Sierra nevada limite road 2009

Myself and a few guests went to Granada last week to take part in the first limite road, a new sportive in Granada. The Saturday had us riding 202 km and 50 km up the pico veleta on the Sunday. One of our guests (Will, team synergy)rode the slightly shorter 95km route on the Sunday and got himself 4th o/a for the 2 day combined time. I got myself 11th o/a with Andy getting 16th and Paul coming in 30th which we all decided we thoroughly deserved. Sarah had another go at the Sunday and got herself as far as the ski resort before joining us for some paella. I am still undecided whether to take part in the long ride next year as it was very brutal with 15% ramps after cycling 180km but that will soon be forgotten. I'm off to do a round of the Andalucian road race champs tomorrow so will see how that goes.http://vueltaalconjuro.blogspot.com/

More Mtb'n

We are off to the 3rd round of the marathon champs this weekend to try and get some more points, which ain't easy. After that its only one week to the Sierrnevadalimiteroad which I think is going to be my toughest day on a bike yet.

Puerto De La Ragua report

I was feeling a bit to confident going into the race and didn't really allow for how much time I'd had off over the last few weeks and went off far to quick at the start and payed for it halfway up the first climb. I managed to calm down and get it back together getting in a descent size bunch to help me back to the finish and get home 6th in my category and 34th o/a so not all bad. I'm off to another round of the Andalusian mtb champs this weekend where I got 14th in the masters last year which I will be happy with again.

XIII SUBIDA AL PUERTO DE LA RAGUA

XIII SUBIDA AL PUERTO DE LA RAGUA
We are off to Guadix for the above race on Sunday. I had quite a good result last year so hoping for better this year. We ride over Puerto de la Ragua twice so its quite a tough one. I've got myself a new video camera to play with as well, so here's the first attempt coming down the Contraviesa.

11th Gran fondo La Sufrida

I took part in La Sufrida (the suffering) at the weekend in Ronda to see if we could take guests there next year. With 4,300 mts of climbing and 196km in length it was never going to be easy. 435 riders took to the line with nearly half doing the 117 km and the rest of us doing the longer 196 km. I got to the start line with 4 of my club mates to get our race passports stamped. We set off to a barrage of fireworks into the 20km neutral zone only for Andreas to get a massive slash in the sidewall of his tyre. As we where all together we all stopped to help but had to wait for the backup car which wasted us a good 20 mins. We worked together to try and catch the bunch but had to keep waiting for directions as the neutral zone wasn't signed. During a fast descent I was the only one who noticed an arrow off to the left which my club decided to ignore, as well as my shouts, and went straight on, at this point I decided to go it alone and just get my head down. I was ticking the miles off nicely passing people all the time but never catching any group to work with as the climbs had already split the pack. The heat was proving to be the usual problem as I was tipping more water over my head than down my throat which was giving me massive headaches on every descent, the fastest being 83km. At around 50km into the race we triggered another timing mat for the cronoescalada (uphill time trial), 13 km with 809 mts of height gain, very tough when you try and commit having never seen the climb. After that we had a huge descent before the relentless climbs back to the finish. I got home 64th o/a and 31st in my catagory not even achieving a bronze time, so unfinished buisness and back next year hopefully with a full house of guests to suffer with. 8000 calories burnt and 8 lts of fluid drunk and around 3kilos of weight lost told me how tough it was. The winning average speed of 32kmh also explains only half a dozen gold times.

Busy

We have been too busy here to do any updates for a while which has been far better then we expected in only our 2nd full year. We have had some tough weeks with some great cyclists often going over 500km and 9000 mts of climbing around the Sierra Nevada. Two of us went and took part in the Juan Martinez oliver cyclosportive a couple of weeks ago and both came back with trophy's in our group ( well done Ange). We are getting ready for the next round of the Andalucian moutain bike championchips and then the Sierra nevada limite road for which we now have a full house.

2nd round copa de Andalucia

I raced in the 2nd round of the Andalucian marathon championships at the weekend and came 21st from 133 master 40s and 107 o/a from 600. Not to bad with 94 elites taking part. It was the fastest Mtb race I've ever done with an average speed of 25km and a 35km through and off for the last 6km with group of 4, very painful. It was 104 km long with about 5 km of single track so not really my thing, next round is a lot more technical. I'm off to do the Juan Martinez Oliver sportive in a couple of weeks in Almeria so looking forward to that. Finaly got my road bike finished with the new wheels so very happy about that, need to start work on the carbon mtb frame now.

New season

Our winter training is coming to an end and we are starting to get a good mix of road and mountain bikers now here in the Sierra Nevada. I'm off to race in the Andalucian mtb championships this weekend which is going to make me realize I'm not going as fast as I think I am, but worth a shot.

3rd mtb marathon El Ejido

Iraced in the El Ejido mountain bike marathon last week and had another good result coming 14th o/a and 2nd in the master 40 which was a huge improvement from last year. Its a pretty tough race with the first climb going on for nearly 4okm until you reach the very technical 14km descent before more climbing and single track to the 80km finish. I managed to get out on a club ride today, my first for ages, all the usual 2009 bling on display, Zipp wheels, Dura ace grupos, Look frames and more tubs on carbon rims than not for training rides and why not. I've got a few weeks now until the Juan martinez oliver sportive in Almeria which is a great social ride. I also have a round of the Andalucian Mtb championchips to do in a couple of weeks where I will get a real test.

First races

I've started racing at last with a good result in the Alhamilla
xtreme on Sunday with a 6th o/a. I always forget how tough mtb races are especially when they are 125km, it just seems to take forever to clock up the miles at times. I'm of to El Ejido tommorrow for another 80km mtb race with 2200mts of climbing, the 3rd time doing this race for me and I'm feeling quit strong so we will see. We have got quite a few booked in for upcoming sportives which is going to make a nice change to be on the road bike in anger.