That was tough!

We rode the Vuelta version of the etape yesterday and it was the first time I've ridden the puerto de monachil. It is a tough climb, not very long but even with my girls 39\ 27 gears I was standing more than I was sitting just to turn the pedals. As if that wasn't enough after the massive descent back down, they sent us back up to the ski resort via Guajar Sierra, more standing on the worst climb I've ever done. I got to the top with jumping gears and a chain held together by half a pin. After a shower and some lunch we watched the prologue around the streets of Granada which was great. Alberto Contador was getting mobbed every where he went: by me and my club mates .

3rd Marcha la Vuelta a España

Had a monster ride with the club last week , nearly 200 kms with a great lunch in the middle. Started in Adra at sea level and came up over the mountains to Lanjaron and back to the coast via Motril. Been out a lot this week which has been good preparation for our Spanish Etape tomorrow. We are doing 100km in the morning climbing around the Sierra Nevada and then watching the pros do their 7km in the evening. Should be good, Granada is a great place to watch and get up close to the action.

First ham

We got round to buying our first ham last week {very Spanish} after getting the important ham rack for my birthday. We had Sarah's brother out last week for a visit and now its all gone! Foggy and Meg are big fans of whats left.

I've started getting out on the mountain bike this week trying to get a bit of shape for the next round of the Andalucian marathon championships in September. We are also off to the 1st stage of the vuelta on the 30th of this month for the prologue, which also includes a cyclosportive in the morning of around 100km with a couple of climbs up the sierra nevada which should make for a great day. We have started getting a few bookings for later in the year now and still have some races left so hopefully we should have a busy 2nd half year.

Kin Hot!

Just had 3 weeks back in the UK which gave me time to do 3 time trials and a couple of road races. I've been beating myself up trying to beat my eve 10 pb of what I thought was 24.12 {its a lumpy coarse} but I justed checked and its only 24.48 so my 25.01 wasn't to far away. Just realized talking about time trials is quit boring. Went for a 95km ride when I got back to Spain far to late in the day in 30+ temps and lost 2 kilos during the ride, no wonder I felt so bloody ill when I got back. August seems to be a good month to close as you only get a window of about 4 hrs where its OK to ride in the morning. We have our cadiar expo this weekend which involves some local produce {wine and jamon} , the solar power man, a bar and a concert: what more do you want. I'm of for a beer and tapas, vamos!