Nice Guys Can Finish First: 10 Questions with Will Riffelmacher

by Andy Shen

Here’s an interview

by Niko Triantafillou

Armed with a new Cat 2 license, a new team, a new SRM, and most importantly, a “girlfriend who is very supportive” of his cycling habit, Will Riffelmacher is poised to test the pro 1-2 waters this summer.

I met 24 year old Will Riffelmacher on an ice cold morning in upstate NY in the parking lot of Cambridge High School. It had just stopped raining and the temperature was trying to crack 50 degrees. Nearly every rider from the fives to the pros was consumed with the question of what to wear for their 2-3 hour race. “I hate leg warmers, I’d really like to go without them” Will exclaimed. After a quick spin to check out the start he changed his tune “its about 10 degrees cooler out on the course! Its absolutely freezing.” He wished me good luck for my race and I thought, nice chap, but too friendly to win lots of races. The next time I saw him, he was soloing in for the win in the three/four – sans leg coverings – two and a half minutes up on the first peloton.

NT How long have you been riding? Did you compete in a prior sport like Tom Auth did with rowing?

@##=#<1,L>@##=#WR I started riding my road bike during my sophomore year in college. I was on the crew team at Harvard and hurt my back. I could not row for a while and needed a way to stay in shape. One of the guys on the team was a very good cyclist and encouraged me to come out riding with him. I rode a bit after that, but never really had the time to cycle much

because of rowing. I graduated from college in 2004 and went to Austria to teach at an American boarding school. I started riding a lot over there because it was so beautiful and had the time to put in a lot of steady miles. Basically, I would look at a map every afternoon and try to pick the most scenic route and that usually meant lots of climbing. My first race when I came back last summer was the NJ state road race and I won the cat 5 event.

NT That was in July 2005. Two months later you took the GMSR overall as well as all three road races and took second in the prologue. Is that when you started to like bike racing? Was anyone coaching you?

WR I was able to move out of cat 5 quickly, but GMSR was my first race as a 4 and I didn’t know what the competition would be like in a higher category. I was really cautious in the prologue because I had no idea how fast people would be. But the race suited me really well, especially after all of the riding I had done in Austria, where my local climb was a HC climb (15k at 12-14%). So I guess it was during the GMSR that I really began to take to the sport. I met Steve Mandrapa and Ben Harris at the race and they encouraged me to join one of the CRCA teams. I didn’t have a coach last year; I just tried to

adapt the training from rowing to cycling. I just switched teams and am now being coached by Peter Cummings

(www.plan2peak.com) through Westwood Velo. Pete has been really helpful introducing me to the SRM and training with power so hopefully I can be more focused with my training.

NT This year you got wins at Battenkill Roubaix and Jimminy Peak as a four, Corner House Grand Prix (Pro, 1, 2, 3) and the balloon festival race as a 3 – what happened at Bear Mountain?

WR Well, I guess you can’t win them all! We all have off days, and I just did not have it for Bear Mountain. There were also a lot of strong riders in the race, and it would have been hard to get away. I feel like lots of people were looking out for Ken Harris and me, although I have no idea why (just kidding).

NT Why did you leave Foundation? Did you not like the kits? A lot of people really like the simple white on red?

WR I decided that I looked better in blue and yellow. But seriously, the guys at Foundation were great and I was

proud to race in the red and white. I moved over to Westwood Velo at the encouragement of Steve Goldman and because I wanted to be on a team that had a little bit more of a presence outside of the city.

NT On Saturday I noticed you had a brand new SRM Powermeter. Care to share any data? The guys on the site seem to really eat that stuff up?

WR I’m still trying to figure out what my numbers are. Here are the numbers from Cambridge:

Entire Race:

Duration: 2:47:46

Work: 2791 kJ

Norm Power: 346

Peak 5s (999w)

Peak 10s (985w)

Peak 20s (913w)

Peak 30s (852w)

Peak 1min (737w)

Peak 30min (372w)

(not exactly Alex Gulla like but sweet looking numbers any way you slice them)

NT What are your plans for the rest of the season? Will you try to defend your title as a three at the GMSR or will you be able to upgrade and do the Pro 1, 2?

WR I actually just got my upgrade to Cat 2. I am going to do Fitchburg as a 2 and am excited to see how that goes. There are a few stage races in July that I want to do as well and certainly the GMSR is a goal for the end of the season.

NT So you’ll race Fitchburg and GMSR as a two – have you given any thought about trying to go pro?

WR Ha, I’ll have to see how those races go! I still have a lot to learn about racing the bike. I think it

will take a little time to get used to doing pro1/2 races, but hopefully I can keep getting better and learn from Roger, Troy and the other guys at Westwood.

NT Enough of this out of-town-race crap. How fast can you ride Central Park?

WR I did a 12:42 TT lap of Central Park this morning (on his TT bike) and a 13:12 lap two weeks ago on my road bike.

Have you ever posted anonymously to the Nyvelocity message boards?

I have, and I have only slanderous things to say about myself, so I guess I will not be posting if I need to log in now.

NT Last question: Is it true you mumbled “Orville Riffelmacher, my ass!!!” as you crossed the line at the Balloon Festival 3/4 race?

WR Hmm, I’m not quite sure how to answer that one. Let’s just say there is nothing like a little heavily buttered popcorn to fuel up before a race.

14 Comments

Littlefield

372w for 30 mins. Oh my. My oh my. My legs burn just imagining that.
Good for you Will, go get ’em.

Dreams of past glory

Ray your imagined past wasn’t that different from the present and certainly far from this young man

Gabe

I have a funny story about Will and his dominance of the GMSR last year. I headed into the GMSR the top ranked 4 in USCF standings and thought I had a good shot at a podium spot. In the circiut race, Will rides up next to me and says, "Hey, are you going for KOM points today?" I replied in a coded fashion that I was going for whatever I could get, not wanting to show my cards to this new kid. Who did he think he was asking such a blatant question? So he replies, "I’m going to jump at this next hill, you follow." "Yeah, ok buddy, " I thought. So, Will jumps, I go, too. But, he just kind of pulls away from me and never really looked back. I was dumbfounded. I looked back and we had gotten about 12-15 seconds on an equally dumbfounded 4 field. When I crested the hill, Will was gone. Literally gone. I sat up figuring this new guy would blow his load in a mile or two and I would just counter his move. 40 miles later, we cross the finish line cursing each other for not catching this new kid. Riding solo, I didn’t feel a huge responsibility for getting him that day, but I was sheepish at not being able to go with the move when it was delivered to me point blank.

The next day at the road race, Will rides up to me again, and says, "Hey, you’re a strong rider." I thought, "Are you kidding? You dusted the shit out of me yesterday like i was a fat cat 5." Will says, "Today I am going to go at Middlebury Gap. You come with me." "Ok," I thought. Mid Gap comes, and we had already let the KOM points go by without contention hoping for the overall. I stuck to Will’s wheel like glue that climb. Myself, Ariel Herrmann and Will gapped the field up the climb, and Will contested the KOM points at the top with Ariel. I sat on hoping to save something for the stage. As we crested the hill, Will, being bigger than I had a much higher terminal velocity. He gapped me on the decent, and Ariel. Somehow, when we got to the flats, I tried as hard as I could to catch back onto him, but to no avail. I sat up, rode with the field, which was equally mistified that this new guy had again dropped me and the other top GC guy and seemed to be able to hold us all off.

After the race, Will says to me, "You know, I caught some other riders and stayed behind them for a while. It seemed a little easier when I was behind them." "Yeah, thats called drafting, Will" "Yeah, I know. I haven’t done much of that, though."

In the crit, I was off the front for 5 laps and a prime bell was rung. Who brought be back along with the entire field? Will. Who ended up winning that race, too? Will.

Thats how I met Will Rif.

Ben H

I was in that field with Gabe. During the circuit race we spent the better part of an hour after the final climb burying ourselves on the front of a 30 man chase group trying to bring Will back. Each time the moto would come back to us and tell us we had lost another 15 seconds to him. I think he took a couple of minutes out of us by the end of that stage, only to ride away from us again in the road stage. He made us all look like weekend touring riders – it was one of the most dominant rides I have ever seen.

marcinko

in the battenkill 4s, will blew his back tire. I remember him standing on the sideline wheel up in the air calmly saying that he will catch us. (the group of 15 or so in the break) of course, next we yell go, go, go. Karma police got me and I dropped my chain but got to ride a ways back to the group with will. we caught the breakaway. Someone in the field said don’t worry, will is fading. I told them no way, he wasn’t. he sucked it up for about 10-15 seconds and rode off the front. awesome.

Randy L

My first introduction to Will was on the ferry boat back to NY from Burlington after GMSR. I asked him how he did and he, with humility, said he won his division. I asked him where he was from he said the Princeton area where he trained. I asked him about his training and his answer made me feel like the rest of you. He said he trained solo in the rolling terain north of Princeton. I said something or other to finish the conversation, but I kept thinking all the way home, "what am doing wrong?"

mandrapa

gmsr last year. After the circuit race where will just dropped us all and soloed it, ben harris gabe loyd and myself were talking about strategy for the next day’s road race. Both gabe and I were ranked pretty highly on gc, and I remember gabe asking me what type of strategy to employ to deal with will. I thought about it for a second and then just said to regard him as if he’s in a different race than us.
I had no idea how right I was about that. Keep it up Will.

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