Tuesday June 25th Training RideThe Wheelsucker Report

It was a rather hot and humid afternoon and evening. Ace and Hogan were not there, but there was a medium sized group of 15 to 18, including Eric Boone and Denzil Hathaway. Eric had already ridden all or part of the route, so was well warmed up. There were at least three riders not wearing ABRT kit, in addition to Eric.

The Wheelsucher had a limited warmup doing easy laps in the P&R with a few short jumps for some limited intensity.

As with most Tuesday "training" rides, the Wheelsucker had an assigned workout:

BT: Group ride. Treat parts of this as a race. Ride aggressively. Experiment with race strategies and test yourself.

The workout description used to include "be smart", but the Wheelsucker never understood what that meant and apparently his coach has stopped including it.

The group rolled out, and down Rossback Road. The Wheelsucker jumped from the front as he crossed Governor Bridge Road. His initial effort was high VO2Max, but he backed it off to threshold soon. He gained an immediate gap, and quickly could not see the group when he checked behind. Staying low with forearms resting on the bar tops to be as aero as possible, the Wheelsucker tried to TT away.

Most of the way to the 214 intersection, after not seeing a chase whenenever he checked, all of a sudden the group came by him at speed, and the Wheelsucker had to make a further effort to catch on.

The Wheelsucker was expecting to be caught at some point -- after all Eric was not going to just sit there – but he was surprised it happened all at once. Breathing hard from the effort, he caught on at the back and noticed a breathing hard and recovering Eric already there.

Hmn.

Eric later admitted he had pulled the group up to the Wheelsucker.

There were some not-fully serious moves after the group crossed 214; the Wheelsucker closed a couple of gaps, but mostly sat in until Harwood Hill, letting others chase.

With fewer "A" riders in the group, and the heat perhaps slowing everyone down, the Wheelsucker was less certain there would be attacks on Harwood Hill, but pulled to the left to be ready to go in case. However, there were no attacks; he pulled back in.

The Wheelsucker was near the front for the stairstep climb; he followed wheels early, and jumped clear at about the 2/3rd point, got a gap and opened it by the top and right turn onto Bayard. Despite being tired from the effort, he kept going on Bayard, but considered that he needed some reserve for the Polling House false flats, avoided going really hard, and was quickly caught.

Brian Synowiec jumped clear part way up Polling House and initially no one chased; he opened a small gap. The Wheelsucker followed wheels, but eventually came around Eric and helped close the small gap, and pulled a little further towards the right turn on Polling House.

The Wheelsucker was near the front again on the stairstep climb. Brian jumped early and got a small gap. Eric was leading the chase and slowly increased the pace, taking more of the climb to slowly close the small gap. The Wheelsucker waited for the catch, and then waited for Eric to keep going steady after the catch. And then the Wheelsucker launched again! He opened a gap, kept it to the top and turn, and kept going on Bayard, but was again caught soon on Bayard.

A little later, the Wheelsucker was on the front at the Sands Road turn. He accidentally opened a small gap, and it was not closed coming out of the turn or immediately afterwards. The Wheelsucker ramped up the power and the gap opened a bit. Brian Synowiec sprinted across and both LAUNCHED. Both going hard and taking short pulls they tried to pull clear. But the group responded and caught them shortly after they climbed out of the first dip, so they were only away for about 50 seconds.

It was a smaller group as riders had disappeared along the way. There were no moves on the way to the finish.

The Wheelsucker was sitting in line taking it easy. One rider went early at the penultimate dip. The Wheelsucker let others chase the lone rider and tacked on at the back about 5th wheel, thinking some riders would launch too early. Sure enough, Spencer launched early, spooking another rider into jumping and the Wheelsucker moved over to follow them. As they drew level with Brian, he launched hard.

The early jumpers ran out of gas before the line, but Brian had enough left to go all the way. The Wheelsucker came around the dying riders, but Brian was too far ahead and going too fast, and rolled across first, with the Wheelsucker a distant second.

It was too hot and riders were too tired to sprint really hard.

Wheelsucker Data:

30.67 miles,
1:16:32,
215 watts average, 844 max at the sprint,
146 bpm average,
90 rpm cadence,
24.13 mph,
90 degrees F average, 95 maximum.