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
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