My coach would be proud of me

 (Almost five minutes at 345w with an average heart rate of 49bpm doesn’t seem accurate to me. Either that or my training is going really, really well)

Not sure what my coach, if I had one, would have prescribed as a training session for today, but if you ask me I’d say I got it almost perfect.

Easy riding all day. Chatting, laughing, enjoying the scenery. 

A sprint whenever JFW decided he wanted one. Which, for me, was a bunch of sprints at random moments of the ride. 

Three efforts up the hills trying to hold to JFW’s wheel. Which, for me, was the equivalent to three over the threshold, motor-paced efforts.

One final sprint. Perfectly led this time by JFW. Which, for me, was just another prestigious win added to my plamarés.

I’m guessing the scone with cream and jam I had at Tanhouse was not the ideal fuelling for the ride, but it’s contribution to my overall happiness made it totally worth it.

I almost wish I had a coach to witness how well I executed today.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10779632238

Take care

Javier Arias González

KW - Tanhouse (shortish) - The sausage roll curse

The Opportunist took the first four sprints of the day. 

One could claim some of those four sprints were a bit made up, but he said he took four and we like to keep him happy so we conceded four wins for him.

After his fourth win, just before the coffee stop, The Opportunist said “Just give me the green jersey”. Confidence was running high.

But The Opportunist made three mistakes.

The first one was not realizing that Alex Wout van Aert was second in all those four sprints.

The Opportunist’s second mistake was going for a sausage roll at Tanhouse. You shouldn’t blame him though. Tanhouse’s sausage rolls are fantastic, you should definitely go for one if you ever stop there. Just make sure you don’t intend to dispute any sprint after the coffee stop.

I took the first sprint after the coffee stop. That was Newdigate’s sprint, a rather prestigious one. Alex Wout van Aert and I were riding two abreast at the front of the group and I just made enough to make sure I passed the town sign first. Looked back and saw The Opportunist at the back of the group. 

Zero points for him. 

That was the curse of the sausage roll starting to show its effects.

You wouldn’t say Newdigate’s sprint was heavily contested. And that was The Opportunist’s third mistake. He was way too far at the back to realize the Canyon team’s strategy was working. 

He probably even didn’t realize there was a Canyon team or a strategy going on. You can’t consider that a mistake though. We, Canyon team members, are so attuned we don’t even need to talk to each other to agree on a strategy. It just happens naturally.  

Came the last sprint, the Horton Roundabouts, the Canyon team acted like the Jumbo team at the Tour of France 2022 (just to be clear this is not to suggest The Opportunist is in any way similar to Pogacar). 

First it was my turn to get to the front. Would you believe it? 

In the second roundabout I sensed a gap behind me so I attacked. 

I have such a killer instinct.

The group blew in pieces and a group of three was formed chasing me. The Opportunist, Alex Wout van Aert and The ExRower (There is always an ex-rower and it is always there. In every climb, in every sprint. Today was not an exception).

Eventually I was caught by that group and soon after that Alex Wout van Aert attacked. 

The Opportunist moved in parallel to me and made it clear that was expecting me to close the gap. 

Not in a million years. That is not a good strategy to play with me, just ask The Pope.

Eventually The Opportunist jumped to try to close the gap. I, of course, jumped on his wheel. 

By the time we got into the home straight Alex Wout van Aert was clearly going to win.

The Opportunist sprinted for second but I also started my sprint and overtook him.

Unfortunately before I got to the line I saw a wheel in the corner of my right eye. 

There was no way that could be The Opportunist. The sausage roll should have been feeling in his stomach like a stone by now. I quickly realized it was The ExRower 

Too late for me. I was already coasting and he passed me just before the line. 

There is always an ex-rower there and, as I said above, today was not an exception.

I didn’t mind being third. All I always care about is for my team to win.

Also, I got my reward as soon as I got home and stopped my Garmin. 

My device was quick to tell me that after today’s ride my FTP has improved by 1 whole watt.

Winning big today.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8471107011/

Take care

Javier Arias González

A win is a win. Two wins is better

Second consecutive Sunday riding with Rupert and Noel on tired legs. At some point Denis and I have to have a serious thought about our riding plans for the weekends. We keep putting ourselves in these challenging rides and I’m just not sure these near death experiences are any good for training. Although, to be fair, Denis looked amazing today. Very impressive ride from him.

And you can believe me it wasn’t easy. In case Ruper and Noel were not enough to make any ride challenging we were joined by Enrique, a very solid rider, and Judah “steady at 400w” Rand. 

My ride can be summarised in two sentences. I was last in every single climb, by a big margin. The coffee at Tanhouse didn’t rescue me, the second half of the ride, despite being flatter than the first half and the caffeine running wild in my veins, felt equally challenging to me. 

But when I look at the positives I remember I got some important wins today.

I got a heavily contested sprint at some point near Esher. It was one of those sprints I’d never take because I had no idea it was there. Rupert moved to the front and increased the pace so I held his wheel. At some point he started the sprint, and then, for reasons I can’t imagine, he slowed down. Did he realise he had nothing to do with such an accomplished sprinter on his wheel? I wouldn't be surprised. In any case I took that as the sign to attack and clearly took the sprint. I even had time to celebrate. Looked back and saw the whole group at full speed at some distance desperate as they had missed the only line that really mattered in today's ride. 

I feel for them. I’m sure they’ll be making up excuses, we didn’t know there was a sprint there, there was a lot of traffic, they might even go as far as pretending they didn’t contest the sprint. Don’t buy their excuses. It was a great win. Comparable to my today’s second win. I was awarded table number 1 at Tanhouse!!!! Coming from a place that sees so many cyclists it really means something. Can’t decide if more or less than the sprint I won. But if they say a win is a win, imagine two wins. They almost made me forget how hard today’s ride was for me.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/5462577759 

Take care

Javier Arias González

 

Positive thinking

A short, not-flat ride (https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2019/02/javiers-ride-classification-criteria.html) with Dai, Denis and Ruper on the menu and the feeling after the first few pedal strokes is “uhm, you are a bit tired”. Probably not the best spirit to start the ride. 

It started with 30km of punishment.

Being taken to the limit, and dropped, in every single “climb”.  

I put it in the "this is good for you" account. Not from the ego point of view but from the training point of view. You'll get better… (from the training point of view, I’m a lost case from the ego point of view). Positive thinking, positive thinking.

Then 30km of feeling ok(ish). Strava rewarded me with a collection of PRs. I'm guessing taking orderly turns in the front, being that part of the route pan flat and having tail wind was somehow related to those results. The equivalent to my grandmother thinking her grandson is a strong cyclist, I know, but you have to find positive signs wherever they are. 

After the stop at Tanhouse we decided to take the standard way home. Those were excellent news for me. Knowing the way home helps me to dial how much I have left and how much we have to ride. I started to think "this is not that bad". I think I'll be fine for the rest of the ride.

Yes, I was fine. Holding the wheel up Juniper until a dog forced us to brake. Being third wheel I lost all my momentum. Or so I told myself. In any case that served me as the perfect excuse to ride easy to the top of the hill. In my mind I was telling myself I could have sprinted but I’m not sure that was a thought based on the reality my legs were feeling. I still was telling myself I was fine anyway. You wouldn’t say I didn’t master the idea of positive self talking.

Second at Horton’s sprint after Dai. It turns out I sprinted for the wrong line. I was not demoralised, I still was telling myself I was fine. Riding through Chessington I thought I could do the whole ride all over again. That’s when positiveness starts to touch delusion but helps you feel better.

I was almost celebrating how well the ride went and over lunch, after I told the family how the ride went, my daughter said “You look completely shattered. Doesn’t seem you are any good at cycling".

All my positive thinking through the window. I'm still crying on my sofa.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/5072761929

Take care

Javier Arias Gonzalez