As is typical for an aging masters racer, the Wheelsucker attempts to make up for diminishing abilities by spending more money. Over the years he has been time trialing he has bought:
• A high end carbon Cannondale Slice TT bike
• A high end USE Alien base bar
• Multiple aero bar sets including two sets from Zipp, including the latest which have mounting bosses that match the SRAM Red R2C shifters
• Edge (now Enve) 68mm wheels (he only uses the front at Church Creek)
• Several different cranksets of increasing “aero”ness the latest with shorter crankarms
• Two aero TT helmets
• Three aero brake calipers
• A fit with Stu at Parvilla resulting in much more aggressive -- rotated forward -- and aero position.
After the fit the Wheelsucker was having significant difficulty actually riding the bike; the bike was scary to ride on descents and corners as his face was closer to the road surface and the bike handled differently with more weight on the front wheel, the load on his arms and shoulders was not comfortable and his neck was in pain from trying to look up the road. He could not hold the aero position for more than 15 minutes at a time.
After several rides and a Parvilla Wednesday evening TT the Wheelsucker decided he was not adapting to the new position, or at least not quickly enough, and discussed this with Stu at Parvilla. And Stu suggested raising the base bar and aero bars. This was done with about a week to go, and the Wheelsucker got in two or three rides going easy and decided the revised position was clearly much better, but not yet determined to be optimal.
Concerned about his ongoing trend towards slowness, the Wheelsucker anxiously reviewed data from previous Church Creek TTs, looking at average speed and power. He decided he should aim to negative split and target power of 260-265 watts for the first half. However, the Wheelsucker always decides he should negative split and has not managed to do it at Church Creek yet.
Apart from concern with his fitness level, and the position on the bike, the Wheelsucker’s declining eyesight has caused challenges. He used to ride with sunglasses and then added a sweat band to keep sweat from covering the lenses. Then he acquired prescription sunglasses, but he was forever trying to look through the sunglasses frames, as he rides looking somewhat down, but needs to look up the road at least occasionally.
For this TT he decided to try wearing contacts. His new TT helmet includes a shaded visor, so he did not need sunglasses. He tested the contacts the day before and they seemed to work OK.
And then it was race day and the Wheelsucker was riding from the schools on Mace’s Lane, to the starting area. He always carries a small cooler/backpack with cold water, some gel, and he carries his seatbag with a flat repair kit to the starting area. He had forgotten his HR strap at home.
Being unsure of form the Wheelsucker started cutting back on goals, and by this time was down to:
• Finish in the top 20 in 55+ (out of 28 pre-registered)
• Don’t be caught on the road by the amazing Katy Giles (who was starting about 40 minutes behind him)
Once in the starting area there was a little time for a bit more warmup, and then he poured lots of cold water over his head and skinsuit, and lined up for the start.
In the Wheelsucker's experience racing Church Creek since 2007, the wind is usually light and usually coming out of the Northwest. This gives somewhat of a tailwind on the first leg, a headwind on the middle third rough road section and a bit of a tailwind on the last part of the last leg. But this year was different; the light wind was a headwind on the first leg and the last part of the last leg. Another change in the course was that a bit more of the rough road section has been repaved, but the pavement is deteriorating everywhere else.
With ten seconds to go the Wheelsucker was in the start tent but was off the bike trying to shift into the big ring, but ran out of time, got back on the bike and started not clipped in, and in the little chain ring. He quickly clipped in and shifted, and immediately spiked power to get up to speed. Plans to negative split notwithstanding, he was going over 400 watts initially and was averaging 320 one minute in. Now the Wheelsucker knows he tends to spike power at the start, and even feels it is reasonable to go harder in the first few seconds to get the bike up to target speed. And besides, the pros appear to do that. So he set a new interval 30 seconds in, so his rolling power average number on the display would not be affected by his power spike. And then it was time to settle down, keep the bike going at target speed (about 26.5 mph) at target power and not drop average power too quickly by not going hard enough.
Except he was not able to hit target speed!
At 8:30 into his race he was averaging 279 watts (rather too high) and averaging 25.23 mph (rather too low)! But after taking the first sweeping right turn there was less head wind -- mostly cross and perhaps even slightly from behind -- and the average speed started climbing. At the first right turn onto a new road (about 17:36 into the race), average speed had climbed to 25.94 even though average power had dropped to 274 watts, so the situation was improving.
Somehow the rough road section was not as bad this year, perhaps the tailwind helped. But 21 or so minutes later, when the Wheelsucker made the last right turn onto the larger road, his average speed was 26.57! And his running average was 271 watts (though this was slowly going down).
And things were looking good for finishing in the top twenty riders in his field, as he had passed five or six by the first turn onto the rough road and another one or two by the second turn. And no one had caught him!
But the effort was becoming harder and more painful, the average power was slowly dropping and the Wheelsucker was constantly seeing lower power numbers and pushing harder to get them back up, then seeing them drop again. His average cadence was quite high and he tried pushing bigger gears for short periods to give his lungs and heart a short break.
And then average power dropped to 270 watts and then down to 269. He pushed harder and briefly got it back up to 270, but then could not hold that either, and it was back to 269.
But the road was familiar and even though there was some time and distance to race, the Wheelsucker’s average speed was 26.5 mph. But the last section angles a bit more south at the end resulting in a bit more headwind again. A tired Wheelsucker had not left enough in reserve and was slowed despite straining with whatever he had left.
At the finish he had averaged 26.42 mph, and was timed at 56:48.44, beating his two previous best times by 9 and 11 seconds.
Wheelsucker Data:
Averages: 269 watts, 26.42 mph, 98 rpm, 82 degrees, 00:56:48.44, 3rd out of 27 in 55+. So better than top 20 and Katy had not caught him on the road!
For those interested in comparing, here is summary data for most of the Wheelsucker's Church Creek races:
| Church Creek TT Data | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Time | Average Power (watts) | Heart Rate (bpm) | Placing | |
| 14-Jun-08 | 57:36:00 | 259 | 164/170 | 2nd in 50+ | |
| 9-Aug-08 | 56:57:00 | 269 | 160/168 | 2nd in 50+ | |
| 13-Jun-09 | 57.13 | 265 | 162/172 | 4th | |
| 22-Aug-09 | 56:59.6 | 261 | 161/172 | 2nd in 50+ | |
| 6-Jun-10 | 59:28:00 | 273 | 155/169 | 9th in 45+ | windier |
| 21-Aug-10 | 58:03.1 | 276 | 157/172 | 6th in 45+ | |
| ??? | apparently did not do it | ||||
| 20-Aug-11 | 57:43:00 | 253 | 153/165 | 7th out of 12 in 45+ | |
| 23-Jun-12 | 57:25.9 | 257 | 156/162 | 9th out of 25 in 45+ | |
| 18-Aug-12 | 57:57:00 | 269 | 152/163 | 11th out of 19 in 45+ | |
| 22-Jun-13 | 56:48.44 | 269 | no HR | 3rd out of 27 in 55+ | |
So the Wheelsucker hit solid power numbers and very slightly better speed and faster time than he had ever done. And the only thing that had changed since August 2012 was the fit and the sunglasses, so the Wheelsucker considers the fit to have made the difference. He hopes to work on his neck flexibility and see if he can become more accustomed to the lower-in-front position and lower the bars part way back to where they were after the fit. That position is even more aero than what the Wheelsucker currently has.
Now for the impressive times:
Patricia Caldeira (W 50+) 29:50.18 for 20k (3:26 ahead of the next in her field)
John Newton (M 55+) 55:29.92
Dennis Crockett (M 55+) 56:02.97
Bob Garwood (M 45+) 51:06.62
Eric Boone (M 35+) 51:38.53
James Donahue (Cat 4, age 35) 54:45.30
Chris Gonce (Cat 4, age 53) 55:12.91
Kenneth Rowe (Cat 4, age 52) 56:50.13
Katy Giles (W Cat 1/2) 57:01.16 (after being slowed by a truck towing a boat at her start)
Blair Berbert (M Cat 1/2) 50:45.05
Christopher Grady (M Cat 3) 52:53.19
Mike Wagner (M Cat 3) 54:53.33
Sommers/Frick tandem 49:42.08
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