70 km in the Rain, or Why Life Shouldn't Always Be Easy

Last weekend I had an incredible cycling adventure: a visit to Grodziec Castle, more than 200 km on the clock in total, over 70 km of it in the rain. A flat tire along the way, and yet the whole thing gave me an enormous amount of joy. That was what I call a proper cycling Saturday. It was the first time I had ridden that kind of distance in, believe it or not, five years! I also came away with a few thoughts after the ride. But let's start from the beginning...

I left home before 7:00 in the morning to make it to the meeting point in Lubin. The whole idea came about because a cycling group from Lubin had planned a group ride to Grodziec Castle. I decided to join them because, even though I had more than 40 km just to get to the start, riding in a group seemed like the better option. When I got there, it turned out the ride had been cancelled because of the poor weather forecast... Well, no big deal for the locals, but things were a little different for me. In the end, it was just me and one other person from Legnica, who had also only found out about the cancellation after his "warm-up ride" to Lubin. After a short discussion, we decided we'd ride to the castle on our own. By some bizarre twist of fate, we only managed to stay together for a few kilometres. We somehow lost each other around Krzeczyn near Lubin and had no way of contacting each other. How did that happen? Don't ask. We don't know either. We didn't meet again until Zagrodno.

As a result, I carried on alone, sticking to paved roads because that's simply the kind of riding I prefer. Just past Chojnów, I stopped at a petrol station and replaced the TPU tube as a precaution. The front wheel had already been showing some strange signs of slowly losing pressure, so I'd rather change the tube than risk crashing somewhere. As soon as I finished, it started raining. Exactly as the weather forecast had predicted, a forecast I hadn't believed because it had rained really heavily the night before. Should I wait it out? Well, if the forecast wasn't lying, it was supposed to rain for another four or five hours... Running jacket on, and off I went!

I reached the castle in the rain, then continued to Bolesławiec, where a quick coffee and a hot dog gave me some extra energy. Then came the ride back through Chojnów, because apparently things weren't difficult enough already. In fact, I added even more kilometres when I realised there was a chance to break 200 km. Still in the rain, of course...

It was the first time in my life I'd ridden that far in weather like this. Excuse the language, but I was fucking filthy from head to toe. At least I didn't have to worry about drinking. There was plenty of water flying off the front tire straight into my face. And you know what? Here's the thing: it's doable. The rain, the dirt, the wind... they stop bothering you. They become part of the adventure. I didn't complain. I didn't moan. I didn't have a choice, just like so many times in life. Because what are you going to do when you get a flat 150 or 200 km from home? That used to happen to me. You just get on with it. You "become the Rambo of your own fate."

As usual with rides of the "several hours alone with your own thoughts" variety, there was plenty of time to think. About life, cycling, everything. One thing I know for sure: just as microspikes helped me break through a mental barrier in winter and start running on serious ice, including during the Karkonosze Winter Ultramarathon, this ride showed me that if you've got a jacket, you're fine. There's no point waiting for the perfect weather window.

It also occurred to me that I don't remember a huge number of rides in perfect weather... but yesterday's ride, with all that crap flying into my face, is going to stay with me for a long time, and in a very positive way. Something I've read about before turned out to be true: things can't always be easy and pleasant if you want to feel real joy. That's not what life is about, even if someone tries very hard to convince us otherwise.

This also reminds me of a brilliant line from an old Polish game:

When adventure calls your name

Don't hesitate, come along with us

After all, you want an interesting life

Want to live an easy, simple life on autopilot? Go right ahead. Nobody's stopping you. Just don't blame anyone later when that life turns out to have been kind of bland... kind of shitty.

As for the cycling side of things, I also came away with a few important thoughts:

Getting the handlebars, shifters and everything else properly fitted is absolutely essential. I've been fighting with this for the past two weeks, and if I've reached the point where 200 km feels fine... I guess that's pretty good. I still need to tweak the SPD setup a little, but that's a minor thing now.

I'd been thinking about buying an endurance road bike to go alongside the gravel bike. Right now, I don't really see much point. My current setup is Caracal Race 700x40c tires and a GRX 1x11 drivetrain with a 42T chainring and 11-42T cassette. It all worked extremely well. Sure, I could probably ride a little faster and maybe a little more smoothly on a road bike, but do I really need that? If anything, I'd just change the gearing slightly to 46T + 11-46T and leave it at that. A 1:1 ratio is more than enough for me even on steep climbs like the one up to Grodziec Castle.

If I were going to change anything, I'd rather replace the whole bike with something featuring a 1x13 drivetrain, electronic shifting, UDH and so on. But I don't need that. The equipment isn't what's holding me back. Not yet.