Just visited Andalucia for a couple of days and had a few great rides. I still had to work full time, so no big rides, but the sun setting after 7pm in mid February is so awesome .
Since I didn’t know the area in advance, I took my gravel bike to be on the save side (road surface and gradients).
Directly on the first day I discovered the climb that would become my go to after work playground.
5k from my door the climb from Benahavis (90m), through La Zagaletta (430m) to El Madroño (1065m) started.
The climb has great road surface, great scenery and is super nice to ride, being 5% average for most of its‘ 19k in lengths.
I did the climb to La Zagaletta 4 times and the full climb 2 more times.
The La Zagaletta climb was also great for intervals, which took me around 17 minutes at threshold.
The full climb took me just under one hour. At the end of that, there is more climbing in all directions. With more time the road to Ronda is an absolute recommendation.
I also road up to Istan, the climb is nice, but a little flat for my taste. Riding up to Orjen on the third day was pretty nice, because the climb has a steep finish with tight hairpins. Riding through Marbella also worked better than expected.
Here are all the rides:
Almost had a lie in this morning as it was forecast to be 40-45mph gusts and heavy rain later on. Thankfully though I got a text from a mate and that spurred me to get my lazy @$$ out of bed. I had added a 2mm shim to my right cleat and put my saddle up by a cm and I was pretty eager to try it out too. These small changes transformed the bike and I never really noticed the wind despite the local weather station actually recording 40-45mph winds. The ride went out to Fineshades and looped back to the pub we foregoed yesterday. The pub is local to my mates but nearly 10miles for me and I thought I was going to be soaked by the 95% rain forecasted. I didn’t get wet and sat on the sofa to sober up before cleaning the bike. Which I thought would have to wait until tomorrow. After I sobered up it was still dry’ish though so I decided to clean it and it actually got drier. Once I cleaned the bike I cleaned my self (showered) and when I got out the torrential rain was finally here. I am glad I never let the forecast put me off
2 hrs of cruising through some sweet groomed singletrack on a bluebird day. We need more snow, but the flip side is that the riding conditions are great.
I was out with my friend who’s heading off to Alaska next week for the ITI 1000. He’s expecting conditions to be a little bit more challenging than this!
Leaves sprouting on trees and new grass mean one thing - allergies Put a damper on this workout, but still managed some 4 year power PRs between 1.5 hours and 4+ hours.
We’ve had some bizarre temperature changes, 17deg one day freezing the next. Things were beginning to appear bizarrely in January here but with the winds the last few weeks and the cold snaps things haven’t come on or retreated. Your pictures look lush
Temperature swings are normal this time of year, and it was nice wearing the summer kit last week. Prefer the temps under 61F/16C and the bib tights, while they last!
Just my usual ride down to Oundle by a spurious route. A few folk were away or ill so the pace was relaxed which I decided to go with. The only thing of note was the skies were blue and although stiff at times the wind had dropped significantly. Which at this time of year sees a wide temperature range here. It was 1 deg Cat the start and 10deg C at the end. Lol, it took me half an hour + to write this as I watch the Omloop
Had Elephants+2 on the schedule today, so I hit a nearby gravel climb to do the 6x7’ VO2max repeats. This is not a hardpacked dirt path, but actual and sometimes loose gravel with an average gradient of 21%. Unfortunately, I have an old tire on the back that I replaced because its tread was worn. However, I managed to get a puncture in the replacement and although I did a trailside repair, I swapped it out for the old tire (which I retrieved from the bin). Yes, I do have new-new tires but I’ve been too lazy to put them on. The result was an occasional slippage, especially as I fatigued.
Usually, I post the “distance” profile but today it’s the “time” profile. The first climb I started at the very bottom of the segment and went long than the prescribed 7’. Why? Well because apparently I’m in a competition with someone for the local legend on this climb and I wanted to make sure I hit the end of the Strava segment. That segment starts above the bottom and finishes below the very top and is just over 7’ for me right now. There’s a side-loop part of the way down so my descent to the start was close to the 3’ prescribed rest but not a straight down bomb on the loose gravel. The fifth repeat went higher because I went to the top of the climb to quit and head home as I thought it was 7x7 and I was toast. When I realized it was 6x7 and I needed only one more for the TR algorithm to not think I was a failure, I dropped down to start again. Also on the fifth climb, I thought I heard my name called out, looked back, and lost traction. Probably a hallucination as the trail isn’t often traveled for obvious reasons, though I do see the occasional equestrian or hiker and maybe a descending mtb. Good times.
The lake at the top of the map is where 4th grade kids do an overnight field trip with parents at “Old Sierra Camp.” They dress up like its the 1848 gold rush - and cook/clean for the parents! When I went 15 years ago the tent was a bit rustic, and I prefer my sleeping bag on something other than canvas over rocks!
This pic is close to the Old Sierra Camp, and if you look closely you can see small waterfall from the river coming out of the reservoir:
I was meeting a mate at Elton (a fast 30mins away) this morning lol, he sent me a message that we were meeting another mate another 15minutes away. So it was pretty rapid out and hopefully I didn’t upset a few road bikes a knobbly tyred bike went by. After that though it was a much more sedate ride to the Fineshade mtb centre cafe. It was supposed to just be a visit to the cafe but sitting there looking at the bright blue cloudless sky we decided to explore and I think we went to Barrowden, Tinwell, Ketton, Stamford, Burleigh House and Wansford where we ended up in a pub. After the pub we said our good byes and I cycled the 10miles home. The pictures are before and after unfortunately I never took any on the ride
Looking back at last week, and the preceding weeks, it looks like I’m getting into @HLaB hours on the bike! The plan was 3 weeks loading and 1 week deload, but life interfered and it ended up 4:1 for 2 blocks.
Finally a rest week, yesterday was a super easy recovery ride. Today some high aerobic intervals to keep pushing FTP up and pressure on muscular endurance. Felt easy and I could have added intervals or extended them but hey, its a rest week!
I think Samford is one of my favorite villages. I didn’t head NORTH too often on my rides, mostly stayed close to home.
My ride to work was Yaxley through Norman Cross, Folksworth, Washingley, Lutton, Polebrook, Hemington, Luddington in the Brook, Thurning, Clopton, Old Weston and finally to Molesworth.
My favorite loop was going out towards Uppingham around Eyebrook Reservoir…could get about 3,500 feet of climbing that way.
I’m jealous. We haven’t had summer weather here since 2020. Last summer was wet and cool. I didn’t go out much this winter – relative to previous winters – because I was simply tired of the never-ending cleaning mud off the bike that had been necessary since fall 2020. It’s dry-ish now, moreso because the temps have fallen and stayed low. This morning I went out in a cold -3ºC, reported but at times it felt much colder, for an easy, completely fasted, recovery ride for this easy week. There was a hill, though: the climb I did my repeats on the other day. BTW - it’s not easy maintaining traction and direction one-handed on a 21-23% gravel path but the things I do to get a pic for this group 55min ride, 9 miles, less than 1100’ of climbing. I’m ready for warm weather.
You won’t be jealous of the yet another drought year water rationing! I was born part polar bear and prefer the cooler temps, although 5-15C sounds better than -3C.
The usual Saturday group ride for me today, a spurious route to Oundle. We did vary it a little at the start and do the EBs classic route as we hadn’t done it for a while. We started with quite a strong tailwind (they do exist ), unfortunately that means that we’d have a strong headwind but it let me do tempo block without messing up the group.
The only other thin of note I found some bib longs last week in great condition and wondered why I never wore them much. I found out why, they’re too long for me despite being XS and me being of average height (5ft 9in, 175cm) and they tend rub the rear of my knees where they’ve doubled over. I decided to give them one more try but keeping them taught by not putting them fully over my ankles.
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Put a damper on this workout, but still managed some 4 year power PRs between 1.5 hours and 4+ hours.
and you know what they say… in like a lamb, out like a lion!
Any pros out there ? There’s a few out in Tenerife and Calpe (some friends rode there with Van der Pol yesterday 
), unfortunately that means that we’d have a strong headwind but it let me do tempo block without messing up the group.
