Valencia and Back in a Day!

Nearly 150 miles [Equivalent to one and half times around the M25. I know which one I would do!]

A few weeks back we considered the possibility of riding to Valencia and back. We are staying in Calpe and Valencia is 72 miles away!

We started early for us, with our newly and beautifully formed group meeting at 9am - Knowledge of our ride had grown amongst the British riders out in Calpe. Rory Townsend and Charles Page had taken on the roles of leading the ride. The starting group had grown to around 16 riders with 12 committed to the whole ride and the others turning back early to catch flights home.

Before we started Rory gave us a little heads up, saying that we would have to average around 34KPH (21.5 MPH) for the entire ride to make it back while it was still light. Gulp! The plan was to ride in a through and off formation pulling 3 minute turns; 6 minutes at the front before ‘sitting in the wheels’ for between 30 and 40 minutes (the better bit!).

Heading out the group was moving fast. Over eagerness and only one climb on the way out meant everyone was putting down a big effort early on. Once on to the N332 and the coast roads the route was flat and the pace rose; everyone pulling their turns but tactically trying to avoid pulling turns next to very strong riders. I ended up being next to some very big riders who were happy to put down a lot more power than me. The funniest was when I ended up next to Ken Buckley, a powerhouse of a rider. Ken currently holds the British land speed record on a bicycle and relative to me is huge. As I pulled along Ken I realised I was in for a long 3 minute turn. This was all to the amusement of those sitting on my wheel behind me. I did get through it and was able to join the back of those ‘sitting-on’, start to recover and wait to take my next turn.

We did have a few eventualities on the way to Valencia. Two of these were simple punctures, nothing to be concerned about. The next one came just after we had caught up another large group. The groups had merged into a large group of about 40 riders. So we decided to step the pace up to get rid of them by having a rolling fast through and off. This almost had the desired effect immediately although some of them tried to get involved in our through and off only to find they couldn’t pull a turn at the front and then caused problems for everyone else!...this experience for them soon had the desired effect - they disappeared. The last one was for one of our riders to have a spoke snap 60 miles into the ride. This was a problem until said rider revealed that he had brought along a spare just in case this happened. Surprising quick change and we were back on the road. Respect.

Once in Valencia we didn’t plan to hang around for long. We found a restaurant in Valencia, ordered a lot of food and drinks. Sadly, given all our efforts, we were then hugely underwhelmed by everything that was served and the way we were treated. You’d think if 12 hungry people walked into an empty restaurant the owners would be at least a little bit happy. Anyway a long time and one big tab later we headed back out…

…..stopping off at a shop to refuel pockets and refill bottles…..everyone knew what was to come…..

The way home was almost exactly the same as the way out. Not very original but everyone knew what to do. This was where people would start to fall off as the longer miles started to build up in the legs. Around the 112 mile mark I was going to be moving into unknown territory. I had never ridden further than that before and was little nervous, especially given that at the 112 mile mark we still had 35 miles planned. My strategy all day had been to smash down food and keep my cadence high in an effort to save my legs. This was good as the speed was fast on the way home. The headwind was now at our backs and we could motor along.

…..at least until the unenviable smash-fest! This is the part of the ride normally at the end where the pace is raised up and up until the group splits into tiny pieces. It often starts with the chain gang moving through faster and faster until one or more riders decide they will go to the front and smash the pace. Whoever can hang on, hangs on …whoever can’t……well we don’t see them again until the end of the ride.

On our Valencia ride it was decided that this would start from where we would re-join the N332, the road back into Calpe with about 25 miles remaining. At the pace we were going and taking into account that the smash-fest would have a raised the pace this would come to a little under an hour.

The pace was raised as we joined the N332 but didn’t really start to kick in until Alex and Rory went to the front. Leaving almost everyone else with the only choices to grab a wheel or get spat out the back. For me this meant hanging onto the wheel in front of me for dear life. I was feeling good until the road started to go upwards and I couldn’t rely on drafting as much. I got half way up the climb before my legs gave in. As the rest of the group came past I realised that the group of 12 was now down to 6, and then 5 as I peeled off. I was pleased with that. I didn’t think I would last that long relative to the others I was riding with.

Once back in Calpe Tango Bar, for some happy hour nachos was a good option for me. Many however headed straight back to where they were staying to find food on mass and a bed to fall into. I don’t blame them. Charles and I both decided that we needed to consume a ‘sharing bowl’ of Nachos, each!

All in all we averaged 23 MPH for 6 hour 40 mins; 250 watts normalized with an average of 222. ………….and here is some more data because we all love data don’t we? …burning 5,450 calories over the course of the day, topping out on speed at 44.5 MPH………..and for completeness……….a total restaurant bill price of 167 euros.

Cheers to all those you came out on the ride. A truly epic day out!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1378242322