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