Oasts & Coasts 300k (Audax)

An event organised by Tom Jackson.

An event I rode with John Barkman.

That’s me mingling with proper Audax UK royalty.

I love this ride. 

I have ridden it in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017. 

Even if it has the sad record of being the only brevet I didn’t finish (in 2018 I had a crash and broke my bike frame 6km into the ride) I was telling my Spanish friends this is the 300 event I would recommend to them if they ever come to ride a 300 in the UK. 

This is a route that has it all. Not flat the first 100km Strong head wind the following 50k. A touristic 50km to cross Dover, climb to its castle and ride through parks and near the sea. 50k with tail wind (although my comment about getting a second wind wasn’t as well received as I was expecting) and last 50k riding while the sun is settling and magnificent views of the valley on your left with a few easy hills. Perfect to finish the ride with a great taste in your mouth, to which also contributed the recently delivered pizza from the local italian restaurant that was being distributed at the final control.

Something tells me I’ll be back.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14294733685

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

What makes a ride hard?

The first and obvious answer is distance and amount of climbing. 

But if you have cycled enough you know that doesn’t paint the whole picture. Circumstances are what make a ride hard.

And the first and most important circumstance is who are you riding with as it will determine the pace. Ride with a group that is riding at a high pace for you and very soon you’ll find the ride hard.

That’s what happened to me yesterday. Riding in a group of five and from the start feeling the pace was a touch too hard for me. It took no time for negative thoughts to visit my mind. I’m the weakest rider, I’m going to need to drop, this is too hard for me… That’s hard.

Another circumstance that makes a ride hard is weather conditions. Add low or high temperatures, rain or wind to a ride and it gets harder very quickly. Especially if you violate the principle of "There is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong gear" like I did yesterday showing up for the ride in my summer kit. What an amateour!! 

Yesterday we had wind and rain.

I wasn’t conscious of the wind in the first 100km which means we probably had tail wind. But the moment we hitted the flat section of the ride I was very, very conscious of the wind. At that point I was riding with Bidders, a very good time trialist, and Richard L, who had aerobars on his bike. I struggled big time just to hold on to their wheel. That, for me, was the hardest part of the ride.

Now, let's add rain to the mixture and you are getting into a really hard ride. I waited a bit too long to put the rain jacket on when it started to rain, which meant that I was very cold in the last third of the ride. 

So there we were with 200km in the legs, riding on to a head wind, wet and cold heading into the last hills of the day. What could possibly make the ride harder?

A mechanical.

And mechanicals we had (and saw) plenty. A broken spoke, a rear wheel hub that didn’t engage when pedaling, a puncture when we were cold and wet.

But we also were lucky with the mechanicals. A bike shop in New Romney managed to repair the broken spoke and the rear hub. A Dynaplug sorted out the puncture with speed. Bad luck can also make rides hard.

Yes. You wouldn’t say it looking at the distance and the amount of climbing but yesterday's ride was a very hard one.

And because of that I’m very happy now. Because I managed to survive the first two thirds of the ride. Because endurance showed up and I felt strong in the last third. Because I loved the solidarity we showed with each other while riding. Because it was a well organized event and a nice route. Because it feels great when you finish a hard ride.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9501990031/ 

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 - Dauntsey Dawdle 2022 (400km Audax)

I don’t know what type of cyclist I am anymore.

My current thinking was that I was a breakaway specialist but I’m not quite sure.Three riders broke away and stayed away the whole ride. Missing the “winning” move is not precisely the sign of a great breakaway specialist, is it?.

I certainly can’t be a climber. That was obvious even before this ride started. Riding the first 75km of the ride with Harry was an unneeded confirmation. One of the type of him chatting casually while we were climbing and I was at the edge of a heart attack.

Not a descender either. I never was a good descender. That’s not a surprise. But picture this. At the top of one of the hills I got a cookie from my back pocket. We started to descend when I had eaten only half of it. Tried to descend chewing half a cookie, keeping the other half in my left hand but the descent was steep and the road was full of potholes and bends. I ended up involuntary dropping that half of the cookie. Probably a good thing because I was starting to get too close to losing control of the bike. Not, not a descender. 

At some point in the past I thought I was a good rouleur but yesterday I got proof that is not the case. As soon as we hit the flat part of the ride my two riding companions set a pace that got me hanging in there. Every time I moved to the front our speed decreased by 4 km/h. At some point I blamed it on not having my aero bars fitted on my bike (they both had aero bars), but that didn’t help to explain my struggles to keep the wheel.

I’m not a sprinter either. I never wanted to be but yesterday I got a painful reminder. I did the first part correctly, I sat on the second wheel the whole ride into Hampton. Not a single time the idea of taking a turn in the front crossed my mind. So far so good. But then, somehow, I got distracted. Deep  in my own thoughts only got back to real life when I saw us crossing the line. Me in second position. What kind of sprinter gets distracted seconds before sprinting!!! 

Are there any other cyclist types I could fit in? I’m running out of ideas.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/7181275612

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