I’ve just come back from the most incredible bike ride ever!
While on holiday in Majorca, I was lucky enough to receive an invitation from my chairman (he lives out there) kindly invited me to join him for a bike ride. He has been cycling for 8 months or so now cycling every day if he can and is very fit and healthy.
There were many tough parts to this ride and it started with me using a mountain bike with rather wide wheels! Bryan was riding a beautiful Scott and we passed scores of pro cyclists and teams riding some very very expensive bikes!
Then there was the heat, which was around the 25ºC mark. A temperature that I rarely experience when cycling back home in the UK. Lastly, there were the mountains (or hills, it’s open for debate) that began as steady inclines and worsened to 10% gradients. We finished the ride with a soul-destroying 15% gradient, although by this point it seemed as if I was sprinting along rather than the snail’s pace at which I started out at.
I just want to point out at this point, that I consider myself to be a keen, fit cyclist and really love to sprint whenever I have an opportunity. I can tell you there was no spiriting on this ride! I had that feeling I wasn’t going to make it up some of these climbs – they were tough but I pushed on!
After the climb and mastered control of those wobbly legs as you inevitably now have, you are able to reap the reward of the most impressive, stunning views at the peak. But better than the views at the peak where the seemingly never-ending descents…I cannot recall ever cycling so fast, for so long! The lack of speed of the climb, combined with the very hot temperature and the increased heart rate you can imagine this doesn’t paint a pretty picture but the net result is what goes up must come down and I certainly cooled off with the air I passed through as I descended. On one descent my speed registered 37mph!
We stopped for a bite to eat in a gorgeous fishing village called Port d’Andratx, which Catherine and I had previously visited and is one of our favourite places from the holiday. After a sandwich and coffee in the sunshine and an opportunity to catch a breath, we continued on with the ride.
As we set out on the last leg of the ride, I had images of us cycling the reverse of our earlier climbs however we returned on a different route that was a little more forgiving for a cyclist like me, who is used to the flat!
After completing the ride I reviewed the stats from my iPhone App I had running (Cyclemeter) and smiled happily when I saw that I had climbed a total of 550 metres or 1,804 feet.
Will I do it again? Absolutely positively yes I will! Thank you so much Bryan.
