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