Life On Two Wheels

Along the river and toward the mountains a morning shadow shimmers across the road. The rays of the first light jet through the trees and across a figure gliding upon the road. His breath trails in short spurts, petrified as it hits the icy air. All is quiet except the slight sound of the athlete as he summons himself for yet another days work. Soon the rest of the world will bustle with life as well and the brief simplicity of cyclist and nature will disappear into the everyday struggle of life in full motion; the errands and intervals, the appointments and intersections, and the deadlines and finish lines OutPaceTheRace

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Climbing

Girona, ESP
Saturday, June 16, 2007

In Spain the weather goes from hot to hotter in the Summer. There's no spring, at least not that I've seen. After taking a short hiatus following the sickness, I got back on the bike yesterday entirely forgetting the sanctity provided by sunscreen- and got a burn done a bit over-easy. Today it was quite cloudy, yet I forgot not the sunscreen quite aware that here the rays are unhindered by a light covering of clouds. I took the 5 hours of riding today and made a loop of the two best climbs around (they're actually the only exceptional climbs I know of that are quite near); Saint Hillary and "the Amer climb." Amer is this "Sacalm" on top of a mountain where some people live... there's actually a bit of a farm up there, but I think they spend more time checking out the view than farming. Saint Hillary is similar that it is on top of a mountain, but the church is the main attraction here... There are a few more people residing on the top of Saint Hillary than Amer's Sacalm. Saint Hillary is 7 km long and quite steep... it takes something like 30 minutes. Amer is 9 km long and ~40 takes minutes, it has a much more consistent grade. The only thing that Spain has going for it are it's roads and weather.