KW - Sumners Ponds the Bidders way

 Let me start with a short guide on how to stress me out.

Let’s plan a 4.5 hour “steady” ride for Sunday with Bidders.

Join JFW’s game on Saturday riding to Devil’s Punchbowl (https://www.strava.com/activities/13695818164) and make sure you end up well tired.

Find out when you return from your ride the route Bidders has chosen for the “steady” ride is a route to Sumners Ponds.

Didn’t look at the route but whenever someone suggest a ride to Sumners Ponds this post of mine from more than six years ago comes to mind (​​https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2018/10/you-need-to-read-this-if-you-are.html) “That was an easy ride to Sumners Ponds...Said no one. Ever.”

He has posted the route on the KW forum and added me to it. Start time 8am. Zero chances anyone else is going to join us.

Dead wrong. 

Saturday 22:19 The Pope sent a message. “Will join”.

I saw the message laying in bed, when I was about to go to sleep. Another sentence from my post came to mind “there is something about riding to Sumners Ponds that always slaughters the weakest rider of the group”.

I had nightmares last night. 

When you don’t sleep well your levels of stress go up. My god I was stressed this morning.

But things can always take a turn for the worse. 

Today, at LW, 8:06 the trio started the ride. 

I turned left. The Garmin beeped, The Pope shouted. I was wrong. The route was going to the right. 

That’s not the normal way of going to Sumners Ponds…

If not knowing the route stresses me out it would be wise to study the route before agreeing to ride it. Right? Well, I didn’t study it. 

Beyond knowing we had two hard, steep climbs at the end of the ride and knowing how Sumners Ponds cafe looks, I knew nothing about the route. 

To make my levels of stress skyrocket I found myself at the front, riding next to Bidders, while he was explaining to me he had chosen the route in such a way that we had head wind on the way out and tail wind on the way back (to climb two hard, steep climbs, I remind you). 

It shouldn’t be difficult for you to imagine Javier panicking and trying to find a way to fall back and sit on Bidders and The Pope’s wheel.

But The Pope was doing his usual thing. Riding a few meters back. Making it impossible for me to drop behind him without being absolutely clear about my intentions. 

My levels of stress were record high. 

But I was still playing it cool. I’d be such a great poker player if I ever learn the rules of the game.

All this and we were still in Epsom (no way this route would take us to Sumners ponds).

In Epsom we stopped at a traffic light and The Pope called my attention to the fact that I wasn’t carrying bidons (those two bidons in the picture I left ready next to the bike but, inexplicably I forgot at home). 

My stress levels were now record high. 

Heading to Sumners Ponds, not knowing the route. Without water and too arrogant to ask for it. The only gels I was carrying were the GU ones we got in that shop in California, that, of course, needed to be consumed with water. I was the weakest rider but I was sitting at the front into a heavy head wind and I knew we were going to finish the party with two hard, steep climbs (no idea with ones though).

Tears came out of my eyes but it was because the (heavy) wind got in my eyes.

It is fair to say that is a great way to stress me out.

All for nothing though. 

Bidders was true to his word and managed to keep a “steady” pace in a leg breaker route. 

It was amazing. I really enjoyed it. 

The fact that I didn’t know the route became part of the enjoyment. I found myself constantly surprised recognizing parts of the road and, still, having the feeling I had never ridden those roads in that direction.

The Pope did his thing in each tiny, little and big climb we went through but Bidders and I kept it nice and easy.

Scone with cream and jam at the stop. Not a drop of rain. Nice tail wind on the way home.

Five stars review for Bidders as a ride organiser. 

But don’t let my great experience trick you. This route is a killer. 

I know it doesn’t look much when you look at the numbers (123km 1400m) but, believe me. Ridden at the usual K2 pace of the Saturday gang this is a very hard route. 

So much so that at the coffee stop we fantasized with whom should we trick into riding it (TY your name was mentioned knowing your training in Florida would be great for this route)

So, yes. I’m saying “That was an easy ride to Sumners Ponds”, something I thought I would never say. But don’t expect that to happen to you. Especially if the plan is to follow this route.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13705065574

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González 

No more sprinters allowed in the Saturday gang

 That's it. 

No more sprinters allowed in the Saturday gang.

I miss a Saturday ride and another sprinter joins the group. 

Ibrahim and Moira didn't go for any sprint today. Everyone else was sprinting for everything.

We had JFW on the ride so I was expecting some sprinting fireworks. What I was not expecting is everyone joining the party. 

A green sign with white letters? Is that really a town sign? Who cares? Let's sprint for it.

Someone is at the front and we pass a town sign? Let's celebrate it with an arm in the air to make it count.

And that is a problem. 

It is a problem because half way through the ride I had lost count of how many points everyone had. 

I knew Ibrahim and Moira had 0 points.

Now, was JFW leading the sprinting competition? Maybe. Although he probably lost the lead in the second half of the ride. 

Was DD ahead of Dai? Probably. She was fearless in the competition. Risking her life was not a problem if that meant taking from me my first points (duly note taken).

I wouldn't say Chris T. (the new joiner) was in the lead. He definitely took a couple of well contested sprints but not knowing the route and his inability to invent sprint lines was holding him. 

Me? I also had a big, fat 0 in my score so it would be difficult for me to say here I was leading the sprinting points without any of my riding mates calling me out in Strava (believe me, it wasn't difficult I wouldn't hesitate to make such a claim).

So this is it. It is hard enough to be a sprinter that doesn’t take any sprints. Not being able to keep the sprinting tally to manipulate it in my interest is a step too far. This is too stressful for me.

From now on, if you are a sprinter, you’ll have to wait until we lose one of the sprinters in the Saturday gang before you are allowed to join us. 

If you want to make it look like an accident, get in touch with me. I have my suggestions in priority order.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13695818164/

Take care

Javier Arias González

KW - Jo.Co

Fantastic ride. 

Riding steady. Moderate efforts up the hills. Feeling easy for the whole ride. 

Great coffee stop as well. Very good coffee and two pastries for me (can’t resist the temptation of a good Pastel de Nata).

I was forced to sprint for Juniper’s KOM when JFW got in parallel with me. For a second I panicked and put a stronger effort than strictly needed.

At Horton roundabouts I played it safe. I let JFW and Denis take turns at the front while I was taking the free ride.

It felt very comfortable. Although it is fair to say we were taking it easy at the roundabouts as the tarmac was wet. 

Being an experienced sprinter I moved to second position at the right time. JFW at the front. Denis behind me. Perfect positioning when we entered the final straight.

I still had time to fill my brain with doubts. I couldn’t tell if JFW was completely cooked or if he was pretending to be cooked. 

I moved parallel to him and looked at him. He looked completely cooked to me.

I looked again to my left. He was definitively cooked. There is no point in sprinting. I can just turn the pedals two or three times a bit stronger and I’ll take the sprint. 

Looked at him one more time fearing he was tricking me. That is how much I trust the man. 

I looked at the front right on time to see GC Denis passing us both and taking the sprint. 

Not really a big fan of this new breed of GC riders that get involved in the sprints. Huge distorsion to the results.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13572446557/

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

The Pope in killer mode.

True to tradition, he arrived at his typical time. 

Something tells me he was in a hurry. Maybe he had to be back home at some impossible time.

He let us lead the first few kilometers so everyone had a nice warm up. 

Then he hit the front.

And that was the story of the whole ride.

The Pope leading, everyone else praying their favourite litany. 

He took all the KOMs and all the sprints.

All but the one DD took.

He didn’t take the Esher sprint either.

He was going to, but he had me on his wheel all the way and he didn’t. 

Not because I passed him in the last 10 meters, arms in the air celebrating just another amazing win in my fantastic cycling career, but because the sprint was neutralized due to too many cars.

I feel for him. All that effort wasted, without reward. 

I don’t feel too much for him though. He was not in my team today.

Still, I’m such a nice guy that I hope he wasn’t too late back home.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13509476294 

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

Tanhouse, the weird way

 First ride of the year as “ride lead”.

Although I prefer the expression “ride captain”. Somehow being “ride captain” sounds better to my ego than being “ride lead”. It feels to me “road captain” is a title that gives you more authority and responsibility. 

Not that I’m any good at any of those two qualities. 

I have to admit I wasn’t that responsible when I chose the route. All I wanted is a route to ride 3.5 hours and with a coffee stop that I could recognise. Looked in my route library. Found this route and didn’t even check it. 

Well, that was a weird way of going to Tanhouse and even weirder way of getting home from Tanhouse. 

Not very responsible of me having to admit that I didn’t know what hills we were climbing and that I was lost most of the time. 

To that I attribute my lack of sprint victories today. I had no idea where the townsigns were!

I wasn’t able to exercise my authority either. 

I have a great excuse though. JFW was riding with the group. 

At the forum I had described the ride as “steady k2”. Al LW, before we started to ride, I reminded everyone, JFW included, that we were going to ride steady.

Next thing I know JFW is riding in the front with me pushing the pace.

I was completely out of breath and he was talking to me. 

Couldn’t hear half of what he was saying. Couldn’t understand half of what I was hearing. All I know is he was talking about running. He was clearly defying my authority. 

JFW was JFW again climbing Effingham. A climb that is perfect for keeping the group together.  That is what happened in the first half, when Peter led the group.

In the second half JFW hit the front and defied the concept of steady k2 pushing the pace. JFW being JFW that lasted a [very] few hundred meters before he moved to the right, dropped to the group and left the rest to deal with the mess he had created.

The confirmation that JFW has a problem with my authority (although I could argue he has a problem with any form of authority) was returning from Tanhouse. 

We still were at Newdigate. The traditional way back was taking a left turn. The planned route was continuing straight. 

JFW turned left. Five garmins started to bip to tell five riders we were off route. JFW doesn’t have a garmin so he carried on. 

That was the complete end of my authority on anything related to the route. 

At the top of Juniper we turned left (!!!!) and I got lost completely. The garmin was still saying we were on route so we never were actually lost but I had no idea where we were.

To make things worse everyone seemed to know where we were. They kept saying “this is the Ride London route”.

I knew the route was going through Esher. A sprint I have studied to end. A sprint I like. A sprint to redeem myself. 

So here you have me riding third or four wheel. Conserving energy. Scouting the road ahead of us waiting to recognise the approach to Esher’s sprint.

You can imagine my surprise when somehow, suddenly, we were in Esher. 

We had come to Esher on a different road. 

The ride was over and I must have been fourth or fifth in a town sign I didn’t even see. 

Terrible day for a responsible and authoritarian sprinter.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13447736056

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

2025 first ride

 A CTL of 23. 

In layman's terms that means the last two months are the ones with less km and hours ridden since I started riding road bikes (excluding when I broke my left femur in 2015).

Pretty unusual and scary spot for someone like me. 

How am I managing it?

Planning my objectives for 2025. 

Here you have them.

My main objective is to finish London-Edinburgh-London (https://londonedinburghlondon.com/). A 1530km Super Brevet happening between the 3rd and 8th of August.  

Before that I’ll aim to beat my personal best at the Quebrantahuesos (https://www.quebrantahuesos.com/). In 2029 I did 6:30:03 (https://www.strava.com/activities/2471284485). I’m still annoyed about those three seconds. I have entered the ballot. An objective that is equally bold and stupid, especially considering the 23 CTL I mentioned above. 

I also want to finish a Super Randonneur series. I have entered the following Brevets:

• 200km - Sun, 16th Mar 2025 - Gently Bentley - https://www.audax.uk/event-details/12605-gently_bentley
• 300Km - Sat, 26th Apr 2025 - Oasts and Coasts - https://www.audax.uk/event-details/12808-oasts_and_coasts_300km
• 400km - Sat, 3rd May 2025 - London Wales London - https://www.audax.uk/event-details/12754-london_wales_london
• 600km - Sat, 7th June 2025 - Bryan Chapman Memorial - https://www.audax.uk/event-details/3511-bryan_chapman_memorial

And finally, as difficult to believe as it is, I want to have another go at Valencia’s Marathon. Let’s just say I’m not super happy with my first attempt (https://www.strava.com/activities/13024264408) and now, a month later, sitting comfortably on my sofa, I believe I can do better. How can I be so silly?

The ride in Strada: https://www.strava.com/activities/13245481662

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González

Valencia Marathon - My first ever marathon - Official time 3:39:49 (5:13m/km)

Well, that was way harder than expected. And I’m not that happy about it.

Last week (https://www.strava.com/activities/12971960713) I was saying I was going to pace myself based on my heart rate (“I'm going to aim to run it at 145 - 155 bpm”). 

That went very, very well. I managed to control my pace based on heart rate the whole marathon. I didn’t care if it felt like the whole marathon was passing me. I just followed my heart rate. My final average heart rate was 164 bpm (85% of my maximal heart rate).

I also did very well at following my nutrition plan. One gel every 20 minutes. Not much merit though. Yesterday I discovered it was possible to set my watch to trigger an alarm every 20 minutes. That made following the plan very easy. 

So, why am I not that happy? 

It just felt very hard. 

Not at the beginning. 

In fact, it was not hard at all for the first 25km. I was keeping my heart rate at 145 bpm. Around that mark I started with higher doses of caffeine. In my mind I was going to accelerate my pace to a heart rate closer to 155 bpm from the 30 km mark.

But from kilometre 25 my right leg started to send me messages. 

The message was something like “A big muscle is about to give up and that is going to be very, very painful”. 

Last (and first) time my brain received that message was back in 2008. The third time in my whole life I rode a [rented] road bike. The first time in my whole life I took part in a cycling sportive (148 km, 3370m). I was second to last of the whole peloton. (the report, in Spanish, is at: https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2008/06/x-marcha-cicloturista-lale-cubino.html).

To write this report I had to Google what muscle was about to give up. I don’t know much about anatomy but it is either the Rectus Femoris, the Abductor Longus, or the Vastus Lateralis. You tell me.

My brain registered the message but I decided to keep following the plan. Heart rate at 145 bpm.

Things got worse at kilometer 30.

Now my left leg sent my brain exactly the same message. 

That’s when I decided to give up my plan of upping the pace to 155 bpm. 

My muscles weren’t hurting. It was just the threat of going to hurt a lot that made me aim to keep the pace at 145 bpm.

That was hard. That felt really hard. I know it is silly but I wasn’t expecting to suffer that much. 

It took me a huge effort to not stop at kilometer 40 when the route passed in front of our hotel.

By that time everyone was enjoying their second wind and I was just praying for this whole thing to finish. 

I didn’t really enjoy the last kilometer. Yes, there were lots of spectators by the side of the road. Some of them even called my name. I was just fearing my legs were going to give up just there. I wanted to cry.

And then, when I had the finish line in sight, I saw the clock at 3h:39m and some seconds. 

That was it. I started to cry and upped the pace with the objective to make sure I was under 3h:40m. 

If I wanted to be sillier I’d have to train for it.

I cried all the way to the exit and cried again when they gave me that medal. I guess my nickname of “pee man” (three pee stops in the marathon, not happy about that either) should change to “cry man”.

So, yeah, I’m a bit stupid. I’m not happy about finding out my first marathon was harder than arrogant me expected, but I’m happy that today I had my fastest ever 5k, 10k, 15k, 10 mile, 20k, half marathon, 30k and, of course, I managed to finish.

The run in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13024264408/

Take care of yourself

Javier Arias González