Rehearsing

Short and flat (https://www.unbiciorejon.com/2019/02/javiers-ride-classification-criteria.html). Ridden too hard for an easy ride. Ridden too easy for a hard ride. If I had a coach I’m sure I would be told this ride wasn’t that good from the training point of view. My answer, though, would be, you might be right, but this ride was good to create art… Some time in the future.

You know art can be created while riding. I witnessed that several times. That Kingston Wheelers train on the coast road between Milan and San Remo with a big group on our wheels enjoying the spectacle. Jasmijn and myself leading a peloton of thirty odd riders into Paris at 2:00am finishing PBP2019. Every time Julian and I ride together. The ride home by 5 Kingston Wheelers after climbing the Angliru. Denis and myself last weekend. The Saturday gang is not strange to creating art while riding, it is normal for us to perform a few well tuned pieces on every ride.

Didn’t look like it was going to happen today though.

Today’s ride was short and flat to try to get the gang back together. And like an orchestra that hasn’t rehearsed for a while we were all over the place. Picture this.

Pope’s brakes making sounds as if he were playing a bird sound instrument in Vivaldi’s four seasons concerto. Completely out of tune of course. Seán’s breaks sounded more like a Louis Armstrong trumpet after two bottles of whisky. Luca would be in shock.

Sprints… sprints were all over the place as well. Richard L. beating JFW despite attacking from afar and JFW being on his wheel. The Pope challenging JFW in a sprint. He didn’t take it, that would have been complete chaos, but the fact that he went for it was already remarkable. Mark beating Seán in another sprint (in reality that was a close one and I’m not sure who took it, just giving it to Mark to make my report more dramatic).

Cimbs… All I have to say is the Pope was dropped in the three “climbs” we had. The ones in the know will appreciate that this doesn't happen when the world is in order. In fact, that happening is one of the signs the world might be about to implode.

Luckily Henley came. Coffees were drunk, bacon sandwiches eaten and we got back to normality. Like a Gremlin eating after midnight the Pope got converted into a monster and started to visit the front of the ride pushing the pace. Sense was recovered.

What better place to prove it than Drift Road. Seven riders riding through and off. Beautiful. I took the sprint attacking when no one was contesting it. Yes, we were back to normality.

What else would you call Denis and the Pope sharing most of the work in the front, JFW completely wasted all the return leg, me avoiding the front like the plague, preparing for the final sprint for 30 or 40 kilometres, Richard on my wheel doing the same. Yeah, it is great to have the gang back.

Once you are back to normality, with these artists, there is only one way the ride could have finished. Denis did the approach to the line. The Pope knowing I was on his wheel and asking me to pass him. Me not biting and knowing I had Richard on my wheel. Denis and the Pope being passed when the sprint started. Seán in the mix. Richard and I sprinting but none of us really sure where the line was. Mark taking the first step to be back. JFW... participation award.

I wouldn’t stretch it and call it a masterpiece but it was a decent performance as a first rehearsal. 

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/5376763391 

Take care

Javier Arias González