Pablo's Cycling Tours..! With Paul and Alex..! Thanks for coming guys..!

I met another PdC user..!

I also started promoting Pablo’s Cycling Tours so far I took 3 people out and nice reviews back..

But today’s story? Paul (can’t remember his user name here) is on holidays with his family about 100 km from Coín but he drove to meet me and go for a ride that I put together.. We also had Alex riding with us.. He is a friend of Paul from Scotland… So all of us headed out for little adventure..

As usual I took roads that are light on traffic.. So I can do this while riding..

We had to stop and fix Alex saddle height since it was a lot off… Rental bikes do that.. This was a good opportunity to take a group pic.. Big climb started right after that pic.

As is a tradition now a days we stopped at the Puerto sign to take another pic.. (they almost kill me climbing, I got there a few minutes behind them…)

We then took a long fast downhill to the next town where we had some coffee and sweets.. No pics of them.. After that we cross the street to look at this..

Pictures don’t make justice to the surrounding area.. But you can see in their faces that their were happy with it.

We took a transition road that was surrounded by olive trees and mountains on both sides.. The view?

One more..

I was hurting in colours already at the back but good enough to take pics of the guys.. And the side of this mountain..

And there were lakes and dams..

And switchbacks…

And previous Vuelta finishes…

And "kid" having fun.. We are all big kids..!

And this is part of what we just had climbed..

And we stopped at Caminito del Rey sight…

There were Belgium tapas and Spanish ones as well +beer..!!!

Before we rounded all up in Coin with a refreshment..

Overall a great day out..! The ride? HERE 120 km and 2200 meters of climbing..

Thanks for coming guys..!!!

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

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

Climbing...Well trying...

Headed out not very sure of what I was going to do… The only certain thing is that I was going to meet my Colombian friend for a ride.. So I did meet Jose..

We headed down to the town of Mijas… Passed it and got to Benalmadena and this was our turn around point… Here is when I asked Jose how he was feeling and he: I am fine.. Legs feel good… And I said to him then I am going to add a detour to our ride… Another hour more or less… Is OK? Yes… Ok then.. Pace yourself I told him..

Our future destination…. The antennas all the way at the top…

As per usual he didn’t listen… Colombians and climbs…!!! The climb is 8 km long at 8.whatever % and the last 5 km is 10% I was in no rush..

Another 4 km to go and the climb did get easier… 9% for a while.. 

Freaking Colombians..! Slow down..! Can you see him ahead??

But the diesel engine keeps going all the time… Look who I caught up with..!!

I told you to pace yourself..!!!!!

With about 2 km to go Jose felt behind and I was on my own… But the target was closer..!!!

My reward? After about 50 minutes climbing I got to the top and took this pic…

You can see in the pic above the Sierra Nevada in the far back left and the Mediterranean Sea to the right becoming one with the sky…

Did Jose made it? Yes he did..!!! And this guy passed him on the way up… Then I took a pic of him and the other guy for the record of getting to the top of "El Repetidor de Mijas" That is the name of the climb..

So how did I do on my second try? I did better..!! I have a few more km in my legs and getting used to climbing… I think I went up like 10 minutes faster then last time but there is no record since Strava didn’t recognize my riding in that segment..

The STRAVA LINK and all the numbers…. If you are lazy.. is 58 km… 1479 meters in 3 hours..

Hope you liked my Friday adventure...

See you next time

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy