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

La Vuelta a España, trip to Alicante "Day 2"

If you read the first report, the one from day 1 you will just follow up the story... If you didn't you might want to go and read the first one... Up to you..

 After a good night of sleep was time for day 2

And here are some pictures….

So we started the day making our way to the start of the stage… Look around everyone soaking in the race environment..

Me? Well I was looking for a friend…

And the moment they were finish with team meeting and he was the last one out of the bus… (I yelled at him "are wtf are you doing in there sleeping?") But we finally saw each other after 3 years or so..

Then we talked for a little bit.. He seemed in good spirits.. And happy to see a familiar face.. (and yeehoo FFS next time let me know you are taking pictures…!!!)

And the pics don’t get any better.. But is not about me is about Sergey.. (yeehoo I am going to kill you)

We spoke about life, cycling and old friends U.S and Spain… You can see the pics don’t get any better either.. Me Sergey looks great..!

After the last shot it was time for us to make it up the climb of the day.. the last climb to the finish line.. We agree with Sergey that we will try to stay in touch a bit more and not let so much time go in between visits..

Now it was time to start climbing… T-Bong and Tom leading the way..

The spirits were great at the start of the climb…

This one is about 2 km from the top.. Where thanks to the police I caught up to the rest of the group.. We were stopped at least 5 times while climbing to show our VIPpasses.. Thanks again Marat..!!! Without this we couldn’t make it to the finish line..

For this shot I actually attacked ant told T-Bong not to follow…!!! Sweat and clouds didn’t help with the image.

And we made it to the finish line..!!!

Latour launches his final attack of the day.. I was sure Atapuma had this one..

He had enough by this point.. El Puma..!!!

Felline going for 3rd..

Bobo..!!! Right?

Quintana out sprinting a very tired Froome..

Remember Froome clapping at Nairo’s win? Well this is what it looked like from behind..

Froome heading back down.. He had such a disappointed face

Hola Valverde..!

Dani Moreno..! Very nice guy..

And that was all from day 2 in Alicante… Aitana is a great climb.. Hard as hard gets but really nice.. The only reason we could get all the way to the top is because Marat got his hands on this very useful invitations…

Oh the Strava link is here we are on the top 100 for the final climb segment..!!

Also let me recommend Julian to you all for any trips that you might want to do... Here is his Facebook page

Thanks for reading..!! Is one more day after this one.. Stay tuned for the last one..

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

La Vuelta a España, trip to Alicante "Day 1"

So here is a few pics.. Day 1:

Our rides started like this every morning… Riding by the marina taking in some sun… ( I was accused of sun doping)

But someone else got accused of sock doping… Prove??

Villajoyosa has some good bumps all around it..

And the weather was amazing..! OK hot but amazing.. Look at thebongolian smile..!!! The kids is having fun..!

Yeehoo was keeping me company for a while till I send him looking for the others as I was soaking in my sweat surroundings..

I do not understand this pic… I am sure he was ahead of me.. He went around twice??

And there was socializing over German lunch in Spain… And plenty of water and other fluids… T-Bong the only brave one to have a beer..

My only KOM of the day came at the "who finish lunch first"

Best image of the TT??? Yeehoo taking a nap in the shade..!!!

Ice cream, smoothies and plenty of other fluids were extremely necessary…

We found Oleg..!!!!

Awesome view by the beach…

And that was it from me on day 1 in pictures in Spain.. And the strava link for the first day.. There was Team beer and Team sangria at night.. Remember those names for day 2… No pics of this.. I left the camera at home..

Hope you enjoyed this adventure and stay tuned for day 2 and 3 that are to come shortly...

Pablo

The Weekend Report guy