Use not only the strength you have, but all that you can borrow

Woodrow Wilson said “I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow”

I looked over to Andrew; we were both entrenched deep within the peloton, and asked “How fast are we going?” “27 miles per hour.” was the answer. I was barely pedaling.  It occurs to me that there is a parallel to President Wilson’s quote in road racing - Use not only the strength you have, but all that you can borrow.

This was the third annual running of the Drops to Hops.  The first year I hardly paid it any attention until HRRT brought home hardware.  Then the second year, HRRT was memorialized by Andrew and Kurt making it onto the Drops to Hops flier.  It was at that time I had decided – much like the time I had decided to do my first Tour of the Battenkill – after a couple of IPA from our dear sponsor, Tom, that I was racing the 2014 running of the Drops to Hops.

The Drops to Hops elite race is an all category neutral mass start. I’ve heard this type race is one of the most dangerous. I heeded the advice from a road race clinic I had taken earlier this year and positioned myself well up in the front third at the start and hung onto the wheel ahead of me as long as I dared. Wise advice; as the miles passed and I started to drop back in the field of riders, rider aggression was on the rise and rider stability on the decline.

I first saw route profiles printed and cut to fit the top tube at the Ididaride. I tried it for the Drops to Hops – what a great idea.  No surprises; with the exception of how much bigger those little humps at the end of the race feel in comparison to the little humps at the beginning. Having the race profile for constant reference also helped me to properly time my nutrition – it worked well. I like to think of it as my poor man’s incantation of a radio and directeur sportif.

I recently received 65 miles of pace line riding coaching from Julie. Julie shepherd me and a group of eight “B” riders, from mile 35, to the end of the Mohawk-Hudson Century.  During that ride I not only learned to pace line ride, I learned how to teach others to pace line ride.  I also witness that with a little patience and assertiveness, riders who had never before ridden together, could ride together and take advantage of the combined strength of the pace line. The biggest challenge was to keep riders from pulling too long. It’s not really intuitive that if one rider “helps” too much with long pulls, they’ll burn themselves out and quite quickly drop off the back. In the aggregate, they end up

reducing the overall strength of the pace line. I think. Anyway, I had paid attention to Julie and knew not to over pull and yelled to other riders to “get off the front” every thirty seconds or so. This modus operandi kept me fresh enough to follow any breaks and continue to bridge up when the opportunity arose.

On the backside of the second big hump, about mile 30, I found myself in a foursome I would eventually finish with. I had to earn my keep in the final foursome. I’m not aware of an official protocol used for joining a group of riders other than asking “Hey, can I ride with you?” but I can read facial expressions and the facial expressions were saying lets drop this wheel sucker.  Lucky for me I was not the weakest rider among the four of us. I held my position and waited for an opportunity at the front. I gave the group one of my best pulls of the day, not long, but strong up a slight incline. The obvious alpha member of the group gave me a “nice pull” accolade as I came off the front – I now belonged. 

And that’s the way it stayed until one last big effort by me and Mr. Alpha at the finish line. Mr. Alpha retained his title.  For me, it was the fastest average speed I have ridden to date – thanks to borrowed strength.