Fastforward to the present. Kim and I took a trip to Spain to see our son who is studying in Madrid the Spring semester of 2010. We did a lot of neat stuff but here is the long-awaited ride report from Spain.
I won’t go into detail of our whole 2 week vacation in Europe other than to say if you haven’t yet taken a trip “across the pond” for at least a week, please do so some time during your life. Observing, respecting and enjoying how other parts of the world live is worth every penny spent on this trip. There are so many things that are different over there – such as the varied architectural styles, their traditions and varied cultures, the food, including when they eat (e.g. dinner is typically at 9-10 pm), and the people.
We flew out of Cincinnati on March 25th, and began our Mediterranean cruise on the 26th. The cruise started and ended in Barcelona, Spain.
We met up with our son Alex in Barcelona on Good Friday, April 2nd. It was so nice to see him finally. He has been studying in Madrid since January 11th and he doesn’t come home until July 3rd. We did our hugs and kisses thing, then walked to the subway with all our luggage to get to the main train station to catch a train to Gerona, a small town about 60 miles northeast of Barcelona, in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains. We rented an apartment in the old town section just two blocks from the Santa Maria Cathedral, a beautiful piece of gothic architecture. Many of the pro cyclists who reside in Gerona, including all of the Garmin-Transition team live within just a few blocks of this church. George Hincapie owns an apartment in the plaza at the foot of the 86 steps up to the entrance of this cathedral.
After dinner Friday night with Jaume Cabruja, the owner of Bikecat and my Saturday ride partner, along with his “significant other”, Debbie Stein, Alex and I went over to the cathedral to watch a most amazing Good Friday procession. More on that later….. Kim was very tired from the hectic travel day we had stayed home and went to bed early. Besides, this procession had the potential of a lot of hilly walking.
Jaume and I decided on a 65 mile route called the Costa Brava tour. It’s hilly but nothing like some of his tour routes that actually go into the Pyrenees Mountains. According to Jaume, many of the pro cyclists will ride this route as an “easy” cool down ride. On Saturday morning around 9 am, with the temps in the low 50’s, Jaume met me at our apartment. We made a couple final adjustments to the bike I rented – an Orbea Team Replica 2 with Shimano 105 components. My gearing was a compact crank 50-34 with a 10 speed 12-25 cassette.
Alex and Kim spent the day with Debbie touring Salvador Dali’s homestead, museum and his summer home in Cadaques and Port Lligat. Debbie keeps a blog of her tours if you’re interested in seeing details of this trip.
http://www.vadevitours.blogspot.com/The ride began by meandering thru the skinny and crowded streets of Gerona. Since it was a Saturday morning we encountered a number of open markets in Gerona and several other towns we traveled thru on our way to the Mediterranean Sea coastline. These markets would go on for blocks at a time riding over cobblestone streets and dodging lots of people.
After we made it thru the center of Gerona and the city market, the next road took us south out of town and gradually started going uphill. Jaume described the 3 km climb out of town as just a “ramp”. Well that “ramp” sure got my legs stretched out and warmed up. The next 20 km’s were pretty flat and easy but the hills along the coast line were getting bigger and bigger as we got closer to the coastal area. The skies were also getting darker and it appeared we would get rained on by the time we got to the real climbing.
We stopped for a short rest and take some pictures at the foot of our first real climb – a 6 km hill with a grade that probably averaged 6%. The climb was fairly gradual and it kind of reminded me of the 1st mountain at the 3 State in TN. I did stop once on the climb for a short rest but made it up to the top better than I expected. During this climb, the skies got darker and the headwind started to gust over 20 mph. Jaume said the weather for this time of year was very unusual. It was much colder and windier than normal. After cresting this hill, the fun really started. Somehow I led it out and took off and didn’t stop till we got to the bottom. The descents were very twisty and technical to maneuver but the road surfaces were great. No chuck holes gravel or sand whatsoever. And the best part was the cars were very patient when climbing. There were no horns blaring at you, or cars passing by just an inch or two to your left. The scariest part of these descents was not the winding roads or speed but rather the high performance motorcycles that were everywhere. But even those were not a real issue, once you got used to suddenly encountering one of these “flying” up the hills around the corners.
We stopped in a coastal town named Tossa for are really good cup of coffee. Fortunately the dark clouds only “spit” on us for a little while and eventually they cleared and we had sun the rest of the day. The hill out of Tossa was the steepest one of the day. It was about 2 km’s long with an average grade of like 10% with some spots hitting 15%. But that coffee I had seemed to give me a huge energy boost and I didn’t have any problem getting up that hill. From there we had 20 km’s of ups and downs all along the coastline. It was some of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. Picture 006 above is a view from the top of the hill going out of Tossa.
Our next stop was lunch in San Feliux. We had the most awesome pizza ever. It was so good I had to get a picture of it. By now the sun had broke thru and it was finally starting to warm up into the 60’s. From here, we did another 10 km’s of climbing up and down and then started our way back north to Gerona. After leaving the coastal hills which ended with a really fun downhill, he took us on some country roads that went thru farmland and terrain that was very similar to riding in Hendricks County, including the wonderful aroma of a large cattle farm. The last 15 or so km was on a state highway with a large paved shoulder. The end of the ride was made even more exciting because we were riding with a strong tail wind. He picked up the pace as fast as he could but I stayed on his wheel. He later told me that we hit 55 km/h for a long stretch of this road. That works out to like 33 mph! We finally made it back to Gerona and stopped for some more pictures on the famous Stone Bridge. Unfortunately, these and others that I took are at home. I’ll send some of them on a subsequent email.
According to Jaume’s Garmin 705 we rode 65 miles and climbed 3500 feet. It was a ride I’ll never forget. I never got really tired for long periods of time that I typically do and when we finished I felt really good. I even felt good the next morning. I guess all that spinning this winter did help out.
Jaume’s company specializes in week long tours and fills in his schedule with these one day custom tours for couples or individuals. I think it would be really cool some day to go over there as a group and go on one of these week long tours. His web site address is below and includes all the details. He caters to Americans which is why he is so good to ride with. He is very fluent in English, Catalan and Spanish. And Debbie, who handles tours for the non-riders that come on the trip, is American. She grew up in Anderson, SC just outside of Greenville. Jaume knows many of the pro cyclists who live in Gerona. He used to race professionally in the USA based out of Philly. He is very close friends with George Hincapie and Freddie Rodriquez. Jaume rides one of Freddie’s old bikes that he bought from him a couple years ago. It’s a Ridley frame with full top of the line Campy. It is a really nice bike. His physical therapist is the Garmin-Transitions PT. What’s interesting about cycling in Europe is that getting a massage is standard fare after a long ride. He said his PT would have come to my apartment after our ride and done a full deep body massage for $45 Euro. I’ve never had one and I probably should have taken him up on the offer.
That’s it. Sorry it took so long to get it sent out.
More postings from the past and present will be forthcoming.
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