What a long strange trip it’s been!
A long time ago, when the Wheelsucker was commuting daily to a cramped cube in an office building in Rosslyn VA five days a week, he would arrive at his desk, take off his jacket, sit down, log in to various computers and would first check a Johns Hopkins web site showing were people had been infected with the SARS-COV2 virus. Each location with infections was shown as a red dot on a map on that web site.
And every day the existing red dots grew larger and more red dots were added to the map. Each morning the Wheelsucker would react by having thoughts like: WTF, Holy S**T, why aren’t we doing more about this, as he was certain he was seeing a slow motion train wreck. Meanwhile everyone else in the office appeared to be taking it all in stride and going about their work.
But it WAS a slow motion train wreck, and more and more red dots were appearing closer and closer to to where the Wheelsucker worked, and where he lived, and those red dots were also growing larger each day.
And finally the obvious became apparent to key decision makers, the Wheelsucker was told to telework, social distance guidelines were announced, and the Wheelsucker “hunkered down” at home and stopped seeing other people, except for grocery shopping. The Wheelsucker was as careful about not catching or spreading COVID-19 as he could be. And that meant no group rides.
Days, weeks, and then months passed. Spring and then summer arrived, the days grew longer, and the Wheelsucker went cycling after teleworking for the day, but by himself.
And then after many months, over a year, the Wheelsucker was able to be vaccinated, and decided that two weeks after his second vaccination he would be safe enough to do an ABRT group ride. It had been about twenty months since the Wheelsucker had last done an ABRT Tuesday/Thursday ride.
The Tuesday ride on May 4th was the first one he could do. The Wheelsucker was at the Park and Ride ready to go, but the ride was rained (and stormed) out.
The next opportunity was the thought-to-be-slower-and-easier Thursday ABRT ride on the same route.
Now the Wheelsucker has very mixed feelings about ABRT team rides. He LOVES the rides, LOVES riding with friends, LOVES going hard, LOVES riding at the limit desperately holding the wheel in front on a climb, but DESPERATELY FEARS being dropped. This fear starts well before a ride, and then it builds as the start time approaches. The Wheelsucker prepares himself as best he can, ensures the bike is ready with the fastest and lightest wheels, the lowest rolling resistance tires. He carefully selects light and aero gear, such as his new aero helmet, he considers how much weight in water to carry, and what is absolutely necessary in his saddle bag. He wonders if he will be able to hang on up the Harwood Hill climb, and then if he does, will he hold on for the South Polling House Stairstep climb, and then the short wall after passing the golf course, or will it be the false flat on Polling House as the group climbs to the right turn for South Polling House where he is — disastrously — gapped and dropped? And if he has made it this far with the group, what about the second time up the South Polling House Stairstep climb? Or the climb — with sprint — at the top of Sands, or the climb out of the dip on Patuxent River Road.
These thoughts were swirling through the Wheelsucker’s brain as he warmed up in the Davidsonville Park and Ride after 5:30 on Thursday. While he was the first ABRTer there, others soon arrived, Paul, Mickey, and then Mike who for some strange reason was replacing an indoor-trainer specific rear tire with a Gatorskin tire for the ride. Side note: the Wheelsucker HATES Gatorskins because he feels slower when riding them and thinks the very best thing one can do with a Gatorskin tire is give it away, perhaps to someone you don’t like.
The four rolled out at 6:03 with each rider taking reasonable pulls at the front and no one attacking or driving the pace hard early. When it was the Wheelsucker’s turn at the front he tried to go easy holding 250 watts, but each time he checked his power number on his bike computer he was pushing more than 250. Was he going too hard? Was he “burning matchsticks”, would he not have enough in the tank for Harwood Hill?
The nervous Wheelsucker heard Mike say “good pull” a couple of times as the Wheelsucker slid back to rejoin the back of the group, and he wondered if Mike was just trying to encourage him.
Mike pushed the watts briefly climbing out of the Patuxent River Road dip, the Wheelsucker saw the gap open, but decided to follow Mickey and let Mickey close it, which he did soon enough. Then Mickey took over and pedaled towards the Sands Road intersection at a steady pace with the Wheelsucker doing his best to hide in the draft about 2.125 inches behind Mickey’s rear wheel. Everyone took their turns on the way to the base of Harwood Hill, Mike was leading at the start of the climb. The Wheelsucker was hyperventilating in advance of the climb, trying to store extra oxygen. Mike pulled over and Mickey set the pace at the front with the Wheelsucker following. Harwood Hill is not Mont Ventoux; it is less than three minutes to climb it! But the climb does drag on, and if one is pushing hard from the start it gets harder and harder to keep pushing the watts and stay on a wheel. Near the top there is a very short flat section followed by a short steep section with a false flat off the top. Mickey was still on the front going steady, but upping the watts for the steeper section. The hyperventilating Wheelsucker briefly saw 600+ watts as he struggled to stay on Mickey’s wheel. And then just as the Wheelsucker saw the gap to Mickey’s wheel start to inexorably widen … the hardest part of the climb was over, the incline eased to false flat and the Wheelsucker was able to hold on at lower power numbers. The Wheelsucker’s relief was only tempered by the need to stay focused on the wheel in front of him.
The next scary point was the South Polling House stairstep climb. Mickey led down the descent leading to the start of the climb and then hammered up the first steep section, the Wheelsucker did not want to burn all his matches all at once following, but went steady hard and waited to see if Mike and Paul came around him. They both did, and the Wheelsucker followed their pace up that first steep section and held wheels on the easier section that followed as they closed the gap. Mickey didn’t keep up the intensity and the effort eased slightly. It was “all together” “groupo compacto” on the second steeper section with the Wheelsucker feeling a little easier. Part way up it seems that Mickey and Mike were easing and the Wheelsucker came off wheels and pushed the pace. Paul was on his wheel but the gap to Mike and Mickey opened. Though surprised by this, the Wheelsucker pushed a little harder. Paul was glued to his rear wheel. Nearer the top, just about where either rider would have committed to an all out sprint for the top of the climb, the two leaders came around a shallow curve and saw … most of the road covered with gum balls, leaves, bark and other detritus a homeowner had blown into the road. The Wheelsucker promptly gave up any thought of standing and giving it everything he had to sprint for the top, and eased up and swerved left to avoid the detritus. Paul also eased up and Mike and Mickey almost certainly did behind them. The Wheelsucker was almost soft pedaling the rest of the way to the top and the right turn onto Bayard Road.
The four regrouped very early on Bayard. Feeling a little more confident, the Wheelsucker was OK taking an easy pull before pulling off and seeking shelter in the draft, and making sure the others worked harder.
The next danger location was the short wall at the end of the golf course. Fortunately the Wheelsucker was again following wheels. Mickey was on the front and hit that wall at a steady pace that the Wheelsucker could hold. The four swapped pulls up Polling House except that Mike was aware of a sprint line and easily jumped for it while Ali and Paul were just following Mickey.
But now the second time up the South Polling House was approaching. While the Wheelsucker is always nervous, he was slightly LESS nervous since he had done well the first time up. Once again the Wheelsucker declined to push at max on the first steep section, and chose to follow wheels and stay with the group. It seemed to him that the group did not accelerate as the road flattened after the first steep section, and the Wheelsucker simply kept the power on and — amazingly — started to open a gap. The others chose to not close the gap and the Wheelsucker found himself slightly off the front at the top of the climb, and soft pedaled to the right turn on Bayard.
The four regrouped and rode steadily on Bayard until Mike needed to drop off. The other three suggested waiting, but Mike declined the offer.
The three continued to Sands, and up Sands. The Wheelsucker led into the descent just before the uphill sprint to the end of Sands Road. He thought he was going rather hard (at least for an aging Wheelsucker), but part way up the short climb Mickey and Paul sprinted past and opened a huge gap. They eased up after the left turn onto Patuxent River Road and let the Wheelsucker catch back on.
Fortunately for the Wheelsucker, Mickey was again leading at a steady survivable pace on the climb out of the dip and the four were together as they neared the Central Avenue 214 intersection. The light turned green as they approached, but it was a short green and switched to amber as they started across (that’s our story and we’re sticking to it!). The four all sprinted across and continued at a steady pace towards the finish line. Mickey took a pull, then it was Paul on the last flat section, before he pulled off and the Wheelsucker was on the front.
The Wheelsucker has no sprint capability and had decided some time before that he would not contest the sprint, so was content to do final lead out. He accelerated down the final descent and went to maximum aging Wheelsucker power as he led the other two up the start of the shallow climb to the finish. The meters ticked off at what seemed like a rapid pace. For a brief moment the Wheelsucker wondered if he was going so hard that the others couldn’t or wouldn’t come around him. A second or two later the pain and suffering became far more apparent and the Wheelsucker was wishing they WOULD come around him, and very soon!
Fortunately Mickey and then Paul did just that. Despite what the Wheelsucker thought was a fast pace from a high power number — 590 watts! — Mickey came past him going a LOT faster — like he was standing still — followed a moment later by Paul. The Wheelsucker gratefully eased up and soft pedaled across the finish line and through the Governor Bridge Road intersection. Mickey and Paul were waiting and the three pedaled easy for the Park and Ride.
Wheelsucker Data (from Park and Ride to finish line):
Elapsed time: 1:29:14
Average power: 199 watts (a fine piece of Wheelsucking!)
Average speed: 21.8 mph (the benefit of Wheelsucking!)
Average temperature: 60 F
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/5254101514
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