The ride that almost didn't happen...

One of those days... You know when you struggle to get out of bed... You are running late to the start of the ride.. You are spinning around the house and can't find your cycling gear...Even when you know where it is..Even when you had most of it sitting on the table from the night before.. Somehow you still manage not to get ready quick enough..

But it doesn't finish there..!!! You manage to get ready, you somehow get to the start of the ride on time.. And what is next??? No one is there..!!! You have to be kidding me..!!

I did stay and wait around for a few minutes...(20) and no one ever showed up so I decided to turn around and go home... I was not happy and wanted to be home since it was a bit chilly... As I worked my way home up a nice local climb I started thinking... I am already out.... I am all kitted... I am warmer now... What a hell I am going for a ride..!!!

So I started heading out of town looking for some exploring and easy riding.. Since I need to work on my endurance.. My speed will come up one day but if it doesn't oh well... As I was heading down a hill I spotted an old iron bridge that looked great to stop and take some pictures around...

The sun provided some great lighting for the pictures... Not that I understand anything about all that but it looked nice and made a nice contrast of dark and light... As I decided to go with the black & white look for some of this pics.

There was a nice little water stream running under the bridge... That you can see on the next picture..Also you can see the surrounding hills that are a registered mark land around here...

On the picture above you can also see some of what me look like single track MTB lines on the bottom right of the picture.. ( I am trying to convince my wife to let me but one) There is lots of trails around here and seems extremely popular...

After the little break to take some pictures was time to leave the "Iron Bridge" behind and keep heading up the road to see what else I could find....

I kept going up the road that is not steep but is constantly going up...So while cruising on the small chain ring working on my cadence and on keeping a steady tempo (according to my HRM) deep into my thoughts, most of them related to how bad it feels to be out of shape and how hard it is to get back into it... Oh while all this was going on in my head saw a sign that reming me of a friend from Geneva... He loves his cows so I took this one for him...

The wind was blowing sort of hard from one side and at the same time cross... It was uncomfortable but manageable going up hill... The concern in my head was when you hit 50 km/h going downhill... Hmmmm.... OK time turn around and head back home or closer to it..

Where am I living now?

 
Coín is the name of our new town... A really nice one in the middle of lots of mountains and water streams that make up for great views and riding all around...

After all the stopping for pictures waiting around and whatever else I did during this ride +Strava tells me that I rode 26 km and climbed 500 mt during like one and a half hour... Mission accomplished..!

So to resume the day? Got out..! Did some exploring..! Took some pictures..! And had fun..!

Hope you enjoyed the reading and see you at the next post..!

Thanks for reading and sharing

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

A day at La Vuelta Ciclista de Andalucia

Early start for us here in Coín on a Saturday morning... Everyone up and running around the house to get ready for a day that will for sure stay with us for a long time.. In our memories and one that will take a special place as the first ever professional race we attended..

Where were we going??? Just follow the signs.....

Early to catch the bus to Alhaurin de La Torre where the stage was going to take place, it was a T.T stage.. This means a Time Trial to my none very much into cycling readers.. To keep it simple a T.T is a race over a set distance against yourself and the clock...

If you ever plan to go and see a race and soak in the environment of the race and be elbow to elbow with race riders, team members and officials let me suggest to you to get to a T.T one for that experience... You are always surrounded by everyone and can see lots of little details if you like them..

As we got to our destination and came off the bus you could already feel and see that the race was in the air... Not long after we started walking we saw the signs that we were going the right way..

Here is the team Giant Alpecin warming up... +Alpecin Shampoo  +Alpecin Cycling TV

As we kept walking to get closer to the start line and where all the movement and riders were getting ready you could see more and more cycling stuff all over the place... Example? More riders..!!!

Here is one of the Team Trek-Segafredo doing a recon of the circuit to follow later in the day +Trek Bicycle +Segafredo

Without actually knowing where we were heading we kept walking following the people and loads of cycling related signs along the way till we reached the START point of the race...!!!

From this little platform is where each rider is launch to do the circuit in the shortest time possible.. Is also good to see and know that at least this race seems to be safe in the Spanish calendar with lots of sponsors... From this corner of the interwebs let me say thank you to the ones I can read in this picture...

Without knowing it I was making contact with the bike that would be on top of the podium today when I approached the BMC cycling team... #BMC

And when I mean predicting the podium doesn't get any closer then this... +Tejay Van Garderen

Also took the same sort of picture of Samu Sanchez bike but it didn't come out well... :(

+Team Sky  was very impressive with their set up... And one thing that caught my eye as I walk by...

T.T World Champ Bike..... +Pinarello snc

+Ccc Sprandi Polkowice Team bus pays attention to details.. Loved it..!

Team Wanty horses getting tune up... I Wanty one..! See what I did there? +CUBE Bikes 

A classic bike that the Dimention Data brings alone.. Great paint job..!

We are getting close to the finish line... We are getting close to the end of this report... We are getting close to the META

And to close up let me tell you who the real winner of the day was... Even better let me show you..!

With the last picture I represent the hundreds of families and fans that had an amazing experience at +Ruta del Sol, Vuelta Ciclista a Andalucía I will be back next year..!!!

Thanks for reading and sharing

See you at the next post

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

The Golden Rules?

As part of our new life here in Málaga, Spain we decided to get the kids out the door a bit more and away from all the video games, computers, tablets, DS's, X-box and whatever else they are using that goes beyond my knowledge.

Now we do not have the excuse of the bad weather... Doesn't rain all that often and the temperature is just borderline perfect.. So NO EXCUSES...!!! 

Lets take a walk around to see the different activities... Karate..!!! MTB for kids..!!! (did you see the picture about this in the pictures page of the blog?) Basketball..!!! (so many memories!!) and lets face it this is España..... FUTBOL...!!!

After studying the different options for the little one and asking the main person involved in taking part of the activity we decided for.....:

The little man choose to play futbol... Don't ask me why I am not a futbol person and we only watch soccer when the world cup is on... But he can't deny the German/Argentinian gene pool he has right?

I was so happy to see him running and having fun with other kids his age just wearing shorts and a t-shirt under the warm sun of South Spain... This another reason we moved here.. For the kids to be that.. KIDS... Been outside run and play with others like them to us is very important and believe it or not the weather has a lot to do with this... Is impossible for them to be outside if the weather conditions don't allow it...

After the practice was done and we were walking out of the field I found one of the best picture and signs ever..!!! And perhaps should be golden rules when it comes to kids and sports.. But is not up to me to decided on this one... Is just up to me to put it out there and maybe help someone to remember why we wanted our kids to play sports.

Yes they are in Spanish but don't worry I do my best to interpret the meaning of each one... Translation doesn't make justice or gives the true meaning of them:

1- DO NOT yell at me and give me instructions.

2- DO NOT yell at me in public.

3- DO NOT yell at the coach.

4- DO NOT say anything bad about my team mates.

5- DO NOT say anything bad about the other team either.

6- DO NOT say anything to the referee.

7- NEVER loose control.

8- DO NOT tell me my mistakes after the game.

9- DON'T FORGET to smile and have fun with me.

10- DON'T FORGET this is just a game, I will do what I can but doubt I will become the next

"SUPER STAR'

Hope this lines can help someone out there or someone you know to remember the true meaning of playing any sport at young age, as a kid all you want is to have fun and even better if the parents join and have a smile while doing it.

Thanks for reading and sharing

See you at the next post..

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Get to know a bit of Málaga City..!!

Yesterday we had to travel with the family to Málaga Centro (centro meaning capital) to look at some requirements and information to get the necessary paperwork to start a "normal" life here..

So we took the bus into the city… A lovely bus ride of about 1:30 hour and you go across lots of different small towns and cities that are beautiful.. Along the route you have this sort of views ….

Is so nice to be in a sort of warm weather… Surrounded by mountains and routes that are not heavy congested by traffic… (there is some traffic still) where you can dream of riding your bike all the time.. I saw a few riders along the way.. So riding in this routes is an option that I am hoping to start doing at some point..

We finally made it to Málaga City (is not the name but I will call it like that) where one of the first things that hit me was how clean it was.. Is a city and I am used to big dirty ones.. This is a smaller one but clean and guess what??? They have a bike sharing program..!!!

The bikes? Well they do not look as the most inviting ride you could get…. They are used a lot.. (good sign right?) and with this comes good users and bad users.. So they must be reliable and probably well maintained for everyone to use them in regular bases… But with so much use the bikes look like someone dragged them on the street or felt down the side of a mountain…

And if happened to be in Málaga and don’t know what to do or where to go here is a list of interesting places you can visit…

And when is time to return your bike there is a map of where the nearest bike station is…So just look at where the closest one to you is and ride the machine there...

Forgot to mention that the bike lanes and cycling structure looks safe enough to ride in the city… The side walks are split for walkers and bike users… Looks very neat but I failed to take a picture of this… Maybe next time..!!!

Hope you enjoyed the Tuesday Trip..!!

Thanks for reading and sharing 

See you at the next adventure

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy... Working extra for you in a Tuesday ;)

Bienvenidos a Coín...!!!

As I said on the title... Welcome to Coin..!

Yes the first step into following our goals, plans and dreams was taken last week when we took a plane from our former home in Belfast, Northern Ireland to travel to Malaga in between all the mountains and no more then 30 minutes from the Mediterranean sea...

What this week looked like so far? Well it is a constant learning experience when it comes to the way different things get done here... (paperwork is tedious anywhere but when you are doing it in a new language is a real pain..!) Luckily I am almost fluent in Spanish... No seriously it is my first language but it has been so long that the language evolved and there are some words I have no idea what they mean..

What the new town looks like? Beautiful..! Really clean..! and people are extremely friendly and willing to help.. Everyone is wishing you well and all the success in the new life at the new place...

The pic on top is from an old hydroelectric system, late 1800's early 1900's and is just a few hundred meters from our new home... The new home is situated in the middle of a hill that is most likely from bottom to top around a km long...

Have to think how to route my rides so I can finish on the downhill into the house.. The last hairpin before the house could mean walking after a long day on the saddle...

Coín is situated in the center of a chain of mountains about 30 km from Málaga city or capital, not sure what the right term is... and about 25 km from Marbella... Marbella really doesn't need much introduction right? Is like the West Palm Beach or Malibu of the Mediterranean sea... Lots of celebrities... Lots of people with lot of money living in the same town.. or that is what I heard.. I didn't see any...

Oh yes..! We went to Marbella and had a picnic at the beach while the kids ran around and soaked their feet in the sea under a warm sun... It was windy as hell and we had to keep everything cover from the flying grains of sand but all the troubles were well worth it for the end result...

Looking forward to keep exploring the new town and start riding my bike as soon as possible..!

Thanks for reading and sharing

See you at the next update

Pablo 

The Weekend Report Guy