Weekend Racing at Turkey Hill and The Bunny HopThe Wheelsucker Report

Turkey Hill 50+

The 50+/60+ race was in the last wave at Turkey Hill, so the Wheelsucker had a relatively leisurely Saturday morning, before driving to the race for the 1:35pm start. And it was sunny and warm for a change!

Ted Harris and the Wheelsucker rolled out for a warm up with Dennis Crockett, Paul Mittelstadt, Sophie Mittelstadt and Randy Thrasher. It was a nice warm up, but after a couple of turns to avoid getting on the race course there was some doubt as to exactly where they were, and exactly how to return to the starting area. In other words, they were lost! The clock was ticking. Mittelstadt still has his phone and was checking that, and with a helpful local providing directions everyone made it back to the starting area in time.

The 50+ and 60+ fields were split by 30 seconds at the start, so raced separately; there was no possibility of help from Tom Aga and Scott Olsen. The whistle blew and off went the 50+ field. It was reasonably fast early, with some chasing of early attacks. The Wheelsucker’s early average power numbers were fairly high (first lap was 247 watts).

After a lap or two Paul Mittelstadt got clear; the Wheelsucker did not see him get away, he just saw a rider up the road, too far away to see the kit clearly. But Thrasher explained why he was not doing any work, saying his team mate was up the road. Mittelstadt stayed away for awhile. Long enough that the Wheelsucker lost a bit of patience over the chase and got on the front and drilled it for a short hard pull to cut the gap down. The Wheelsucker had the notion that if Mittelstadt was close enough, perhaps the Wheelsucker could jump across, but the Wheelsucker’s moves were marked.

Eventually Mittlestadt was brought back.

Thrasher also went a few times but was always brought back quickly. The Wheelsucker was on him for one or two of those attacks, hoping to go clear with him.

The Wheelsucker was determined to attack, hoping not so much for a solo breakaway, but to create something that a couple of strong riders could bridge to. While the obvious jumps were immediately marked, the Wheelsucker did manage to roll clear quietly on one of the climbs on the leg after the start/finish line. He got a bit of a gap, and was being chased at the top of the climb, but got to the top with a small gap and accelerated down the other side, opening the gap. He led through the right sweeping turn at speed and then stood and hammered as hard as an aging Wheelsucker can hammer, trying to open the gap a little wider on the river leg of the course. But someone behind must have decided they wanted it back, because the Wheelsucker was caught shortly after the turn.

Crockett was riding at or near the front most of the time, and seemed comfortable both setting the pace and chasing anyone who tried to jump clear. Mittelstadt was less often on the front and preferred to quietly move to an opening and then accelerate without appearing to make any effort. While standing and going super hard would telegraph intentions, Mittelstadt seemed to roll off the front quietly with people ignoring him until suddenly he was clear enough that the gap was hard to close.

Some time later Thrasher tried again. Crockett accelerated and closed the gap to Thrasher. Thrasher eased up when caught, as did the riders following Crockett. The Wheelsucker was a few wheels back, probably recovering from one of his efforts. But Crockett did not ease up and kept going. And stupidly the gap opened and no one closed it immediately. And very quickly Crockett opened a gap that was big enough it would take more than one person to close.

The gap stayed. Then the Wheelsucker saw Mittelstadt moving to one side and the Wheelsucker knew what was about to happen. The Wheelsucker was ready and on him.

Without any perceptible effort Mittelstadt started to accelerated and ride clear. Mittelstadt was seated and not showing any signs of working harder, but was accelerating. The Wheelsucker was at 100% sprint power and was ridden off Mittelstadt's wheel! The Wheelsucker went as hard as he can for about 20 seconds, but the gap had opened, and the Wheelsucker could go no further. The effort was great enough that the Wheelsucker needed to recover. The Wheelsucker fell back the 1.5 bikelengths to the group and sat in to recover.

And the group did not seriously chase Mittelstadt either.

Mittelstadt bridged to Crockett and the two rode away, never to be seen again.

The Wheelsucker tried to organize a chase, but while some riders were willing to work, no one was willing to work hard. The moto ref announced the time gap a couple of times, and it was increasing. On the last lap, with the break out at over 30 seconds, the course was routed over the Gamber Wall. The Wheelsucker saw a false flat before the wall and tried to roll off the front easily, but was immediately marked. But it did put him at the front for the last descent to the base of the wall, and first to the base of the wall. This was a good thing, because despite going almost as hard as he could, the Wheelsucker was passed by almost everyone in the main field. There is a right turn at the top of the wall and then the climb continued, though not as steep. The one rider left behind the Wheelsucker came around him, so the Wheelsucker was dead last in the main field. But he held on and on the descent back down, easily coasted back into third or fourth position. It was not long to the sprint, though there were several short big ring climbs early on the start/finish section. The Wheelsucker was tired and was nearly dropped on two of these climbs, but chased back on, and then moved back up. He was hoping for a wheel going early and found one on the right, but eased up after two riders swerved into his line.

He coasted across the line at the back of the pack, just behind Thrasher.

Bunny Hop 55+

The combined 55+/65+ race at Bunny Hop was scheduled for 8:45am, after the cat 5 race. This was much too early for the Wheelsucker, and it was a cold overcast morning that felt colder in the breeze.

Drastic action to avoid freezing

After a short warmup and deciding he was unsure of his form, the Wheelsucker rolled out on the course and pushed a little bit on the warmup laps to see what his legs had. The group lined up and the start whistle blew.

Crockett was riding at the front a lot, frequently with the Wheelsucker on this wheel.

There were a few attacks with John Olinski one of the first to go. When Crockett wanted to chase he was happy to accelerate from the lead position and grab the wheel.

Once again the Wheelsucker was looking for a break. He waited for a slow down after a chase, and was rewarded. The group eased up going into the bottom corner and did not accelerate out of the turn. The Wheelsucker started up the climb and moved over to the left, alone, and accelerated without making it obvious. No one jumped across and the Wheelsucker opened the gap, swept around the top corner and into the wind on the start/finish line leg. While never large the gap opened and was looking respectable. The Wheelsucker was clear for perhaps two laps? He was not expecting to stay away solo, but looking for someone to bridge.

After the race the Wheelsucker was told that race announcer Joe Jefferson had said on the PA the field was not showing the Wheelsucker any respect, because they were letting him go. The Wheelsucker was a little surprised when all of a sudden Mittelstadt rolled by on the left. The Wheelsucker immediately tucked in on his wheel, but when he looked over he realized it was not just Mittelstadt, but the entire field.

DARN!!

That is NOT what was supposed to happen!

A few laps later the officials ring a bell for a two rider prime.

Olinksi immediately moved off the front and got a small gap. The riders on the front controlled the gap but did not try to close it; no one else seemed to be moving to challenge Olinksi for the prime. Olinski led down the descent through the sweeping turn and up the start of the climb.

Now while the Wheelsucker generally considers primes to be a distraction from the objective of winning a race, he does think that primes can be an opportunity to create a gap without the field realizing what the intent of the move is. With no one going for John’s wheel on the climb, the Wheelsucker decided John had dangled awhile, and the Wheelsucker accelerated on the climb and closed up on John. An AVC team mate shouted a warning to Olinkski – “Go, John!” – but the Wheelsucker was on Olinski’s wheel before the sweeping turn. Olinski accelerated on the start/finish stretch, going into the noticeable wind. He had now been in the wind for almost an entire lap. The Wheelsucker pushed hard and steered to come around Olinski.

And nothing happened.

Olinski continued to accelerate and the Wheelsucker’s efforts did not close the gap by an inch.

Olinski rolled across first, the Wheelsucker was second. But more important, the move had been covered and Crockett and the bunch were all right behind, so no gap.

Wheelsucker note: Olinski needs to be off the back, or have a stake in his heart or something, before the Wheelsucker tries to sprint against him.

Later the Wheelsucker found it amusing that the first and second place prizes for that prime appear to be identical.

The laps slowly wound down. There were other efforts but Crockett was always ready to close the gap quickly to anyone who tried, and the field would not give Crockett an inch. Later in the race the Wheelsucker rolled up to Crockett as he was going easy on the descent, and asked, “if you let me go, can you jump across?” Crockett said “yes.”

The Wheelsucker promptly rolled off the front on the climb and pushed hard. The group was watching Crockett and not worried about the Wheelsucker. A small gap opened. Then Crockett and Mittelstadt must have jumped, and Bill Cusamano was ready for the move and got to a wheel. They came past the Wheelsucker at a high rate of speed, on the climb. The Wheelsucker dug deep to accelerate. He went as hard as he could to grab a wheel, but he had made several efforts including the recent one to get clear, and came up a bike length or two short on closing the gap to Cusamano’s wheel. He was still very close on the start/finish stretch and chased desperately through the start/finish line, but could not close it. And the gap opened. Joe Jefferson was telling the crowd that “the train is leaving the station”. The Wheelsucker could only watch the last wheel going up the road.

And behind him the field as coming fast. Disappointed, the Wheelsucker eased up, and sat in to recover. No one else chased seriously, and Crockett, Mittelstadt and Cusamano rode away. The Wheelsucker sat it to recover and contest the sprint, but too many riders were better sprinters, and the Wheelsucker rolled across the line for 11th. Crockett won again; Mittelstadt was second again.

35+ cat 3/4

The Wheelsucker was tired, and his frequent post-hard-effort heartburn was bothering him. He decided to do the race working for teammates. There were six other ABRT riders in the large field. But the group did not get together and discuss the plan for the race. So the Wheelsucker decided to start at the back and sit in to wait for the pace to settle down, and let others do the early chasing. He was hoping to be fresher in the second half of the race, after others had made hard efforts.

The race started out fast and hard, but sure enough the pace started to settle down. There were attacks with furious chases, but the Wheelsucker was well behind these and largely protected at the back of the field, following wheels. The larger field offered better places to hide than in his earlier race, and the Wheelsucker figured out that being on the outside of the top turn usually (but not always) resulted in one being sheltered by the field going into the wind on the start finish stretch. The bottom of the descent and the top of the climb were good places to move up without making much additional effort.

After sitting in for a few laps the Wheelsucker felt the call of duty and moved up. And soon after he got near the front, an attack went. No ABRTers were in it, so the Wheelsucker dutifully jumped to the front and put in one of his trademark short hard pulls to cut the gap down. He succeeded in reducing it to where he thought it quite likely that it would close and he swung off to recover. Sure enough it was brought back moments later.

There was a crash on the right side at the start of the climb. Riders swerved left to avoid it. The Wheelsucker was on the left of the line, and also swerved hard to avoid those swerving in front of him, but made it by. The leaders drove the pace, perhaps to gap riders who were slowed by the crash.

On the next lap the Wheelsucker saw several riders down and later a police car. One of his team mates was standing by the side of the road. He also learned alter that Pat Hogan flatted, perhaps during this incident, but took a wheel from the pit and rejoined.

Matt asked the Wheelsucker for an attack with five laps to go. Everything was being chased hard, so it was feeling unlikely that an attack would succeed, so it would come down to a field sprint. The Wheelsucker sat in to save energy, and then started to move up, though it took several laps to work his way up near the front. Crossing the line with five to go the Wheelsucker noted the high pace, with several DC Velo riders driving a train, and postponed his attack. But the field slowed at the bottom turn, the Wheelsucker swung through on the inside and attacked as hard as he could. He briefly checked his “six” and saw a DC Velo rider glued to his wheel, with a very small gap to the next riders. The Wheelsucker gave it everything he had up the climb and was done by the top turn. He swung wide and off the front, hoping his short effort had accomplished something. He slid back to recover and made one more big effort to glue himself to the back of the mainfield. As he did this he noticed the DC Velo rider who had marked his move, sliding off the back, job done.

He had not thought of sprinting from the back, but did go hard enough to pass a few riders who had sat up.

The Wheelsucker considered doing the 123 race for more of a workout, and was discussing this with several others, but the heartburn was worse and the Wheelsucker decided three races in two days was enough, and decided to skip that race.

But he did stick around to watch the Women’s 35+ race.

While the ABRT elite women were trying to control the race, they were dealing with multiple single rider attacks, some of which stayed away for awhile.

Then the officials signaled a two-rider prime, and ABRT sprung into action with Ainhoa and Katy going 1,2 for the first one. A second prime was signaled when another rider was well off the front alone, and while she won, Ainhoa easily jumped for 2nd.

Katy jumped late in the race but the move was marked by Dori, a strong sprinter. Katy sat up rather than go to the line with a strong sprinter. It was all together going through the start/finish line for the bell lap. Some of the ABRT fans standing by the side of the road were worried.

But then around the last corner hammering for the finish were Katy, Ainhoa and Sue, with a small gap on the next rider. Katy eased up, Ainhoa sprinted for the win, Sue second, Katy third, almost overlapped, and a gap to the fourth rider.

Katy had attacked going into the bottom corner and the only two riders who were able to get to her wheel were Ainhoa and Sue. Katy pulled all the way to the finish, keeping them clear, before easing up for Ainhoa and Sue. Another amazing job by the ABRT ladies.