Returning to Tolox

Katja is traveling to the US to bring Savannah and I am staying home with Felix and the puppies… (so if you want to send me something from the US now is the time..!) So I headed out today to see what I could do…

After all I had this playground…

Was my first ride since last Sunday and my legs were not happy for the first 2 hours of the ride.. Here is us entering the town of Tolox..

Is not a very long climb itself… 3.2 km and has some shade..

The gradients? Well…. 13% on the bents… If I remember it right

Remember my legs were not happy? So I told Jose to go..

I still had a way to go…

Jose while I was cresting looking at me like… What is wrong with you..?? (no strength today)

And this is how we got to the top.. Same way to go down..

The strava link for the ones that care.. Nothing impressive there.. This little loop put me at 3299 km and 50.000 meters..

Thanks for reading and really hope you like it..

See you next time

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

The Sunday Classic

By classic I do not mean we do the same ride.. By classic I don't mean we are hardcore like those poor people in Belgium with those huge cobbles and horrible weather (respect to them) By classic I mean to get together with the guys and head out for another adventure in two wheels...

But since today was one of the best Classics races on the world I did a small detour to get a shot of the local cobbles...

There is a few streets here in town that have cobbles in it... And there is something on those with black and white pictures that made them look extra especial..

After that I rode to meet the guys so we could head out to start our Sunday ride.. Under the Andalusian sun..

Our routes today as you can see in this pic were the usual up or down... Almost never a flat route.. The views? I let you be the judge of them..

What is the best part of riding in a group for you? To me? has to be the having fun in a group..

But after a few kilometers of riding was time to start the climb to the top of the first climb of the day... Juanar climb if you look at the link at the bottom..

The first 2 kilometers are the harder part after that you have this steady climb with blue skies that are all around you...

Until you finally reach the top where is a hotel for people that like adventures, peace and quiet..

And then we all got together for a group picture at the top of this beautiful climb.. The group of the day..??

Then was time to descend... It was time to search for our next climb... But to get there we almost went down all the way to Marbella.. This translates for me as a fast descend for about 8 kilometers.. At anything over 30 km/h the camera stays in my jersey and I try to be as safe as possible so there is no pictures of this part... All I can tell you is that it was fast and with some windy sections that gave a bit of character to the descend...

Finally we reached the town of Ojen where our next climb begun... After a quick stop to fill the water bottles we started climbing and it was a fast pace..!! (we are talking amateur level here) My heart rate was above tempo so I had trouble keeping up with the faster guys.. (the climbers) so was hard to breath and keep the pedals spinning fast enough... (did I mention I am 99 kilos right?) So forgot all about the camera..!!! No pictures here either...

After we got to the top it was time to head back for home..Nice..!!! From this point to Coin is almost all downhill..!!! We are probably going to take it easy and just roll into our city for a beer.. WRONG..!!! All out again for 30 minutes till we got home..!

For those that like numbers and routes here is a link to +Strava .... Up, down and around

Thanks for reading and sharing 

See you next time

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

My first Cat 1 climb experience

My getting stronger and fitter journey is involving a lot of different aspects of my life.. The riding around here as I mention in previous posts is very challenging for a heavy rider like me so on top of all the training is time to start watching what I eat as well....(but is another post coming about this topic soon) What do I mean by challenging rides?? Just look at my riding area...

Don't get me wrong..!!! I am not complaining..! I love this..! Is so challenging that every where I go I end up with a few hundred meters of climbing by the time I come back home... Today as an example I used +Strava  to monitor my school run... By the time I got home it was 4.1 km and 100+ meters of elevation!

But this is about the Saturday ride... I know is already Monday but I had a busy weekend with the family (Happy Easter!!!) So my roads on Saturday looked like this most of the time...

Like this going up or down most of the time.. Sometimes a bit more rough...

And 99% of the time my views looked like this...

At points the roads got really rough that the local authorities let you know ahead of time... And by the way can you see those antennas in the back high up? I was heading there.. Just not yet...

But before I got there I had to climb a bit more... And also go down some nice towns in between the mountains...

After making a few wrong turns here and there I was finally on the right track to conquer my first ever category 1 climb... All I had to do was follow this road.

8 km of roads that only kept going up.. And then up some more.. Along the way you could see this kind of views that would be much better on a MTB to explore...

A very narrow road to the top of my first monster climb...

As I was climbing and came out of the trees I saw the Mediterranean see in the distance..

Then it was back at going up... The gradients?? For the curious ones my +Garmin said 12% here... I don't think it ever when under 7% for the whole climb..

As you go up there is painting on the road that tells you how far you have climbed... The painting started at 5 km to go to the top... I tried to take some pics but they didn't come out any good as I was struggling to bread much less to aim at a painting on the route while riding.. Did I ever mention that all my pictures are taken from the bike while riding?? Well almost all of them..
But I was almost there at the top of the climb... But Before getting there lets just demoralize the poor fu**/r with this ramp..

That was something like 100 meters North of 14%.... The cherry on top???

But I think everything is worth it when you get to the top... Dismount your bike and hold to it as you realized that you are dizzy as hell and everything is spinning around you.... Then just then after you catch up your breath and the feeling of puking is leaving your body on that moment when you finally can look at the horizon and see how far you got up..

That I believe is the city of +Benalmadena Unica

And my trusty companion that took me all the way up there... The Mediterranean sea at the back..

For those that would like to follow this route one day here is the Strava link to my ride..

If you are ever in this part of the world drop me a line and hopefully I can take you up here for a spin.

Thanks for reading.. Hope you enjoyed the story.. If you have someone that might enjoy this share it!

See you ate the next update?

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Chasing clouds

Woke up, had breakfast, check the tires, got dress, fill the bottle and headed down the route to try to meet with the local group to go for a ride... I probably didn't hear it right or something because again I didn't meet them or couldn't find them... This time I didn't wait more then 10 minutes... I was off..!!!

But where to go? My knowledge of the local routes still very limited so I stayed with the one I know.. But I decided to go a little farther this time around... It is time to start increasing the distance this by no means has anything to do with going fast...

So what was I going to do while riding? I went for chasing the clouds over the mountains in the distance..

So I set myself on a mission on reaching the clouds.. And believe me they are much farther then what they seen...

But I was getting a bit closer..

The route of chasing clouds has a good point... You are going slow enough to take a million pictures..

And the route is always going up.. Always..!!! I think I was going the right way.. At least the signs were telling me so...

And let the ramps begin..!!! Those were the steep parts...

And another one... There were lots of them..!

This one was a nasty one... But was one of the last ones I saw today...

I am almost there..! Almost there...!!!

But I was going so slow that I even had time to turn around and look at what the route looked behind me...

And right after this picture like 50 motorcycles went by me... Scared the poo out of me and then the wind picked up and I decided that was enough.. Too many things were going against me... Wind picked up..(head/cross wind), traffic was really busy all of the sudden... I was tired and the freaking road kept going up..!!!

So I stopped at a town named Yunquera and as I was talking to a man that told me that it was only another 5 km of uphill and then another 30 to Ronda... Almost nothing eh?? I said then sorry and maybe next time is time for me to go home...

Then I took this picture and put the camera away and zipped my vest up to start a looooong downhill..

It was a fun and fast downhill that didn't last that long.. I mean if you compare with how long took me to climb this lasted nothing..  OK most of the downhill was done at more then 40 km/h and I was climbing at 11 km/h..!!!!

I finally made it back into town and stopped at this place just to take a picture... Because I like my new town..

Here it is... COIN..!!!

By the end of the day STRAVA told me I had done this much.. (follow the link to see the activity) Also if you happen to be looking for a new +Strava club look up for the Weekend Report and join me and a few other nut jobs from around the world..

Oh if you are wondering if I reached the clouds let me tell you that I didn't and most likely will have to come back another time a bit earlier because I never caught those fast evaporating clouds..

Hope you enjoyed the report about today's ride and looking forward to see you at the next Weekend Report..

Thanks fore reading and sharing

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

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