When a climb is not a climb

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 riding in the blue zones, saving strength in the legs for the climb, as I am aware of the steep pitches ahead, particularly on the switchbacks, after studying our route the night before.


The smooth asphalt gives way to a rough concrete culvert, after we take a sharp right hand turn off the main road to access the climb across a dry river bed. 

We do think, is this right?  Did we miss a turn? The so called road, is only wide enough for a single vehicle, but asphalt surfaces after the crossing is good and we continue onwards.  We haven't made a second route, so we don't really have a choice at this stage. It's a gorgeous road, winding its way gently up through olive groves, small farm house's before the switchbacks start.  

When a climb is less about the ascent and more about the sweeping panoramic views of the valleys and peaks surrounding you, it doesn't register in the hurt box.  The climb is 5.6km long with an average gradient of 7%, pitches on corners of 16%.  Despite sounding steep, its a wonderful climb, generally the switchbacks are steep, so its out of the saddle and around you go, then it levels off till the next one, allowing one to steady the heart before the next effort.  I loved this climb.  My kinda climb.  I love to work in and out of the saddle, it's not too long or too steep that it becomes demoralizing or energy zapping.  




We did not encounter one car.  Several riders coming down from the top, but otherwise we had it to ourselves and it's breathtaking. Small productive olive farms dot the steep, rocky landscape. Get the phone out, hold up my phone and just click away with my thumb, as your riding up 7%, 'surely one photo will work!'



We all make it up without incident, elated at what we just rode up, in awe of the climb, would have to be one of my all time favourites.  We hear 'hee-haw, hee-haw' close-by and I take a closer look.  

'Next time I'll bring a carrot' I tell the gentle animal, as he switches his ears and turns his head, for the best shot.

We roll over the knoll after a short break and make out way to lunch.  We are blown away by the beautiful views that greet us, from the top to all the way to the sea.

The road down is two lane, much wider, long and steep, we meet riders coming up on electric bikes but unfortunately they cannot look behind to see the amazing views.


What a blast the long descent was, a little chilly, simply stunning.  We smile all the way to lunch, choosing the meal of the day, a three course set menu, under the bell tower as it chimed midday.


We all agree, this area offers such an excellent variety of riding, so many roads to choose from, not possible to complete in 10 days, that we will return in 2026  👏👏👏👏.  You in?


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