Ardingly reverse

 Well, this one went better than I was expecting.

GC Denis had suggested a perfectly fine route to Alice Holt and The Pope came with a counter proposal. A longer route with twice the climbing. Enough for me to worry.

I took it easy Friday and Saturday with just two easy hours on the turbo each day. 

But I worried even more when I saw the quality of the riders that had signed up for the ride.

I figured I had a chance at the final sprint so my plan was (I always have a plan, even when I say I don’t have a plan): No coffee in the morning, sit on the wheels all day, and aim for the final sprint. Simple. Easy to follow.

I was fast screwing up the plan. First climb, Banstead Rd., and I find myself at the front “talking” to JFW.

When I say “talking” I mean selecting carefully the moment and the sentences so you can deliver them in such a way that you make the rider riding next to you, JFW in this case, that you are riding effortlessly. I had screwed up my plan but at least I was winning the psychological war. 

A bit of a pointless victory to be honest as JFW quickly mentioned (after he recovered his breath) that he wasn’t riding the full route. I demoralised the wrong rider. Sorry JFW.

Those were not my only mistakes. In a short and steep climb I insisted on following The Pope and Alfredo. Not a clever move. I also found myself a few times at the front of the group. Many of them when we were getting head wind. A wind that was getting stronger and stronger. 

By the time we got to Ardingly I was tired, we were half way, and the second half had more climbing. Why do we listen to The Pope?

But I had a coffee and that changed my perspective. Suddenly life was wonderful, I was full of happiness.

To make things better at some point I recognised the road. It was the standard way back from Brighton.

For the first time in the day I knew where I was and what exactly was coming. 

The “how I feel” divided by “what is left” gave me an encouraging sign. I moved toward the front and started to contribute, consciously and voluntarily, to the pace. 

Even more, I started to consider the idea of attacking the group at Juniper. Me, the most cowardly rider, riding with such a strong group. Caffeine is a strong drug.

And, again, I screwed up the plan.

Somehow I found myself on Amber’s wheel approaching the Juniper&Box roundabout and with a gap to the rest of the group.

I moved to the front and took it steady at the ramp that takes you to Box. I was waiting for the group to catch up with us. I knew I couldn’t afford a two up Juniper with Amber. Her power to age ratio would kill me. I wanted a standard “I sit at the back of the group all the climb, sprint for the last 50 metres and I get the KOM”.

By the time we turned right to enter Juniper the group was almost there but not quite there. That is not good. I didn’t know what to do. So I did something silly.

Pushed the pace a little but not quite like going all in for the breakaway. Not here nor there. 

It wasn’t long until I felt a rider was moving towards passing me. I looked back and it was GC Denis. I looked back again and I saw a gap to the rest of the group. THANK GOD. 

One of my beliefs in cycling is that if I am around GC Denis I am doing very well. He is very generous in his effort and we are used to working together. It was going to be hard for the group to catch us.

In fact, by the time we got to the final ramp, I looked back and couldn’t see the group. I took the KOM. Boom!!!

I also took the final sprint, at Horton roundabouts. The Pope did all the work at the front, GC Denis led me with his constant pace, Nigel was feeling the ride in his legs, and Alfredo didn’t know where the line was. By the time he passed me I had already taken the sprint. Boom, boom!!! (A John Lee Hooker - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_6SlT3Yy10).

Probably my most successful day in my cycling career.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/20726322099/

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

Good friends

 Cycling good friends are there when you need them. 

Doing all the work at the front as we were approaching the final sprint. A selfless effort that condemns their chances of taking the sprint. A selfless effort they make because they know you are hurt and demoralised after yesterday’s ride - I’d place a link to yesterday’s ride here but Strava Product Managers are missing this engagement possibility not allowing links to Strava in comments.

Anyway, the point is I took the final sprint. By a big distance.

So much so, that it made me suspect the whole thing was a bit of a facade designed only to make me feel better.

It worked. I feel better. I am happy again.

It is so easy to make a cyclist happy.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/20446318509

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

Jorge

Unlike me he is an honest cyclist and a nice guy. He doesn’t sandbag, he is very easy to get friends with. 

If he is not a strong climber it is because his form is not there yet. If he is not the most endurance capable cyclist of the group it is because his form is not there yet. If you don’t see him at the front all the time it is only because his form is not there yet.

But he is working on it. And he is very open about how he is doing it. Cyclocross here, a gravel ride there, Saturday gang rides like today. With the required humbleness of the one that is not there yet, but knows he will get there eventually.

I like it. It makes me feel like a front row spectator of the magnificent spectacle of seeing someone getting better as a cyclist. A witness of the miracle that consistent and conscious training produces. That miracle that produces a strong cyclist that is impossible to remember how it wasn’t that strong in the past. 

I chose to call him Jorge just to make it harder for my native English speakers' friends to pronounce his name. 

The only thing I don’t like about him is that he is a stronger sprinter than me. Today I lost against him my third consecutive sprint in a row.

That overcasts all the good things I have said about him. Unlike him I’m not a nice guy.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/20432613188/ 

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

KW - Milk Churn

 It is such a shame that the days I have less time to ride a report seem to be the days GC Denis chose to do a heroic attack and take a magnificent win at the Juniper KOM.

It is not only that I am short of time though.

I’m not really motivated to tell everyone that I also didn’t take the KOM at Effingham because I couldn’t load the big chainring at the right moment, that I failed to take the Leith Hill KOM because The Pope decided the KOM line was about a kilometer after the line I had sprinted for, and I have zero motivation to tell you that the other annoying Spanish speaker rider in the group took the final sprint at the Horton roundabouts by a country mile. 

With that in mind, why on earth would I want to tell you that GC Denis took the KOM at Juniper riding solo from the very beginning of the climb?

Well, I’ll tell you all about it only so you understand why TY, who was about 7,000km away when this happened, is to blame for it.

GC Denis was at the front of the group when we took the turn towards Juniper. A gap opened behind him. Noel kept his pace, Nigel on his wheel, then The Pope and then myself having everything under control.

The gap grew. No one seemed to want to close it.

I wasn’t worried. I knew at any time I could jump, close the gap, and then out sprint GC Denis.

I sat and kept my poker face.

But the gap grew a little bit more and the group was not accelerating.

I played it cool. It was going to take a big effort to jump across but I knew I could do it. I just had to wait for the right moment.

I wouldn’t be able to tell when that happened but at a certain point the gap was so big we were not seeing GC Denis in front of us anymore. I realised the KOM was lost.

Without taking any merit to GC Denis’ effort (I wish I were brave enough to try something like that), at the moment, I blamed the team. Bunch of lazy riders. 

Later on I realised it is all TY’s fault.

He is the one that planted the sentence: “He was willing to lose the race in order to win the race”.

An advice that hasn’t worked for me in two consecutive rides, and I’m not here to take any responsibility so TY’s fault it is.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/20142825846

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

Blame Noel

It was all Noel’s fault.

GC Denis was setting a good pace up Woldingham. Good because I was sitting in third wheel and already counting on taking the KOM outsprinting him and Noel at the top.

But Noel decided to attack and I had to follow. To my surprise when I got to him I felt I still had more to give so I carried on.

At some point, when I was running out of steam, I looked back and the gap looked to me big enough to take the KOM. 

A shame I didn’t know where it was because I got the feeling GC Denis beat me to it on what had to be the top.

Then Toy’s Hill came. The Pope (absent at Woldingham) set a good pace. Good because I was sitting in fourth wheel and already counting on taking the KOM outsprinting The Pope, GC Denis, and Noel at the top.

But Noel decided to attack. The Pope followed him. I’m glad I didn’t have the legs otherwise I would have followed The Pope and that never ends well. All I could do was sit on GC Denis’ wheel. 

The Pope dropped Noel and disappeared at the front. GC Denis closed the gap to Noel and he moved behind me.

For whatever reason I felt the moral obligation to take a turn at the front, something very unusual. Very reluctantly I passed GC Denis and moved to the front for what must have been 30 seconds but felt like an eternity.

When my pace was starting to embarrass the trio GC Denis passed me again and took matters into his hands.

As you would expect as we were approaching the top I “sprinted” to take the KOM only to find out that there was (just another) ramp to go and GC Denis was sitting comfortably in my wheel.

Beaten again by GC Denis.

So, now Juniper was the last climb. GC Denis at the front for most of it. Noel on his wheel, I on Noel’s, Nigel on mine.

I wasn’t planning to sprint for the KOM, but at the final ramp I saw Noel changing to the small chainring. I got a bit over excited, sprinted, and took the climb.

For some reason no one believed me when I blamed Noel when we regrouped at the top.

But then the Horton roundabouts sprint came. I definitely wanted to take that one.

So I move to the back of the group. Behind Noel.

He was doing a fairly good job taking me through the roundabouts and staying at the back of the group until Nigel opened a gap at the front.

I stayed on Noel’s wheel.

Second at the sprint after Nigel.

It was all Noel’s fault.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/20046657266/

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

Madrid-Gijon-Madrid 2026 (1200km Audax)

This has been my 12th Super Brevet (13th if I count London Floris London)

I feel I can claim I know a few things about long distance cycling.

I knew it could be very hot in central Spain. 

It was.

I knew it would rain all the time the route went through Asturias.

It did.

I knew I was in great company and I was going to have a fantastic time.

I was and I had it.

I also knew I was going to ride easy the whole route.

I did.

What I didn’t know was how tiring it is to ride easy. I am completely wasted.

Keep learning young grasshopper

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/19867305688

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

To The Moon (La Luna), the long and unknown way

Are you familiar with the song Pedro Navaja from Ruben Blades? Probably not if you are not Spanish or Latin American. 

It is one of my favourite songs. The chorus goes “Life gives you surprises, surprises are given to you by life, oh God” (my translation).

I had that song in my mind during the ride today.

Xuancar suggested a route yesterday. Being the planner I am, I studied it. It had a couple of climbs I had ridden once or twice and a climb (4km @ 10.5%) that was completely new to me. I even knew where I was going to take my gels. 

The first thing he said this morning was we were not riding that route. 

The best thing you can say to a cyclist with slight OCD.

The song says “life gives you surprises” but in my life it is Xuancar who gives me surprises. 

Xuancar gave me a description of the new route but it was as useless to me as a route planned by JFW (Although, to be fair, the description seemed to work for Miguel). Without a route in my Garmin, not knowing where we were going, and, what is even worse, not knowing if I had enough gels in my pockets, I did the only reasonable thing. Moved to the back and sat on Xuancar and Miguel’s wheels.

At the beginning I recognised the roads, but at some point the roads looked new to me (Strava disagrees). I wasn’t lost. I knew, more or less, where we were and the direction we were taking. What I didn’t know was the profile of what was coming ahead or how far the coffee stop was.

The profile was a series of short, punchy ramps that, somehow, I found myself at the front for many of them. “Xuancar gives you surprises” I sang to myself in each of them. 

The coffee stop was farther than I thought it was going to be (“Xuancar gives you surprises”). Which means that by the time we got to La Luna (The Moon) I was already tired, hungry, and craving for caffeine. 

When we finished it was around noon and we had to be back home at 13:30. 

Xuancar set his tempo and I was thinking to myself “SALSA” (Pedro Navaja’s tempo) and the chorus came again, “Xuancar gives you surprises”.

I was home at 13:25.

Before saying our goodbyes to Xuancar we agreed we were riding tomorrow. “An easy ride” I begged. “Cicloturismo” (touring) answered Xuancar. 

Then, when Miguel and I were riding the last kilometres he warned me. Whenever he says “Cicloturismo” we end up riding at 30km/h average speed. 

“Xuancar gives you surprises, oh God”.

And I don’t know how many gels to take with me.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/19652962245/ 

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González