March 23, 2012

Day 3

Richard's wife, Stephanie, developed an arthritic problem over the last couple of months and it has been getting worse. As a result she cancelled her trip here. There was some room reshuffling that turned out to be to my benefit. I have a two bed room all to myself. This balanced washroom usage, three people share our washroom. Needless to say, I'm very happy about it. But my room is very quiet, so I slept in this morning to 9am, breakfast is ready at 8.

But everyone had a slow start this morning, so we didn't get out until 10:30 or so. It was crazy windy this morning. When we headed out on the dirt road this morning we found gusts that were trying to push us off the road. Actually Richard was pushed off the road, he crashed right into the ditch and the van picked him up and took him out to the gas station. When he got on his bike he realized his Garmin was missing. Luckily Andy went back and was able to find it. Our original plan was to do a flattish 140k, but that changed with the wind. We ended up doing a series of climbs. Total mileage 115k, avg speed 23.6km/hr, and total climbing 1980 metres. Not a bad start. I began the day really strong but after lunch I moved into survival mode. Other riders probably had a better average.

One of the riders, Colin, used to be an Elite triathlete, but he hasn't done a lot lately. His legs remembered what to do though, he seems to be the strongest rider. The airline lost his luggage, so he rode in gear borrowed from Andy. Didn't seem to affect his day...

Like last year we saw many amazing views, one of them was the reservoir behind a dam that road was built on. Some of the towns we went through were Archidona, Lagueda, La Ruta, Antequerra, we are in Villanueva de Rosaria (or something like that).

Dinner was bigger than your head burritos. I ate one. Last year I ate everything on my plate and I gained weight while I was here. This year I want to lose weight, so I'm cutting back. After dinner we decided not to plan for the next day yet. Forecast is all over the place, so we'll see in the morning. After finishing off a couple of bottles of wine, and ending up with an awful case of the hiccups, I thought I'd better just get some rest.

 

It was getting cool when we finished up, so I had a quick shower then did the hot tub/cold tub thing to flush my legs. Tim, who hasn't ridden yet because he's been suffering from back/leg pain, went out for a one hour ride after we got back - he had spent the day in the van and I think he was tired of watching everyone else. Anyway, he seems no worse for wear, hopefully he'll start the ride with us tomorrow.