His coach has picked up on this and his workout instructions for the ABRT training rides are to ride aggressively, treat parts of the ride as a race, and practice attacking.
The Wheelsucker arrived at the P&R early enough to do a warmup lap behind the P&R and some more short laps in the P&R with some very short jumps. He wanted to be as well prepared as possible for the ride.
But with Ace, Nick Vita, Eric Boone, Jeff Chun and several other strong riders like Steve Owens, Mike Faber, Michel Wedel, Tom Aga, Rick Paukstitus, attacking might be difficult; being dropped would be really easy.
Since the Wheelsucker has no effective jump, he has been working on gently easing off the front of the pack, a little like he sees riders like Paul Mittelstadt do in races. Determined to start immediately, the Wheelsucker waited only long enough for the group to re-combine on Rossback after a small split formed at the left turn onto Rossback. His first effort was not really an attack at all, he just continued to pedal while others coasted down the hill on Rossback towards Governor Bridge Road. Effort was well below threshold, perhaps 200 watts. Everyone else was coasting and talking.
The Wheelsucker knew that this wasn't going to work and the most likely outcome was that after a brief easy spell to warm up, the peloton would speed up and catch him before the 214 intersection. They would be in single file going about warp 9 when they passed the Wheelsucker, with a grinning Ace or Eric on the front. The Wheelsucker would have to dig very deep just to catch on at the back, he would be on the rivet for minutes, and desperate just to hang on. He would be in trouble at Harwood Hill and the South Polling House stairstep climb and best he could hope for was to recover while others tired, sometime before the second climb of the South Polling House stairstep. But the Wheelsucker knew he had to try.
The Wheelsucker was in his most aero position, forearms resting on the bar tops, hands in front, pushing a bigger gear (high cadence doesn’t seem to work well in this position). By the time he was past the Governor Bridge Road intersection he couldn't see anyone behind him. He was trying to not go too hard, but go steady-fast at low to midpoint of threshold power so he had some reserve. He was careful to check behind him from time to time, but not too often.
To his surprise there was no catch before 214, and no one in site!
The light at 214 was green as the Wheelsucker rolled up. It went to amber but he "sprinted" across on the last of the amber.
Shortly before the start of the Harwood Hill climb a look behind him revealed a rider. A second check a few moments later revealed two riders, but not Ace or Eric, and they were gaining. The Wheelsucker did not want to be caught half way up Harwood Hill redlined, so he ruled out trying to outrun them and sat up to be rested when caught. It turned out to be Steve Owens and Mike Faber. The Wheelsucker caught on at the back and followed.
The three all rode hard, rotating pulls. They wondered about a chase, but no chase appeared. They were still going hard when they caught the last of a green light at the 214 intersection, about eight minutes hard riding from the finish line.
They went to the finish line with no chase in site. Steve led out; Mike was on the back. There was a brief inconclusive discussion about sprinting versus rolling across together. Steve finally stood and accelerated from the front, but Mike jumped from the back and got a gap. The Wheelsucker jumped as hard as he could for Mike’s wheel, but did not quite get it. Mike was clear at the line, the Wheelsucker was 2-3 bike lengths back, and Steve rolled across behind them.
As the three pedaled back to the P&R they speculated about a chase. In the P&R they saw Tom A. and Rick P. who often short cut, but then saw Ace was there also.
Eric was tired from a hard week of racing and training. Jeff was saving himself for Poolesville. Apparently the group had tried to make Ace do all the chase work. After a while, Ace soon decided not to, and a number of riders including Ace short cut. Eric Boone and Nick apparently chased very hard on their own (per Strava), but by the time they started chasing seriously the gap must have been large.
Wheelsucker Data (from rolling off the front to the finish line):
1:16:25, 30.67 miles, 1150 Kj, 1130 elevation gain
Power: 251 watts average, 880 maximum
Heart rate: 149 bpm average
Cadence: 88 rpm
Speed: 24.08 mph
Claims that the Wheelsucker was writing this blog report while in the break, and that he is keying blog postings while on the bike, are slightly exaggerated.
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