The Shenandoah TTThe Wheelsucker Report

The Wheelsucker had not raced the Shenandoah TT before, but since he is generally better at TTs than anything else, and is, for some reason, chasing BAR points, he decided to race it this year. It being the day before the Age Graded Championship Road Race was a concern. Climbing the hills at the Miller School Race (which was the VA Championship and MABRA Championship RR) the day AFTER a TT did not seem like fun to the Wheelsucker.

The Wheelsucker waited for Friday rush hour traffic to die down, and headed out to rural VA after 8:00pm.

Per a suggestion from TT Promoter Chris Gould, the Wheelsucker stayed at the Luray Caverns Motel in Luray, and drove to Shenandoah after breakfast in Luray.

The Wheelsucker found the registration area, parked his car on a residential street as requested by the organizers, pulled out his indoor trainer, picked up his number, set up the trainer and started to warm up.

A little further up the hill, on the other side of the street, a very good-looking female cyclist— virtually all female cyclists are good looking, what is not to appreciate about lean fit bodies in Lycra -- appeared to be changing into her skinsuit, sitting in the passenger seat of her car. As soon as he guessed what was going on, the Wheelsucker was careful to look elsewhere, mostly down at his aero bars and computer.

Then a male masters rider walked up the street passed her car. He also must have figured out she was changing and being a gentleman – virtually all male bike racers are gentlemen – he also was careful to look away. While the Wheelsucker was not really looking either, it appeared to the Wheelsucker that this male not only avoided looking in the direction of the rider in the car, but made a point of it, so she would know he was not looking.

So far so good, everyone was "playing by the rules". But the Wheelsucker was quite amused when the male rider carefully checked out her TT bike, which was leaning against the back of her car.

The owner of the house the Wheelsucker was parked in front of decided to cut his grass, so the Wheelsucker had to move his car, bike and trainer to the other side of the street and continue warm up. Somehow time flies before a race. There was not enough time for much of a warm up. Soon enough it was time to go. The Wheelsucker took the TT bike off the trainer, swapped out the trainer skewer, put on his helmet and rolled down the hill back to registration for a last minute pee stop.

OK, so where was the start house? Someone pointed out a direction and the Wheelsucker rolled towards it. Except it was several turns and on the other side of a red light, some distance away. And the Wheelsucker was late when he arrived at the start house. Officials slotted him in 15 seconds after one rider and 15 seconds before the next. The Wheelsucker was not happy about being late, but quickly focused on pedaling and breathing, though he was frustrated enough about it that he went out a bit harder than he should have until he managed to settle down and focus on target power. He did pass his fifteen second man rather quickly …

There were some rollers on the way out of town, then it was more steady trending up/false flat. However there were curves, bumps and a rough road service, and the Wheelsucker found it hard to hold his target average power.

None-the-less, he was passing riders that had started ahead of him, and was seeing riders come back the other way.

The route was almost an out-and-back, the leg back had a loop with a climb added to it, and the finish was slightly short of the start house.

Fifteen minutes into the race the Wheelsucker was hurting. He was looking forward to the turnaround and a bit of shallow downhill riding for a change. And finally he hit the turnaround and started back. It was MUCH faster on the way back, and the Wheelsucker was feeling better and thinking his very aero position would be working to his advantage. He passed another rider or two.

Then there was a right turn onto the additional loop, this featured some serious climbing, standing in the small chain ring. While he had been pushing on the downhill the Wheelsucker had some reserve and pushed up the climbs, passing two more riders while doing it.

Then it was back on the main route that had been used on the outbound leg and it was still mostly a shallow downhill. Closer to town it was back on the same rollers the Wheelsucker had covered on the way out.

Shortly before reentering Shenandoah there was a sign on the side of the road, “pig ahead”, and sure enough the next thing the Wheelsucker caught out of the corner of his eye was a large plastic pig by the side of the road. Go figure ...

Though unfamiliar with the course, the Wheelsucker knew he was close to the finish and started ramping it up, burning it to the finish.

There was one last dip and sweeping right turn, a short climb, a sweeping left and then it was straight and slightly downhill to the finish line.

After catching his breath and removing his number, the Wheelsucker checked with the officials and confirmed that he could ride back out on the course. He did so, so he could cheer on team mates and other riders, in particular the wounded warriors.

After standing at the last intersection cheering for a while, the Wheelsucker rolled back to the registration area. His team mate Amanda told him his name was being called, and he walked up to the registration tent to find that he was being called for the podium, as he had finished third.

He had finished third despite starting 1:45 late; the 55+ times were generally slow compared to other fields. The Wheelsucker’s time of 1:04:02 was LESS than 1:45 slower than the winner's time of 1:02:47, so he could have won if he had started on time.

Sue "McSpeed" McQuiston wins the 35+ TT!!!

Some of the Wheelsucker's team mates ROCKED the TT, with Katy Giles winning the elite women, Amanda Watson finishing second riding a road bike, Sue McQuiston winning 35+ (despite not producing a birth certificate to establish that she was in fact 35 or older. when the Wheelsucker asked to see one).

Katy and Amanda go 1,2 in women's 1-2

George Ganoung won 35+, Richard Kennedy was 17th (on a road bike) in cat 4. While not quite an ABRTer – he rides for Bike Doctor – Scott Giles comes with Katy Giles as a package. Scott was a close second in Men’s 1-2.

Results on USA Cycling website: https://www.usacycling.org/results/?permit=2013-2295

The Wheelsucker enjoyed a late lunch with some of his team mates, and then drove to Charlottesville to find his Saturday evening hotel. He was rather tired, and spent most of the late afternoon resting.