to stay off the front with.
The Wheelsucker ended up trying to go two or three times before the sprint.
The Wheelsucker’s memory is fading due to age, but it was particularly bad at this point due to effort he had been making to hold on, so his recollection of the last 4k is a bit vague.
The Wheelsucker thinks he attacked inside 4k, but his move was immediately covered; he never got a bike length, so he immediately shut it down and pulled off. Then a rider who had been attacking a lot during the entire race jumped inside 3k and the Wheelsucker jumped as hard as he could for that rider’s wheel, but the field came with the Wheelsucker. He did get to the wheel in front, but the lead rider and the Wheelsucker shut it down when it was apparent everyone was on them.
The Wheelsucker went again inside 1k, but was immediately covered again, never getting even a 3 bike length gap, despite pushing very hard. He sat up, drifted back a few positions, hyperventilated, and found a wheel. The group came through the sweeping right at 200 meters and the Wheelsucker stood and sprinted as hard as he could. Nothing happened. He accelerated slowly, while the riders near him pulled away. He was not able to stay on a wheel. A few riders sat up and came back past him, and one rider came by him on the right just before the line. He was 15th out of the lead group of 20 riders.
The Wheelsucker was 11th in 50+ last year, but that was in the chase group (he was 3rd out of 4 in the first chase), with the remnants of the main field scattered behind him. This year was more of a race of attrition, and the Wheelsucker was very nearly a casualty several times, so making to the top of the last climb in the lead group of 20 was good, but it left him sprinting against a larger group. He did try to get away from that group before the sprint, but was not able to, and burned matchsticks trying. He think 15th is a very good result considering the difficulty of the race and the quality of the field. This is not a national championship, but it draws riders from all over the USA and Canada (perhaps 17 states and two provinces).
It was a long cold ride back to the farmhouse, when one is tired and going easy.
Results: http://velocityresults.com/results/437/tour-of-the-battenkill-day-1-cambridge-ny
Tour of the Battenkill 50+
Sunday April 13, 2013
It rained Saturday evening, so the course was soaked again. The Wheelsucker was drained after the 55+ race and was having doubts about doing the second race. Nick Vita had been a very close 5th in his cat 3 field (there were at least two cat 3 fields) and was therefore invited to race in the cat 3 race off (top 25 from each of the cat 3 fields, racing 22 miles). He was also having real doubts about racing. Scott Giles had finished about 42nd or so in the Men’s 1 race, but was enthusiastic about racing 40+ on Sunday, and kept pushing Nick and the Wheelsucker to race.
Sunday morning the Wheelsucker was tired and sore, but he had considered the 55+ race the main one, and was less stressed about the 50+ race, feeling less pressure. He dressed at the hotel and decided to give it a go. Since they were driving in, they had to leave early, as Scott’s 40+ race start was before Nick’s race start and before the Wheelsucker’s start. If felt even colder than Saturday morning, and rather than warmup on the bikes, they just sat in the truck with the engine running to stay warm. The Wheelsucker decided the first 5.1 miles of the race would do fine for warmup. He also felt he had nothing to lose, did not have much pressure on him to get a result, and could do what he wanted, including attacking, even if he got dropped as a result of working.
121 entries, 78 starters, 74 finishers.
The Wheelsucker was front row at the start, and wanted to warm up when the race started. His first attack was brought back when the motoref accelerated up to him and told him he was still inside the neutral zone; this attack has to be the winner of the "dumbest attack of the entire event" if that had been a category for awards. The Wheelsucker had accelerated when the lead vehicle accelerated hard, but on Sunday the vehicle did not do this at the end of the neutral rollout, but did it earlier. Three riders were coming across to him, and caught him when he had to sit up at the motoref's request, and the four crawled along behind the motoref until the field caught up. The Wheelsucker thinks he went once or twice more after the neutral zone and before the left turn. For fun he was on the front at the left turn onto the narrower road (at mile 5.1) and led the peloton into the covered bridge (mile 5.4). He was easing up at the right turn so was probably 2nd or 3rd through that.
It was nice to be on the front for the first few turns, but then they got onto a paved section and the pack eased up and people were trying to work there way up and the Wheelsucker got pushed further back. But anytime the group was going at a decent pace it would be more strung out and a lot easier to move up. So the next time they were in the gravel he was able to move back up closer to the front.
The Wheelsucker's valiant and doomed effort at getting off the front on Saturday was not enough to stop him trying again. He ended up making another more-or-less serious effort to get a break going, at almost the same place he did on Saturday. No one wants to chase while the road trends uphill with a head or cross wind, but he was happy to get aero and push for awhile. The first time he went two guys went with him, and when it was the second riders turn to pull he said "no, no, no" with a French accent.
With his razor sharp acumen, the Wheelsucker immediately realized this rider was there to be the policeman for a teammate. The small group was caught immediately. The Wheelsucker went again a little later, with the same Quebec rider bridging up to him. This time they chatted a bit and the Wheelsucker told the Quebecer he had raced Saturday and was tired, it was really too early to go hard and he was mostly having some fun, and the Quebecer sat up and let the Wheelsucker go!
So the Wheelsucker stayed away for awhile, but not as long as on Saturday, and no one came across, and then he was caught and sat in to recover.
The peloton started up the Joe Bean climb at 26 miles and the Wheelsucker was immediately suffering again. He does not know if the pace was higher, but the elastic was stretching and he was not in the top 20. Weight watching and the lightest 58cm bicycle in MABRA did not make up for lack of power. He was still working really hard, but was not well positioned, and gaps were opening. Then a rider who had fallen and dropped his chain (this was the guy who had sprinted for 3rd in the 55+ race) came across the road trying to get going again, and forced the Wheelsucker off the road into the soft shoulder. The Wheelsucker somehow managed to keep rolling, albeit down to something like 3 mph, and got out of the soft shoulder back onto the pavement. The Wheelsucker was already gapped, but this incident didn't help, and he ended up at the top in a chase group of about 15, with something like 30+ riders ahead and going up the road. The Wheelsucker's group chased hard for awhile, but not everyone was contributing and the group ahead was slowly opening the gap. Eventually the riders in the Wheelsucker’s group more or less collectively gave up.
They were back to Sunday coffee shop ride pace at times. While course conditions were not much different from Saturday, it was rather windier. Once the Wheelsucker decided there was no way to get to the front group he sat in and recovered a lot, though making sure he was near the front on any climbs or gravel sections where there could have been another split. In some ways it was a relief riding in the chase, as he felt like he was one the stronger riders in it, instead of straining to hold on at the back of the lead group as he had been on Saturday.
Another rider the Wheelsucker remembered from the Saturday race was in the Sunday race; he was a large (turned out to be 205 lbs) guy who was very strong. He had been dropped out of the lead group on the last climb -- Stage Road -- on Saturday, but was in the chase on Sunday, riding strong. He was taking long pulls on the flats or gravel sections, and riding in the wind like he was Cancellara. This was a great guy to follow!
The riders in the chase were riding to not be caught from behind, and not be dropped from the chase, but a few riders would wait for road conditions they liked (climb, descent, gravel, whatever) and have a go trying to get away. The Wheelsucker was not interested in soloing from 20 or 30 miles out so did not attack the group to get away. The group did reel in some riders who had fallen out of the group ahead.
It seemed like the wind was head or cross most of the time, the only section the Wheelsucker really noticed a tail wind on was part of Meeting House road, where it started to sleet and he could see the light sleet was coming from behind the group, but even that changed direction soon afterwards.
Once again some riders were backing off a bit on the gravel descents on Meeting House road while the Wheelsucker was comfortable. The big guy was going strong on the gravel and was usually on the front, and the 3rd place finisher from the 55+ race would stay near him. On one of the Meeting House descents the Wheelsucker flew past 1-2 guys who were backing off, coasted up to the rear wheel of the second rider, and worked hard to stay there on the next short steep climb, and suddenly the three of them had a gap and kept it to the end of the gravel on Meeting House. Then they were back on pavement and there was a descent they hammered. The Wheelsucker was gapped slightly at the sweeping right turn onto the main road when he took a bad line and hesitated when he saw some loose gravel on the pavement, but he sprinted really hard to chase back on. The three of them were in a rotating paceline (wind was right to left and somewhat of a headwind), working hard. The big guy was going really hard and taking longer pulls and the Wheelsucker was following and having a hard time getting past him to pull in. Then the next rider would take a short effort to just pull past and in front of the Wheelsucker, and he would be back to following the big guy again. This was tiring the Wheelsucker out, so he asked the big guy to make it clear when he thought his pull was finished and then ease up, and then the Wheelsucker would pull past and over. He was happy to do that, and it worked well. They were going hard, but the group behind must have worked harder, because they eventually caught the three. The Wheelsucker was impressed that they did. The three were caught just was they rolled past the farmhouse where Scott, Nick and the Wheelsucker had stayed Friday night.
Having ridden back and forth Friday night and ridden to the start line Saturday and then raced Saturday, the Wheelsucker knew this section of road well. It trends down at one point, not long before passing a covered bridge on the right and then there is the angled left turn into the gravel of Stage road. Knowing there was a fast descent coming up, the Wheelsucker was able to ease off the front by a couple of bike lengths without anyone being interested, and then eased away and increased the power for a bigger gap, and then pedaled really hard for a few pedal strokes to get the bike up to speed as the descent started and then got into hist most aero tuck once he could not pedal fast enough (compact crankset and 11-28 cassette).
And the Wheelsucker got a gap!
But the group closed it right down very quickly once the descent flattened out. The Wheelsucker soft pedaled to get off the front, but the pack eased up behind him. A few riders came around just before the left turn onto the Stage Road climb.
Once again the Wheelsucker thought his legs were going to give out part way up the Stage Road climb, but he hung on riding 3rd or 4th wheel. At the second peak there may have been only five or six riders left, including the big guy. The Wheelsucker was 2nd wheel at the start of the fast descent, then 3rd when someone who was more aero rolled by.
Then the big guy went by going rather faster. The two guys in front maneuvered for his wheel and the Wheelsucker followed. When it flattened out 3-4 riders including the Wheelsucker were taking good hard pulls because they did not want anyone chasing back on. At least one rider was sitting on. The big rider was pulling very hard.
At one point the Wheelsucker encouraged him to ease up and save something for the sprint, but he said he was not interested in sprinting for 30th and kept pulling.
The Wheelsucker jumped inside 1k again, making a huge effort to get off the front and getting a small gap, but he did not have anything to keep the gap and quickly blew up and was caught…. In the smaller group of five, he only fell back to third wheel behind the big guy and the 3rd place finisher in the 55+. He had a few seconds to recover. The big guy led out through the turn, then the next guy launched, but this time the Wheelsucker was on his wheel.
But this rider was strong! The Wheelsucker tried to come around on his right, felt a little constrained by the narrowing finishing chute, and probably started coming around too early, rather than sitting in his draft closer to the line and then giving it everything for a short snap to just pass him at the finish.
And with this great effort, the Wheelsucker sprinted for 29th place in 50+, about ten minutes behind the winner, and close behind the 3rd place finisher in the Saturday 55+ race.
Later, the Wheelsucker learned that Nick had flatted out of his race, and Scott Giles had followed a move to get into a three rider breakaway, and had held on to an incredibly strong rider until that rider rode away. Scott dropped the remaining rider in the breakaway, and crossed the finish line alone, in second place. Jim Johnson was 18th.
Results: http://velocityresults.com/results/438/tour-of-the-battenkill-day-2-cambridge-ny
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