My 2022/2023 "season" starts here

 

With an “easy” ride to Windsor following a route the road captain named as “Boring Windsor”. 

A road captain that didn’t bother to show up because apparently it was raining.

A ride that was meant to be easy but didn’t feel that easy because two weeks off the bike take its toll.

Two weeks off the bike that marked the end of the 2021/2022 “season” and the beginning of the 2022/2023 one.

A 2022/2023 “season” full of plans imagined from the comfort of my sofa, a place from where everything seems possible. 

Plans are still in draft. There is more imagining to be done sitting on my sofa. For now this is how they look:

• Sun, 19 Mar 2023 - Gentley Bentley (https://audax.uk/event-details/9976-gently_bentley) - 200km Audax 

• Sat, 1 Apr 2023 - Tour de Flanders (https://werideflanders.com/en)

• Sat, 8 Apr 2023 - Paris Roubaix (https://www.parisroubaixchallenge.com/en)

• Sat, 15 Apr 2023 - Amesbury Amble (https://audax.uk/event-details/9979-amesbury_amble) - 300km Audax

• Sat, 13 May 2023 - Dauntsey Dawdle (https://audax.uk/event-details/9921-dauntsey_dawdle) - 400km Audax

• Sat, 20 May 2023 - Bryan Chapman Memorial (https://www.audax.uk/event-details/10222-bryan_chapman_memorial) - 600km Audax

• Sat, 28 May 2023 to Sat, 3 June 2023 - Kingston Wheelers Saturday Gang training camp. Hoping to convince the gang we should go for a Ventoux Cingles attempt (https://www.clubcinglesventoux.org/) As said above, everything seems easy from my sofa

• Sat, 17 Jun 2023 - Wander Wye (https://audax.uk/event-details/9898-wander_wye) - 600km Audax OR Quebrantahuesos (https://www.quebrantahuesos.com), depending on if I get a place at the Quebrantahuesos ballot

• At some point in July - A long(ish) event

• Sun, 20 Aug to Thu, 24 Aug - Paris Brest Paris (https://www.paris-brest-paris.org) 1200km Audax

• Sat, 2 Sep 2023 - Alpen Brevet (https://www.alpenbrevet.ch) As you would expect we are going for the Platinum route, 268Km 7090m

My main event for the year is Paris Brest Paris. My time in the 2019 edition was 59h 31m. Beating that time is my main objective. I want to set my fastest PBP and leave it there for the rest of my life. But I also set myself a stretch objective, from the comfort of my sofa, of going sub 55 hours. 

That’s it. Now that I have an objective for the year I guess I should start thinking how I’m going to get there. But that will be next Sunday. Enough thinking from the comfort of my sofa for this week.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8007408884/ 

Take care

Javier Arias González

My 10th Super Randonneur is now official

 

The Super Randonneur consists a series of #Audax rides: 200 km, 300 km, 400 km, 600 km, all completed in the same year. 

Having done it 10 years apparently makes me as Ultra Randonneur. Weird because I still feel a novice at Audaxing. 

For my record these are the years I have been awarded Super Randonneur:

• 2022 - https://audax.uk/results?memId=6662&searchId=Individual&seasonId=2022
• 2021 - https://audax.uk/results?memId=6662&searchId=Individual&seasonId=2021
• 2019 - https://audax.uk/results?memId=6662&searchId=Individual&seasonId=2019
• 2018 - https://audax.uk/results?memId=6662&searchId=Individual&seasonId=2018
• 2017 - https://audax.uk/results?memId=6662&searchId=Individual&seasonId=2017
• 2016 - https://audax.uk/results?memId=6662&searchId=Individual&seasonId=2016
• 2015 - https://audax.uk/results?memId=6662&searchId=Individual&seasonId=2015
• 2014 - https://audax.uk/results?memId=6662&searchId=Individual&seasonId=2014
• 2013 - https://audax.uk/results?memId=6662&searchId=Individual&seasonId=2013
• 2011 - https://audax.uk/results?memId=6662&searchId=Individual&seasonId=2011

Take care

Javier Arias González

Wander Wye 2022

I consider myself a very well self-organized person. My wife has a different opinion but who are you going to believe if it is me writing this report?

This ride kind of challenges the view I have of myself.

Let’s start saying that as soon as I arrived at the HQ yesterday morning I realized I had forgotten my phone at home. That meant that as soon as I was given the go shout I headed home to get my phone. I entered the house as quiet as a ninja but unfortunately for me my wife heard me and she is now even less convinced about my self-organization.

So I started way at the back of the field. Pretty much everyone was ahead for at least one hour. That meant that I was riding alone… and very quickly I realized there was a strong head wind. A very strong head wind. The funny thing is on Friday I had considered fitting the aero bars in the bike but discarded the idea out of pure laziness (I’m quick to admit I’m very, very lazy. Something that I sustain is a great skill in my profession). I regretted that decision about a million times, give or take. I also definitely have to reconsider my attitude of not checking the weather forecast ahead of a big ride. I suspect that is what many self-organized people do.

Around km 200 a message appeared in the Garmin saying my heart rate monitor was low in battery. Not a problem I thought. I’m a very well organized person. I have a spare battery in my saddle bag (I also have one of the model needed for the power meter). The problem was I didn’t have a screwdriver small enough to access the battery in the HR strap. Today’s ride doesn’t have HR because the strap ran out of battery. A disaster for a data geek like me, almost as if the ride doesn’t count.

I got to Chepstow half an hour after midnight. Tired. Not a surprise after 300km against a strong head wind without aero bars. Went to sleep around 1:00am. Woke up around 5:00am. Started to ride around 5:30am. Isn’t that a point for me for being very well self-organized?

That’s what I was thinking until the suspicion that I didn’t take a short sleeve jersey with me. I was riding with a long sleeve base layer and a long sleeve Gabba (and leg warmers, and long gloves and shoe covers). It was 5.30, It wasn’t particularly warm.

I’m always easy on myself and happy to accept my own excuses. In this case I told myself that forgetting a short sleeve jersey when you were organizing your kit at 5:00am in the morning after sleeping only four hours is understandable. Isn’t it?

At least I had remembered to change the short gloves. I had left the ones I used the day before in the bag and had taken a pair of clean ones. I knew for sure they were in my saddle bag.

When the temperature rose I removed my base layer and I resigned myself to bear the over 20°C temperatures. The problem was that at the time of changing the long gloves for the short ones I confirmed I had them in the saddle bag but both of them were for the left hand. I have two pairs of the exact same model, it turns out I made a mistake at the time of switching the used ones with the clean ones. Had to do the rest of the ride without gloves. I have to admit that I started to consider the idea that my wife might be right in her judgment about how well organized I am. To not make things worse I didn’t mention to her anything about forgetting the short sleeve jersey or the mistake about the gloves. I don’t think she needs that information.

So, taking aside the inconclusive debate of how well organized I am, today I rode all day with Joe, all day with tail wind. What a great contrast with yesterday!

Joe is a pleasure to ride with. He has great conversation, he is very efficient at the stops, to the point that a few times he had to wait for me and he is a strong rider. He takes fantastic turns in the front. He had aero bars! That meant today we had a fantastic ride. Although a bit too warm for me, especially when Joe hitted the front, fitted himself in the aero bars and put the power down. I’m confident I found the limits of the Gabba breathability. 

Riding with Joe was great but we still had to deal with the Hamton sprint. A situation that always leaves me wondering what is the best way of dealing with it. Should I let Joe lead the approach to the sprint and jump in the last meters, taking advantage of that being completely unexpected for him? Or should I lead the approach and trust that Joe won’t sprint so I take the sprint without him even realizing.

I opted for the latter. But I executed iit wrong. 

I executed it wrong because I kept increasing the pace. That was suspicious behavior, I thought, Joe might conclude a sprint is coming… So I started to look back checking if Joe had any intention to sprint. That made things worse because if he had doubts about a sprint coming he now was getting a confirmation, a sprint was indeed coming. Not wanting to take any risk, I decided to play it inspired by my sprints against Rupert. That is, I started to sprint, when I sensed Joe was also sprinting and was about to pass me I threw the bike forward and claimed I had won. He said something about not knowing where the line was, I gave him a vague indication of where it was and he conceded the sprint. Another great win to my palmarés. 

I consider myself a very fair person, especially when sprinting. I asked my wife and she said she couldn’t say. That she never sprinted against me. I take that as she agrees with my view of myself. Happy with that.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/7298140583

Take care

Javier Arias González

KW - Amesbury Amble 2022 (300km Audax)

Put two Ed in your ride and your average speed will increase by almost 2 km/h.

Amesbury Amble 2019 (https://www.strava.com/activities/2287639549) - 27.9 km/h

Amesbury Amble 2021 (https://www.strava.com/activities/5340745666) - 28.0 km/h

Amesbury Amble 2022 (https://www.strava.com/activities/6955948704) - 29.7 km/h

The Pope acted as The Pope and started to attack each ramp we faced. Ed van der Poel following suit, me happy just hanging in there.

We stopped for lunch at Amesbury and you could tell that didn’t go down well in Ed van del Poel’s body. He started to struggle a little. 

Quite the opposite for me. I started to think “Actually, I’m feeling quite well”. What did I do? I started to visit the front. That’s not like me!!! That is more like if I were playing Denis’ role. [I thought about writing that I was playing Dai’s role but that wouldn’t be accurate as I wasn’t at the front all the time].

By the time Ed van der Poel started to recover The Pope started to struggle. To the point that I thought that today he was playing JFW’s role.

The problem was that Ed van der Poel was getting a strong second wind and he started to play Bidders’ role. A moment I decided it would be better for me to play Javier’s role… Except when we hitted any ramp. When we hitted any ramp I started to play The Pope’s role and felt almost compelled to attack then.

The problem with that attitude, no matter how laudable, is that you get tired. Maybe I wasn’t playing The Pope’s role all that well.

So I decided to focus on playing Javier’s role. I know I can play that one quite well and we were approaching the final sprint so that role comes as a second nature to me.

Ed van der Poel played Denis’ role despite we had agreed The Pope was going to play it. I’m not sure what role The Pope played because he disconnected from the sprint. I definitely was playing Javier’s role.

Ed van der Poel didn't play Denis’ role that well. Instead of keeping a constant and steady pace he kept accelerating. He almost dropped me!!! Well, not only that… He almost took the sprint!!! Attacking from the front!!! That’s not a great Denis’ impersonation I have to say. 

Luckily I was playing Javier’s role to perfection and managed to take the sprint. I’m pretty sure Ed van der Poel still doesn't know where the line is. No one ever said spriting is a fair game.

I am convinced Ed van der Poel didn’t enjoy his role as Denis’ either because came Coombe Lane and he decided to play Ed van der Poel. Coombe Lane was Santa Caterina in 2021, I played Julian Alaphilippe and you know how that ended.

I was still very happy with my ride (probably happier than Alaphilippe with his at that Strade Bianche). At no moment I struggled. Power decreased in the second half but was still decent. Finished feeling well. A strong sign that endurance is coming. Happy days.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/6955948704/ 

Take care

Javier Arias González

Back to Hop Gardens 200

 Proper, non-flat ride (https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2019/02/javiers-ride-classification-criteria.html).

Not the fastest of the rides. It could look strange considering Julian and I always ride at a decent pace and are fairly efficient with our stops. But yesterday there were other factors.

Let’s start pointing out this event has a lot of controls, both info and free controls. That forces you to stop either to take note of the answer to to buy something at a shop, petrol station or coffee shop. From memory, I think we had 10 controls, an average of one every 20kms!

We also had a fair bit of cross and headwinds for most of the day.  True, the last 60 kms the wind was mostly tail wind, and that was very welcome, but you know 60km of mostly tailwind does never compensate for the 140 initial kilometres mostly cross and headwinds.

Then you had that Julian’s garmin stopped working very early in the ride. That made me responsible for navigating the route. I still claim I am great navigating routes but I’ll have to admit I got it wrong in more than one turn. Fair to say Julian never complained, I’m starting to suspect he even enjoyed the extra distance. 

And finally we got the visit of The Puncture Fairy. First me, then Julian, then Julian again, then me again, then Julian again, then a group that included the rider that lent Julian an inner tube so we felt compelled to stop with them. Each stop was taking us longer as we were being more and more careful inspecting the tyres. It turns out it was not only us. At the end we were told several riders had reported punctures. Weird because the roads weren’t that bad. But, hey, at least we got a good training refresher on how to repair a puncture.

Now, if we were that slow you might ask yourself how come that I got a PR for most of the segments in the route.

There is an explanation for it.

I rode the Hop Gardens exactly 6 years ago, in 2015 (https://www.strava.com/activities/302595604). 8 weeks after I had broken my left femur. With 48 kilometres in my legs as previous training. The Hop Gardens was my first classification brevet in my attempt to ride Paris-Brest-Paris 2015. At the time I wrote the report only in Spanish (https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2015/05/hop-garden-200.html) but, long story short, that was a very, very hard ride for me. Probably the hardest ride I've ever done. Had to put the step down and walk three times (me, the one that, unlike some of my Saturday Gang mates, won’t name and shame, didn’t have to walk up the Angliru in the many times I have climbed it). It took me almost 13 hours to finish the ride and that was with only stopping for one hour and a half. That was almost 11 hours and a half sitting on the saddle as I didn’t have the strength to stand on the bike for long. My Brooks saddle got so deformed after that ride because I was compensating heavily with my right leg that I had to scratch it. My moving speed averaged 18.6 km/h, finished with 32 minutes to spare and I was very, very tired by the end.

That is why yesterday I couldn’t care less about our speed. For me it was all about enjoying the ride. Every so often I’d recognise a bit of the road, a climb and I’d remember how hard it was six years ago. Nothing compared to yesterday, I was fresh at the start, legs felt strong all day, I was riding with Julian, weather wasn’t too bad, Kent was showing at its best. 

Was there (just another) control? Relax and take your time. Head wind in the flat section? Hands on the drops and find your rhythm. You have just missed a turn? Put a smile and blame the Garmin, that always works. Another puncture!!??!! That’s a welcomed pee stop, an opportunity to have a chat, to have a laugh. After all, we are definitely going to be faster than I was 6 years ago and my Strava is going to be full of PRs (129, I counted them). That is the right metric to measure the quality of a ride, isn’t it?

Pd. The competitive side in me has just realised that if I ride the 600 I rode 6 years ago 10 weeks after I broke my leg I am likely to get even more PRs in a single ride. Something to consider.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/5269709035/ 

Take Care

Javier Arias Gonzalez

My cycling objectives for 2017

I'm now ready to draft my cycling objectives for 2017. 

My main objective is to ride the Quebrantahuesos and finish it in less than 6h:30. My best time was 6:44:56 in 2013, in 2014 I did 6:48:21. In 2015 and 2016 I didn't get a place in the ballot.

My second objective is to finish the London Edinburgh London 1400. I don't have any target time, I just want to make sure I have a great time riding it.

Racing objectives

• Sunday 19th March. Man of Kent 200
• Sunday 2nd April. The Shark 200
• Saturday 22nd April. Oasts and Coasts 300
• Saturday 29th April. London Wales London 400
• Saturday 13th May. Bryan Chapman Memorial 600
• Saturday 17th June. Quebrantahuesos
• Sunday 2nd July. Maratona dles Dolomites
• Sunday 30th July. London Edinburgh London 1400

Take care

Javier Arias González

Do you want to learn what Randonneuring is?

Listen to this podcast. Proof of passage. It is a great introduction. A bit skewed towards the USA Randonneuring scene but great at giving a sense of the feelings that go around riding long distances.



Take care
Javier Arias González

Severn Across 400 (The miracle of riding in a good group)

A bunch of known people at the start Gavin, Omar, Sarah, Jasmijn and Chris at the start. Jasmijn and Chris were going to ride full speed and they finished in something like 16 hours. Gavin, Omar, Sarah and myself formed the Kingston Wheelers train.

It didn't work very well at the beginning. Gavin disappeared, I was hesitant whether he was ahead or behind us. The rest of us were riding in a group with two more riders moving at a decent speed but around km30 I needed a pee stop so dropped and let the group go.

When I jumped back on the bike I felt swamped with negative thoughts. This is not usual in me but suddenly I found myself thinking "oh, there is a bit of head wind", "oh, a whole week without riding. I was traveling, working a lot and sleeping little the whole week", "it is too cold (Garmin says around 0C)", "the scale said I had gained 2.5kg in one week (how is that even possible???)". It was like all excuses I could found were visiting my brain. At a certain point I thought about quitting, but discarded the idea. I'd love to say it was my commitment what kept me pedaling but the reality is I kept pedaling mainly because around 45k in I didn't know my way back to the start.

It seemed that I was going to ride alone the whole way so I decided to take it easy. By the time I made it to the first control Omar, Sarah and Gavin (who turned out to be ahead of us) were there almost ready to go and wondering where I was. I excused myself, got the sticker at the cafe, quick visit to the toilet and jumped on the bike. I was really happy of having a second opportunity to join the KW's train.

It turned out we ended up riding the whole route together. And that is not an easy thing; not only a certain match of physical ability is required, you also need to agree to a riding/stopping pace that fits to everyone. As I say, not easy when riding 400k, especially if the members don't have that much experience riding together, but that was our case. A little miracle.

Riding in the group I started to feel better. I guess temperature increased, it was easier to hide from the wind and I definitively was enjoying the company. By the time we got to Yat Rock I felt so great I decided to give push it in the climb. Good feelings and good power numbers but not a PB because we got stuck by the cars at the beginning of the climb.

At the last control (314k) a rider joined us. I recognized him (Adrian???) as one of the riders in the group we started riding early in the morning. Omar knew him. At this point there were two options in the route. We could either opt for a bumpy ride in B roads or a flatish ride on the A4. Being already around 21:00 we figured the A road would not have that much traffic so we opted for that one. Unfortunately I didn't have that route on my GPS so had to rely on Omar and Adrian as they were the ones that knew the route.

This last section, around 90km, was super easy. Riding in a group of five I tried a couple of times to take a turn on the front but couldn't figure out how to coordinate with Omar and Adrian so ended up falling at the back of the group. We kept the formation (Omar and Adrian taking turns in the front, then Gavin, then Sarah and me closing the group) pretty much to the end of the ride.

Riding that easy the last section meant I finish not that tired. I think I have never finished an Audax event as fresh as this one and still we managed to finish in exactly 19 hours; faster than any 400 I have ridden in a group slower than any 400 that I have ridden alone. Who would have told me when I was thinking about quitting at the beginning of the day. The miracle of riding in a good group.

Now looking forward to riding Bryan Chapman 600 in two weeks.

The ride in Strava

Take care
Javier Arias González

Oasts and Coast 300

Uhmm!! Naahhh!!!

Come the first climb and I new it wasn't going to be a good day from the fitness point of view.

It is not that my legs were terrible but they were not fresh. At least not as fresh as they should be to ride a 300 with a fair amount of climbing in the first third (1,500m in the first 120k).

I was definitively paying for my overconfidence. On Thursday night I went for a hard session on the turbo, I remember telling my wife "it's only a 300".  But now it was clear that I was not totally recovered.

Not that I had any problem riding with my companions (Gavin, Sefi and Sarah) but it just felt harder than expected.

Came the flat section (25k before the control at 150k) and, as usual, we got into the head wind. I still managed to make some good turns in the front but as always happens to me in this section my power and my hr dropped and by the time we got to the control I really was looking forward for a good break.

You are tired when you see your power dropping like that riding 25 flat ks into the head wind

The good news is next 100k are mostly flat and slow because you have to ride through Dover, and a few cycle paths. You still have to steep climbs to tackle but I used this section to ride easy and recover.

By the time we approached the last 50k I was in a much better shape (within the circumstances) and saved the last climbs of the day with that feeling of "felt tired but could have pushed it a bit more if needed".

Fitness apart this was a great ride. I really enjoyed riding with Gavin, Sefi and Sarah, weather wasn't that terrible (we were lucky that the hail storm found us enjoying a break inside a cafe) and the scenery is really beautiful. I'll be back for more.

The ride in Strava.

Take care
Javier Arias González

My PBP 2015 Qualifiers plan

I have checked my dates for next year and these are the four events I have in my plan as qualifiers for PBP 2015.

Sunday - 22nd March - Man of Kent 200
Saturday - 25th April - Oasts and Coasts 300
Saturday - 9th May - Severn Across 400
Saturday - 23rd May - Bryan Chapman Memorial 600

These dates should leave enough room to enter alternative rides if for any reasons I can't ride any of them.

Funny enough these are the same rides I have ridden in the 2014. But I would consider that an advantage, I don't want to mess my PBP 2015 qualification.

Take care
Javier Arias González