Expanding my local knowledge...

So a tiny Colombian guy I met here in my new town took me out to a climby route... WTF was I thinking? After all have you see me??? No? Look at me..!!! I am not built like a climber...

98 kilos of whatever I am built with... Spanish food is too good to go on a diet.. But I am trying to lose some weight... And did I mention I like my recovery drinks???

So we left Coín in the direction of Marbella... Is a bit bumpy heading that way... And as expected when the routes started heading up..... my riding partner was ahead...

We were heading for a little town in the middle of the mountains called Istán, this little beauty of town is in the middle of all this...

My friend was sort of worry about me getting drop in the middle of all this climbs... Look forward..! I am here..!!! (still)

But when I was able to put the big chain ring and push the pedals a bit harder.... Look what happened..

And when the roads headed back up?? We were playing like that all the way into town...

Once we got to the center of town was time to refill bottles at the local fountain... A nice place to stop and take a picture while refreshing.. Not far from this were bars where you can have some food and drinks before you head back down the mountain...

If you are wondering how hot it was here? I mean by the time we got to the top.. Pushing your bike over all those bumps... Well my +Garmin says 25 C average for the whole ride.. But there? Well I think this image gives you an idea of how people reach the top...

We came down the mountain flying... There is a nice view of a dam but I could not take any nice pictures while descending.. Maybe next time.. Once we reached the flat lands our roads looked like this before we headed up the mountain again to get home..

Of the last climb I did not take any shots as I was busy managing my effort to not get drop.. I was lucky enough that my companion started cramping while climbing and I didn't get drop... But to give you an idea is a loooong constant climb that Strava says is a category 2 climb... 52 minutes climbing...!!! On the bright side I am in the top 100 in this segment (only 64 did it) The whole ride if you like to see the route..

Hope you enjoyed the reading.. Hope to see you around here one of these days..

Thanks for reading and sharing... 

Thanks to everyone that is supporting the blog via Paypal Link every little helps to keep bringing you stories and images of Spain.

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Went out to test the legs after Friday....

So after a big effort on Friday I took Saturday off to see if the body could come around... I seriously felt like poop at the end of the ride Friday and I wasn't much better on Saturday all day... But it was time to see if the legs wanted to do some work on Sunday..

What the day looked like???

It took like 40 km for the legs to come around.. But then they were OK.. I could even sprint at times to get ahead of the bunch... (and snap a picture or two)

Well they were OK till we got to the first and only big climb of the day... At the start of it...

5 minutes later the legs told me to F**** off and quit working... As you can see my friends getting smaller in the distance...

After that last climb we got into downhills and rolling terrain... And that felt great for my legs.. I could stay at the front and sprint up the little bumps to take pictures... Great weather..!

I took over the front till we got to Coín by then +Strava said we did 96 km and 1375 meters of elevation and we were ready for some refreshments..

Seems like I finally starting to ride a little more often and I got over 2000 km for the year..!!! Slow compared to other years but little by little..

On the +Giro d'Italia climbing challenge? Well out of 83.000+ people I am at 12.000 so is not that bad... Have 12 days to climb like 15000 meters..!!! (not going to happen..!!!)

Hope you enjoy and share the reading 

One day I might have you as a guest here in Málaga...

See you all next time...!

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

P.S: I am already starting to study the way to start the B&B and cycling guiding tours..

Tres Cruces Trip

The story about today revolves about this climb according to +Strava is a category 2 climb that extends over 8 km at an average of 6%... Is a climb that is fun to do... Where you have to pace yourself at the start where the hard part is...

Lots of ramps..!! Where the average goes to 10% 12% and some more..

The first couple of km are the hardest ones (to me)

Along the way you have paintings on the route... Telling you distance and gradient

My riding partners where ahead of me most of the time....

Then I got into a climbing cadence that was comfortable to me and started catching people...!!! Woohoo..!!! Looking back at some riders...

Then the route turned interesting to my taste... There were big ramps of over 14% and where I could not take any pictures since I was climbing at a nice pace... Between this ramps there were some flat sections and even some downhill ones... This are the ones I used to keep my pace high and not to rest.. and caught up with my buddies....

Got to the top second from our group and then I had the chance to take some pictures after crossing the finish line... "meta"

The view at the top was short of amazing..!!!

After this picture was time to turn around and hit the flattish routes where I like to have both hands on the bike so there were only a few more pictures of nothing in particular...

At the end of the day for those that like numbers and ride profiles +Strava  said I did THIS

Thanks for reading and sharing

See you next time

Pablo 

The Weekend Report Guy

My legs are dead... Long live my legs..!!

To close a busy weekend we had another group ride.. Remember last week when I went out for the first time with some local guys? No? Then go and read the post about it.. and look at the pictures as well.. There is some good ones there..

Yesterday they had in mind a ride a little harder then the one we did last the Sunday before.. If you look at STRAVA you will get an idea of the profile of the ride and the great speed I achieved.. (ha ha ha) can't say that with a straight face..!

The routes for the day?

And as you can see we are getting closer to it..

You ride across some really nice towns... These towns were founded by the Moros during the invasions to Europe hundreds of year ago...

And half way up the first climb I looked back and the view...

The route up... Some switchbacks...

And after dying once getting there... I finally reached the top of the first climb.. My reward???

The view at the top were great..! The peace and quiet was something really nice to enjoy... They made you forgot all the pain and suffering that involved getting up there..

But soon enough my vision turned all blurry again when the routes started to kick back up... Even if it was only a temporary not long raise on the route..

And this became a constant for the rest of the ride... Not so much the blurry vision but me looking at my buddies from behind...

After that rise above we started a downhill where the routes were not great.. The authorities in charge of fixing these are suffering with the rest of |Spain the crisis and their budget was cut.. Since this are secondary routes they do not receive proper maintenance... On the other hand still great because there was 2 cars over 10 km or something like that... Camera went away during this part of the ride that remind me that my father was raise in very similar situations more then 60 years ago... Lots of sheep and olive trees.. Typical for the are..

Camera came back out at the start of the second big climb of the day...

As you could see my riding partners were off the front right away.. I told the go.. I would climb at my own speed.. Sloooowwwwww....!!!!

Some kids coming down the hill from the other way...

And I finally made it to the top..!!!! The sign says is the TOP..!!!

And now was all downhill and some flats... a few bumps before home but fast most of the way..!!
That is what the way home looked like..

It was a great day out.. died twice but I made it home... With a great story to tell and soon after taking a shower and eating something I was ready to go and try to do it all over again.. OK maybe next week..

Now it was time to sit outside and enjoy the family and a well deserved earned drink...

Cheers...!!! Salute..! Salud..!!

Thanks for reading and sharing this story

See you next time

Pablo

The Weekend Report guy

The longest day

Thought about doing this ride in more then one opportunity for different reasons.. You know one of those that has a lot of different things that attract amateur cyclist like me and maybe you to embark on what we like to think as  an epic adventure... With a friend as a companion..
Beware this post will have a lot of pictures of New Jersey.

When you head North in NJ you find country roads like this one..

So I had the alarm set for 5 am to have an early start since June is one hot month in NJ... Around 4:50 AM I got up because I couldn't stay in bed any longer.. My body and my brain were ready to tackle what would end up been a great and looong day on the saddle..

Got up, had breakfast I think you noticed by now that I don't function well without food... Filled my bottles grabbed some +Clif Bar & Company pumped some air on the tires (120 lbs) as I am a big guy not to have any surprises with snake bites and stuff like that... Went to the bathroom.. Kissed the wife and the kids.. And head out the door to wait for Vasil... 6:14 am showed the +Garmin when we hit the start ride bottom...

We were not far from the house when we started to hit the first couple of ups and downs of out long trip.

As you head North of Somerville you enter the Watchun Mountains that are not really steep but offers you a nice challenge with plenty of category 4 climbs according to +Strava

We had a run into some of the local fauna, I had to take a picture of this creature... And then get it out of the route before traffic got heavier..

As we continuing going up and down in our constant way to the farther and highest point of NJ we saw a lot of up and down routes...

I am very thankful for the shade since it started to get hot by now.. But as you pedal the wind feels great in your face..

We came across a bison ranch and I coudln't resist to stop and take a pic of this creatures...

And finally after some 5 hours or something like that we reached the highest point of New Jersey.. Called guest what? High Point, NJ can't remember how high it is and at that point all I could think of was that it looked like a mini Ventoux....

The view from the top of it was amazing..!

And one to remember the place for ever..

After that was time to stop somewhere and reload for the way back... I mean it was lunch time and the bars were not making the trick anymore...

Lunch time..!!!!

And we also used this time to rest a little and refill the bottles... Water wasn't lasting that long anymore.. It was like 30 + Celsius that is like over 90 F...!!!

Ah there it is..! Took us 5:20 minutes to reach the rest point.. As you can see there wasn't much flat involved in it either..

We still had some riding to do to get back home so we finished our drinks, filled our bottles and hit the route again... After all this was only half way... No we didn't finish the pizza... And I couldn't put it in my jersey pocket.. Too messy... (only 2 slices were left)

After putting a nice and brave face into the head wind and the hit and some more hills we run out of water again and had to stop to buy some... It felt soooo wrong to buy water here...

That was one of our last stops before we got home... I can't tell you how happy I was when I saw familiar routes again.. Then I felt like a second wind came into me and I could push the pedals again..

The way there took a lot out of me and on our way back poor Vasil had to do most of the work.. I was spent..!

We finally got home and as I mentioned it it was hot..! Good thing the kids had the little pool up and I could jump in to cool down...

But felt much better after a little refreshment...

So what was all this at the end of the day? Let me see....

That my friends reads:

242 km.... 3393 meters of elevation gain.... and all of this in 9:23 minutes..

If you want to see more details about this ride here is the link to what I called THE LONGEST DAY

Thanks for reading

Thanks for sharing

Stay tuned more stories are coming..!!

Pablo