March 29, 2012

Day 9

Today we are riding the Puerto Del Sol, a 7km climb that is a local riders test. There are about 23 turns on the way up the hill, and there are 1k markers painted on the road. As we were getting ready to go I heard some laughter from the girls' cabin, then all 4 of them came out wearing white lace stockings with little hearts on them, with their riding kit. Lots of posing commenced and the girls started their ride dressed just like that.

As we passed the gas station on the way to Rosario, Andy waved us in and said that we have company: The Spaniards had come out to play. Andy said their A team was here: I recognized all three of them from last year, including the one guy in the Spanish National Team kit with the Zipp 404s. We set off and the pace was already pretty high climbing out of the valley. I was in the third row and was thinking that this was too fast to have a decent climb later, so I sat up and let the other five pull away. That's when I realized that everyone behind me had already cut it back and we're spinning along a little easier. The weather was beautiful, lots of sun and very little wind. Soon I caught up with Dan who had drifted off the Spaniards as well. We rode together for a while until we caught up Gerrad, then we waited for the rest of the group since we were at an intersection. A few Kms later the Spaniards were waiting for us and we rode together at a much more accommodating pace until we approached the Puerto climb. 

The Spaniards didn't wait, they just took off and I never saw them again. We took a few minutes to strip off warmers and jackets to make the most of our climb, and we started separately and each timed our climbs ourselves. It was quite a climb, most of the grade was around 9%. It seemed to favour those who knew the climb, since you could gain some advantage by making the most of the lower grade areas. After what seemed like a never ending series of switchbacks I finally saw the 1k mark. So I turned it up and then saw the 500m mark, then before I knew it there was the van and it was over: 29 minutes 30 seconds. Not spectacular. Others were around the same time, most were better :(

 

After the climb we went looking for a coffee shop. The little town at the bottom of the hill was very small. We found the cafe at the town square but it was closed, participating in the general strike. We wandered the little streets and found another cafe/bar that was open. It was also very small, no room for us to sit inside, so we sat on the sidewalk and waited for our coffees. 

Gerrad went in to use the washroom and came out with the news that it was kind of a two man operation: the washroom door opened outward and the catch was on the outside, so if you wanted privacy you had to have someone guard the door for you. And the washroom had only a little sink and a little urinal - no toilet, no good for the women. But the girls had to go so they asked the barmaid; she took them next door to her house to use her washroom... small towns, amazing. As we sat outside we could hear a commotion from around the corner, next thing there was a herd of goats being walked down the narrow streets. Really small town.

The sky clouded over and the ride home was filled with cold descents and hot climbs. But it was a pretty good day. 101.5 kms, 1800 metres of climbing, average speed around 25kph, total ride time 4:05.

Dinner was my favourite from last year: Lamb Hocks. Great big knuckles of fall off the bone meat served with mashed potatoes, corn and green beans. My friends helped me out with the green beans, I just can't eat those things. Apple pie with custard for dessert. It was very good, everything I remembered.

 Lamb Hock dinner

Colin's dessert with double custard

After dinner we did the nickname choosing for the little wall plaques, and apparently if you already had a nickname it didn't matter, you get a new one every time you set a personal best. There was lots of fun, and a few bruised egos, but in the end what happens in Spain stays in Spain. So no nicknames will appear on this blog. I make no promises about Facebook :)

Tomorrows route will be another 100 plus day, with maybe 5000 feet of climbing, also known as "Spain flat." It's hard to believe that we are down to our last two days of riding, looking back it all seems so fast.

 Our little kitchen at Idle Breaks

March 28, 2012

Day 8

Today is our rest day. We stuck with our last plan from yesterday, which had us going to Malaga. It's only a 40 minute drive to downtown from here, so it's the easiest trip we could do anyway. Richard pointed out Paul Allen's big boat in the harbour, and we walked in to the shopping area of downtown and grabbed a couple of tables to start with cafe con leche before going our own way. The pastries looked pretty good so I had some of those as well. 

The plan was to meet back by the carpark at 2pm, it's now 11:30. I left my money for the coffee and headed off on my own. I had a tourist map and wondered how far I could get while still doing some shopping for souvenirs. Got lots of pictures of narrow streets, churches, a roman amphitheatre, and whatever else I felt like pointing my camera at. 

 

 Roman Amphitheatre

Got my intended shopping done, and was on schedule to meet everyone at 2pm. I was pretty thirsty for some beer, but I knew table service wasn't the quickest, so I just headed for the meeting spot. No one was there when I go there, I checked to see if the vehicles were still there, and they were, so I looked for beer.

There was a little cafe right nearby that had self-service beer and food plates. I got in line and was joined by Roxanne who just got there. Beer was 1 euro for a bottle or a draft, and food was 6 euros a plate. We sat down with beer first, then Roxanne got a plate of thinly sliced ham, then we were joined by Heather. I got more beer for us and a plate of breaded and spiced chicken, there still wasn't anyone else there at 2:30. At some point we realized that there was a beer special: bucket of 5 bottles for 3 euros! Roxanne went and got a bucket. Just then most of the others showed up and we shared the beers.

Next up was a drive to a coastal area called Torremolinos. We walked for about an hour on this big empty beach. It occurred to me that the weather today at the beach was the best you could hope for at Queensland beach, and it would be packed there. Here it was like a ghost town. Then the drive back home and a little more relaxation before our planned evening out for dinner in Villenuava del Trabuca, a little town about 7kms away. Some of us had a lot of sun, Heather had a very interesting pattern on her chest from a necklace that she had been wearing, she acted more than a little embarassed about it, but considering the biker tans that most of us will have, hers was more of a novelty than an aberration.

On the way to dinner we stopped at the local bike shop for some more roadie specific shopping. This bike shop is in a guy's garage, has about 20 bikes in it, and everything else behind the counter in his work stand area. Two carloads of us showed up at once and Pepe essentially let us have the run of his shop. We were all behind his counter, pulling jerseys out from under his counters, trying stuff on, handing it around, doing the best we could to find a few deals, or at least find something to buy that wasn't identical to something we could get at our LBS. By the time we were done we probably bought 25% of his clothing stock, and he'd paid his bills for the week.

Taking over Pepe's bike shop

Dinner was in a local restaurant where you ordered drinks at the bar first and had tapas before sitting down for the meal. 

 Tapas and beer

 Appetizers

We had reserved a table, but being Wednesday night we were pretty well the only guests. When it came time to order dinner we needed help from Nathalie, Andy's daughter, as the menu wasn't completely bilingual. Colin, Jamie and I ordered Paella to share, and we ordered a couple of platters of mixed starters. 

 Paella

Real Boar's Head

Needless to say there was wine flowing at the table. There was a lot of food, by God there was a lot of food. Everyone was sharing food from others plate's as they took a while to arrive. We were done eating all we could of Paella before Roxanne and Heather got there dinners at all. Roxanne had wild boar steak and Heather had roast chicken. No one ordered the meatballs made with pig brains... not sure why.

Andy had a little task for us during dinner: Since our little time plaques for his wall needed nicknames for everyone he handed out little pieces of paper and pens to all of us to come up with names. It got going kind of slowly, but as the wine flowed more and more little cards were filled out and stuffed in Andy's box. All to be voted on by best reaction on one of the following nights. Apparently our old nicknames won't do, we need new ones that mean more to people from the current camp.

Rick had taken a collection before dinner to pay for all of our meals and also for Andy, Tracy and Nathalie. He also warned us that Andy would insist on paying his own way. To settle the matter Rick challenged Andy to an arm wrestle; it was hard fought but Rick managed to take Andy down in a show of resounding inevitability - he wore him out.

It was midnight by the time we got back, and I hit the sack. Tomorrow is supposed to be another "flattish" ride, but we'll be climbing Puerto Del Sol which we can time if we want. It is also a general strike day in Spain, so we might see some local riders out, something we haven't seen much of since we've been here. Nothing like another timed climb!

March 27, 2012

Day 7

Today we ride Sierra Nevada. Last night there was lots of talk about how hard this was going to be, some of the girls got pretty anxious about it. Everyone got in the vans early enough to get out on time. The bikes were packed in Andy's trailer, a really neat contraption that has one rack to hold about 10 bikes with the front wheel off. Then it closes up and locks, the front wheels also fit inside. Just as we were getting ready Andy points out to me that I have a split in the sidewall of my rear tire, I have an extra tire with me so I planned on changing it before I started the ride in Grenada.

 

 the village at the bottom of the climb

It was an hour's ride to Grenada, we stopped just on the edge of town for coffee, then rolled further in to a staging area about one km from the beginning of the climb. Everyone pulled their bikes out and I got to work changing my tire. I was pretty quick changing the tire, only to find that I pinched the tube as I was doing it, and had to do it again with a new tube. Not my favourite way to start a ride. Francine, Erika and Heather headed off first, in our best guess on how to stage the starts. The rest of us waited a while. We took our time riding to the bridge where the official start is, then Roxanne headed off. Then it was Richard and Dan, then me, then Tim and Jamie, then Gerrad and Colin.

I hadn't warmed up, and it wasn't long before I regretted it. After only a few hundred metres the road gets steep, and my legs felt like I was hauling wood up the hill. The first 10k started with open road with switchbacks, the grade going from 6% to 14%. Then we were in the quarry with grades hitting at one point 22%. I passed Roxanne before the worst of it, then Colin passed me right where there was a little downhill reprieve before one last kicker of 14% in the quarry. 

 

 Roxanne finishing strong

As I exited the quarry road Tracy (Andy's wife who was driving the van) held me up because there was traffic on the main road, I missed carrying that momentum. From then on it was major road, very good surface with good shoulders and grades averaged 6% with little variation for the next 10km. It was a good time to recover and figure out how you were doing. Up until the end of the quarry my heart rate slowly creeped up to about 164, then came down from there after I finished that section. This was good and bad: Good because theoretically I had a lot more to give, bad because I can usually reach much higher heart rates while working out - I thought it should have been higher. It took me 49 minutes to do the first 10km.

I spun out the next km or so, then set a tempo that I thought I could maintain. Right when I thought I was doing well Gerrad passed me... Guess I wasn't doing as well as I thought. A little while later I passed Heather. I tried to increase the effort gradually, but my heart rate still wasn't coming up very much. The weather was very nice, warmest day we had yet. It was the first time I was riding without knee warmers and a jacket. I did pull out my camera a few times to get some pics. 

After 20 km

I kept looking behind to see when Tim and Jamie were going to catch me - they never did, apparently they made a couple of stops - Tim dropped his bottle, they stopped for water at one of the trucks. They took their time. I kept trying to push it, but I couldn't get the effort up. At about 22km you make a left turn into a wooded area and the grade comes down to near flat for a couple of Kms. I got into the big ring, hit 33kph and felt like I was flying. Then you turn right again and the grade goes back up. As the kms ticked off I thought I could ratchet up the effort and keep testing myself - it didn't work out well. The grade was hitting 8-9% mostly now, though the terrain made it look a lot lower. Kind of like Magnetic Hill, but in reverse. Every time I stood to gain some speed it just wasn't happening. Last year I did this climb in 2:14, I was hoping for 2:10. I had already seen the 2 hour mark go by, and was doing math in my head to figure out what kind of speed I needed to match my goal. I caught Erika then saw Francine up ahead. It wasn't far now, I recognized the landmarks, but it also got steeper as it got under one k to go. 

Just as I caught Francine at the last corner Andy was there to pace us up on his mountain bike, he accelerated and I had nothing! I finished at 2:11, better than last year, but not quite what I'd hoped for. There were some other fantastic times, I think Colin achieved the 4th best ever time, but we'll review all of those another night when Andy writes up our little plaques to put on his wall.

 All of us at the top

Dinner was great big meatballs and white rice with salad, and carrot cake with ice cream, all of it very tasty. 

 Double dessert for Colin

After dinner we tried to work out what was going to happen with our trip to Alhambra tomorrow. It didn't take long for us to find out that there was a wrench in our plans: The tickets to get into Alhambra were sold out, and if you couldn't get in there it wasn't worthwhile going to Grenada. After a bunch of debate over various other towns, including Nerja where we'd gone last year, we settled on going to Malaga which has lots of historic sites, shopping, and tapas bars - something to please everyone. We'll see if the plan holds when we get up in the morning.

Oh yeah, riding stats: 30kms, 2:11 (my ride time), average speed 13.7 kph (sounds pathetic) and 1778 metres of ascent. One of the toughest climbs in the world, I believe it.

March 26, 2012

Day 6

I had a rough time sleeping last night, awake at about 3 until 4. Then on and off for the rest of the night. I heard Erika and Tim head out for breakfast, checked my watch, 8:15, and fell right to sleep for 30 more minutes, now I'm late - great.

At breakfast there was a plate already made up for me: a couple of hard boiled eggs I'd requested and Richard had made me a little bread with cheese. He must be vying for some kind of new reputation from my blog. First he pulls me in yesterday, then fixes me a special breakfast, I don't know what the hell he's up to :)

  

Richard "Old Man Power" climbing out of Conception

 Indian Head rock in the background

 We headed out at 10 for an "easy ride" which took us into Antequera, which was a surprisingly busy little town. Gerrad had a little excitement when his front wheel went into a sewer grate and it threw him over the bars, no injury though, lucky for him. We packed sneakers in the van so we could take a break and walk around. The girls took off right away to do some shopping. 

  

   

 Bull Ring in Antequera

  

Walking through Antequera

The guys found a coffee shop (as if it's hard to find one) and sat down for cafe con leche and churros. Churros are a version of donuts. Deep fried batter that is light and crispy, but we needed to put a little sugar on them. 

 

 Cafe con leche and Churros

  

 and a little beer

  

Erika and Roxanne

  

Bike lane in Antequera

 

Up to this point the ride was pretty easy, but that changed on the way out of town. My computer battery had run out so I don't know how steep it actually was, but with the headwind some of the guys said they were doing 8kph. I was not feeling great, for a while only Rick was behind me, he said to let them charge the hill, the climb is about 12kms. The van pulled in front of us to break the wind a little but Andy drove a little slower than we were going on our own so we lost more ground to the others. When the van pulled away Rick got in front of me and he tried to catch Dan. At some point I had had enough and dropped off and let him go. After cresting the pass it was a descent from the entrance to El Torqual down into the town, the group was all there.

I knew that the next 5 k had a 1km climb at about 17% that I didn't need to do today. So I jumped in the van until after the worst of the climb. Then all of us who were in the van, the 4 girls and I, rode back. We found our own pace and took it easy. No need to charge back to the Inn. I rode with Roxanne, who is one of the strongest women I've ever ridden with and we chatted for a bit. She had said that she would like to try my bike, so when we got to some smooth road we switched. At the end of the next descent she asked to switch back, the seat was too high and she had to get in front of the saddle to pedal, but she loved it going downhill. She has a Specialized Tarmac which seemed very plush compared to my bike.

We got back by 4pm, and lounged around the pool and hot tub. The sun finally came out nice and strong, and the hot tub area is sheltered from the wind. It was actually warm for the first time in days. I could feel a burn starting almost right away so I retreated inside before too long. I finished the day with a real nice nap!

Dinner tonight was very good: Large chicken breasts wrapped in prosciutto and filled with stuffing. It was larger than your hand. It came with broccoli, roast potatoes, carrots and gravy. I finished it with some bread, vinegar and oil. Dessert was chocolate cake with ice cream. Tonight's conversation around the dinner table was more animated than usual. We started off talking about the planned climb tomorrow at Sierra Nevada, then it moved on to lactate threshold, current weight vs previous, lifestyle choices affecting weight loss, obesity, gross obesity, insanely grotesque obesity... you get the idea. It was actually a pretty relaxing evening and I had a lot of fun.

  

 Andy has the floor

  

 Supper!

  

Tim and Gerrad relaxing after dinner

 

Tomorrow we head for Grenada a little earlier than we normally head out, but we have to drive for about an hour. Then we'll have a staged start so that we finish up as close together as we can estimate it. I figure I'll do better than last year, but not much. We'll see.

March 25, 2011

Day 5

It seems that half my post got cut off yesterday, sorry about that. I must not have saved the file correctly. I wasn't even drunk, don't know what happened!

This morning the weather was cloudy and a little windy so we did our planned ride - oh yeah, that didn't get posted yesterday, did it? We did what must be my favourite ride here: Out to Colmenar, sweeping downhill for about 6km into Riogordo, up to the base of the mountain below Zafarria, then the 11km climb up to Zafarria, then up and out the other side. At this point the group split, some had had enough. Rick, Jamie and I continued on for another 90 minutes or so. At the end of it we had 130km, 5:15 ride time, 24.8kph average, 2080 metres of climbing.

On the way to the base of Zafarria we passed two German cyclo-tourists with full panniers. We had passed them going uphill, but they caught and passed us going downhill. 

We stopped at a little bar where we had been last year for cafe con leche before doing the climb. 

 

I had a much better climb up to Zafarria this year than last year: I started near the back and passed everyone on the way up.  By about 2/3 of the way up I had passed everyone in the group so I stopped to take pictures of some of the other riders below me on the switchbacks. 

I thought I wanted to strip off some layers but it was getting colder the further up I went. Once I got going again, after a couple of turns I saw the tourists again, that would not have been as nice a climb with all those bags. Jamie caught me just before I got to the top but held off passing me - nice guy, not like a roadie at all. It took about 40 minutes, average grade was 6 to 7%, only briefly hitting 10 at some of the switchbacks. 

 Jamie taking pics of the German Cyclo-Tourists

We stopped for lunch at a bar just at the top of the hill, and we all got very cold very quickly. Everyone was diving into their bags in the truck to find more layers - or at least something they hadn't soaked from sweat on the way up the mountain. The fog we had seen all around us had settled in the mountain pass. During lunch Rick told me he was right behind me, which was a little surprising since I passed him way down the hill. Then it came out that he had gotten a pull from the van, then rode in the draft of the van for a ways as well. But he didn't catch me. He had wanted to make some statement about old man power or something like that ;)

When the group split later on we had just climbed for another 5k or so, but from here it was downhill for 12 or 15 kms. 

 Dan finishing the climb

 Francine and Erika

Just as we headed off I said to Rick "Easy pace, right?" and Jamie said he was good with that too. Rick said "Sure" then he took off. I couldn't even catch up to him. We hit speeds up to 65kph. And caught up with the van and I drafted that for a while. Soon I was joined by Jamie as Rick had dropped him too. At the end of the descents we met Andy and topped up our bottles, then he headed home since we knew the way back and Rick had the cellphone to call him if necessary. Then I let old man power do his thing, and he pulled me and Jamie all the way back. It was still brutal, we had a headwind and I had a hard time keeping his wheel at 25kph. At the end Rick said "I don't mind doing that, because now you have to write about in your blog." So I told him I wasn't going to write it that way, hey, it's my blog.

After getting back we found that we had about 35kms more than the others. Ann was there today so both Rick and I got massages. Vacationing here is rough.

Supper tonight was roast chicken (half of a chicken), baked potatoes, salad, coleslaw, and banoffee pie for dessert. 

I had to save half my chicken for later. I had eaten my second lunch sandwich as soon I got back, but that was less than two hours ago. I just couldn't eat anymore. Weight loss plan might not be working out that well either.

Tomorrow is a "flattish ride" according to Andy, as he described the route. The first thing was to go out through the quarry, which is not flat. Andy said "but you're seasoned climbers now, that's just a nipple." The next day will probably be the Sierra Nevada climb, so I don't need a lot of climbing tomorrow. The weather still isn't the greatest, we didn't see any sun until after lunch, forecast is supposed to be better tomorrow.

March 24, 2012

Day 4

So I drank too much wine last night. I felt it this morning, and all day. The weather was not optimal, it was spitting when we started, and we never saw sun all day. This is no good for my tan.

 

Josh was with us today, he's a young British guy who works as a pro for Andy though he's only available on the weekends. Tim also joined us today since he found that he could ride without pain. We headed off, going the opposite direction from usual, under the highway, up a local road, under the highway again, then around a couple of roundabouts. BOOM, down went three riders in front of me from the greasy road surface with the light rain on the roundabout. Josh, Colin and Dan went down instantly and I had to find some road around Dan with him sliding across it. I managed to release the inside pedal and tripod around Dan. I stopped, still upright, just before the dirt. That was my one freebie. For the rest of the day we were dealing with roads that were just a little wet and we were nervous. 

We went down a very steep road towards the town of El Torqual, it was a little wet and I was afraid to stay off the brakes because the speeds were getting very high. I saw a sign that said 10% down, I looked at my Garmin and it fluctuated from 14% to 17% down. We managed to come through unscathed, but it was still nervous. A little later Tim had to readjust in the middle of a corner from a Land Rover filling most of the road and he went down and scraped his hip pretty bad.

Richard wasn't feeling great, so he was on and off his bike a few times, climbing into the van on occasion. That helped out Jamie who had a mechanical and couldn't use his bike.

We enjoyed some great rolling curvy roads, though there were some fairly sudden corners. Then it was my turn: On a reducing radius right turn I hit some gravel and my rear wheel came around and I was heading for the guardrail. It seemed to be slow motion, but at the same time I couldn't regain control, though I thought I should have. I dumped the bike and hit the road hard. I quickly checked my hip, and my brand new shorts were not ripped (Yay!). I had a jacket and knee warmers on, so there was some protection but I could tell there were some scrapes in places. Most of the group was behind me and they gathered around me to make sure I was alright. The bike was fine, and I wanted to get moving before I stiffened up. So I got right back on the bike and was at the front of the group until our next stop, about 20 minutes later. The adrenalin was pumping hard. 

 Wayne, Dan, Colin and Tim.

 Tim had his covered in the last shot! So he wanted a do over.

When we got back I got right in the shower, and thankfully found that there was no major damage. My hip wasn't scraped, my right forearm was a little torn up but not bleeding and I had a couple of scrapes on my knee but also no bleeding.