Puerto del Viento.. Viento is Ventoux??

I went for a ride with Jose this weekend since my Saturday riding group was on a trip.. The vistas during the ride looked like this..

The weather was great early in the morning since it was a bit cloudy making the ride cool during the first couple of hours.. Also the sun playing hide and seek in the clouds gave us this view..

This area of Málaga has the particular characteristic that as you ride you can see the change in the landscape.. You go from riding in a forest of pines to ride in a desertic Colorado looking area..

Is hard to imagine for anyone that during the Winter months you can see snow up here.. As most of you know this is known as Costa Del Sol... Coast of the sun... The average temps are always around 30 celsius... And as you are riding and sweating buckets this sign seems out of place here..

Remember the Colorado reference? Well I actually never been there but I am very much sure it looks similar to this...

After almost 3 hours of riding we reached our destination and turn around point.. Puerto del Viento..!!
A steady climb at 1190 meters above sea level.. Here is José and a local guy that joined for the pic..

As we turned around was a lot of downhill and time to put the camera away.. But right before I did so I found this great view of part of what we had climb to get to the summit of this local mountain..

The way back home was a hard one.. We found that the wind decided that we didn't work hard enough to get over all the mountains on the way out so it gave us a beating all the way back home... As you can see the smaller engines were spent before we got home..

But all was fixed after we got back into this town that we call home... The drink and snacks were all we needed to get some life back into us..

And since we all like happy endings.. This is me wishing you were here with us to enjoy this adventure... Cheers..!!!

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Thanks for reading and see you next time

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

To Instan with the fast guys

On Saturday my day started early… Couldn’t sleep well the night before.. Went to bed at 2 and was up before 7… So I was the first one at the meeting point..

It was a hard ride on our way to Instan, that is the name of the town on top of a beautiful climb.. As we rode hard up I didn’t take any pictures.. I was trying to get a few PR on my way up and I was doing extremely well…. Till we found a guy laying on the ditch and a bunch of other cyclists around him and a car parked a little farther up the road.. My first thought was the worst.. I thought he got hit.. Fortunately I was wrong..

He was coming down the hill hit a rock and ended up on the ditch on the other side of the road.. Lucky him he wasn’t hurt too bad.. scratches and bruises, road rush and shaken.. The hip too a nasty hit and might need x-rays.. But he was conscious and nothing obvious broke…

After this incident my momentum was gone and I just follow the rest of the guys up the hill at whatever speed I could go.. We finally reached the refilling point..

You should see the size of the bike and water bottle holder of the guy with the green bidon..

Then I joined them down there for a pic… Pay attention to the guy on the left…

Next time you have something to complain think of this guy and what he does every time he gets on the bike.. And don’t give silly excuses anymore on why you didn’t go for a ride.. Also a bit of his background: He finished 20 on the world championship of his category.. He is a very strong rider..!! Yes he passed me up the hill…!!

Coming down the hill I hung off the back to take some pics.. The guys… Well they didn’t wait..

So it was like this till they dropped me.. Take pic..Chase..

This guy was a slower descender… I kept him close by.. Enjoying the view..

And that is a dam in the middle of the mountains.. Makes for a nice size lake..

A bit closer to the lake… I wanted to go for a swim there..

After a few minutes going down the hill we got to Marbella and rode for a few minutes on the side of it.. Interesting place (filthy rich) but to get home we had to go over that rock in the back…

And here is the start of it.. And my riding buddies passing me as I take pics.. Salvi is impressive..!!

After that last shot I took a few more but they didn’t come out as I expected… Besides I was too busy with my head hanging over my handlebars climbing the rock on the pic I showed you earlier.. Got a PR there as well..!!! Woohoo..!! Here is the link to INSTAN ride.. He he.. couldn’t help it with the name..

So there you go this is a loop that I hope to show you the day you come by for a visit.. Has lots of lovely views and if you do it at a more relax pace there is lots of pictures opportunities..

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Hope you enjoyed the pictures and stories..

See you next time 

Pablo

Thw Weekend Report Guy