Eni is getting down has moved

As these things go and we all grow and all the world's a show and so and so.

"eni is getting down" has a new home over on my own domain. Anybody who has stumbled in here wondering if Scott has put up anything new in the last six months, be aware that indeed he almost certainly has done so, but now at the new improved (I hope) "eni is getting down"

Thanks for anybody who comes by and I hope you will go to the effort of clicking over to "eni is getting down"





illustration friday

Quebrantahuesos 2007

The big weekend of the cycling calender for me. I went with my good friends Juanjo and Ester, and their lifelong friends Carlos and Aurora, to Sabiñanigo in the province of Huesca.

From quebrantahues...

That's in Aragon, in the north of Spain at the base of the famous Piraneos Mountain range, scene of many a fine battle in the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España.

From quebrantahues...

On Saturday morning it was the Quebrantahuesos 2007 and I was there, just like the year before, (I was going to link to last years entry but I can't find one. Maybe I didn't write one) to try my best over a very challenging course.
205 kms with nearly 4000 meters of vertical displacement.

From quebrantahues...

Although, as you can see, my cycling computer says that it was only 3500 meters. Still quite a lot however you look at it. And those are real hills too. First Somport from the Spanish side and then you descend into France. Some kilometers after, in the small village of Escot you make a turn into a national park and the Marie Blanque looms, with an extremely hard final four kilometers, then the icing on the cake, the 29 kms ascention to Portalet and just when you thought it was all downhill, a final short but hard and sweet climb to the Hoz de Jaca (I can't find a Altimetrias.com page for this one).
I was going to take the camera but there is really not much time to relax and take some happy snaps, so I decided agaist it. Juanjo took this shot of me approaching the finish line.

From quebrantahues...

Juanjo and Carlos also did some hard cycling that day doing the Treparriscos, a smaller version of the race, for those that haven't trained enough for the big one. I think they found it to be enough

From quebrantahues...

That's them finishing, a little before me.
Here's the three happy troopers in the pavillion after the race

From quebrantahues...

Juanjo looks like he survived better than the other two.
But I was pretty happy with my time of 6 hours and 35 minutes, a full 25 mins better than last year. I can still get it down a bit from there though as I lost a lot of time on the climb to the Portalet because I just ran out of steam, or glycogen or something. I need to work on some of the 'little things' for next year's attempt.
Still I finished 503rd of more than 7000 riders so I can't complain. and to make a big improvement on last year makes me happy. I just would like to keep on improving in the years to come.
A couple more snaps and I had better go to work. BOO HOO

From quebrantahues...

the village where we stayed

From quebrantahues...

A small place, that's for sure. I could live in a place like that.
well I am out of time and though there's plenty more that I could say, I'll leave it for another entry. Hope it's not as long as usual.
cheers
illustration friday

more riding less illos

well bit of a joke really as I would have to say no illos to be truthful.
and very little study or anything else except reading doomer stuff on the net and doing an arseload of kilometers in the mountains.
since I wrote the last entry saying that I had just done my second mountain climb of the year, I switched to a higher gear and now I have done ten or so climbs.
this one was yesterday.
we went and climbed Abantos, which is one of the most famous climbs here in Madrid.
this year in la vuelta a España they are going to climb it twice and in fact they are going to do the same section after as well so as you can guess it is a real climb. and real hard

From ride29abril

of course they will probably be going a bit faster than me, but them's the breaks. I am forty one and no-one pays me to do this. and my trusty steed, (looking good below hey) weighs three kilograms more than the bikes those guys use.

From ride29abril

although I have professional tires on it right now.
at forty euros each. (thats a bit more than 75 dollars Aussie) Still nice light blue though.

From ride29abril

goes well with the team colours.
even thought the team colours are based on the now changed renault formula one team colours, and you can imagine how much that thrills me, now can't you.
still I really like having matching cycling clothing. (still waiting for my gloves)

From ride29abril

this is during the climb up Abantos, and in the photo below you can see in the middle distance the climb to Robledondo, which if you care to see is the sharp upwards section after the descent from the peak of Abantos, (the longer one, after the two short sharp shocks) in that screenshot of the profile of the day from my heart rate monitor, at the start of this entry.
(repeated below the photo)

From ride29abril

From ride29abril

well that's about it. should put an illustration friday entry up at some point, we'll see.

hmmmm.

PS I should point out that under each photo is a link to the rest of the photos of the day.
oh, and this Sunday coming is the first "race" of the year. wish me luck, or something.

Illo friday - (before the) CRASH

hey everybody
I'm back, sort of.
I have always been here of course, but I am so agobiado these last few months that I haven't been able to get it together to post.
I was working on a book project but it has all fallen through.
A self help type book for adult ADHD sufferers.
this was to be one of the pages of same.



anyway, it seemed like a good one for crash, although as I noted in the title, it's more like before the (inevitable) crash. hello to all the hardworking illustration friday people, and I hope to be around a bit more.
love youse all
Scott