El Torcal, a going up trip.

We started the ride like this…

Rainy start.. see the mountains in the back? We were heading there…

Some switchbacks…

Some were intimidating..!

The roads? Excellent..!!! (most of the way) look in the back.. That was our destination..

At the top of our main climb.. "El Torcal" is an observatory, and you can see even Africa from there in a clear day.. today wasn’t one..

At the turn around point.. Now that was some climbing..!

At the sign point… Reference.. Look t-Bong I am using your present..!!!

Heading back was lots of downhill..!!! Do’h..!!! But in order to get to the main road and take some distance away from the ride we had to face this..

One of the guys cresting… Pain face anyone?? The view in the back amazing..!

To finish at this place that is amazing..! Cycling meeting point is the name of the place..!

And I am done for this week.. 385 km and 7300 meters of desnivel.. I am done..!

Thanks for reading and if you need any info leave a comment and I get back to you..

I can see the finish line..

As we are on the straight away I can see it already.. Yes the finish line..!

The year is coming to an end soon and with the weather changing I don't see my numbers taking a huge drop or a huge increase..

As I woke up this morning I felt sort of melancholic and went reading old posts and a lot of comments from them, till I got to the post that give me the idea for this one.. Do you remember the What your goals are? Well if you don't, just follow the link and it will bring you to it..

So mine were extremely ambitious and involved huge changes in my life and my family life.. Did I accomplish any of them? Did anything change from the day I wrote them to now? Lets find out..!

My goals for 2016:

- Moving to Malaga with the family. DONE!
- Get a job that allows me to follow my dream. (wait for iit is coming) Working on it.
- Buy a nice BIG house in Malaga. Discarded, at least for now
- Start our own B&B. Discarded
- Start offering my cycling guide services in Malaga. I started..!!
- Go back to Argentina to get my older son, Pablito. Leaving on the 25th for Argentina
- Ride 15.000 Km for the year. Have you seen where I live? Not this year..!
- Climb 150.000 meters in a year. Will be close..! Stay tuned for this one
- Lower my weight to 85 kilos. Ha..! Not even close..!
- Write more in my blog. And better should I add. Ons and offs.. I like interaction and the blog doesn't give me that
- Become financially independent. Working on it every day

- Meet more PdC members. Yes..! Yeehoo, thebongolian, maratsafin and Paul from Scotland

-And the most important one….. TO BE AND MAKE MAKE FAMILY HAPPIER..!!! We are HAPPIER!

So to me has been a nice mix of yes and nos but I will take it as us (family and me) finishing ahead with all the changes that we faced..

The Pablo's Cycling Tours Facebook page is running and I am looking forward to this business to take off.. by the way if you didn't like the page yet please do.. If you already did.. Thank you very much..! Feel free to suggest anything that might help.. Good and bad critics are the only way to move forward.

But enough about me.. Tell me, tell us...

What your finish line looks like?

One to remember

100 km and 2450 meters

The start of the first climb… Cat 2, Las 3 Cruces

The first 3 km are brutal..! All above 10% and as high as 16%

Then it never gets really easy…

Then you have a few flat and downhill sections where you push like an idiot trying to catch whoever is in front of you

From the top you get this view.. (pay attention to those mountains in the far back)

Our last man coming up..

There were some special refuel options.. They make this for cyclists.. Is a Gel in the form of a well look..

Then was the descend… After that some rolling to get to out next climb of the day… As we started to climb the not real climb

Then after 5 km at 10% I think.. my reward.. Mediterranean under there and in the far back Sierra Nevada (with snow)

Migue taking his time to climb the last 200 meters.. I am not blaming him..

All together at the top of El Repetidor de Mijas

And that was my way to close my 350 km week…

Hope you enjoyed the story and hope to see you around here soon..!

Pablo

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..!!!

For those that like to look at maps and numbers here is the +Strava Mountains, wind and more mountains and wind

Quick useful links:

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Don't forget to join us, like us and follow us to stay up to date and never miss an adventure or ride.

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..

Remember to LIKE our FACEBOOK PAGE to stay up to date about rides and events.. Also if you are interested about any specific dates..

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and stories..

See you next time 

Pablo

Thw Weekend Report Guy

Remember La Vuelta Stage 2 of 2015??

I am not going to get into details.. Main reason I do not like to do research.. It was a finish at la Vuelta last year I believe..

And I went up it… Slowly… But I did it..

Getting there… You pass this lovely area..

New experience.. Ride under the clift..

Let the pain begin… Bobastro is the name of the climb as well..

Jasper lives in this town so I am guessing he had a lot of friends over.. Lots of paint on the road.. failed to get good shots of them..

Another one 15% or so ramp..

I thought I was was climbing into the sky here..

Over the shoulder hairpin shot….

Photo finish at the top?

And if you pass the finish line you can see this

And farther up the route..

Time to head home… Another climb before we hit a big long downhill with a massive head wind.. I mean really bad one.. Here I took the front for 99% of the time..
23 km of fun against the wind…

But all was worth it.. We had a great day out and finished with a few claras and chips with jamon serrano..

So my extended weekend was:

Thursday: 38 and 750
Friday: 64 and 770
Saturday: you saw this one up there… Yes the one I posted earlier.. Killer ride.. Seriously..
Today: 98 and 1600

The week was a nice one and a new record high in numbers for me here in Spain:

15 hours
368 km
5505 meters of climbing

I am chasing my 10.000 kilometers… So far? 4163 km ridden…

As I mentioned in previous posts I started offering my services as a bike guide3 around this beautiful area of the world.. So if you decide to come this way and want to have someone with some local knowledge of the area and the language give me a call, send me a message or use the Facebook Page to get in touch with me..

Thanks for reading..and see you soon..!

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy