Girona training camp, day 1. Marking my territory

Short, but not flat ride (https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2019/02/javiers-ride-classification-criteria.html).

The most important thing when you go on a training camp is who gets the town sign sprint points. At least that is the most important thing if I go on a training camp with a bunch of climbers.

I knew T-Y was the man to beat when we are talking sprints. He is definitely not a climber.  

So I did what you have to do in these situations. Mark the man (there might be a tip for you here “Superlopez”). From km 100 I stayed with T-Y. 

He used all his savvy sprinter tricks. Started pretending to have a cramp at the coffee stop. He saved energy in every single climb. He even ingested (questionable) pills arguing they were salt pills. 

Didn’t matter, nothing worked for him.

He slowed down. I slowed down with him. (In fact we slowed down to the point the rest of the group got disqualified for riding too fast).

He stopped for a pee, I stopped with him. He attacked on a descent, I stayed on his wheel. He pretended to have cramps, I didn’t buy any of it.

Still it was far from clear I was going to take the sprint. To start with I had no idea where Girona’s town sign was. Once again I had not studied the route. To make it worse, five kilometres from the end of the ride I had him on my wheel. A dangerous situation with a sprinter like T-Y.

As you should do in these situations I slowed down to force him to get to the front. But T-Y is an experienced sprinter. He knows how to stay on a wheel. I had a problem.

When you have a problem you find solutions. My solution was to shout. “We are only 2.5kms away”.

That did the trick. 

Full of confidence on his power he moved to the front AND INCREASED THE PACE. Hoping to drop me I suppose. 

Wishful thinking. 

I am a (very) experienced sprinter too. I stuck to his wheel and nothing was going to take me out of there. All I was doing was waiting for the moment to jump while he was wasting precious energy. I have better chances in this situation.

Still nothing assured. You know how delicate the balance is between hiding behind a rider and, at the same time, scouting ahead looking for a town sign. Proper mastery is needed.

Eventually I spotted the town sign and I knew that was the moment. Hands on the drops and as we were approaching it moved to the left and launched my sprint. 

It was a close one. Had to throw my bike to take it. But I took it. Just about.

I’m delighted. If I ever meet Mark Cavendish we can exchange histories of unsuspected big wins from perfectly executed sprints. I won’t mind sharing with him all my tricks.

Of course I know it is a big responsibility to start a week’s training camp wearing the green jersey but I hope to grow to the challenge.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s ride with a mixture of humbleness and optimism. 

The ride in Strava https://www.strava.com/activities/5948589179

Take care

Javier Arias González

SB Asturica Augusta 2021 (1200km Audax)

  Flat, but a proper ride (https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2019/02/javiers-ride-classification-criteria.html)

A list of things that went well and others that didn’t go that well.

Letting drop your TSS from 112 in mid July to 85 before this ride was not the best tapering strategy.

Fracturing a rib on Friday wasn’t ideal either.

With this in mind my plan for this route was I don’t have a plan. Let's start pedalling and we shall see.

A fractured rib means breathing heavily was painful. The good news was that it incentivized me to ride within myself, which is always good in these types of rides. If I’m honest I’d have to admit a fractured rib was more an advantage than a disadvantage. 

Riding in the front group through the first night was great. The terrain was benign and the group was strong. 

Riding with part of that group the second day was not that good. It was brilliant for the most part, but twice I followed the group decision against my instincts. First one was deciding to eat in Segovia. I wanted to eat, the group wanted to carry on. I followed the group. Those kilometres until we stopped for lunch were probably the hardest of the whole ride for me. 

The second one was after lunch. I wanted to sleep a big siesta. My reasoning was that sleeping at those hours when the temperatures were at its highest would allow us to be fresher to ride through the night, when temperatures are more bearable. I followed the group and didn’t sleep. Only to find out a few hours later that I was so sleepy that I could cause a crash in the group. I told the group I was dropping.

That was a good decision. 

I booked a hotel room in Soria and had four hours and a half sleep. Had breakfast at the hotel and hitted the road at 8:30. That went very well.

Much better than forgetting to carry chamois cream. As the kilometres piled in, all ridden in sunny, high temperatures, sweaty weather I paid a high price for this rookie mistake. That certainly didn’t go very well.

What went a bit better was that I had sent chamois cream to the control at Salas de los Infantes. The damage was already done, but at least it helped to alleviate the pain.

What didn’t go that well was to forget the chamois cream a couple of controls later. You couldn’t make this up. 

In my defense I’d argue that in the control in Astudillo, at 7pm there wasn’t anywhere to eat. In the next control, Ampurias, there was only one place open and they didn’t have any food. I asked for a raw egg, a litre of milk and half of a cake. Mixed everything and that was my dinner. Not ideal if you plan to ride through the night.

At that place I put my head down on the table and had a good hour of sleep. I woke up half zombie and that is the moment where I forgot the chamois cream.

That area is flat and exposed to the wind. Of course the wind was head wind. But I had my aero bars. First super brevet using them. That went very well. Flat and straight road without traffic. Sat in an aero position, tried not to change position as that was painful (I can confirm that butt pain triumphs rib’s pain), and set for a sustainable pace riding in the middle of the road. Plenty of time to think in other things

That was the tone for the rest of the night. Head wind, empty roads, mostly flat, aero position, not moving around to avoid the pain.

Breakfast in Leon was great. Sitting outside, early sun in my face. I ate two breakfasts. 

Tackled the last climb at a steady pace and as soon as I got to the last control I realised that I could finish just before midday, that would mean less than 66 hours for the whole ride. It wasn’t going to be easy but it sounded doable.

And like that I found myself pushing the pace. The terrain was favourable and I wasn’t pushing it too hard (I couldn’t) but that kept me entertained for the last couple of hours.

I was on track to finish before midday but what didn’t go that well was that I took the wrong turn at the top of the last climb. Suddenly I found myself at the bottom of the climb, but on the wrong side, heading to a motorway. The extra kilometres meant 11 minutes on top of the 66 hours. That didn’t go well.

But what went very well was the overall feeling with the ride. At the finish I was told I was third back home (remember, this is Audax, this is not a race) and about a third of the field were DNF. I had my set of challenges but I managed to adapt and enjoy the ride. After all, most of the secret was to sit on the saddle and not move around. 

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/5857479187

Take care

Javier Arias González

I should have known better

 Not flat endurance ride (https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2019/02/javiers-ride-classification-criteria.html)

In my cycling book there is an unalterable fact, if you don’t ride your bike for more than a week, next time you ride with your riding mates you are going to be killed.

I have seen this many times. Of course the extent of the killing depends on how long you have been far from your bicycle. One week? You might be lucky if the ride is particularly slow and not challenging. Two weeks? You better hope for a short, flat and slow ride. Three weeks? You better assume it, you have no chance.

I was 10 days out of the bike. But I had ridden two hours on Thursday (https://www.strava.com/activities/5782376783) and another two hours on Friday (https://www.strava.com/activities/5784431250). So when Xuancar suggested riding with Rober today and going to Peñas del Viento the thought that I was going to be killed didn’t even cross my mind. I should have known better.

These are all the details that will give you a measure of how arrogant I was. I didn’t think anything of how scary Peñas del Viento sounded, Peñas del Viento literally means rocks of wind. When Xuancar mentioned we wouldn’t be back home for lunch I just thought, great, an endurance ride, exactly what I need. The fact that I had no idea of the route and that Xuancar didn’t share a track of the route didn’t bother me in the slightest, not even when he mentioned the route would be well beyond 150km. I, literally, couldn’t care less. If he would be proposing riding to hell I’d be responding how fast.

And with that attitude I showed up for the ride today. 

And everything went very well. 

We never rode very fast.

You see those four little climbs before the big climb? I was super comfortable in all of them. Gentleman pace in those short but punchy slopes.

You see the big climb? I’ll confess in the last ramps I missed an extra gear but still no problems whatsoever. We rode together keeping a manageable pace.

But then things started to change.

You see the little climb in km99, the one after the big climb? When I got to the top the “I’m starting to feel tired” alarm was triggered. But the panic was over because very soon we stopped to get a tortilla sandwich.

When we got back to the bikes the legs complained a bit more than usual but the terrain was favourable so didn’t really pay attention to them.

So much so that when the next small climb came, km120, I was in the front the whole climb. Power numbers weren’t looking that big and I was feeling my riding mates were riding comfortably (although they both got a PR in that climb) but my legs were feeling terribly. By the time I got to the top, km 123, I knew it was over. It is not that I was bonking, it was simply that my legs were not able to keep up with the (not that fast) pace.

My survival instinct kicked in. They don’t have to notice that my legs are empty. Moved to third wheel before the descent started to get cover. Poker face time I thought. I even started to hum Gaga’s tune on the descent. “P-p-p-poker face, p-p-p-poker face”.

You see that tiny bump just after that climb? Yes, that tiny thing that starts at km125. That was where my riding mates knew it was over for me. My poker face game lasted exactly 2km. 2 downhill kilometres. As soon as the road went uphill Xuancar stood on the bike and I was dropped. You now know why I never play poker.

So there you have me. I knew it was done, my riding mates knew I was done and, still, I was thinking there was nothing to worry about, home was only 25km away.

I knew where I was but I didn’t have a sense of how much was left to get home. Of course, it was not 25km, it was 46km. To be fair to my riding mates I have to admit they didn’t go hard on me. They slowed a little bit and they made sure I was keeping up. I was, but just about. 

By the time we got to the last climb I knew exactly where I was and how much was left. Struggled a lot on that climb but I knew I was effectively home from there.

I am now writing this and thinking not only that I really should have known better but also that I now have a big problem. My endurance seems to have disappeared and I have to ride a 1200km ride, mostly on my own, in exactly 8 days. I wonder if I should put on my poker face from the start on that ride; there is a (very) remote possibility that could help in some kind of way.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/5791481272

Take care

Javier Arias González

600 de Yepes - A day in hell

 A ride worth recording, but flat https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2019/02/javiers-ride-classification-criteria.html

That was a real day in hell!!!!

You’d be excused if you look at the ride and you were thinking it was a 600km ride in less than 29 hours, of course it was a day in hell!!!

You’d be wrong. As far as 600km rides go this is a fairly “easy” one. What made it a day in hell was the temperature. If you think you had a warm weekend in the UK, think twice.

Average temperature for the ride was 28°C (82,4F)

12 consecutive hours of the ride were on temperatures above 30°C (86F)

Within those, 5 consecutive hours with temperatures above 40°C (104F)

Peak temperature was 46°C (114,8F)

I can’t think of any ride I have ridden that fits better in the description of a day in hell.

The day didn’t start well. I had been told we could get breakfast at the start but it turned out we couldn’t. Had to eat a banana and an energy bar for breakfast. Not ideal when you plan to ride 600km.

Only six riders in the start line. We rode together to the first control. But they were riding a bit slow and stopping a bit too long for me so I decided to go ahead solo. 550km to go.

All went very well until km 268. By then I had already been riding 4 hours with temperatures above 40°C. I stopped at the control and my focus was on drinking lots of Aquiarus (a drink similar to Gatorade), I also ate a bunch of olives, conscious of needing to get salt. I wasn’t feeling hungry and with my stomach full of liquid I decided not to eat anything else. That was a mistake.

In my defense I have to say in the routesheet I saw there was another village in 3km and another one 22kms after that one. Plenty of options I thought.

What I didn’t realise was I was in the middle of a national park. Those two villages were merely a couple of houses with no signs of life around. I was on my own in the middle of nowhere.

And then a 11km climb appeared. First 7km were gentle but that was only the slow cooking. Literally. In the last 4km I was fried alive.

I had water with electrolytes, although it was so hot I had to keep it in my mouth for a few seconds to cool it down before swallowing it. 

I tried to eat a small pack of Haribos but they were completely melted. I decided to get a gel, I still felt how hot it was as I was swallowing it but a hot gel was way better than nothing. 

It took me almost half an hour to climb those 4.5km. Half an hour of climbing at 9km/h. Half an hour of temperatures ranging from 43°C to 46°C.

That was it. There and then I sold my soul to the devil in exchange for a resque. 

The resque appeared 2km into the descent in the form of a village, the village had a bar and the bar was open. A soul well invested if you were to ask me.

But the devil being the devil made it the bar had the worst Spanish tortilla I ever tasted (no onions), the 4 cupcakes (yes, 4) I ordered were so hard the landlady, embarrassed, said she wouldn’t charge me for them and when I was 15 minutes into a nap someone decided to wake me up to ask me if I was feeling alright. I showed a huge amount of autocontrol eating the whole piece of Spanish tortilla, the 4 cupcakes and not killing that person. Long distance cycling certainly has points where it is more psychological than physical.

Drinking, eating, not napping and not killing took me one hour and ten minutes. A huge amount of time for a not-control stop, but it was the right thing to do. I was still at km 290. Recovering at that point was critical if I wanted to finish the ride. 

And it worked. 

Not that I was feeling super strong but when the next climb came, the top of the ride at 1032m of altitude, I managed to pass it without much fuss. It helped that by then the temperature was around 35°C. It is amazing how these things are all relative. When you are climbing the Angliru and you see a sign saying the gradient is 14% you think “fantastic, I can recover here”. Similarly when I saw 35°C in the Garmin I tought soon I would need the arm warmers I was carrying in my bag. A bit of an exaggeration yes, but you get the point.

By km 375 I was back to Yepes, the starting point. I had a proper dinner and reconsidered my plans. I had a room booked and the idea of stopping to sleep for a few hours and finishing on the next day was very tempting. On the other hand Sunday was forecasted to be even warmer so I decided to go to my room, get a shower, sleep for 30 minutes, get changed and hit the road again. I wanted to take advantage of the cool temperatures during the night. It was still 31°C at midnight when I started to pedal though.

Temperatures were not an issue anymore but finding open places to eat and refill still was. That’s why when I crossed a village at around 2am and I saw a bar that was open I decided to take the last opportunity to drink and refill my bottles.

With temperatures and refilling not being an issue anymore, sleepiness became the issue. This long distance cycling malarkey is just a sequence of issues you have to deal with while you keep pedaling.

By the time I got to Tarancon, around 3:30am I was feeling sleepy so I decided to stop and lay down in a park and close my eyes. Temperature was 22°C. The green was comfortable enough. I slept for almost half an hour. It is amazing how much you can recover in such a short period of time. 

Being “recovered” triggered my sense of happiness. I found myself completely alone on the road, the sky full of stars, lost in my own thoughts, legs feeling ok(ish). I really enjoyed that part of the route. 

Got to Pastrana, last control, around 6:30 in the morning. Everything was close so I took a picture as proof of passage. I enjoyed the 5km climb. Yes, I know it sounds crazy to enjoy a 5km climb at 6:30 in the morning with 500km in your legs but there I was thinking sprinters got the wrong part of cycling.

That climb was followed by a 50km descent. I also enjoyed that bit. More than the climb to be honest. Those were the only roads I knew, the speed, the TT position, the illusion of strength, the anticipation of the breakfast I was going to have in Chinchon. All contributing to my sense of happiness.

A real shame that by the time I got to Chinchon, at the top of a 15km climb, I got lost and by the time I found my way I was already outside of Chinchon.That didn’t affect my sense of happiness. I’m used to getting lost and I still think I have a great sense of orientation and I’m great at navigating routes. That, and the fact that from Chinchon to Aranjuez there are only 20km, pretty much downhill all the way. So instead of riding back a few hundred metres breakfast in Aranjuez was going to be.

A quick breakfast in Aranjuez, a final 10km climb that proved I still had decent legs and got back to Yepes by 10:42 in the morning. Temperature was now 29°C Perfect to have a smoothie sitting in the shade in a terrace at Yepes’ main square.

While I was refreshing I was told three of the riders were DNF and the other two were still on the road. I felt for them they had challenging hours ahead. 

Following that line of thought I reflected on how happy I was with this ride. It was not that I felt strong or I was very fast. In fact, if anything, I’m a bit disappointed with how strong I felt. Two things made me really happy about this ride.

The first one was how my experience showed up. I changed plans to allow me to recover after the critical moment of the ride. I changed plans again and rode through the night to avoid the extreme temperatures. I adapted to the circumstances and slept in a public park, the first time I did that in the middle of a ride. My experience and flexibility took me through this ride. I’m very happy about it.

The second reason is all the lessons learnt in this ride. I entered this event as a preparation for the Asturica Augusta (1200km), an event I’ll be riding in August. Temperatures are going to be fairly similar (although I hope not that extreme). Knowing that taking Haribos with me is going to be useless, understanding the value of having a long nap during the hottest hours of the day, confirming that SIS electrolytes and Pelotan sun cream worked perfectly for me in these circumstances, realising I need bigger bottles, that the mudguard is going to be useless or that the PBP reflective gilet is too hot for the summer Spanish nights are valuable lessons that will help me for that event. I’m going to need those lessons as I won't have any soul to offer to the devil to take me out of another critical moment. I could offer him my bike but if it were down to it I’d demand the Spanish omelette with onions. When it comes to a point I certainly have a price.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/5645532703/ 

Take care

Javier Arias González

Two sicentific facts and a recommendation

First scientific fact of the day. Asturian cider doesn’t have any performance enhancement effect when administered in acute dose the day before a training ride (n=1, but fairly confident this can be generalised to the whole population. If anyone were an exception to this rule that would be a lucky person)

In fact, the subject has reported a RPE higher than expected when considered CTL/ATL/TSB and lower power numbers were recorded.

As a consequence, the subject, me, had to reduce the distance and climbing he was planning to ride. Well, as a consequence of those low numbers and the fear of being late to grandma’s family lunch.

That fear was so severe the subject, still me, overcame his RPE and despite the power numbers still being low managed to ride the last 45 kms at speed. 

The subject managed to get home, get a shower and sit at the table with two minutes to spare.

Second scientific fact is that the positive performance effect from the fear of being late to grandma’s lunch is bigger than the negative effect of acute Asturian cider consumption.

Considering the inevitable nature of acute Asturian cider consumption when a subject has friends in Asturias, this panel of experts recommend to scare the subject with the thought of being late for lunch as a way of compensating for the negative effect of Asturian cider consumption.

As the consequences of being late for lunch are so severe, more research is needed to find other ways to compensate for the negative effect performance from the inevitable acute Asturian cider consumption. 

This subject has instructed his friends to get ready to run a new experiment next week. 

Whatever is needed in the name of science.

The route in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/5575139469/ 

Take care

Javier Arias González

Welcome to Asturias, cycling paradise

 First day in Asturias and this mountain goat wannabe aims for a route with some climbing, riding non-stop and steady all day.

First climb of the day was La Grandota and very quickly I realised what it means being in Asturias. No one around me. 

Well, no one except a couple walking up the climb in the middle of the road. No lights, no high vis gilets, even worse, no helmets. As if they owned the road. They were lucky I’m a skilled rider and, more relevant, I was climbing at 10km/h. Shall Dai, Dennis, Ed and Rupert be here riding here with me we would have been climbing at full speed and someone could have been seriously damaged.

Second climb of the day was El Padrún. I like this climb. Hairpins, nice gradient and great views. It is also true the road had a pothole. Fairly big one. I was lucky because I’m a skilled rider and, more relevant, I was climbing, again, at 10km/h. Shall Dai, Dennis, Ed and Rupert be here riding here with me we would have been climbing at full speed and someone could have been seriously damaged.

Third climb of the day was La Colladiella. In my book a great first touch with the long and high climbs.  At some point my Garmin said something about my PR in this climb. A feature I never had seen. I didn’t bite and kept climbing at my own steady pace. At the top of the climb the Garmin said I got a PR on the climb. That can’t be I thought but now Strava seems to agree. A PR up to La Colladiella without even trying. Shall Dai, Dennis, Ed and Rupert be here riding here with me we would have been climbing at full speed I certainly would have bettered this PR, still I would be last at the top.

The fourth climb of the day was meant to be La Faya los Llobos but I did a full Javier and got lost. On my home turf. Embarrassing? Maybe, but I managed to find my way and I found myself climbing a climb that I’d dare to say it was the first time I was climbing it and I was hoping it would take me to Nava. As I was starting the climb a car passed me. Shocking!!! No car had passed me when I was climbing any of the previous three climbs. I know because I was paying attention to count them. Not that I was very busy with that task though. I was lucky because I’m a skilled rider and, more relevant, I was climbing, again, at 10km/h. Shall Dai, Dennis, Ed and Rupert be here riding here with me we would have been climbing at full speed and someone could have been seriously damaged.

With all he climbing out of the way all it was left was the flat/downhill run to home. I did huge turns in the front but always taking it steady. I knew the final sprint was coming and didn’t want to burn all my matches. The sprint to the top of the Col du Balbona is similar to the Esher sprint. Slightly longer but you approach the final ramp descending and the gradient increases ever so slightly as you climb. A sprint line that is always farther away than it looks. I finished the descent and started to gradually increase the power I was putting on the pedals to finish in an all out sprint. 

Fantastic win. 

I was lucky though, shall Dai, Dennis, Ed and Rupert be here riding here with me we would have all sprinted for the line and Richard L. would have taken it.

Yes, Asturias is a cycling paradise. Still you will find walkers in the middle of the road when you are climbing, there is a pothole going up El Padrún, you’ll have to deal with the stress of a car passing you and some truths of cycling are still true here. Far from perfect.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/5562480969/

Take care

Javier Arias González

Dauntsey Dawdle 400km - Audax

 Flat but worth to be recorded ride https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2019/02/javiers-ride-classification-criteria.html

You could argue that deciding to ride on the full setup I’ll use in my August 1200km was not the cleverest of my decisions. 

Yes, the ride is flat if you consider it is a 400km ride, BUT, if you consider you have close to 3000m of punchy climbing in the first 200km AND you are going to ride with a bunch of very strong riders to show up to the ride on a fully loaded, heavy bike can only be described as cycling suicide.

“My kingdom is not of this world”. That’s what I was telling myself all of the ride as I was being slaughtered again and again.

And I was happy with it. Managed to hold myself and go for the first and unique coffee until km 300. Survived the ride and now I’m thinking I’m on a very good path to have a fantastic ride in August. 

“Delayed gratification”, the trick is to enjoy just the thought of the gratification while you are in the delaying phase. That’s how I’m feeling today.

Feeling that, and a considerable amount of tiredness on my legs. 

Take care

Javier Arias González