As the group rolled past him, someone was kind enough to let him in, though the Wheelsucker wondered if that rider was simply trying to get the Wheelsucker to take a pull earlier; suspicious mind! The group included Steve Owens, Pat Hogan, Steve Esmacher, Tom Aga, David Aha, newcomer Brian and Denzil "Quadzilla" Hathway on a TT bike.
Much too soon, the Wheelsucker rotated to the front and took a pull. He was going to make it a short one and swing off, but realized at almost the last moment that it would have been such a short pull he might have been ridiculed, so he put his head down and kept going to the next bump, before pulling off. The extended length of the resulting pull was enough to draw a positive comment from one rider in the group.
The light was red at 214, and the Wheelsucker carefully slowed early and dropped back a few riders in the group, to postpone rotating to the front again. Steve was watching the light in the 214 direction, noticed it changing to amber, and got a bit of a jump on the group crossing 214. Apparently Steve wanted the gap, because he kept going, and somehow no one closed it immediately.
The Wheelsucker knows his limitations, and crossing a big gap is one of them. Another is jumping hard to catch a wheel when someone else decides to cross the gap. So while careful to not get in the wind, the Wheelsucker was paying close attention. Newcomer Brian was the first to lose patience, and jumped away to chase Steve. No one went with him. The group was now being led by Pat -- who could easily jump across -- who slowly ramped it up. The Wheelsucker pushed his way up to third wheel in the chase, thinking that would be a better place to counter moves.
Brian was going steady hard, particularly on the downhill to the dip. Without working that hard Pat had pulled the chase to Brian's wheel, so it was all together when Steve was caught at the dip. The pace slowed for the climb out of the dip. On the spur of the moment the Wheelsucker decided that Steve, Brian and Pat had all done enough work that they would not want to chase hard, and THE WHEELSUCKER ATTACKED!!!!
In a DEVASTATING -- at least to the Wheelsucker -- display of power, just after climbing the short steep section after the sweeping left the Wheelsucker reached 814 watts and averaged 533 watts for 9 seconds, a move the Wheelsucker thought worthy of Jens Voigt, except it wasn't at all. Perhaps the others really were not inclined to chase just yet, or perhaps they were laughing too hard to chase, but the Wheelsucker got the initial gap, sat down, got aero and went into ITT mode and opened the gap on the shallow climb. With curves and bumps in the road, the chase was soon out of site when he checked behind.
"AMAZING!", thought the Wheelsucker, though holding Wheelsucker threshold power was quickly tiring him. He was still off the front at the base of Harwood Hill, with no chase in site.
And then part way up Harwood Hill a backward glance revealed a chase. The Wheelsucker kept going and was clear off the top, but as the road flattened out and a desperate Wheelsucker tried to keep going, the chase got close. And then Denzil rolled by on the TT bike, towing Pat. The Wheelsucker eased up for a moment and then jumped to grab a wheel. He had stayed away for nine minutes.
The Wheelsucker was hoping for an easy ride in a breakaway with Denzil and Pat, but they had other ideas. The Wheelsucker really did not want to be chasing surges, but he was forced to as both Pat and Denzil jumped separately. With Denzil a short distance up the road, the Wheelsucker was really worried that Pat would jump across so hard the Wheelsucker would miss the move. But he did not want to expend a lot of energy trying to close the gap to Denzil only to have Pat jump him, so the Wheelsucker accelerated a little and tried to prepare to catch on when Pat went. But then Denzil eased up and the three were back together.
And a moment later a few more riders -- Tom Aga and Brian -- caught on, with the never-quit-pulling Steve Owens on the front. The Wheelsucker really should have been checking behind him for this. It was all together from there to the right turn on route 2, the right turn onto Polling House and the left onto South Polling House.
Brian pulled off early on the descent leaving Tom taking a long pull for the rest of the descent and the start of the South Polling House stairstep. The Wheelsucker had recovered by this time and was sitting second wheel. Tom led up the initial steep section and then went steady as the pitch eased. The Wheelsucker had averaged 546 watts for 16 seconds on the steep section, but for the next 17 seconds he averaged 277, and he had a litte left in the tank.
The Wheelsucker -- who is known for attacking where it doesn't make any sense -- jumped left HARD, hitting 700 watts for a second. Tom did not accelerate to follow, and no one else did either, probably knowing the Wheelsucker was not really going to go far.
But the Wheelsucker was into it as the gap opened and he raced up the climb. He was still clear at the right turn onto Bayard. The Wheelsucker had paced himself and still had enough to keep going at slightly above threshold for about 45 seconds, before he looked over to see Denzil, low and aero on the TT bike, rolling past him, with the others following. It occurred to the Wheelsucker that while Denzil had not been inclined to get off the front with just Pat, Denzil DID seem inclined to close gaps.
Hmm
The Wheelsucker sat in to recover.
Tom took another long pull after the group turned onto Polling House, and was leading up the short wall at the golf course false flat. The Wheelsucker was riding second wheel, obsessed with the thought that the others would jump past him on that wall. Sure enough one rider started to roll by, the others followed and the Wheelsucker dug deep to grab on at the back and hold on, as the false flat continued. Tom did not try to make it on, so it was Denzil, Pat, Brian, Steve and the Wheelsucker.
That group was still together the second time up the stairstep, but the Wheelsucker was reluctant to jump again, only to have Denzil pull the group up to him once the road flattened out, so he warily followed wheels, trying to be ready to go with a surge, but it was steady.
Denzil was frequently riding at the back, but off to one side so in the wind, but every now and then would roll past and go hard. Denzil went on the second bump on Sands (one of Ace's favorite attack points) and the the Wheelsucker jumped around Brian to close the gap, but everyone else was on his wheel. That did not deter Denzil who pulled hard for long enough that the Wheelsucker was suffering badly at second wheel.
It was together at the 214 light, though Steve again timed the light perfectly and started to roll clear, but the gap was immediately closed.
Despite doing as little work as possible most of the way back, the Wheelsucker was feeling tired and even considered sitting up before the sprint and soft pedaling for the car. But he hung on and speculated what he should do against the group. He took one more short pull and rotated off and was last wheel going down the penultimate dip. He was too spent for a serious attack, but going to the line with Pat and Denzil didn't seem much of a plan, either. Two cars passed going the other way, and just before the group reached the bottom, the Wheelsucker impulsively jumped and HAMMERED (max 923 watts) up the climb to open a gap. Maybe Pat would wait for someone else to close the gap. Maybe Denzil would want to go up against Pat and would also wait. But this did not account for Brian and Steve. And as the Wheeslucker suffered and slowed on the flat section before the last dip and the sprint, he glanced back to see never-quit-pulling Steve closing the gap with the others on his wheel.
"Oh, well?", thought the Wheelsucker as he eased up, hyperventilated and went cross eyed catching on at the back. Coming out of the last dip Steve was still leading. Pat and Denzil launched early. The Wheelsucker knew he couldn't go with them and waited. But Brian pulled clear of Steve and gave chase, and the Wheelsucker tagged on, being pulled past Steve, before giving it everything he had left -- 433 watts for 43 seconds -- to come around Brian, and take a very distant third place. Pat won the sprint with a peak power of 1455 watts. Hmm.
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