No running for Raymond

We gave the Three Peaks Challenge a miss this year, I've been suffering from a slight achilles problem. It's settling well but i didn't want to risk running/hiking on it. Biking is ok. I managed two steady three hour hilly road rides at the weekend, one on the mountain bike and one on the road bike.

Grand Traverseé du Limousin

Above: some local champions as seen on stratobiker

The Sundayriders are go! The mighty D, KB, facer, Juanita and me are all entered. I quite fancy some of that fancy french headgear.

GTL - entries here

mmm....Courtesy of my 'friend' Mike at showpix...lol

A picture of me taken by Tim Vandevelde on mount Chaberton day seven of the Ironbike.

Getting the warm kms in!

Last week me and Juanita jetted of to Ibiza for some warm weather riding. After a couple of days wandering aound Barcelona and especially La Sagrada Familia, we took the short hop to Ibiza.

Monday morning we did the local road loop, known as the Jesús route, to test our legs. Our legs were pretty good because we smashed our record for the climb to Jesús. yay! Later we rode into santa Eulária to get me some new tyres. At Kandani - http://www.kandani.com/ There was a lot of chat and excitement about the race they'd hosted on Saturday. They'd had Marga Fullana over to compete. Marga in Santa Eulária

Tuesday was a steady semi exploration ride. We headed out toward Eivissa town and then north to find ruta diez, one of the official off road routes in the area. We managed to pick up ruta 10 near Sant Rafel but ended up going around in circles on the same section, so we cut to the end of ruta tres where it joins 10. This is the final hilly part of ruta tres. It climbs up to santa Gertrudis via a series of longish steep rocky climbs and short rocky descents. Juanita has been climbing better than me recently, so on the run in to the hilly section I try to keep the pace high to wear her out. I get to the last and longest climb in front of her by pushing it a bit on the descent. This climb is quite rocky and rutted with only one good line, so I take this line with my elbows out :-). I can hear her closing behind me on the last few hundred metres, but she can't get past. At the top of the climb the gradient eases and once I get to this section I can big ring it and out sprint her. She must have realised this because at the moment we crested the hill, she came flying past on my left in the rough and was gone.. Damn!

We had café and coca cola in Santa Gertrudis. On the way back we discovered a new route to the top of Sa talaia de sant Lorenzo. On the top of almost every big hill or ('munt' in catalá)there are usually a few antennae and satellite dishes, originally they were places for beacons warning of approaching pirates. Luckily for bikers and hikers, we are allowed to use the rough access roads that cut through forests to the top. Sa talaia de san Lorenzo is one of my favourites, it's a good, hard and loose in parts, middle ring climb with a sharp kick for the last 150m. The descent has a fast singletrack (camino de cabra)through the woods alongside the track.

Wednesday we arranged to ride with the hombres at 3.30pm outside Kandani. We awoke to find the whole of Cala Llonga swathed in fog (niebla) and distinctly cooler than the day before. At three we set off for Santa Eulária in arm warmers (mangitas) and a bit cold. Over the hill and we were in bright sunshine! Ah well, we'll be wearing as much clothing as locals :-) Crossing the roman bridge into santa Eulária we are surprised to hear a car beeping us, it's Pascual one of the club members waving and shouting. Wahey, it's nice to be recognised....by a local! At the shop we are greeted with lots of hola que tal's. Que tal is reserved for friends and people you know, which again is nice. There were some new faces and some old. Elena was there but on her road bike, she had an off on the mtb and had road rash on her chin and both knees....ouch. She set off by herself for a gentle recovery ride. We all set off in the opposite direction, one of the riders is a fireman and is on call so we can never be too far from town. This works very well for us because it means we get to discover all of the local trails and what's legal and what's not. Some of the trails are ok in the winter because the land owners are away, but we have to be wary in the summer. I wonder if they ride through our place when we're away? :-) We roll off in the opposite direction, down la rampa, up the rio and back into the fog that is Cala Llonga. Out through the golf course and into some new trails that we hadn't seen before. We crossed trails that we did know, which gave us ideas for new routes. Even another new way up to sant Lorenzo and a fantastic new singletrack descent. Today's ride was also deliberately flattish, because there was a big race coming up at the weekend that involved a huge climb and they wanted to save their legs. So any suggestions by Werner to go over mountains rather than around was met by shouts of 'arriba no! :-) During the burn up through the caminos and lanes back to santa Eulária we somehow find ourselves manouvered on to the front into the wind, how did that happen? Me and juanita look at each other and smile and do our pull. I guess we're no longer protected guests and have to work like everybody else now :-)

Thursday we decided to recap the club ride to map out the new trails we'd ridden. Juanita is excellent, she remembered every twist and turn, and even adds some bits to make it her own. At one point a black dog runs at us barking wildly. I say " good boy, muy bien" and he lays on his back for me to tickle his belly :-) In Ibiza every casita has a noisy dog that patrols his territory diligently and fervently. His territory seems to extend to about one metre around the perimeter wall of the house. When you pass he'll chase you as far this invisible line and no more, then strut up and down the line; job done!! When we first began riding in Ibiza this was quite frightening and we'd p.l.f. to get away. Sometimes I'd stop and face them down and they'd back off still barking. Other times I'd shout and they'd scuttle off with their tail between their legs. This seemed a bit harsh and unfair as they were only doing what was in their job description as a guard dog. So, more recently I've taken to congratulating them on doing a good job. " Bueno perro, muy bien". With the result that they go all soppy and want me to rub their belly. Everyone likes to be praised for doing a good job :-)

Friday Werner asked if we wanted to go on a ride to inspect some new trails that he'd been building during the winter. Bright and early we set off with Werner over Valverde towards the reservoir (depósito de agua) We set off up the climb opposite and into the trees up a slippery rocky climb. Just as Werner is telling us that he doesn't cut the track too wide to discourage motos, his derailleur catches a branch and snaps off his drop-out! Disaster? No, matching up to his german stereotype of efficiency and preparedness Werner has a selection of drop-outs in his bag :-) Five minutes later it is fixed and we are off again. Throughout the winter Werner has been scouring the hills for anything that remotely looks like a trail and then cutting his way through the trees. The result is a series of excellent steep downhill trails consisting of rocky drops and zig-zag hairpins. These are my favourite type of descent, steep and technical where you pick your way and let the bike go on the scary bits and brake on the easy bits :-) Five hours later we'd had enough technical singletrack and were spinning back along the caminos towards Cala Llonga.