Life in Girona

Hi again, it's been a few days now, so I'd say there's been enough adventure and it's time to share. I'm usually one for chronological order, but I think I'll go with themes this time--Rides, Beaches, Food and Wine and a little surprise for last (no peeking ahead!).

Rides

Since that last post, Rod and I have managed to ride three out of the three days--proper thing, ya. Undoubtedly, the most epic in terms of length and heat battling was Tuesday's ride. We set out on another ride recommended by Michael Barry in Canadian Cycling Magazine that was described as being 4 hours and 'rolling'. It was all of that. It turned out to be a great day--110 km in the saddle and incredibly hot. I drank seven bottles and I'm sure that wasn't enough. This ride offered an optional out and back climb called Rocacorba, but we decided that we should leave it for another day (foreshadowing) given the heat and duration. Awesome day though as we headed west and north out of Girona climbing up through the small towns of St. Gregori, Les Planes d'Hostales, and Olot and descended/climbed (rolled) south and eventually east back into Girona via Santa Pau and Banyoles. A gratifing day on the bike, but tremedously hot. PS Lunch in Olot consisted of a ham and cheeze panini and a chocolate croissant. The croissant requires some description. Do you remember 'squirt gum' when you were a kid? We were sharing one of these decadent numbers so Rod decides to break it in half and it exploded oozing chocolate. Oh, it was good. Did I mention that both outside ends of it were chocolate dipped - crazy.

Our friend Dave getting us off on the right road out of town

Rod burning a descent - full gas!

The RS's flight deck

The next day, the plan was to ride easy for a couple of hours and get back in time to go with the girls to the beach. All pretty much went according to plan except that I flatted (MY FIRST EVER FLAT ON THE ROAD - I actually feel some relief because now I can talk about it without the fear of jinxing myself; seriously five years of riding and zero flats until yesterday). Tube swapped, and we were back under way. The plan was to head to a town called Le Pera, former home of Salvador Dali, the famous surrealist painter. If you don't know who Dali is/was, the best way I can describe him is to say that he's the melting clocks artist...ring any bells? If not click here. Running a little behind time because of the flat, we decided to head across country to Madremanya and over the back side of the Els Angels climb from Monday's ride. It was much harder (and hotter) this way (short distance so steeper). Fun though!

Approaching La Pera among the sunflowers - perfect!

Probably the closest I'll ever get to Salvador Dali

Rod atop Els Angels

Big descent

Last ride was yesterday. We ventured back up to Banyoles to challenge the Rococorba climb. Fourteen kilometers at average of 6.5% doesn't sound too bad, but k's 8 and 9 are at 10.5% (which I think is steeper than anything I climbed in France) and the last 4 k's are at 8.5%. I guess you could say that it starts out fairly easy but gets very intense up top. Dave, the owner of a local bike shop told us that the pros make good use of this climb in training and actually do a time trial on is frequently. We made it to the top and were happy to find clear skies at the top for the camera. The summit actually offered 360 degree views, so we were able to see a distinctive mountain valley that we rode through on Tuesday off in the distance. Pictures taken, the descent was fast and furious. After lunch and coffee in Banyoles, we burned back into Girona (Brad Vein style - aka FULL GAS!) and managed to skirt the ridiculous rain storm that was baring down on the city. Jinx, you say? I flatted again in Banyoles and if that weren't enough the valve stem on the replacement tube failed, so had to change it again - good thing we both carry a spare tube.

Our heroes set out for Rococorba on the cobbles of Girona, and yes, we bought matching Cycling Girona kits for the occasion

One of the sights along the way - a border collie at work

The stats on the climb

Rod's climbin' calves!

We're keeping good company on this climb as evidenced by the writing on the road

Success! Man, climbin' mountains feels good!

This is at the summit - we were told it's a hand gliding launch-way. Can you imagine the nads it would take to jump off this thing?

The beach

If Rod and I have handled all cycling related business ;) over the past couple of day, it's been Selena and Deanna's job to make sure the beaches got invaded. They've had a great time exploring the beaches of the Costa Brava--I think they may even have had a plate of French Fries. Tops are of course optional on the Spanish beaches...actually bottoms are even so in some cases, I guess. The water is blue and warm but refreshing given the heat.

Rod and I joined them on Wednesday after our ride. We drove out to a beach city called Palamos and ended up at Platja de Castell. Last one in's a rotten egg. Pretty much your standard beach day really except for the kayak rentals. Fifteen Euros got us a tandem open kayak each for an hour and we were able too paddle around the point and through a big seacliff archway. Also paddled into a bit of a cave. Good times.

The arch that we paddled through

Rod and Dee paddling under ground

Frolicking

Bad time for an earthquake

Food and Wine

This post is getting long, so I think I'll let the pictures do most of the talking here. Suffice it to say that we've lived pretty high on the hog around here over the last couple of days. First was Draps (see previous post), then was a France place for stellar crepes (mine was stuffed with sausage, cheeze and a fried egg), and lastly a Basque tapas bar called Zanpanzar. At Zanpanzar, you pick up your tapas at the bar, each with a toothpick shoved into it; you collect these toothpicks throughout the evening, then your bill is based on the number that you've collected - no we didn't 'mistakenly' let any toothpicks fall through the street grate :)

Pre-game cerveca at the apartment

Inside (yes, inside) the crepes place (you can eat inside the old bus; we, of course, opted to eat in the alley way outside the cafe)

We seemed to develop a thing for stacking dishes???

The end to a perfect evening. Please note the three people behind the counter of this little gelato place are the three people that we got to know best having 'spoken' to the EVERY night. Like I always say, a day in Europe without a dish of gelato is like any old day in North America

One final, major piece of news

I think I mentioned a post or two ago that our time in Girona was to be a sort of Tour de Michael...Michael Barry being one of mine and Rod's favorite pro riders. He's a Canadian from Toronto and rides for the British Team Sky. Michael is a also a writer, so we've spent a lot of time over the past few years reading about life in the pro peloton and specifically about the life of a pro cyclist living in Girona. Indeed this is what inspired us to come here in the first place. This city really is a road (and mountain) cycling mecca actually. It's very common to see (obviously) pro riders riding about town on their way to or from a training ride. It's fun; their training groups/friendships don't at all observe the boundaries of 'team'; they seem to be a big family really living and training together here in Girona. We've been lucky enough to spot a couple of Saxo Bank riders, a few Garmins, a lone BMC'er, but as you can imagine, our eyes have been peeled for our patron saint of Girona, Mr. Barry. (Rod, brace yourself for what you're about to read...I'm sorry buddy, but it happened this afternoon just outside the store where we bought the Bikecat kits.)

In keeping with the good mojo that helped me meet and ride with Lance Armstrong last year in Dublin, Ireland, I was lucky enough today to meet Michael Barry and his wife Dede as they were coming back into town from a ride. Michael just completed his first Tour de France (he's race several grand tours, World Championships, and Olympics, but 2010 was his first Tour) so I imagine he was on a little recovery spin about the area shaking out the legs. As they rode by, about 30 or so feet away from where I was walking, I recognized him and shouted, "Hey Michael!" They could easily tell that I was a fan, and true to my impression of the man that's come from reading his blog and articles, they were gracious enough to stop and chat for about 15 minutes . It was so great to be able to tell him face-to-face that we had been on what I called the "Tour de Michael" as we've enjoyed three of his four eating recommendations and three of the four riding routes that he described in the article in Canadian Cycling. They were very curious about our trip and I was able to tell them that we'd been in the Pyrenees for Stages 16 and 17 and that Rod and I had just yesterday climbed the famous Rococorba. He said his legs were a bit sore from the tour, but nothing too major or unexpected. We chatted about the local pros and their commaderie, about Selena's conquering the Col du Soulor, ah, it went on... I love this sport! In what other sport can you meet one of your heros in this way? Professional cyclist and the sport itself are so accessible. Check Ticketmaster's website for the price of Tour de France tickets--you won't find any, not because it's sold out 8 years in advance, because it's free, stupid! I'll stop now and fill you all in on the details when I see you. I did give Michael the link to this little blog, so maybe he'll throw us a comment--cyclists are like that...if he is reading this, thanks again, man - it was a real thrill meeting you two.

Our inspiration, Mr. Michael Barry! (PS I was by myself and happened to be carrying the camera; good thing as I'm sure no one would have believed this one.)

And just like that...they were gone

Check out Michael's blog here.

We travel on, our time in Girona all but done, our friends departed this morning; we plan to head south of Barcelona to check out the beaches and hopefully do a little cyclo-wine-touring. Thanks for reading (this novel) and please drop us a comment. Home in 6 days.

Seleno
PS Believe it or not, I do have much more to say about Girona and would like to put more pics of the city up, so if I run into a good wifi connection in the next couple of days I'll try my best to do so.

First Days in Girona

Hey there blogger people! Sorry for the recent hiatus, but it's been interesting around here. Where to begin?

After camping one more night (Thursday) at the base of the Tourmalet, Selena and I pointed the car back up the famous Col--the road being re-opened to traffic. The plan was to reach Spain via an alternate route; on the way up to France, we went up the east coast then shot west to Tarbes, Lourdes, etc. On the way back we climbed the Tourmalet, and the Col d'Aspin then caught a tunnel (10 minutes drive through a mountain) to Spain. The tunnel was amazing. The rain during the tour on the North side of the Pyrenees has been well documented. When we emerged from the tunnel in Spain, on the south side of the Pyrenees, it was like someone flicked a switch--blue skies, no clouds, and 25 degrees - 30 by the time we got back down to the base of the mountains. Surreal. That night we camped on the coast north of Barcelona in a virtual desert--stark contrast to the conditions in Bareges.

Saturday was spent scoping out the beach towns for Selena and Deanna, getting moved back into the apartment in Girona, doing laundry, and dumping the rented car back at the airport. Then...

At 6:30 two people showed up (Rod and Deanna) with two carry-ons...pass the beer nuts. No suitcases, no bike :((((( I won't spend too much time on the details here, but suffice it to say that it was NOT a happy time. Frequent phone calls to the airport, iffy service in English, unreliable payphones in the street, a stake-out vigil on the sidewalk lasting hours and spanning two days. Then our incredibly generous apartment neighbors graciously loaned us one of their cell phones so that we could give the airport an actual contact number (our apt doesn't have a phone) and eventually, at 2:30 today, some 48 hours after the arrival of the Rawdings, the successful delivery of the baggage/bike occurred.

The girls were already off to the beach, and Rod and I had his bike out of the box and built back up in no time. We set off on the cobbled streets of Girona for our first ride :))))))

Looking to spin the shit out of our legs (that hadn't been moving for a couple of days), we took off on Michael Barry's 1.5-2 hour Easy Ride. By the way, a lot (all or most) of our riding here over the next few days will be based on Michael Barry's article from the current issue of Canadian Cycling which you can find here . Michael is a pro rider, originally from Toronto, who rides with Team Sky who recently finished his first Tour de France and makes Girona his permanent home. This ride saw us over the Els Angels climb which the likes of Armstrong, Barry, Christian Vandevelde, Levi Leipheimer, and George Hincapie use for interval workouts. It was a great climb, ridiculously hot, but we were smiling all the way. The ride then looped back to Girona via a small ancient town called Madremanya. The only way to describe this small place would be to tell you that as we were riding about it's archways, tunnels, and small alleyways, I suggested to Rod that we could play a game of hide-n-seek on our bikes...very twisty, circuitous little passages built in the 14th and 15th century.

In the end we made it back to Girona coming in on the road that we parked the car on. As we were criding in on this road, we met the girls who were just coming home from their day at the beach. At this point, they didn't realize that the luggage had arrived, so we were able to share the news by riding by and saying hello from our bikes. Very fun!

The day was capped with a pitcher of Sangria, and a meal at Draps, a restaurant that specializes in meals to share - we ordered three meals and shared it all around with a great bottle of wine. Each meal is designed for 2 - you do the math. The requisite 2 boules of gelato finished off a great first day (with bikes) in Girona.

Thanks for reading and please comment freely :)

Seleno

Some other dude riding up the upper slopes of the Tourmalet while we drove.


This pic is still worth something

Check out the dusty campsite

View of the Onya River from our apartment in Girona

Fun at the beach

Ah, diddo!

Rod at the top of El Angels

Shane at the top of El Angels - some of my buddies might notice a new purchase in this pic - couldn't help myself

Riding into Madremanya


Pretty much says it all really

This is the street we live on, Carrer Ballesteries - the lighting at night is sureal


Fred and Barney

Betty and Wilma

Just so we're clear, I can eat 21 power gels, a deep fried turkey and my body weight in gelato without throwing up

Tour de France Pt 2

Hi again friends!

Well our time at the TdF is done...I was thinking that I'd feel relief that the rush rush, hectic-ness was over, but when the grupetto (collection mostly sprinters who ride together at the back just trying to make the day's time cut-off) went by us, I was a bit sad that it was over.

Tent city was good to us Wednesday night - man, did it rain, thunder, lightning, etc. The mountain was angry. We managed to stay mostly dry, despite our set-up which was on a bed of tall grass/weeds, next to a stone wall on a narrow bank--a small, tent-sized piece of real estate among the throngs of RVs...forgot to get a pic of the site, hence the description.

Up early and as planned after fueling up on coffee, I descended almost to Luz St. Sauveur (incidentally where I sit right now) and turned back up the mountain (the gendarmes told me not to go any further down or I may be told to stay put - now that would suck - bad!). So up I climbed, back to Bareges, where we had spent the night, collected my rain coat for the descent, and again set off climbing. I had super legs yesterday - felt so great; I think the mood of the whole scene was wearing off on me. I climbed and climbed in a total downpour (ps, I usually feel good in such conditions - not sure why). I managed to still be feeling great at the 4km to go banner when the gendarmes halted me and instructed me that the climb was closed off to 'velo' from there up and that I could walk (in the rain? what are you crazy? I'm not WALKING in the RAIN.). So, after sufficient begging and pleading and bull shit stories about having left my wife on the summit this morning, I snapped a couple of pics and pointed the wheels down. Fun time, but hypothermic to say the least. When I got back down to our camp site, I was frozen, but very happy if a little pissed. The Dutch family in the RV next to our car made us a couple of cups of coffee which I drank as I peeled off my drenched layers of spandex.

With the day's ride out of my system, we ventured into Bareges to catch the early part of the stage in the pub...fun scene there, then back up to watch the group come by about 200m above the 10k to go banner. Group, what group? Happily for spectators the day's route and the mood of the riders shattered the peloton, and the riders came by us one, two, or three at a time over a period of twenty-five minutes...there was only the grupetto and one other group of any size. Lance must have been tucked in one of them, because I didn't get a good look at him, but I did see (and speak to) virtually every other big-name rider. Cancellara gave me a pop-a-wheely. I congratulated Cadel Evans on a great season and Giro - he replied that he wasn't doing too well at the moment :) Andy Schleck (in the white jersey) and Alberto Contador (in yellow); Chris Horner again (he seems to love our camera), Lance (I think Selena got him after all), Levi (!) Leipheimer, Fecha, Basso (yes, Aaron, Basso), Wiggins (yes, Aaron, Wiggins), Vino (yes, Brad, Vino), Sastre, Mick Rogers, Jens Voigt (!), Cavendish, Hushvod, Pettachi...saw them all...very thrilling.

With the riders off to to summit, we listened on the radio to hear about the finish - Andy and Alberto caught the remnants of the break and thrilled the crowd with attack after attack and eventually Andy took the win with Contador right alongside. Chapeau Andy, here's hoping you have the TT of your life on Saturday.

Into the car and down to Luz St. Sauveur where we stayed in an actual campground on an actual tent site (amazing how the tent pecks go smoothly into the ground) and had actual showers (our first in 4 days). And that gets me to right now--we've packed up yet again, coffeed/croissanted up and are about to point the car back up and over the Tourmalet (and Aspin and Peyresourde Cols) en route once again to Espagne.

Rod and Dee show up tomorrow at about noon. Girona rides and beaches await us, so tune back in in couple of days to hear more adventures.

Seleno
PS, if you read, try to comment to let us know you're there :)

The gendarme instructed me - you shall not pass en velo.


Somewhere near the top of the Tourmalet

Dutch coffee and a happy guy

A happy couple awaits the peloton in the sun (which lasted about 10 mins) on the Tourmalet

Andy and Alberto go by

Horner (again), but on the right is Canadian Ryder Hesjedal on the ride of his life, finishing 4th on the stage and slotting into 8th on GC at 9:18

Lance

The Rainbow jersey (World Road Champion) of Cadel Evans

Fabian Cancellara!

Tour de France Pt 1

All,

Well, I thought I was ready to come over here to challenge the big Pyrennian climbs of the Tour de France...I've had a terrific spring/early summer of training, I try to watch what I eat, and stretch my muscles, yoga, etc. And you know, it really worked. I made it to the summits of both the Col du Soulor (Cat. 1) and the Col d'Aubisque (HC - Hors Category (English - Beyond Category)). The thing is, that my epic wife did the same thing...all the while wondering what all the fuss about this cycling business was all about...nothin' to it. Well, what can I say, she is from GASPEREAU MOUNTAIN...I wonder where it would fit in the categorization. Long story short (for now)...yesterday we had a great day; we caught the peleton about 2 km from the summit of the Aubisque. We stayed (tent) both Monday and Tuesday night in a small village called Arrens Marsous (get your atlases out) at the base of the Soulor. In the morning, I descended down to Argeles Zaoust and climbed back up, then Selena joined me and together we conquered Soulor and Aubsique.

And we were treated to none other than Lance Armstrong and Chris Horner of Team Radioshack (aka ShackStrong to some - that's a specific tap on the shoulder to see who's following along) in the break. If you were watching on the tele, yes that idiot in the Cervelo Test Team kit running alongside the breakaway group was yours truly. Next we were treated to great looks of the yellow jersey of Alberto Contador (don't get me started on the scandal of his taking Andy's jersey) and Andy Schleck (Andy looked me right in the eye as I shouted, "Way to go Andy!". Our old friend from the Alpe d'Huez, Mr. Carlos Sastre was also visible in this group. So much to share and I'm a bit pressed for time right now...Cancelara, Hushovd, Pettachi, Wiggins, Cavenish, Millar, Basso, S. Sanchez, and many others were easily spotted.

As for today, the rest day, I (solo) climbed the famous Hautacam, and we lifted stakes (literally) and have moved to Bareges (a little less then half way up the most famous Col du Tourmalet). Tomorrow, after the requisite espressos and pain au chocolat, I will descend to Luz Saint Saveur (the official start of the climb), re-ascend to Bareges, pick up Selena, and from here we will challenge the Col.

Looking for fireworks from either Contador or Schleck tomorrow. Can't wait.

Tomorrow night, we hope to head back south to Spain (though we may end up spending the night here...?) to scout out the beaches outside of Girona so that Deanna and Selena can get a good plan of attack together. Speaking of whom, we're looking forward to Saturday's arrival of Rod and Deanna. Many good times are set to go OFF!

Internet access in these small mountain towns has been tough but I promise to be better at updating the blog once we're back in Girona (our apartment has wifi :)

Until then, wish us luck - please think dry thoughts (we're about to head out to our rainy tent and the forecast for tomorrow is R-A-I-N...but you won't here us complaining).

Seleno

Home sweet home Tour de France fans will recognize this guy!

Get that woman a polka dot jersey


Makin' it look easy


Au sommet de l'Aubisque


Fortunately the camera caught Chris Horner in the break; unfortunately, it missed Lance (try again tomorrow)

Chasing the break

Fabian Cancellara leads a chase group up the Aubisque

A happy guy at Hautacam!