Day 11
This
morning started like every other, except we were faced with our bike boxes
outside the bike room, meaning they were ready for us to pack up at the end of
the day. Sad to see those bike boxes...
Today we had planned a signature ride, head all the way into Malaga then climb back out on the Fuente de la Reina. A 16k climb that has appeared in the Vuelta a Espana and the Vuelta de Andalucia. There are names painted on the road, as we've seen on some other roads here in Spain. We certainly don't see that at home. It was a beautiful ride into Malaga, the sun showed a few glimpses, at least it wasn't very cold. The last 20 km into Malaga we saw all kinds of mountain bikers going up the hill and down, with race numbers on their bikes. There was a place where they were pulling off the road and hitting what I hoped were trails. It would have been pretty awful to do a race on mountain bikes that only hit pavement.
View on the road
Andy
We took our
time during the descent knowing that the hard work was to come. I saw lots of
views that deserved pictures but I didn't think taking pictures while
descending at 40kph was a very good idea. We did see lots of cyclists on the
road besides the mountain bikers. We probably saw more cyclists today than we
have since we've been here. Just a couple of K before we got to the roundabout
at the bottom where the climb starts we saw a group of cyclists who were all
wearing the same jerseys. They looked kind of cool all together and looking
like a team, we didn't think we'd see them again since they were already on
their way up. Josh, a rider that Andy hires to ride with us, said they were
Swedish.
We gathered
at the roundabout and started seperately, Heather didn't even stop, she just
went around and headed right back up. It didn't seem like it was a very long
road coming down, but it was a whole different road on the way up. We sometimes
worked together, but the climb was pretty long to do at someone else's pace, so
there was a lot of yoyo-ing going on. Before we knew it we started to catch the
Swedish riders, then we had passed them all. At least that made me feel good.
The 16k climb conveniently ended at a coffee shop. We grabbed a couple of
tables and Rick went in to order the coffees.
Cafe con leche
Andy, Josh and Tim
More coffee, with friendly service
The van was there too so we ate
sandwiches too. Before long the Swedish riders pulled in and I went over to
talk to them. They had just started riding in Spain two days ago, I had 10 days
of riding in my legs, now I really felt good that I could climb faster then
them.
Before long
we were back on the road heading towards Colmenar. It was a beautiful ride
along a rolling crestline, but it was getting cooler. There had been a few
mentions of riding around the mountain on the way back, but the door was open
for whoever wanted to do the ride or head straight home from Colmenar. I caught
up to the rest of the riders at the fork in the road where we had to make the
choice of less than an hour to get home, or about an hour forty five minutes. I
was more than happy to head straight home, I already had 4 hours in today. But
Rick wouldn't let me get away with it, and Jamie said "Last Day!"
Before I knew it, I was doing the longer ride. Rick, Jamie, Colin and myself
headed out for the ride around the mountain. Andy, who had been there with the
van at the intersection, said he would take the van and whoever was in it home,
then come out and meet us part way.
Rick
promised it would be an easy pace, and for a while he kept his word. The
biggest problem was that Colin had all kinds of energy. Jamie commented that
the ride felt a little like a death march. We knew we signed up for more than
we wanted. Around the mountain was a pretty nice ride, with a road that
followed the contours, and had a very slight climb. Right up until we got to a
climb called Lactate Hill. It hit me pretty hard. The name seemed to make
sense, we had been slowly building lactic acid in our legs on grades of 1-4%,
then the hill started and we were doing 8-9% for much longer than I wanted. It
hurt, bad. Finally we were heading downhill, or more than we had been
doing. Soon we met up with Andy and hit
a section of road we had done before, 22k downhill. I didn't feel like pushing
it, and I knew the way home from here, so I let them go on ahead. They waited
up for me after a bit and we took a little road through an orchard that brought
us the back way into Rio Frio, and we thankfully stopped for another
coffee. Andy bought us coffee and some
sweets, the energy stores were getting pretty low.
When we
headed out from there Rick and Colin wanted to do more, MORE! I just wanted to
be done. There was a choice of finishing with a flat or hilly ride, nobody
wanted to hear from me, and we were on our way towards the quarry, down in and
up and out. More climbing, wonderful. Andy held up a little so that I wasn't
too far behind, but he also asked if I knew the way home from here. I would
have been more than happy to let him go, but I still had something left so kept
up, sort of.
Finally the
end was in sight, I knew we were approaching Trabuca, just about 10k left.
After we left Trabuca the speed picked up a bit and I knew Colin, Jamie and
Rick were going to challenge for the gas station sprint. Rick, Andy and I got
caught behind a bus leaving Rosaria, but Rick was able to gain some ground on
the other two after the bus pulled away. I gave it what I could but finished
fourth about 10 metres behind Rick. Four more K and we were home. 164.4 kms,
6:30 hours ride time, 25.1 kph average, 2950 metres of climbing, our biggest
day. I was glad I did it, but more glad that I was home.
The happy gang
Shower,
recovery drink, recovery beer, do some laundry, clean and pack my bike, then
supper, with multi-tasking it was just enough time to get ready before supper.
Supper was great: BBQ steaks and ribs with salad and bread. Wine with dinner of
course as well. Dessert was some kind of tart/pie with ice cream. Andy had
dinner with us which was a nice treat.
Ribs
BBQ Steak
Big salad
Put it all together
How embarrassing, same top!
Dessert
Richard auctioning off leftovers
We said our thank you's to Andy, Tracy
and their daughter, and he thanked us for being such a great group.
Tracy
We weren't
done yet, so we retired to the cabana and stayed up talking for a while and
organizing the next day. This blog would definitely be lacking without some
mention of the gas attacks being emitted by Dan, but closely followed by Tim
this evening. Rick had been rooming with Dan and he could identify Dan's farts
by the aroma since he had been exposed to them so much over the last ten days.
Andy had earlier mentioned to me how much I owed Stephanie for not coming,
because if she had come I would have had to room with Dan... I was very thankful.
So that's
it, time for bed. Tomorrow is travel day. Yay.
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