The Wheelsucker left work early and arrived at the P&R early, and had enough time to do two solid laps behind the P&R and then kept rolling in the P&R until the group rolled out. It was as good a warmup as he could get.
Stung by recent criticism about attacking early in the ride, the Wheelsucker stayed with the group early and even pulled the group to close a small gap to Spencer while still on Rossback, and was on the front as the group crossed Governor Bridge Road. He even opened a small gap, but was closed down by Brandon.
Then Hef got on the front, drove the pace and it started to hurt! The Wheelsucker sat in part way back hoping that the pace would ease or that he warmed up and felt stronger, or something like that, but it stayed fast and hard.
From where the pace picked up to a brief stop waiting for a green light at 214 took just over nine minutes and averaged over 25 mph.
The recent heavy rain had flooded the dip, so the ride detoured via Queen Anne Bridge Road and Wayson Road back to Harwood Road.
The group stopped at the left back onto Harwood as a pickup truck was turning left from Harwood onto Wayson Road. Hef accelerated after the left turn, getting a small gap and driving hard up Harwood Hill. The Wheelsucker was very concerned, and suspected this was the start of a move planned by Hef and Ace. Spencer led the chase all the way up Harwood Hill, with Brandon second wheel and the Wheelsucker third. Spencer was going hard enough to hurt the Wheelsucker, but not hard enough to stop the gap to Hef growing.
And at the top of Harwood the attack came. Anyone still able to circulate some oxygen through their brains was expecting it, so few were surprised when Ace jumped. But expecting it and doing someting effective in response were two different things. Those who could respond to the surge, riders like Pat Hogan and Rick Paukstitus, went after Ace, who was quickly up to Hef.
The peloton shattered.
The first group was being driven by Hef and Ace and initially had one or two other riders. A small second group quickly caught them before route 2.
The chase behind had rather more riders and included Mike Faber and the Wheelsucker.
The lead group's pace was high enough that attrition quickly shrank it down, with riders coming back to the chase one by one. At the top of the stairstep climb the lead group was just Hef and Ace and the chase had most of the other riders, though the chase was shrinking quickly under the pressure.
Several riders in the chase opted for the shortcut by going straight on Bayard, skipping the loop, and further shrinking the chase.
The riders in the chase were working hard, but the Wheelsucker thought some were pulling for too long, and the group would have been faster with shorter harder pulls. After all the chase has to be going faster than the two riders in front to catch them, and they were pulling at over 300 watts. The Wheelsucker -- who can go steady hard but hates going even harder on short climbs -- thought the other riders were going too hard on the short bumps and then only crawling off the top. Several times after a small bump the Wheelsucker didn't wait for someone to pull off, but just rolled by to drive the pace harder. But he was close to being gapped on those short bumps when other riders spiked the power briefly.
By the time the loop was done and they were back on Bayard, the chase was down to Pat, Mike Faber, an Artemis rider, the Wheelsucker, and Denzil Hathway (riding a TT bike). Denzil took some really solid pulls (the other riders had to dig to catch the fast traing) on Sands Road, and the chase finally caught Hef and Ace on the first of the two bumps. But Hef and Ace had eased up and rested, and they jumped again while the chasers were recovering. There was a mad effort by the chasers to catch on, but no one made it to Hef and Ace, and the gap opened again.
The chasers were initially demoralized, but continued to work, with Denzil taking another solid pull before sitting up.
The four remaining chasers made it to the top of Sands and turned right to follow Ace and Hef (Harwood/Patuxent River Road was closed at the dip, so there was no point turning left).
The chase caught Ace and Hef as they waited for a green light at 214. They had been joined by Brandon who had shortcut.
When the light turned green the combined group rolled across. The Wheelsucker – considering that everyone had to be exhausted – he certainly was! – attacked and jumped clear. He got into TT mode and tried to hold a sustainable power level. This worked very briefly, but apparently Brandon was a little fresher than the others, and Brandon closed most of the gap before the Wheelsucker decided to sit up and recover, catching on at the back.
Close to the start of the sprint the Wheelsucker's calves were cramping. He tried to follow wheels and then sprint, but had nothing left and was last of the group across the line.
Ace won the sprint.
The Wheelsucker thinks this may be the hardest Tuesday ride he can remember, at least from the top of Harwood Hill back to the 214 intersection.
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