Euskal Bizikletta
Girona, ESP
June 12, 2007
The lot of us ventured westward for the Euskal Bizikletta- a race held in the Basque region of Spain. As you probably know, there's something of a conflict underway among the Basque, so the arrival of local militia men from the hills isn't altogether uncommon. Regardless of the state of the militia the region is quite spectacular. Where we are staying the mountains are right up against the coast with virtually no flat terrain anywhere. The mountains aren't so small either, I'd guess that the highest is probably around 3500 feet, but that's straight from sea level to 3500, which is rather intimidating at a bike race.
Nevertheless, I only had an afternoon to gawk at the scenery, because that night I came down with a fever and spent the night figuring out where I was. That morning I woke up and felt a bit better and decided to race. That I think was a bit of a mistake. I finished the race, but promptly ignited the fever & a whole host of other symptoms. I didn't start the next day and stayed in bed for 36 hours. But, the big news wasn't the fact that I didn't finish the race, it was that indeed not one of us were able to finish. Shortly after I was viciously assaulted by the Basque bug, it made it's way most discretely around to every single one of my team mates. By the last day only one of us lined up on the start line... and it wasn't a healthy I'm ready to go, kind of line up... it was a wait, wait! I have to go throw up real quick kind of a line up. Timmy defied the angry imp within for 80 km before staggering up another hill and throwing up for the 20th time caused him to throw in the towel in frustration. Regardless, 80 km in a state as such is quite a feat.
The next race on my schedule is Route du Sud... hopefully what happened there last year, happened at Euskal Bizikletta this year. Otherwise...
June 12, 2007
The lot of us ventured westward for the Euskal Bizikletta- a race held in the Basque region of Spain. As you probably know, there's something of a conflict underway among the Basque, so the arrival of local militia men from the hills isn't altogether uncommon. Regardless of the state of the militia the region is quite spectacular. Where we are staying the mountains are right up against the coast with virtually no flat terrain anywhere. The mountains aren't so small either, I'd guess that the highest is probably around 3500 feet, but that's straight from sea level to 3500, which is rather intimidating at a bike race.
Nevertheless, I only had an afternoon to gawk at the scenery, because that night I came down with a fever and spent the night figuring out where I was. That morning I woke up and felt a bit better and decided to race. That I think was a bit of a mistake. I finished the race, but promptly ignited the fever & a whole host of other symptoms. I didn't start the next day and stayed in bed for 36 hours. But, the big news wasn't the fact that I didn't finish the race, it was that indeed not one of us were able to finish. Shortly after I was viciously assaulted by the Basque bug, it made it's way most discretely around to every single one of my team mates. By the last day only one of us lined up on the start line... and it wasn't a healthy I'm ready to go, kind of line up... it was a wait, wait! I have to go throw up real quick kind of a line up. Timmy defied the angry imp within for 80 km before staggering up another hill and throwing up for the 20th time caused him to throw in the towel in frustration. Regardless, 80 km in a state as such is quite a feat.
The next race on my schedule is Route du Sud... hopefully what happened there last year, happened at Euskal Bizikletta this year. Otherwise...
posted by Tom Peterson @ 1:55 AM
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