Pedals & Peaks

Bob's last ride with us today, before he catches the fast train back to Barcelona and fly's onto Florence. Beautiful sunny day greeted us, we designed a new loop on undiscovered roads, so we are eager to get out.  It was Sunday, no one up and about at 7am, roads dead quite as we made a bee line to Pego (wondering if the super smooth road beneath me, is where the pro's train for their time trials) through the Marsh Nature reserve, a monotonous flat road the north of the city. From Pego, we quickly enter a gorge where the temperatures cool as the rays of the sun are blocked by high rock canyons. Other riders are out, a mix of groups and singles, a couple of fellow's in front of us, didn't stop talking the whole way.  This ride must have been their Sunday catchup. as they stayed consistently about 100 metres in front of us, voices carrying in the canyon, 'like a couple of chooks, didn't stop cackling'. Before too long the valley starts to open up to some wo...

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 ...

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...