still that's subject for another blog.
for now I was going to talk about the glorious achievements of your host in the field of hammering myself senseless.
that's a big thumbs-up from my new good mate Juan Miguel.
a nicer man you couldn't hope to meet.
more about him along a bit
I have started to be able to put in pretty big efforts on the bike although it cost me a bit to get to this point, this time round.
And, like every time, even though I try to do it on the cheap, it's not.
Cheap that is.
especially now that my basic equipment is so old and so hammered to death that it's breaking up, quite literally
that's the latest part of the frame to start giving way
in the recent past I have broken the frame, where the chainstays meet, and thank dog I was able to actually, carefully, ride it home and after a few days of deliberation got it welded up by a welder bloke that I hunted down
3 euros (about five bucks)
I had to excuse myself when he approached my bike with the angle grinder
but it hasn't broken there again yet.
what did break next was the rim of my rear wheel
The roads here are in the sort of condition of brisbane roads, (or worse) and the bike is really taking a pounding
any how I digress
this is picture of me that a kid took while riding along beside me up the road that climbs through the park here. I was photographing him and he offered to take one of me.
this is the road that featured in the world championships and the last stage of the tour of spain la vuelta a españa
In the elite mens road race in the world championships they did this hill as part of a 21 km circuit and they did that circuit 13 times, for a total of 273 kms.
It is the same park that I visit at least once a day with eni, so he can get down, being the nearest big park.
even if it wasn't the nearest park I would walk a fair way to visit it, it's a beaut.
this was part of the circuit that I visited the sat afternoon, after the under twenty-threes and climbed the hill 18 times. (it's not very long, about 1500 metres, and climbs 65 metres, so about 4%. not much of a mountain.
but also I have climbed a real mountain here, the type of object so scarce in queensland. la morcuera
it climbs 750 metres or a bit more in 8 kilometres, and thats after you climb to the base of the climb, about 300 metres in another 8 kms.
and all 50 kms away from home.
twice I have done that one and with 39 X 21 as my low gear.
the second time was enough for me to put a new cluster, when I had to have the wheel rebuilt, as mentioned above.
I took advantage of the situation to change the cluster and chain and also the bottom bracket.
another 156 euros (about 260 dollars)
anyway I have my eye on a pretty young bike and I'll sure post photos if I can woo her.
back to todays shenanigans.
above the twin towers of madrid,(or one of them to be more precise).
they are on my way to the meeting point.
I was first to arrive as is pretty much customary.
but punctually arrived juan miguel, here on juanmi. (don't forget that the J in spanish is pronounced much as the australian H so it's more huanme)
there are plenty of nice bikes around that's for sure
check out this specialised.
I still got my old faithful 1984 olimpic model, 21 years old and covered in loads of scott's spraypainting.
I'm really waffleing on now so I'll go with a couple more photo's, like this one of the group, not very big as you can no doubt see.
we got in a good bit of caning doing about 110 kms today, and about 40 or so at very high, for me anyway, speed, of forty km/hr in a continual rotation of only four riders, so about 5 secs of rest every 35 secs, for an hour.
good stuff.
all good things must come to an end and thats juanmi heading towards his home at the point where we split up
and there was a couple of very happy creatures waiting for me at home when I arrived.
at which, I'm glad to say, I arrived with no more damage than a broken spoke in my new wheel (turns out the nipple had undone itself)
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