Pyrenees ride accomplished!

And we didn´t ever have to ride in a van! 7 days, over 550 miles, & 56,000 feet of gain, starting at the Mediterranean and ending at the Atlantic ocean. The climbs and descents were all amazing, the views on the ´D´roads of France breathtaking - all accompanied with the ´music´ of the bells on cows and sheep and the camraderie of a great group of very good riders. We had very good weather everyday, although it was little hot on the east side of the Pyrennees, with temps of 33-35 degrees Centigrade the last few days. The climb up Tourmalet was difficult, but d´Aspin and d´Ausbisque were equally challenging. I will watch the Tour with a new appreciation of what these riders have to do. I can´t express how perfect our leaders were, from Christy and her husband, Curtis, to the wicked Scotsman, Peter Thomson (¨no coddling¨, ¨this is what you pay the big bucks for¨, ¨get on your bike and ride¨, ¨don´t you ever read your cue sheets?¨, ¨shut up and ride¨, or ¨this is just a wee bump¨- comments that reminded me of a certain dog trainer I know). The expert guidance they all provided, along with assistance from the drivers of the sag wagons (helping us not to get lost - a few did!) was priceless. Truly a life changing experience.

We are now in Seville with Andy and had an amazing 26 Euro tapas dinner at her favorite tapas restaurant last night - at midnight! A couple of tintos helped, along with the knowledge that I have no crazy bike schedule to follow anymore.

Pictures and a few videos to follow...

Day 4

I finally found a computer here in Cellers, Spain. We are at a charming hotel in the countryside. Today we ride 160 km to Luchon, France. This is a day I have been dreading, yet Day two nearly wiped me out. Day one, we rode Rat Panat, and did pretty well. Our ´reward´ was being put into the B group for the Day two, 95 miles, lots of climbs and a constant head wind. I developed right knee pain that day probably due to my seat being too low. Monday night I was contemplating riding in a van, but raising my seat just 1 cm did the trick. Yesterday was very fun with lots of great vistas and some fun descents. Today is going to be very hard with one long climb of about 22 miles and total distance over 160 km. Oh, yes, I am back in the C group.

Our fellow riders range from people who are using this as training rides for tri´s to us ´recreational´riders. Everone is strong and very serious about riding. It´s a bit scary. It seems there is little time to take pictures as we rest only at sag stops, eat a bit, replenish water and on we go.

I am thinking that a woman my age has no business doing this!

Day 1, Barcelona to Sitges

Having put Andy on the train back to Seville, we´re now getting ready to leave our hotel in Barca to meet with our bike group and go to Sitges. We saw the sights of Barcelona yesterday with Andy and Lola; Parc Guell, Segrada Familia, La Boqueria, and Montjuic Castle via the tram to name a few. Andy was our tour guide having worked here in ´07, but we took many wrong turns and more than a few out of the way subway lines to find our way around. Lunch was at a typical tapas bar, standing up, ordering little plates of food and drinking Claro (beer with lemonade). There are quite a few dogs here, and we were joined at lunch by a cute English Cocker named May. I spotted another English Cocker enering La Boqueria that could be the twin brother of Luke, my friend Lois´s dog. Yes, two English Cockers in a day! Another cute dog was riding a Segway with his owner. We need to train our dogs to do this Jim!

Hopefully I will survive today to write more later.....

'08 Orbea Orca on Craig's List?

After this trip, I may consider selling my bike. Some of you have asked about our ride itinerary:

Day 1 Sitges 30 mile warm up ride
Day 2 Sitges to Solsana, Spain (95 miles)
Day 3 Solsana to Cellars, Spain (85 miles)
Day 4 Cellers to Luchon, France (100 miles)
Day 5 Luchon to Luz St. Sauveur. Includes Col du Tourmalet. This may be where I decide to sell my bike. (75 miles)
Day 6 Luz St. Sauveur to Montory, France (85 miles), three climbs, including Col d' Aubisque.
Day 7 Montory to Hendaye, France (100 miles)
Day 8, June 27th, van to San Sebastian, train to Barca and 7 pm flight to Seville!

The Mediterranean to the Atlantic in 7 days, total mileage 550+, elevation gain 56,000 feet. VA where are you when I need you?

Countdown to the Pyrenees

Euskaltel-Euskadi is a Basque racing team and VA snagged two of these caps for Craig and me. We leave Thursday morning for Barcelona, meet Andy and Lola (our past exchange student) for a couple of days, then depart on our bike trip Sunday.

Summer!!

Summer has finally come and this weekend we had some good rides. Saturday, Larch Mountain with a detour to Crown Point and then today, VA's birthday beer & pretzel ride out in Roy (the beer afterwards of course).

The view east looking down the Columbia River with Crown Point in the distance.

What to do if it's too rainy to bike

Get some strawberries.

These are Hoods from a farm stand out in Wood Village.

Clean a bunch.

Make some roasted strawberry jam.

The Illustrious Cinnamon Roll

Enough said!

Tour de Hood

Yesterday, we rode the route of the Mt. Hood Classic, stage 4. Amateurs leave at 6:30 am, well before the pros who start at 10:30 am. The route started with a frosty 2 mile descent from the Mt. Hood Meadows parking lot to Highway 35 (yes, that is ice you see in the picture). Craig's Garmin showed a toasty 35.8 degrees. We figured going downhill at 25 mph must have factored in a wind chill factor to a little above 20 degrees, or at least that's what my fingers were registering. After another cold 10 miles we turned onto Forest Road 44 and started the category 1 climb followed by a 15 mile descent to Dufur. The rest stop in Dufur was at the The Historic Balch Hotel situated in this scenic little town surrounded by high desert and farmland. They assured us that not only are there good rides to The Dalles, Maupin and beyond, but that dogs are welcome. A good place to go back to. We shed a few clothes there (they even had drop bags on this ride!) and faced the next hill, the category 2 climb to the Tygh Ridge Summit. We met up with our friend Art, who is a very strong rider. He beat us up and won KOM (king of the mountain). Looking at our watches, we knew the professional racers had started. From Tygh Ridge we had one of the most fun descents I've ever done, into Tygh Valley. From there, however, we faced the 35 mile, steady 4500 foot ascent back to Mt. Hood Meadows. We shed more clothes at the 2nd rest stop and chatted with some friends who had started later than us, but had caught up. My friend, Sonja, had started 50 minutes behind us. She is very fast and we sent her along her way, knowing we'd see her at the end. We were constantly looking at mileage and our watches because our goal was to beat the pros back to the parking lot. Had we not spent so long at the 2nd rest stop, we might have accomplished our goal.

As it was, the lead car came upon us with 2 miles to go and asked us to pull over. The pros were 2 minutes behind us. It was pretty exciting to see the first group come up the hill, with Nathaniel English (white) in the lead, followed by Pat McCarty (blue) who won the stage.

We also saw our 'friend' Evan Huffman, whose Mom we had met Wednesday night at Mt. Tabor (We had fun shouting "go Evan" that night). I spotted him, #72, in his purple Team Yahoo kit, and yelled "go Evan!" He's only 20 and was in the 3rd peloton of pros, an accomplishment for a 20 year old (turns out he placed 26th for this stage!). He turned, smiled and probably wondered who those two amateurs were that were encouraging him on.

The last two miles back to Mt. Hood Meadows has an average gradient of 10%. While it was hard, it was really fun to have some groups of pros come by and encourage me on, or even offer a coke. One guy offered Craig a beer that he'd gotten at the 'illegal' feed zone turning on to the MHM road.

Speaking of 'feed zones', I really enjoyed coming upon signs that would indicate where food for the pros would be available. Volunteers had blue Rubbermaid boxes strategically placed at certain points along the route, filled with sacks of food the pros would grab and eat while riding, so they lose no time. There were also signs along the way indicating how many more kilometers there were to go to a zone, summit, or the end.

I highly recommend this ride to anyone who wants a challenge, accompanied with some beautiful scenery. We rode through gorgeous forests accompanied by the quiet sounds of birds, streams, and waterfalls. From the Cascade wilderness we went down to the high desert, an austere landscape of sage brush with occasional vistas of farmland, always with a view of the Mt. Hood in the distance, reminding us that our goal was to end at the the start; the alpine meadows surrounding the ski resort. http://www.tourdehoodride.com/

The End!

Mt. Tabor Criterium

Last evening, we were able to watch part of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, Stage 1, the criterium, set at Mt. Tabor. The Cat 1 & 2 men started the 1.5 mile course at 6:30 pm; 156 feet per lap without resting for a 90 minutes. The rain stopped but the pavement was wet and slippery. A few guys fell going around corners, both downhill and going up. These guys are great riders! Amazing to watch. As my friend VA put it, "Do I even know HOW to ride a bike?"

(Rain watch - over 4.5 inches of measurable rain in May, the 3rd wettest May on record and more rain than we had this past February by over 2 inches!)