Wheelsucker

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

I’m a wheelsucker.

I don’t say this with pride, it is just the statement of a fact.

It is not that I like to be a wheelsucker either. I am the first that when feels relatively strong compared to the group I’m riding with will show up in the front and will be happy to work for the benefit of the group.

The problem that doesn’t happen very often. For that to happen I need two things. The first one is to feel strong, the second one is to feel strong compared to the group I’m riding with. None of them happened today. 

I didn’t feel strong after a fairly loaded week. That by itself is enough to catapult me to the back of the group and make sure I don’t appear in the front under any circumstance.

But it was also today I was riding in a fairly strong group compared to my form. That was pretty clear when we hit the first climb, Staple Lane. 

I hate Staple Lane with a passion. It is a climb that always comes too soon for me, it is too steep for me and I always feel it is a never ending climb. Still today I was 18 seconds faster than on Thursday’s training ride but 8th out of a group of 10. I definitely wasn’t strong compared to the group I was riding with. That’s Javier positioning himself at the back of the group and staying there for most of the ride.

And I say “most of the ride” because after the coffee stop I made a mistake and, somehow, I found myself at the front of the group. A joke or two was thrown in the group about that. There you had me completely obsessed with all the kilojoules I was unnecessarily wasting while pretending to be chatting casually with Bidders and hoping he wouldn’t notice I was almost out of breath. “Luckily” a climb came soon enough and I was spat at the back of the group, a position I should never have left.

Another example of being in a strong group happened when we hit Tanhurst Lane. A PR for me, 12 seconds faster than my previous PR but 7th out of 10 at the top of the climb.

By the time we got to Box Hill I decided to take it steady. 9th out of 10. 

That’s it. That is Javier done for the day. 15 kilometres more of unapologetic wheelsucking took us to the Horton roundabouts. The traffic in the second to last roundabout messed up the sprint for most of the group. Lucky me managed to get second after Bidders. Happy with that (so easy to make me happy).

The plan for tomorrow is a “rolling” ride to Kent with 6 more riders, all of them stronger than me. I look and how my legs are feeling right now and I know tomorrow, once again, I’ll be a wheelsucker. Fact.

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/5416962094/

Take care

Javier Arias González