The Wheelsucker remembers being able to do the ToWC as a master, and finished 3rd in 50+ one year, while helping Art Brown win the overall.
Since all of the Wheelsucker's early knowledge of bike racing was watching portions of the TdF on TV, stage racing has always seemed like the "real" bike racing to him. So he was guttted –- OK, maybe not quite gutted, how about "somewhat disappointed" –- when masters fields were not included in the ToWC again this year. But now the Tour of Page County stage race includes masters fields, and the Wheelsucker did race the ToPC, earlier.
For whatever reason, without having formally decided he is chasing 55+ BAR points, the Wheelsucker is doing most of the 55+ BAR races; the twilight crit and RR apparently count for the BAR, so he decided to race both events.
Twilight Crit
The Wheelsucker sneaked out of work early Friday afternoon and hit the road. Traffic was ridiculous on I-70; shouldn't these clowns be going the other way to the beach? He finally arrived in Hagerstown and parked near the course, to find that course set up and final preparations were under way.
He had enough time to warmup well, unless one pisses away most of that time pinning numbers and then riding from intersection to intersection, outside the course, just to see it, and watch how the women's race was going. The women's race had started before he was ready to ride, so he was not able to ride any laps of the course.
After riding around a little with no efforts longer than five seconds, he pulled up next to the start/finish line and waited for the women's race to finish.
And it was a very exciting race! The ABRT women were doing their thing with lots of McSpeed on the front driving the pace, and some attacks from McSpeed and Amanda. Katy picked her moment and went. Not being at all stupid, the competition is trying to go with Katy when she goes, but few can. Dori made it on this time and got away with Katy. So Katy had to get rid of a strong sprinter; Dori is one of the strongest.
Katy did not fully contest the prime for the carbon bars, which Dori won, and waited until near the end of the race before attacking with 2.5 laps to go, on the backstretch just after the turn after the short climb. And Katy got away from Dori, and rode clear to the finish.
Katy won, Dori was second and a rider who jumped clear of the remnants of the pack was third. McSpeed was fourth, Amanda was 8th.
Then it was time for the masters 55+, except that the ten preregistered 55+ riders and any 55+ who had done "day of" registration were racing together with the 45+ field (which was over 30 riders), scored separately. Dennis Crockett told the Wheelsucker that last year only three 55+ riders were able to stay with the 45+ riders and the other 55+ riders were pulled and not finished. John Olinski warned the Wheelsucker about the one pothole on the course, on the backstretch, just under a traffic light.
There was no time for a lap on the course.
Joe Jefferson started with call ups: Riders of note from out of the area, 45+ and 55+ BAR Winners, and anyone from the local club, AVC. The Wheelsucker was already concerned about being too far back in the group (up against the left barrier), but found himself even further back when these riders were called forward to the actual start line. When the remaining riders rolled up to those called up, he was nearly last; wonderful.
The whistle blew, the Wheelsucker started pedaling very hard, clipped in, and went as hard as he could to get a spot in line.
The pace was incredible from the whistle. So was the power needed to stay on the wheel in front of him. The Wheelsucker knew he needed to move up, but he was already going as hard as he could. And the first attack was from the gun and four or five riders were off the front within the first lap. The Wheelsucker did not think he had the strength to move up; actually, he doubted he had the strength to hold on!
The course was interesting:
Turn 1 (to the right) felt a little tight. On the inside was a prominent vertical steel pole filled with concrete (probably to keep cars from running onto the sidewalk). A short distance out of turn 1 the lane on the left narrowed abruptly so doing turn 1 wide required cutting back in very quickly, and hoping that anyone inside you gave you the room. Shortly after the lane narrowing, there was a shallow right turn, an immediate shallow left turn, and then a short climb to the next 90 degree right turn. The backstretch was flat and fast with the pothole underneath the stoplight about 2/3 of the way to the next 90 right turn.
The next leg was shorter, and then it was a right turn back onto the start/finish stretch, which started out with a shallow climb, crested at about the start/finish line and then started to descent to turn 1.
While the Wheelsucker was struggling to hold position in the first few laps the first break went and was caught, and one of the chasers, Ken Norton, kept going after the catch and got clear. All the Wheelsucker could see was that there was no more group of four hanging just off the front. The Wheelsucker was in pain; pain in his lungs, pain in his legs. He was being gapped coming out of turn 1, turn 2 and turn 4, and every now and then another rider would slide by him into the gap in front. He knew he could not hang on much longer. He thought and hoped a few other riders were also suffering badly, and wondered if anyone had been dropped.
At one point early in the race the Wheelsucker looked over, saw just one other rider level with him, and the next thing back was the ref on a motorcycle. So the Wheelsucker was riding last and was expected to be the next person dropped. OUCH!
But somehow the pace eased up just a little bit, and the power needed to stay on the wheel in front became slightly less, the Wheelsucker's average power slowly dropped, and about 13 minutes into the race the Wheelsucker started to think maybe he could hang on. And then the Wheelsucker got to the point where he could try to move up. And he does remember passing some riders.
A little while later he was forced over the pothole, but was able to bunnyhop it. Judging from the noise behind him (yes, there WERE riders behind him, he was no longer riding last), the rider following him had been caught by surprise. It was not a crash; there were none on this race, though there were several close calls.
The pack was going into the last turn before the start/finish line at speed and hammering up the shallow climb, but then easing up on the top and again to set up for turn 1. The Wheelsucker was being gapped out of that turn and on the climb, chasing back on, and then moving up as the pack slowed at the top and then slowed again to set up for turn 1. He would be gapped again coming out of turn 1, but would chase back on in the S curve and then move up on the short climb as the group slowed to set up for the next turn. Gaps would open coming out of that turn, but a short hard effort would close them, and then the group would slow again for the next turn and the Wheelsucker would look to pass a few more riders by setting up on the inside. The short leg to the next turn was just long enough to pass one or two more riders before setting up for the last turn again.
The Wheelsucker tried to pick good wheels to follow, preferring a few riders he thought were in 55+, but he was still losing positions in places and gaining them in others, and not always coming back to the same wheels. And there were laps with multi-rider attacks on the backstretch that the Wheelsucker jumped to follow, which would put him on the back of the new leaders, but ahead of the group that had been leading before, until those riders worked there way past him again. The Wheelsucker saw Dennis Crockett normally close to the front; he saw Ramon go by once or twice on turn 3. The motoref was periodically giving time gaps -- 25 seconds -- to the race leader.
And at one point the Wheelsucker got to the front and pulled hard, mostly wanting some respect, but even going as hard as he could his pace up the shallow climb to the start/finish line was not enough for those following him, and he was promptly passed.
On the one hand the effort was still painful and the race seemed like it was going on forever; on the other hand time was flying by. Eventually the lap counter was down into single digits; the Wheelsucker recalls seeing six laps to go.
And the Wheelsucker kept trying to move up. Maybe he was dive bombing corners, but he was able to get closer to the front of the pack. He figured the last lap would be impossible to move up on, so he made his efforts beforehand to be well positioned for the last lap.
It partly worked; he was closer to the front than usual.
The last lap was fast as he expected and he came out of the last turn going as fast as he could.
It wasn't enough, two riders went by him in a blur, before he made it to the finish line, but they were both 45+. While the Wheelsucker had been checking numbers from time to time, trying to identify who was 55+, positions kept changing. He knew Dennis Crockett was multiple places in front of him; he did not know about the others.
Later, after cool down and while trying to relax over dinner with the ladies team, he learned that Ken Norton had stayed away alone for the entire race, and the 25 second gap had grown in the last few laps. So an amazing solo win for Norton. Ramon Benitez won the field sprint for second. All but three of the 55+ riders had been lapped or pulled, so the wheelsucker had finished 3rd, while Crockett had been 2nd.
Results on the USA Cycling website: https://www.usacycling.org/results/?permit=2013-1665
The Smithburg Road Race
The Wheelsucker has done the Smithburg Road Race several times, once before it was part of the Tour of Washington County and several times while it was included in the stage race. This is not a race that suits the Wheelsucker. While it remains to be seen what courses actually DO suit the Wheelsucker, short power climbs are not his forte; and this route has a false flat followed by the hardest short climb on the course, followed by a smaller second bump at the end of each lap. And then the short leg to the finish ends with a two stair stairstep climb. There is one false flat climb on the leg before the leg with the hard climb at the end, that the Wheelsucker CAN cope with.
This year 55+ was combined with 45+ as with the Twilight crit. This rather increased the field size and rather reduced the chances of the Wheelsucker getting off the front. Having been gapped on the hard climb at the end of the lap in other years, the Wheelsucker was concerned about a six lap race that did that climb six times.
This year the race used a rolling enclosure, so no yellow line rule was in effect, though there were cars coming the other way from time to time. It was rather easier to move up in the approximately 50 rider field without a yellow line rule.
The Wheelsucker was the only ABRTer in the race, while the 55+ BAR leaders, Dennis Crockett (AVC) and Paul Mittelstadt (DC Velo) both had team mates in 55+ or 45+ or both. DC Velo looked particularly strong in 55+ with Mittelstadt, Randy Thrasher, Ad Bax and Lauriston Marshall.
The group rolled out and turned left onto the course. The Wheelsucker was trying to conserve energy for the hard bits so tried to sit in. Each time they approached the hard climb he would carefully work his way to very near the front, and then spin up the climb losing places all the way up, grab one of the last wheels at the top and hold on, catch his breath, and then start to work his way back up.
And this worked for several laps!
But not everyone was content to sit in. NCVC was very well represented in 45+ and as above DC Velo had a very strong group in 55+. And during the middle section of the race, almost all the action was coming from the 55+ riders. Mittelstadt got off the front and opened a gap and was looking to keep it. None of the 45+ riders were bothered by this, and it ended up with Crockett on the front a lot of the time and the Wheelsucker taking a few short hard pulls, to bring Mittelstadt back.
And then Ad Bax went up the road with a 45+ rider. The Wheelsucker was not interested in chasing every DC Velo 55+ rider, and was tired from his earlier effort, so he let this go.
A little later it occurred to him that being in a break would be a good idea, and when the peloton let him roll off the front just after passing the feedzone, the Wheelsucker started a bridge effort, without going to his limit. He was allowed a short distance off the front before Randy Thrasher pulled the group up to him.
At that point the Wheelsucker wanted to recover again, so sat in.
After Ad and his 45+ companion had been gone awhile, NCVC’s Andreas Gutzeit lost patience and organized a mostly-NCVC chase to bring them back. The Wheelsucker was comfortably tucked in taking the tow.
The laps counted down. The Wheelsucker was staying on on the climbs – but barely – and was on the back of the slowly shrinking main field each time up the hardest climb. Then on the last lap he decided he needed to be closer to the front at the top to be better positioned for the sprint, so going up the climb this time the Wheelsucker stood and went as hard as he could, and held position. He was maybe 10th wheel at the top and down and up the second bump. And then it was on the short leg to the finish climbs. No one was going hard here – over the years at the Smithburg Road Race the Wheelsucker has seen a small field sit up and prepare for a track sprint here, and has also seen the group going at max speed closing gaps on this section, at times.
This time the group eased up, and the Wheelsucker got so close to the front he was actually ON the front for a little while, just soft pedaling.
And then the peloton hit the bottom of the first climb. Again the Wheelsucker stood and went hard to hold position.
And it almost worked!
While holding position well at the beginning, he was rapidly tiring near the top and the group was going by. The others accelerated on the flat section as the Wheelsucker faltered. As he started up the second and last climb, gapped, Rick Tucker rolled by. A desperate Wheeluscker was going as hard as he could but had nothing left, he looked over his shoulder and realized he was last and gapped in the peloton. OUCH!
He crossed the line some 18 seconds down, eighth of the eight 55+ riders in the main group. Three others had been dropped earlier. Sigh. Crockett, the defending 55+ BAR Champion, who had done some work during the race beat Harry Fang, the defending 45+ BAR Champion, who had done minimal work during the race. The Wheelsucker is left wondering if there is a way for him to beat Crockett in a race. Crockett can sprint, climb, TT and is strong enough to ride at or near the front and still chase anyone who goes by him.
Several other fields were racing at the same time, and the Wheelsucker watched the finish of the 3/4 35+ field (which had started in front of 45+/55+ but had been caught and neutralized) after his finish. One rider had a gap and only just held it to the finish, but ABRTer Pat Hogan won the field sprint for second.
After a short ride with the ABRT elite women -- they were warming up, the Wheelsucker was cooling down -- he was off to a hotel room for a nice shower and he soon felt better. The kvetching about not having any masters fields in the stage race notwithstanding, the Wheelsucker was quite relieved that his racing was done for the weekend.
He was back with pizza as the women finished. Sue "McSpeed" McQuiston got the solo four lap (of the six laps in their race) breakaway win with a 1:10 gap on Katy in second. Katy in turn had a couple of seconds on third.
The pizza was great and then it was an easy drive home. And instead of getting up early for the ToWC TT, the Wheelsucker had an easy Sunday morning, and then went sailboat racing in Annapolis, winning the event. It would seem that sailboat racing, and specifically racing International 505s, is rather easier for the Wheelsucker than bicycle racing.
ToWC Results on the USA Cycling website: https://www.usacycling.org/results/?permit=2013-1666
Smithburg Road Race Results on the USA Cycling website: https://www.usacycling.org/results/?year=2013&id=1666&info_id=64997
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