My body said no

I was all hyped for today’s ride. In my mind the Col de la Madone was going to be the best climb in Nice and I was looking forward to putting on a great show. I even had a coffee with breakfast. 

Col de Eze came and it was raining, still, as soon as we started to climb, the rain jacket felt a bit too much. Managed to remove it while riding without crashing and that was my top moment of the day. From that moment on, everything went downhill even if we were climbing.

First my heart rate wasn’t going up even if I thought I was putting on decent power. Let it be, I thought, it will rise soon enough. 

Except it didn’t and instead I couldn’t hold the power anymore. So I had to ease down a little bit. 

Rain didn’t stop so I started to feel cold. And my pace kept going slower and slower. 

By the time I got to the top of the climb, several minutes after my riding mates, I had had enough. I put my rain jacket back on, took a caffeine gel, and hoped for a bit of recovery in the descent.

I got a bit of recovery, yes. But that didn’t help me much. As soon as we hit the Col de la Madone I needed a pee stop and to remove the rain jacket (again). That meant I found myself climbing on my own.

That was a good thing. I’m glad no one had to witness my explosion. I was trying to get the legs going and at some point my legs, my heart rate, my brain, my whole body, said no.

And that was it. From that moment I entered surviving mode and crawled my way to the top. 

Kudos to Bidders that waited patiently for me and gave me a conversation. Tubeless strategy at Paris-Brest-Paris is a topic I can speak at length about and he listened patiently while my words distracted me from the fact that we were still climbing.

We got to the top many, many minutes after The Pope and GC Denis and still that wasn’t the lowest point of the day.

From the top of the Col de la Madone we had a 30kms descent. Enough time to recover a little bit and make me feel slightly optimistic.

At some point I recognised the road and I knew the Nice town sign sprint was coming. That was going to be the third time we were going to cross that town sign in these days. 

The first day I missed the sprint because I had no idea the town sign was there. I think The Pope took it (!!), which gives you an idea of the level of the sprint.

The second day I missed even if I knew it was coming, even if I closed the gap Bidders created with his attack and even if I had good legs. It turns out I wasn’t 100% clear where the town sign was.

But today I was. I knew very, very well where the town sign was. And I saw The Pope pushing the pace at the front, all excited about the sprint. 

I sat on Bidders wheel and waited to launch my attack.

Except Bidders were before me. 

I also started my sprint and tried to close the gap but it wasn’t even close. I even feared The Pope would pass me, thank providence that didn’t happen.

That would have been too much to take. 

For the one that focused all week in recovering between rides (you’d be amazed at the speed I could get into my siesta after a ride), for Mr. Endurance is my game, this training camp has been a day too long. 

I’m now very tired, completely destroyed and demoralized but very, very happy with my riding mates and this week. Another experience to treasure.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9174432967 

Take care

Javier Arias González

Disgrace

Col de Vence, almost 17km at an average gradient of 5.2% I sat on The Pope and Bidders’ wheel aiming to stay there and attack them in the last 200m to take the KOM. A faultless plan that failed with only 6km to go to the top. Disgrace.

Was then accused of starting hostilities in one of the last climbs when all I was doing was following someone else’s wheel. The Gamin misled me. It was telling me we still had one kilometer to climb at the same exact moment The Pope sprinted for the town sign. Disgrace.

At the end of the ride my Garmin congratulated me. Apparently my FTP is now 268 watts. Disgrace. 

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9162789218

Btw. This route is fantastic. Another must do if you are riding around Nice.

Take care

Javier Arias González

One more cinglé du Mont Ventoux

Short but hilly ride (https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2019/02/javiers-ride-classification-criteria.html)

Very, very happy with this ride. Not because I managed to get a great performance but because I managed to do as best as I could considering my circumstances.

Saturday’s 600k (https://www.strava.com/activities/9110165742) left me very, very tired. Since then I have been completely focused on my recovery. To the point that I had to endure a few jokes from my riding mates when I refused a few beers, they saw me drinking milk or went to bed early. It doesn’t matter, I still love them and I was motivated to be as fresh as possible today.

And I managed to start today reasonably fresh. At least fresh enough to sit on the wheels of Bidders and GC Denis. The Pope being the mountain goat flew up the mountain every single time. Very impressive efforts. Bidders was my hero of the day. He sat in the front on all three climbs setting a metronomic pace. Challenging but not killing us. The picture shows how delighted I was to be able to stay on his and Denis’ wheel on all three climbs. 

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9144229712

Take care

Javier Arias González

Bryan Chapman Memorial (600km Audax)

I said it before but I’ll say it again. In my view this is the best Audax ride in the UK. Wales is stunningly beautiful, especially with the weather we had. I love the climbs, the good tarmac and more than anything how well the event is run. No wonder this was my 7th time riding it (2013 - https://www.strava.com/activities/55245726, 2014 - https://www.strava.com/activities/142973657, 2016 - https://www.strava.com/activities/577887043, 2017 - https://www.strava.com/activities/986429049, 2018 - https://www.strava.com/activities/1583814632 and 2019 - https://www.strava.com/activities/2380585350).

For me this ride was a dress rehearsal for Paris-Brest-Paris. I carried all the kit I plan to carry at PBP and followed a similar strategy. So I tested riding steady all day, short stops at the controls, what to eat on the bike (the little sandwich of spicy chorizo has been a success), riding through the night while tired, the kit I’m going to wear riding through the night, charging devices strategy, using the Shokz bone conduction headphones in the early hours to help deal with the sleepiness, new frame bag, etc.

You'll be excused for thinking I’m a master of planning and preparation but you couldn’t be more wrong. I’ll just say that 175km from the finish my di2 ran out of battery. Yes, I had forgotten to charge it… again.

Stuck in the small chainring for 175km and scared to death the battery ran out of juice completely, I minimized the changes at the back. Which meant I attacked small ramps overgeared, which emptied my legs pretty quickly. Free wheeling for long times meant my heart rate plummeted and my body temperature followed suit. What was meant to be 8 hours of riding ended up being almost 10.

Again, you'll be excused for thinking I had a terrible time but you couldn’t be more wrong. Yes, I shouted a few swear words (in Spanish, swearing in Spanish is more powerful) but that lasted 30 seconds. After an impressive display of Spanish swearing capabilities I focused on enjoying the ride and had a fantastic time. I love riding at night on quiet roads. I almost had time to find the secret for world peace.

That was it. I finished tired but very, very happy. In fact I’m already convinced I’ll ride it again next year.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9110165742/ 

Take care

Javier Arias González

Four times lucky

Not from today's ride but close enough

13 days without touching the bicycle.

A trip to Argentina. Ate a bit too much. It turns out I like Malbec so I also drank a bit too much. Walked a lot, although I’m not sure if that is good or bad for cycling.

Still slightly jet lagged this morning you could argue I was a lamb on the way to the slaughterhouse.

But I’m a lucky man. Four times lucky I was today.

First time was the route we were riding. We were NOT going to Sumners Ponds. Almost five years ago I wrote: “Believe me, I have seen this happening to a lot of riders. Doesn't matter how strong you are. You go on holidays for two weeks, come back on the bike after a cold or simply join the wrong group to Sumner Ponds and you'll be slaughtered. That's a fact.” (https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2018/10/you-need-to-read-this-if-you-are.html).

If we were riding to Sumners Ponds nothing could have saved me but we were riding to the Devil’s Punchbowl and that gave me hope. 

Hope is a dangerous feeling. Instead of riding conservatively I went a bit too hard in the first hour.

Yes, that was a decent effort up Green Dene but as sure as eggs is eggs (I just googled this expression) I paid for it in the second hour. To the point that I blew up massively as soon as the Devil’s Punchbowl climb started. 

It was so bad and obvious that when I got to the top Rupert sang Don’t cry for me Argentina to me and it felt very appropriate.

But that also was the moment I was lucky for the second time. We were stopping there. 

A stop that lasted almost 40 minutes, a visit to the loo, a scone with cream and jam and, crucially, a latte and I managed to recover a fair bit. Enough to feel comfortable in the ride.

The third time I was lucky was at Hogs “hill” (https://www.strava.com/segments/1150170). I hate that climb. I prayed and prayed for it to be full of traffic so we couldn’t go all out on it.

As we were approaching it I saw lots of traffic and almost cried with joy. The perfect excuse to take it easy and save my legs.

To save my legs for the final sprint of course. 

The Esher sprint.

A sprint I had perfectly planned. I was going to sit at the back of the group the whole way and outsprint everyone with 100 meters to go. Infallible.

The problem was my plan didn’t last long. As soon as we hitted the first ramp a gap was created in our group. Richard and Denis in the front group. Tom, me and Rupert (in that order) in the second group. 

I saw Richard and Denis starting to work together and the gap growing. Time for a new plan.

I was going to wait for Tom to finish himself trying to close the gap. Then I’d attack, drop Rupert, close the gap, sit on Richard and Denis’ wheel, wait for the last 100 meters and outsprint them. A seamless plan.

That was when I was lucky for the fourth time. The only traffic light on the road was red. Denis and Richard had to stop and we caught up with them. 

Didn’t feel too much shame for not having the opportunity to test my great plan. I’ll admit the situation was now much better for my chances. Especially when Rupert discarded himself for the sprint.

When the time to sprint came it was me and Richard contesting it. 

Somehow I managed to get it and that saved my day. 

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than strong or clever.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8977190234/ 

Take care

Javier Arias González

Breakfast in Laviana

The plan was to start riding at sunrise, ride fasted to have breakfast in Laviana.

I was also testing my new bone conduction headphones.

Both ideas, riding fasted and using bone conduction headphones, with Paris - Brest - Paris in mind. 

I selected a random playlist and amazingly as I was taking the Laviana town sign sprint Breakfast in America was playing (this is absolutely true), the Logical Song. 

A place called el cafetón (literally, the big coffee) looked adequate to the circumstances even if when I entered I thought Ain't Nobody But Me.

The good news was the pintxos looked great and I was hungry. It would have been the Crime of the Century to get only one so I went for two. Chicken and Spanish omelette, orange juice and coffee. 6€ 

While I was eating another man entered the place. That made it Two of Us so when I was leaving I said Goodbye Stranger and he responded Take the Long Way Home.

I enjoyed the ride so much that from now on I’ll add it to my repertoire to train riding fasted while listening to music at sunrise.

Let’s see how that works Live in Paris.

Ps. Congratulations if you got the musical reference. Now make sure you have schedule your prostate cancer check, it is a must at your age.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8768172681

Take care

Javier Arias González

The Trans Siberian Express

I joined a ride with three other riders without knowing what the route was going to be. Always a great idea if it is your mother’s birthday and you have to be at the table for a family lunch at 14:00.

At 11:30 we stopped to get some water and someone mentioned a 25km climb was about to start. 

The magnificent road captain in me did some basic physics calculations and got to the conclusion there was no way I’d be on time at my mothers. 

As surprising as it sounds I knew where I was so I told my riding mates I was going to head home following the direct route. “Half an hour to the top of La Cobertoria and two hours to get home from there. 14:00 at home that is” I told them. 

My riding mates gave me a great tip. “Don’t descend all the way to Pola de Lena, go through Cuchu Puercu and you’ll get to the top of El Cordal”. An amazing shortcut.

Any Kingston Wheeler that ever came to Asturias got a first stage that included Cobertoria, then El Cordal and finally El Angliru. If I knew that shortcut back then we could have skipped the whole climb to El Cordal (5.3km at 9.1% https://www.strava.com/segments/13338464). I’m pretty sure TY would love to know this, one more shortcut to his repertoire.

In my mind La Cobertoria was an easy climb. In fact at some point I decided I wasn’t going to use the 30 at the back. 27 is plenty I thought. I didn’t remember that La Cobertoria is an 8km at 8.7% climb (https://www.strava.com/segments/6734940).

But you know how things are. The more you ride without loading the 30 the less you want to give up and use it. 

The problem is the more you keep riding with the 27 the bigger the temptation to load the 30. Add to that my heart rate wasn’t going up and whenever I was trying to breathe deeply I started to cough; spicy it with a bit of (cold) head wind appearing every now and then and you’ll struggle to find any reason to not use the 30.

But that would be giving up. 

I’d probably be able to climb faster and would get home earlier. 

Because I’m a very reasonable person I kept riding the 27. 

The 30 minutes I thought it would take me to climb La Cobertoria turned out to be 43 minutes.

But I never loaded the 30.

Time now to take full advantage of the shortcut.

A shortcut not short of challenges.

Started with a climb. A small one, but my legs were tired by then. This time I didn’t hesitate to load the 30.

The road was the same quality you would find in the Surrey Hills (that is bad). It was facing north and it was at about 1000m of altitude. 

Suddenly it was all snowed and a fair bit of ice on the road. The whole road!!

What do you do? Turn around and give up the short cut? The reasonable (and very optimistic) of me decided it was worth it to walk the apparently short section of snow and ice.

It turns out it wasn’t that short. In fact the very reasonable (and not that optimistic anymore) of me started to consider turning back, giving up the shortcut and, by now and losing any hope of being on time for my mother’s birthday lunch. An amazing prospect.

That was the moment I saw a mountain biker coming in the opposite direction. Definitely not the kind of rider you want to see to feel confident on what is coming ahead. 

I asked him and to my surprise he said the snow and ice would only last a couple of hundred meters more. I was starting to feel optimistic again.

I still had to go through the problem of my cleats having so much ice that wouldn’t clip on the pedals. Had to find a rock and use it to hammer on the ice and break it. I finally was able to clip on the pedals. 

Now full of optimism after my caveman survival performance I had to remind myself to take it easy descending El Cordal. I knew it was a tricky descent, the road surface was not ideal. In fact in one of the stages at La Vuelta Nibali, a descender a bit better than me, had a crash there.

But destiny was on my side. It turns out they had repaired the surface of that descent. It was still a tricky descent but I now had a chance to be on time.

That’s where I started to compare myself to the Trans Siberian Express.

After crossing a scene of snow and ice I was now going full speed to my destiny. 

Full speed while the descent lasted. As soon as I got to the flat bit I wasn’t that express anymore and the moment I hit the last “climb” calling my speed express would be a clear exaggeration.

But it was still possible to make it on time.

Kind of. 

I got home at 14:01. I still had to take a shower. 

I was at the table at 14:10. (That was an express shower).

I explained to everyone in the family I never loaded the 30 climbing La Cobertoria and I had a PR climbing it. I didn’t mention the PR was because I always had taken it very easy climbing it, I needed to make my achievement as epic as possible. 

My family was not impressed. I might have exaggerated my cycling capabilities a little bit in the past and it is not that easy to impress them anymore. 

I think my mother has cut me out of her will.

If only I had a 28 at the back instead of the 27…

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/8657925469/

Take care 

Javier Arias González