1,0... BPB's Eve

In short I'll drive to the velodrome to pass bike-check according to the ACP Rules. 
If everything goes as pre-arranged I'll meet there my two riding buddies. PB will stay at home for the night.
I'm feeling really edgy right now.  I've got a vague sensation of forgetting something... hope it's nothing essential.

2,1...

This afternoon I've been busy getting things ready for the ride. Spiffed up the bike in general ang installed a second tail-light (since you never know when it is going to stop working). I had to adjust the rear rack in order to make room for the new light. A mere five minute work.

At dusk I took a fast spin for an hour. Everything seems to be working fine.
It's a bit strange but the day has come, I've turned my intended sabathical year into a full series of brevet. Destiny? A coincidence? Who knows...

3, 2...

Spinned effortlessly to Tibidabo. Temperatures are rising. Plummeted down to St Cugat leaning the bike to its limits in most of the curves. Not a single click today.

Passed a couple of mountainbikers in a dirt lane leading to Vallvidrera. One of them made a comment on my tyres. "They look too soft, you have had a flat".  "No- I replied- they've been pumped to the right pressure. It's just supple casing" We arrived ato a junction and our ways diverged so I took that opportunity to check the tyres, well, you know, just to make sure...

7, 6, 5, 4...

My cycling training has been restricted to running errands for the last days.
Tomorrow I'll take a final spin most likely to Tibidabo.
No backward glances...

Count down: 10, 9, 8...

A new clinking sound today. I was getting exasperated till I realized that the sound misteriously disappeared while riding no-hands. So laid down the bike and poured a few drops of oil between the stem and the handlebar. It cured it!

After solving the "acoustic" problems opted for a relaxed spin to Horta's viewpoint from where I had a nearly crow's nest view of the velodrome. Will I get there in time next Sunday?

BPB "avant premiere"

No need for the test-ride; everything worked silk-smooth and, what's more, run quietly. (All righ! I suffered a minor problem with the front fender slightly rubbing the tire. Quite an easy thing to fix!)
I sat on the saddle shortly after seven o'clock and headed for the pre-arranged meeting point. It was a bit cold (not even 10ºC) but the cloudless sky heralded a sunny day and I'd alrealdy decided on short-sleeves for the jour (assuming that temperatures would rise up) . Well, just in case, I had cunningly packed a good pair of arm warmers in the handlebar bag. My riding buddies showed up at the pre-arranged place at the pre-arranged time and the three of us set off for our particular BPB avant-premiere. I lead them through the industrial areas of Ripollet and Montcada to the starting point at the road to La Roca. So early in the morning traffic was thin and we spinned at a reasonable brevetish speed (not that fast as in  my previous "time-trial" ride) till we reached the road to Montseny (first "rest-room" stop). Then we faced  the first and most serious climb of the day: the Collformic. It's a 25 km scenic ascent on good pavement most of it through forested areas that reminds me of the Alps. We rode the first "easy" leg till the hamlet of Montseny where we had a brief stop to eat a sandwich and refill the bottles. Now we tackled the last 10 gruelling km at a steady 6 plus gradient. P.B.(slightly undertrained) quickly falled back and, to my surprise, I found a comfortable spin that took me easily enough to the summit. There I waited for my two riding buddies (A.R. a much better climber had kindly seen P.B. all the way through) and took some pics of their final approach.
So we regroupped at the top and had a passing cyclist take our group picture by the road sign. (please mind that the bike I'm holding is his, not mine).
Anticipating a chilly descent I put on my arm-warmers and the three of us plummeted down past El Brull to Seva. Nice place worth a visit but we were unfortunately  in "zoom past" mode.  After a second brief stop we headed for Taradell and the second climb of the day: the Coll de la Pollosa, a much gentler climb amidst farm land (true "fields of green" not far from a main road). This time A.R. displayed his climbing abbilities and waited for the "lame ducks" at the summit patiently chewing a power bar. The strech to Moià and Calders was uneventful. We reached Calders and started a fast descent to Monistrol where we dealt with the last major climb: the Coll de Lligabosses. No big deal but for the slightly acking legs. After some km of a false flat we began our descent to St Llorenç. It was nearly half past three in the afternoon but we still found an open restaurant (it's a usual stop for cyclist). They were nearly closing but kindly accepted to make us some sandwiches with recently baked bread. They tasted great! From then the rest of the ride to Cerdanyola was easy enough (but for traffic: hoards of weekenders driving home). I lead my buddies to the start of the road to Barcelona and left them there with precise indications of how to get to the velodrome (where they had parked their cars). I know I should had seen them to the top of the Coll del Forat del Vent but... the delicate family negotitions that precede most brevets had set a non negotiable finish time. I "repported" home feeling reasonably fresh. May be that the PBP is not totally out of my reach. We'll see... shortly.

The plan

Mail traffic with my riding buddies is increasing. Everybody's got a riding-plan for the BPB but, unsurprisingly, everyone's got a different plan...
This Sunday we'll submit our plans to "the test of the road" (Vélocio) and see what comes out.
I hope that no bit of my recently overhauled drivetrain falls loose (there's been no time for a test ride)

Drivetrain overhaul

Drove under heavy rain to a far-away-bikeshop in order to fetch a new bottom bracket cartridge with the required spindle length. Right now the bike's got a new axle and chain. The pedals were fully disassembled, cleaned, oiled and reassembled. Chainrings are gleaming. Everything seems to be running smoothly now. No time for a test-ride.

Differential Diagnosis

The clinking-clanking noise was becoming more and more apparent in the climbs. So in my renown empirical-enquire-mood I started a methodical search for the origins of the misterious noise.

The trial and error went as follows:

a) First hypothesis: "under a high load the torsional deformation of the chainstays squeezed the metal fender". I squeezed the fenders far beyond the reach of a "torsioned" chainstay and... nothing changed.

b) all right, then... "it must be a crack in the bottom bracket shell" (again?) Well, in fact, there seems to be a scratch there in top of the lug but no; after some frame flex test... no, I'm quite sure of that.

c) 2So it's the pedal". I should have ben more methodical. See how it spins... smoooothly! Then...

d) the bottom bracket, perhaps? Well, I've got some eight thousand miles out of it. Yes, could be... but after removing the cranks it seems to run smoothly enough though.

By then I was starting to consider panicking as an option till I reconsidered the chain. Yes, it's a bit old but it's been properly maintained and I mesured it not long ago and found that the wearing-out was negligible. I oiled it (over-oiled, in fact) and the misterious noise slowly faded away...

So that's it: I need a new chain.

Pre-ride

We're planning a training ride that covers the first and last leg of the BPB for this Sunday.
Just over 200 km. No big deal if it was not for the "transport stage" between both legs that includes climbing the Collformic.

Reconnaissance ride

This morning reconnoitred the first leg of the BPB: Montcada- les Mallorquines. In fact, I already knew this stretch but I rode it in a sportiff manner in order to time myself. The average speed was reasonable and managed to feel quite comfortable on the saddle. Beyond Hostalric enjoyed some breath-taking local roads. It seems it's going to be a scenic ride.
I've got a small concern though: an annoying click that seems to come from the right pedal. When did it have its last overhaul?

Signed Up today

Hear, hear, hear! I've already done it: "I took the King's schilling" Well, in fact I'm 75 Euros poorer but a lot happier. I'm on my way to Perpignan (and -hopefully-back...) for the second time. And I'd rather not blow it (if at all possible...). A second blunder would be something hard to deal with.

The day after BRM 400

Compte rendu. Finished the BRM 400 in 23 hours sharp.....

Start at 6 am. The field, a bit over one hundred mostly-sleepy randonneurs (and a couple of randonneuses). The weather... a brief shower replaced the pistol shot. Most of the field donned water-proofs over arm & leg warmers, but I stubbornly stuck to my long-sleeved jacket (made my mind in the last minute and left my fair-weather gear at home). This time the start was from la Font dels Capellans which roughly translates as the Priests' Fountain so we had no choice but threading our way through some of the ill paved streets till we reached the road to Igualada. It's quite a scenic road that climbs the Coll de Maians amidst misty farm-land before plummeting onto Odena and nearby Igualada. By then AR and me were riding alone and all my previous navigating concerns had vanished since that man is a sort of human GPS. In fact, he's able to recall with utmost precision every turn and every gradient of any road he's riden (and I'd dare to say he's riden quite a lot!) So I mostly stuck to his wheel trying to make out I was perfectly aware of the right turn to take. At the first control we meet I.S. and J.N. -a married couple who share a keen interest in randonneuring- and J.M. a man in his sixties who's "already riden almost anything". A.R. and I were obsessed to make a time-buffer so after some cumbersome appologies we left shortly before them. Our run-away was unexpectedly brought to an end an hour or so later when we heard I.S. voice to our back saying something like "gotcha". It was rather embarrassing (and till then we'd been thinking we're making quite a time!). From then on we teamed up till Benabarre. This was our third control point and J.M. opted to pack there (I know he'd made his mind long before). Why? Well, I'm not sure and I don't know him well enough but I remember him packing in this same brevet two years ago. I'd say he's lost his mental endurance somewhere. So then our diminished pack of four faced the long-chilly-and-wet descent back into Catalonia while the sun was setting. Night fell swiftly.It was pitch dark. The expected full moon was hidden behind a cloudy sky so our vision field was limited to a narrow beam of light, bright in the center and gradually fading away in circles. Traffic thinned more and more till we had the whole road for us most of the time. With I.S. leading the pack we needed not our GPS-man. He took us through some short-cuts into Balaguer (the city of the counts of Urgell) vanishing my last navigational concern. The climb to Cubells was uneventful dissipating my doubts on my physical shape ( I remember a previous brevet when I suffered bitterly some years ago in this same spot). It was quite encouraging. We stopped in a pub in Ponts; A.R. knew the owner and he offered us a delicious supper. I took my chance to clean my face from the salty mask accumulated through the day and slept for ten minutes leaning my head on a table in the best randonneur tradition. We left Ponts by two in the morning and faced the last leg of the ride. The climb to Calaf proved challenging and got some sort of cramp that delayed me. I managed to recover somehow just to find the rest of the pack patiently waiting for me at the foot of the hill-of-hell. It's a relatively short but absolutely steep ramp at the outskirts of Calaf (a one in twenty or maybe a bit more; anyway nothing fun to tackle at in the last leg of the ride). From then on we had a really easy ride to the finish (a bit cold though... I was glad to bear my long-sleeve)