Pedals & Peaks

Superb sunny day, warm temperatures of mid 20's with no wind, you gotta love the Mediterranean climate. We are all keen, get the tyre pressure checked, road food bag filled with rice edibles (I make my own) a small bread roll with Almond spread with jam, one energy gel for emergency (in case I bonk it and don't have the energy to get home), one fig and nut bar and a few sweet energy lollies to suck on, (probably a placebo, but the physiological effect is good) topped off with two bottles, one with water, the second filled with a mix endurance powder water mix. There's lots of cyclist on the roads again, Alpecin Deceuninck whizz past in a whirr of wheels, looking swish in their uniforms followed closely by the team car carrying all the wheels.  Junior teams are also out, tall, thin young men following two diesel engine riders out front.   Then theirs us. The retirees, cruising along, climbing steadily almost immediately out of town, albeit gently at 3 to 4%.  I keep my rid...

Today was to be an easy recovery day, so we generate a cycling loop to take in the historical town of Pego for lunch. David has had a cold and now three days off the bike, but well enough to join us, as we assure him the route is flat and will be an easy spin. Rain was predicted around 3, so we head off at 10.30 thinking we have plenty of time for a short ride with lunch. The town of Pego is just inland from Denia, surrounded by mountains but sits in a marsh depression and known for the production of Bomba rice, a short grain variety, commonly used in paella. Before we arrive at our lunch stop, we are riding through stunning fertile, productive farms of olive and orange trees, on beautiful quiet smooth roads.  We access Pego through a narrow gorge, with steep limestone walls,  devoid of trees and drop down into town. The result is a stunning view across the flatlands to the Mediterranean Sea in the distance.  Every piece of land, is cultivated, including the surrounding h...

Stunning start to the day, no wind, no clouds, it was going to be a good day for cycling. From our traditional Spanish casa (house) we depart and head for the hills.  Today, Easter Monday the roads are dead quiet and we quickly eat up the 15km warmup to get us into the hills from Denia.   Our route today will take us, coast to coast, two points on Mediterranean, through the beautiful, fertile Jalon Valley and up and over and down to Cap Blanc. After steady climbing we drop into the valley and there are cyclists everywhere.  It's great to see, all shapes and sizes, but mainly younger, fit, toned men, I think I saw maybe ten female cyclists all day! It's a fairly easy climb on super smooth roads over the mountains and down to the coast.  The roads are marked every 100 metres from kilometre point to the next kilometre.  I assume this is for the teams that train here, interval training, 100 metres on, 100 metres off.  These markings are all over the valley road...

Our goal was to ride to the furthest southwest tip of mainland Europe, Cape St. Vincent, where the next stop is Africa. We all excited as our final ride turns out to be perfect, in terms of wind direction and speeds.  The Atlantic winds can be brutal and we knew, 'to choose your day carefully'.  It's overcast with black clouds overhead as we disembark the train at Lagos.  But the rain is only light sprinkles, a tad annoying as we done our jackets, then have to take them off again as we get too hot.  It is simply stunning, as our route takes us up and down and into small coastal towns. The beautiful sandstone cliffs, remind me of home and the Great Ocean Road.  I think of Marcia as I ride past a Wyndham Premium Resort, what a stunning place to stay.. Unfortunately,  Lisa gets another flat.  Thank goodness for the boys. We pass though Sagres, the last town on the coast then make a bee line for the final drag down to the furthest southwest point in Portug...

We had a list of must do routes in the Algarve and we left the best two for our last few days in Portugal. We head out from our base, now familiar with the city exit routes north, to the quiet country roads and ahead the mountains sit in pea soup. It is cooler today and we do expect rain at some stage, our route is basically climbing for 35km, then downhill all the way back to Portimao.  But its the last 10km of the climb which is the real test of the legs. We are on tiny deserted roads, away from traffic where the cycling is just perfect.  But then perfection never lasts, does it. I will be frank, we knew what was coming, but once the route takes a sharp left and turns skywards, any reasonable person will still curse and swear on 22% graded climbs.   I can do a few metres maybe of 20% but that unrelenting hill that appears never to flatten out or reduce to 15%, is demoralising. I try and try, push as hard as I can, it takes all my effort, I'm probably holding way too muc...