Club-ride with pros
.. in English, just for fun..
"You look more like like a mountain biker", said a thin cyclist to me before the Cycle Center / Bike Breaks Girona weekly club ride. Indeed, I did, with my grey socks and a small back bag. And compared to the other riders, I certainly did look like that I did not belong to the group.
It was not to be a club ride of local amateurs, but something else. There are more than 100 professional cyclists living in Girona at the moment, and some of them turned up (such as Lucy Martin, some professional thin and fast guy called Martin this or that with his dad who was visiting him) with a bunch of very serious looking (though smiling) local and visiting pros and semi-pros and amateurs. Altogether, maybe 25 riders.
Off we went, via very slippery cobble stone street of Old Girona, to the countryside. The speed was not too bad, something like less than 30 km/h mostly. But the speed did not decrease too much when hit some steeper hills. I managed to hang on for a while, maybe for the first 5 small hills. But after a while, the gradient was closer to 10% than 5%, and I was out of breath. Totally. The peloton, the pros and thinner amateurs, dropped me.
So, I took a shortcut to the cafe we were about the have a break. After the break, we set out again. Now, first downhill, then over low and not steep hills. All was fine for some 10km. Then again, they dropped me. Fortunately, not only me but some others as well. I got company of a Finnish woman Anna, an Hungarian woman Noora and a Spanish older semi-pro Joseph. Joseph was kind enough to ride with us, to show use some nice roads. He could have gone with the pros, but somehow he did not feel like the urge today. We three were really glad he stayed with us, for he knew the roads. He also turned out to be very talkative, a fountain of stories and legends in addition to local information of sights and views.
The four of us climbed up a hill, some 200 meters up in 6 km or so. Or less. Accidentally, I climbed with the large chain wheel wondering why it felt so hard. Stupid me. At the top, we filled our water bottles from a fountain, and continued downhill. It was one of the most beautiful downhills ever, smooth, easy, fast, and with incredible views of mountains, monasteries etc. Worth the uphill!
Joseph took us to a village, where there used to be a mill. But the river Ter was moved to feed some nearby factories during the industrial revolution, so now only the bridge remains. Strange place, full of history.
The ride from the bridge-over-no-water to Girona was easy. We climber over a small hill, some 3 km uphill, then raced downhill to the town. Riding trough the roundabouts at 40+km/h keeps one awake for sure.
Such a day. Afterwards, a beer of two. Next week, another club ride.
(Today, 85 km, in 3 and half hours or so, maybe 25km/h average. No idea how much we climbed, maybe closer to 1000m or so. Nice, sunny weather with some clouds, 25C. )
Our route.
"You look more like like a mountain biker", said a thin cyclist to me before the Cycle Center / Bike Breaks Girona weekly club ride. Indeed, I did, with my grey socks and a small back bag. And compared to the other riders, I certainly did look like that I did not belong to the group.
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| Cycle center Girona |
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| Martin on the left, bike shop owner Saskia on the right |
It was not to be a club ride of local amateurs, but something else. There are more than 100 professional cyclists living in Girona at the moment, and some of them turned up (such as Lucy Martin, some professional thin and fast guy called Martin this or that with his dad who was visiting him) with a bunch of very serious looking (though smiling) local and visiting pros and semi-pros and amateurs. Altogether, maybe 25 riders.
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| Lucy Martin's bicycle |
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| The fast guys. |
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| To be fast, one has to eat not too much. |
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| Lucy Martin and others |
Off we went, via very slippery cobble stone street of Old Girona, to the countryside. The speed was not too bad, something like less than 30 km/h mostly. But the speed did not decrease too much when hit some steeper hills. I managed to hang on for a while, maybe for the first 5 small hills. But after a while, the gradient was closer to 10% than 5%, and I was out of breath. Totally. The peloton, the pros and thinner amateurs, dropped me.
So, I took a shortcut to the cafe we were about the have a break. After the break, we set out again. Now, first downhill, then over low and not steep hills. All was fine for some 10km. Then again, they dropped me. Fortunately, not only me but some others as well. I got company of a Finnish woman Anna, an Hungarian woman Noora and a Spanish older semi-pro Joseph. Joseph was kind enough to ride with us, to show use some nice roads. He could have gone with the pros, but somehow he did not feel like the urge today. We three were really glad he stayed with us, for he knew the roads. He also turned out to be very talkative, a fountain of stories and legends in addition to local information of sights and views.
 |
| Noora, Anna and Joseph |
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| Noora, discuss thrower and Anna |
The four of us climbed up a hill, some 200 meters up in 6 km or so. Or less. Accidentally, I climbed with the large chain wheel wondering why it felt so hard. Stupid me. At the top, we filled our water bottles from a fountain, and continued downhill. It was one of the most beautiful downhills ever, smooth, easy, fast, and with incredible views of mountains, monasteries etc. Worth the uphill!
Joseph took us to a village, where there used to be a mill. But the river Ter was moved to feed some nearby factories during the industrial revolution, so now only the bridge remains. Strange place, full of history.
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| Cats |
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| Bridge over no water |
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| Cyclists |
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| Bridge |
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| Cyclists on the bridge |
The ride from the bridge-over-no-water to Girona was easy. We climber over a small hill, some 3 km uphill, then raced downhill to the town. Riding trough the roundabouts at 40+km/h keeps one awake for sure.
Such a day. Afterwards, a beer of two. Next week, another club ride.
(Today, 85 km, in 3 and half hours or so, maybe 25km/h average. No idea how much we climbed, maybe closer to 1000m or so. Nice, sunny weather with some clouds, 25C. )
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| Panorama of cyclists |
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| Bike shop - signed pro-shirts on the wall! |
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| Our route |
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