I come a gutser

Just when you think, I'm getting OK at this, David will be proud of me, life has its way to keep you honest, yep I fall in the white dirt and bindi's, but more on that later.

After our big climbing ride on Thursday, Friday was to be an easy recovery ride.  Our host David, suggested we stop for cake and coffee, an easy ride to spin our legs, a little climbing, nothing major. We all set off, it was warm and sunny. 


A bit too hilly and a bit too long for a recovery for me.  The stop for cakes came at the 40km mark, but by this time, I felt I was done.  It's not a matter of being sore at all, but just nothing left in the legs when yet another little punchy hill is ahead of you.  The wind had picked up and I struggled mentally to stay on Dave's wheel, it was like, 'erghhh couldn't be bothered'

The cakes however, were amazing.  I had to get the little lemon one, it was saying eat me.  Why is it, there is never enough coffee in those little cups!!  No mugs of coffee in Spain.  Fanta went down so quickly too.



 














Our wonderful group of Kiwi friends, Malcolm, Fiona, Angela and Jenny Rose, a super strong but lovely person, all of them willing to help others (us oldies). Jenn is a couple of years younger than me but still as strong as ever, won the World Triathlon Long Distance Championship and several World Cup events during the course of her career.  It's been wonderful meeting and spending the week with these guys.

Our recovery ride was 53km with 834 metres of climbing.  Dave tells me how pale I am after dinner, 'white as a ghost' so I head to bed early. 

Our host has kindly organised Jenn and I to get a haircut with Alfonso. I have attacked my hair with kitchen sissors several times, particularly last week in Girona, my fringe was annoying me so much, looked like one of those floppy mops, anyway, he says as he is inspecting my hair "si si I can see this, no good, don't do again" Its now short enough, should last till I'm home.

So a later start, but David and I head out for an easy ride, on yet another glorious day.  Its Saturday and there is noticeable more riders out, but you know what?  I have not seen one female rider all week. This is a very traditional area, where family and community is everything. (I had that same sense in Italy in 2003 and that trip changed the course of our lives. I came home and said 'I am not doing this anymore, family is too important' and we proceeded to close our factory and downsize our business) So I guess the women are busy.....






















Our route today takes us up the Port Del Palmer again, a beautiful climb of 594 metres, stunning views.  I say to Dave, 'this feels a lot easier today' 'It's cause we going much slower today Ang'. Oh!....... Once on top there's a nice flat section, before we turn and make our way up the Portixol Climb.  

Its great looking back over your shoulder to see the road you have just come up, it rises up much quicker than you think.

I have a small pull in my left butt annoying me, 'a gluteal strain' google says, 'sometimes occurs with rapid acceleration or explosive jumping'. Oh yea right, you can see me doing explosive jumping?  More like that muscle just went ping, had enough.  
So I sit tall, hands on bars and don't lean into the hill. 
There's a few motorbikes out today, 'hem hem hem' goes Dave, got their chicks on the back of the bikes, all enjoying the wonderful wide sweeping bends up the hill.  Not one car or bike coming down the hill, it's so good.

Before you know it, we are at the top and over enjoying those wide sweeping bends all the way back into town.  A short but glorious last ride for our time here in Ontinyent.  

I am riding up to the house on the dirt driveway and for some reason, go to the left side (all week have ridden up the driveway on the right) its very gravelly and the driveway rut is much deeper on this side, suddenly I get a feeling of panic, my front wheel slides down into the rut, hit a large rock and I go over into the white dirt.  'You alright?' Dave yells.   I'm sideways, feet still clipped in the pedals riding the bike sideways, horizontal lying on prickly bindi. 'Do I look alright?' I ask

I'm not hurt, just covered in dust, bindi's stuck in my jersey, scratching my back near the shoulders.  I feel very stupid and embarrassed. Why do these things never happen to a man? 

Tomorrow we get collected at 3am for transport to the airport as we fly to Toulouse in the lower Pyrenees.  Next stop France.  We have made some lovely new friends who have made this week, thoroughly enjoyable, 354 kms with 5,851 metres of elevation climbed.  



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lisbon Portugal

Image
After the dreaded long haul light, we land in Lisbon, with no issues. The quickest way to recover from jet lag, is to stay awake as long as you can and fall asleep once the sun goes down in your new city.  So we hit the streets of Lisbon old town and walk till we drop. And what an awakening of the senses it was, the use of colours, stunning architecture and beautiful patterns everywhere. Davids orange jacket a perfect contrast colour against the stone backdrops. The city was hit with a devastating earthquake and subsequent fires in 1755, the majority of the old city rebuilt as we see it today, with modern architectural innovations and colour.  Many of the homes are covered in tiles, to provide protection from the humidity from the Tagus River. The rebuild was uniformly designed with wooden frameworks and stone walls providing flexible connections to withstand future seismic events in a grid like urban layout.  The result is a stunning, relaxed and easy city to walk throug...
Read more

Cycling the Atlantic Coastline

Image
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...
Read more

Paella and Coll de Rates

Image
It's the night before Lisa's last ride, so we head to a traditional Spanish restaurant for some Tapas and Paella, glorious evening in the old part of town.  Our booking was for 6pm, happy hour in Spanish terms, so there is not many eating yet, some restaurants opening as we finish our meal.  But we have an early start tomorrow to ride the most famous, talked about ride in this region. We had four tapas, meatballs, baked potatoes, tempura cod and roasted young green peppers (capsicum) delicious... All eaten with fabulous local red wine, though I don't drink wine I can recommend the beer. Followed by two paella's, one of vegetables with different meats and the other, a seafood combo, without prawns, as Bob is allergic.  So the dish is a little odd to look at, but we don't want to have to use his EpiPen. The paella's are wonderful, perfectly cooked with the crusted bottoms. Really good local food. We wake to another perfect day and head to Parcent, the town at the ...
Read more