sábado, 19 de octubre de 2019

Spanish Cycling Jargon 101 (Part 1) - Me llevaron todo el día con el ganchu

"Me llevaron todo el día con el ganchu"

Google translates it as: "They took me all day with the hook" but that is not a good translation. Let me explain you.

I arrive home. Carmen looks at me and asks "How was your ride "darling"?".

You could say we know each other well so I know that just looking at my face she knows how was my ride. I detect a mild tone of amusement in the tone of that "darling" so I guess my face is telling all the story but wanting to make my feelings clear, something that always help in a relationship, I answer "Me llevaron todo el día con el ganchu" making the gesture of that picture. That says it all, off I go to the shower.


"Me llevaron todo el día con el ganchu" is saying your riding mates carried you hooked by the chin all day (notice I saying "ganchu" wich is the Asturian pronuntiation of "gancho", which is the proper Spanish word. In my opinon using "ganchu" gives the expression added dramatism making it at the same time funnier to all non Asturian Spaniards).

It is a great expresion, it expresses the feeling of holding there by your dear live. Noticing every push in the front, every single bump in the road, every time a new rider moves to the front with fresh legs. Taking every single opportunity to give your legs the opportunity to rest. But still holding there, hoping you will be able to hold in the next push, asking yourself how far the coffee stop is. That's how I felt today.

But it wasn't for the whole day. To be fair I'll have to admit I felt fairly well at the begining I even took two turns in the front (I had promissed that in the mailing list so I figured to take that out of the way as soon as possible).

Then Green Dene came and they killed me. In a 6 minutes "climb" (nothing that is 6 minutes is a climb) my colleagues were at least a minute faster than me. Adding insult to injury two riders from another club passed me half way up the climb. None of the looking particularly lean, fit or fast. I was at the edge of crying.

From Green Dene "Me llevaron todo el día con el ganchu". Needless to say I didn't take a single turn in the front for the rest of the ride.

Well, that's a not totally correct. I took the front for 5 meters. Those needed to take the Esher sprint.
I explained to my riding mates, once again, that I was suffering all day, always at the edge, always risking being dropped. But approaching Esher and finding myself in the game somehow I was able to sprint.

Apparently they took it well. Didn't hear the word sandbagging and if anything the criticism came after my unorthodox way of sprinting, sitting on the saddle and spinning the legs at 125rpm. But, hey, a win is a win.

Let's see if next week I'm still part of the email list.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/2800448646

Take care
Javier Arias González

sábado, 12 de octubre de 2019

Dai's ride to Windsor

Short and flat (https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2019/02/javiers-ride-classification-criteria.html)
Does it even count as a ride?

Mood of the day.
By the time I get to LW: "Great JFW is here, I'm not the weakest link"
By the time we got to Hampton Court: "We should ban coffee for both Dai and Denis"
By the time we got to Drift Rd: "S**** JFW is even taking turns in the front. I'm the weakest link here"
Half way through Drift Rd: "They are going to drop me, they are going to drop me, they are going to drop me"
Approaching the "climb" at the end of Drift Rd: "Where is JFW?"
At the top of the "climb" at the end of Drift Rd: "I made it, they didn't drop me.... And I feel I can sprint. Who cares I didn't take a single turn in the front, jump out of Dai and Denis' wheel and got of it"
At the finish of Drift Rd sprint: "Second in the sprint. I have to change my tactics, this one is already well known. I'm sure Denis was waiting for it."
Also at the finish of Drift Rd sprint: "S**** I think I have burn the only match I had for today. How long until the coffee stop? [25km]"
At Windsor: "Change of guard. Again." We have to walk to the chocolate cafe. "Let me switch of my Garmin"
At the Chocolate Cafe: Dai and Denis are having a coffee. "A latte and half cinnamon bun for me"
First sprint after Windsor: "I didn't see that coming. A shame because I'm feeling all right"
Second sprint after Windsor: "Yess!!!!. I took it fair and square. Dai and Denis were contesting it. Never mind they almos bump on each other. I was first across the line. I'm an unstoppable machine"
A few meters after the second sprint after Windsor: "S****, I forgot to re-starting the Garmin at Windsor"
10km after the second sprint after Windsor: "Still trying to decide how to calculate the kilometres and TSS points I should add to riding log to compensate for the missing data"
Approaching last sprint: "Denis, once again, taking one for the team"
Last sprint: "Dai goes for it, I follow his wheel. We have to stop it because there is a long queue of cars. Deep down I know I would have lost it".
Summary of the sprints of the day: Second to Denis at Drift, completely missed a sprint, didn't record the one I took, second to Dai in the last one. JFW took a bunch of sprints only him knew they were there.
If JFW doesn't stop riding now I'm going to start worrying for TY at Paris-Roubaix.

The ride in Strava (without the bit from Windsor to the second sprint after Windosr :-( ): https://www.strava.com/activities/2782552636/

Take care
Javier Arias González