Last Thursday was my last day at work before a long weekend off, so Rich, Tim and I knocked off work at 4:30 and went out for a nice steady 10 miler up on the canal. Tim was running late, so just did 6, but Richard and I carried on and did the full 10. It felt very comfortable, but the curse of the "into the wind noise" buggered up my HRM so the average is looking way high - suspect it was actually low 130's, apart from the first mile when the lads thought it'd be a giggle to push the pace after I got waylaid by a phone call - had to run at about 6:05 pace to catch the buggers!
Then it was off to Mallorca Friday morning for the long-awaited (and almost screwed up) Duva Classic sportive. I went with my brother, Rick, and had an uneventful journey to the Duva Hotel where the event's based. We then whizzed off to Pro Cycle Hire to collect our bikes. The other lads who had come out on Wednesday had brought their own bikes, but for 3 days the hassle of dismantling bikes and rebuilding them seemed too much, so we hired a couple of carbon framed beasties for about £20 a day.
We were out and riding by 2:30 or so, and rode the cracking little 40 mile loop up to Lluc via Campanet that Angry and I rode last year. We saw the Bingley lads looking (we thought) determined and speedy on the Campanet road, but when we saw them later it turned out they were pissed having spent lunchtime in a bar drinking beer, shots and taking snuff! We were soon onto the climb up to Lluc, with the resurfaced road being a joy to ride up. This was Rick's first taste of continental hills and he was pleasantly surprised by both the surface and the gradient. This was a nice warm up, and with an average of 14mph we didn't burn ourselves out.
The Bingley/Barnsley crew were all a bit too pissed to get out for a beer on Friday night, but Rick and I had a few to settle the nerves before Saturday's event. Possibly a mistake, as I suffered with a bit of dehydration later. The route followed the Campanet road again, but this time kept heading south towards Alaro, where we turned onto the first timed climb. The event has a rolling closure apart from on the timed sections when it's every man for himself - the fast lads were off at the front gunning for glory, but Rick and I rode steadily and arrived about half way down the field.
We then had a long, long descent before the next climb of the Col du Soller. This was shorter than I was expecting at 5.5km, but the descent was enormous, almost back to sea level in the town of Soller.
As the bunch sped through the town there was an Aussie guy taking pics, and shouted "Good luck, guys - it's a really long climb!" - and bugger me, so it was. The brown sign at the start said "13.5km" and I was suffering by the end. So much so that Rick almost caught me, and I turned out to be almost 25 minutes slower than Rob. Only taking one bottle was a mistake, as I was having to ration it by the end. Once over the top we carried on past the Gorg Blau reservoir and then before long we passed the turn off to Sa Calobra and we were back on familiar ground.
On the run-in to Pollensa I was caught by a Spanish club and managed to hook onto the back, and got a tow for a few miles before feeling sufficiently guilty to head up to the front and do some work.
83 miles in the bag, 8,000' of climbing and a respectable average speed of 13.6mph.
More beer and silliness from Rob and friends on Saturday night (as they weren't riding Sunday) meant I was again not on sparkling form on Sunday, but fortunately it was a much easier day.
Mostly ridden in a big group, it was easy enough to sit in the bunch and enjoy the flat ride south via Alcudia and eventually to a stop at the velodrome at Sinau. We'd got 35+ miles on the clock by this time so past half way, and the ride back was another fast, flat bunch ride. By the time we got back to the Pollensa to Porto Pollensa road the bunch was flying along at about 25mph+, so when a couple of guys touched wheels it was carnage - I was far enough back to avoid it, but there were bits of broken bikes all over the road and at least one guy who stayed down - Rick passed a few minutes later and reckoned he'd sat up but was looking like he's broken his collarbone. Scary.
Overall a fantastic weekend's cycling, with the hotel being great value at only £90 each for 3 nights half board. The event is superbly organised with motorbike outriders stopping the traffic and enabling us to do things like ride round roundabouts the wrong way. Not sure whether I'd go back for that specific event, but I'd love to ride some more sportives abroad - just need the passouts...
I also spent part of Sunday afternoon slobbing about cyber-stalking various people in the London Marathon. Sounded like a bit of a hot one, and The Afterburner suffered in the second half, but the good news is he enjoyed it and fancies another crack - so I could have a chum to chase my sub-3 with!
Day off tomorrow so a more gently bike ride with K on her birthday before I need to get some running in before next week's overload of 4 races in 7 days.
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