The Last Race of the Season, Finally!

The Wheelsucker feels like he has been dragging his tired aching body along for the last couple of months. He was ready for the bicycle racing season to be over some time ago, perhaps immediately after the Page County Road Race, when he got sick. But there were more 55+ BAR races and more TTs, and he kept trying, hoping for a return to form and a good result.

The Delaware City Time Trial was last Saturday October 5th, and that was the last BAR race and the last MATTS race. The race did not go well for the Wheesucker, but any disappointment over the race is overcome by his relief in the season being over.

Though he never had the stellar breakthrough performance he was hoping for, the Wheelsucker put in some good races early in the season, with a 3rd and personal best time at the spring Church Creek time trial perhaps the highlight. But then just after the Page County Road Race he caught some sort of a cold, could not shake it, and ended up needing antibiotics and other drugs to get over it. While the cold went away he was not able to train hard for several weeks, and could not hold threshold when he tried.

He raced the Church Creek Championship TT sick and hung on for a mediocre finish and then skipped the Dawg Days circuit race.

There was gradual improvement in form over the next few weeks, but the Wheelsucker was never quite back to his target numbers and his performance at the Ernie Simpson TT was still lagging. So it came down to the Delaware City TT.

The Wheelsucker set an early wake up alarm, arrived on site within minutes of registration opening; and had plenty of time to pre-ride the course.

It was a ten mile point to point TT, with cars parked near the finish line. The Wheelsucker rolled out to ride the course backwards to get to the start, and then did it forwards wanting to be familiar with the route, and in particular the more technical sections in the start and finish towns.

He was back at the car with plenty of time to get back to the starting area, and removed the seat bag to get the bike in racing mode. He had noticed some gusts of wind, so the Wheelsucker decided to switch front wheels, replacing the 65mm deep dish carbon with a tri-spoke which is normally less susceptible to crosswinds. After getting that set up and readjusting the front brake caliper for the wider rim width, he rolled backwards on the course AGAIN to get to the start line. But about 1/4 of the way there he flatted the front tire. He rode back to the car on the flat, and switched back to the deep dish carbon. He no longer had enough time to ride back to the start, so he put the bike back on the roof rack and drove to the starting area. But he was held up by road closures, and was late for his start.

The officials gave him a start and he rolled out. It was hard to keep pace and average power in town with some turns, but once out of town he got it going. Then on the first or second good bump (maybe a railway track crossing), his left side support pad on the aero bars rotated down, so he was rather asymmetric for the race.

In preparation for this race the Wheelsucker had reviewed power data from a number of TTs over the last few years and had decided to try for 275 watts on this TT.

There were four turns in town just after the start. These kept average speed and power down, but the Wheelsucker was quickly up to speed once on straighter road, and 1:45 into his race was at 275 watts average, but only 22.64 mph, though average speed was climbing once out of town.

He had passed several riders fairly early in the TT, but had been passed by one rider about one third of the way in.

Thirteen minutes into the race he was still averaging 275 watts and average speed was up to 25.8, with the slight downhill run into Delaware City still to come.

But the Wheelsucker could not hold the power from that point on, and average power slowly dropped even as he struggled to keep turning the pedals hard.

The mostly shallow downhill into Delaware City helped a bit, but as he neared the last turn he was passed by an SUV which then slowed for a left turn. The Wheelsucker was coasting at well below target speed for about 20 seconds, which dropped his speed and power, and increased his time. But after crawling through the left turn behind the SUV, he sprinted by on the left and averaged 348 watts for the 1:15 to the finish.

The race interval he tracked appears to include some zero speed at the beginning and some zero power at the end, so his actual race time is something in the 23:30 to 23:47 range, though he was clocked in at 26:48.72 including time lost being late for his start. Average power was 271 watts. 26:48.72 was good for 11th out of 16.

The winning time was 22:49.84. Michael Morris was 2nd (clinching the MATTS 55+) at 23:12.40. 3rd was 23:30.52, 4th was 23:53.00. So the Wheelsucker could have finished 3rd or 4th, still losing MATTS points to Morris.

It had been a long season, starting with a West VA race and Jefferson Cup in March and April and ending in October with the Delaware City TT.

The Wheelsucker never won a race, and never beat 55+ BAR winner Dennis Crockett in a race, but he beat Paul Mittelstadt a couple of times and showed up for a few more races, taking -- he thinks -- second in the 55+ BAR in what may well be a triumph of mediocrity and dogged persistence over Mittelstadt's talent.

He may also have finished second in the 55+ MATTS, though those results still have to be tallied.

The Wheelsucker is tired and not sure what racing he will do next year. He is looking forward to doing some other things.