Final Day: Cudillero to Puerto De Somiedo

Greetings,

Never got my last blog post in so I'm doing it the day after our return from Spain.

John & I drove about 2 hours from our hotel to Cudillero, to watch a stage start and then follow the pro peleton for about half of their 200K route.

Cudillero is a small, picturesque fishing port which sits on the side of a mountain. Outstanding are its hanging houses with eaves and brightly-colored windows perched on a horseshoe of steep cliffs around the port.

We gained VIP access to the staging area and hung around while 'rock stars' like Alberto Contador, Paolo Bettini, Moncoutie and Valverde performed the ritual of daily sign-in and then held court before the stage began.

Within 45 minutes of their departure and after the fanfare died down, we jumped on our bikes and tooled up the same amazingly steep slope through the middle of town and began our 100K ride for the day. After getting past a couple of cat-3 climbs in the first 30K, we enjoyed a relatively easy 30K of rolling hills and false flats. It was the final climb of the day that finally cracked me - the infamous Puerto De Somiedo, a 24km climb to 4,458 feet that started with a 4.6% grade, but got nasty towards the finish with grades of 7-10%. 

After getting past three cat-1 climbs the day before, I simply ran out of gas at about 80K, right on the side of a switchback, about 3,800 feet up. I waited for the SAG van to come rescue me, while John Tonner continued blasting up the hill to the very top. I'm sure he'll be reminding me of this final climb all winter in spin class :-)

It was brutal but we both felt successful at the end of a long day! We were glad to not have to bike all the way back to the hotel, and we all piled into the two Trek Travel vans, exhausted yet victorious, and headed back to our hotel in Mieres, for one last dinner with the group.

Wednesday was travel day, with van rides to the Oviedo train station, a 4.5-hour ride back to Madrid, and a nine-hour flight back the next day to the states.

An amazing experience was had by all - we made some great new friends and many, many lifetime memories!

A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO CENDRINE DE VIS, DAN FRIDEGER AND DOUG KIRKBY AT TREK TRAVEL FOR ALL THEIR SUPPORT!!

Photos are here

Thanks for stopping by,

John G.

Oviedo -> Fuentes de Invierno

Another amazing day. Even more amazing than yesterday, if that's at all possible.

Two reasons:

1. We rode twice as hard and climbed twice as high (total ascent of 2,240 meters) today as we did yesterday, and
2. We watched the Stage 14 mountaintop stage finish from no more than 10 feet away from the best cyclists in the world

At 930AM we set off from our hotel in Figaredo and cycled 76km (45 miles) to the ski resort of Fuentes de Invierno (1500 meters, 26 km long!), via the Cat. 1 Alto de la Colladona (850 meters, 8.5km long) and the Cat. 1 Puerto de Arnicio (910 meters, 12km long).

I never thought I could successfully tackle something like this, and so when we all arrived at the top of our third, grueling climb, it was an amazing feeling of accomplishment!

Our mountain climb speeds never got past 6mph for the most part, but the descents were fast & scary! John T. is much more comfortable speeding down mountain passes than I am, and was routinely seen hurtling down all of today's "cols" faster than 45MPH!

As we approached our third and final climb of the day (a really grueling 26K with an average 8% grade) the crowds got bigger and bigger, as many thousands of people walked, biked and drove up some or all of the mountain to watch the stage finish at the top. What was great was that the Spaniards (and most Europeans, for that matter) are huge cycling fans and were very supportive as we tourists tooled by, chanting, "venga, venga, venga!" (go! go! go!)

We arrived at the top, exhausted, sweaty and covered in grime, but on top of the world....we had about an hour before the pros came up the very same mountain we had just climbed and we got into position at the finish to watch Alberto Contador and Team Astana take the win for a second day in a row. A very good day indeed :-)

Tomorrow our day will begin with a shuttle to see Stage 15 festivities in Cuidillero; it's the first time that this colorful fishing port has hosted a stage start. After watching the beginning of the race, we'll ride part of the stage route ourselves and have the opportunity to climb up to the Puerto de Somiedo, known simply as the "Puertu" to the locals - this is a category 1 climb that borders the Asturias and Castilla y Leon provinces.

More soon,

John G.

Photos from today are here

Day Five: San Vicente de la Barquera -> Alto de L'Angliru

Is it kosher to open one's blog with, "wow" two days in a row!?!?!

Because today deserves another "wow" and that's all there is to it.

This morning we departed our hotel in Santillana Del Mar and drove two hours southwest into the mountainous Asturias region of Spain to do some hard-core cycling of our own and then to watch Stage 13 of the Vuelta D'Espagne.

It's one thing to watch the Tour De France, Italy or Spain at home in Milwaukee on the TV. It's another thing entirely to be smack dab in the middle of all that crazy excitement, and to have the chance to ride part of the same route that the pros will ride the very same day. 

Today we made the Hotel Palacio Figaredo our home base, jumped on our bikes and tooled southwestward into the mountains. The Tour of Spain pros had a 209km ride to complete today that included three Cat-1 climbs and a beyond category or "especial" climb to the stage finish.

We jumped on the same course several hours before the pros arrived in town and took just the last Cat-1 climb and then the dreaded "Alto De L'Angliru" immediately thereafter.

What an exhilarating experience! Having very little experience cycling anywhere outside of (very flat) southeastern Wisconsin, I had no idea what it was going to be like climbing up a 2,300 foot Cat-1 climb or a 4,500 foot "especial". It was very tough, but very exciting at the same time.

John Tonner and I agreed that today's experience put a whole new perspective on spin class terms like, "rolling hills", and "standing climbs"!

As a cycling fan, I've been watching European pro races on TV for some years now, but all of that pales in comparison to what it feels like to actually ride up one or two of these beasts, with gradients of 9-16% (and as much as 24%!). For those of you who follow pro cycling, you'll recall seeing massive crowds part very narrow mountaintop roads at the last minutes for the likes of Alberto Contador, Jan Ullrich or Lance Armstrong....well, they didn't part for us! These crazed cycling fans (many on road bikes, mountain bikes, or just hiking up the mountaintop) don't pay that much attention to what's going on around them, and our group fought hard just to stay upright as we climbed up a 16%+ grade at 3mph, surrounded by a sea of people!

Plenty of locals and tourists were there to ride the same course that our Trek Travel group did, and as the day got longer more and more people showed up on the Angliru to watch the likes of Contador, Sastre, Leipheimer, Bettini, Valverde and many others work their way up that famed climb.

Some of the hardier folks in our group made it all the way up to the top of the Angliru, while others (including ourselves) chose to climb one half or three-fourths of the way up before working our way back down through the crowd of 100,000+. 

We watched the pros finish Stage 13 from the comfort of a hotel bar at the base of the climb, in a village called "La Vega".

There's simply no way to describe the scene - crazed cycling fans from around the world all congregating upon a mountainside to watch the best in the world compete on one of the hardest climbs in the world.

An unbelievable day - once in a lifetime!

Tomorrow we ride about 50 miles to the top of the ski resort of Fuentes de Invierno (another Cat-1 climb!) to watch the mountaintop stage finish 14...undoubtedly another day to remember!

Today's photos are here

Ciao,

John G.

Day Four: Dinner in Comillas - Astana Team Hotel

WOW.

Another extraodinary evening.... tonight we drove about 10 miles into Comillas, the same town we biked through earlier in the day.

We went to the hotel that Team Astana (and numerous others) stayed in during today's rest day for the Vuelta.

First we visited the team bus, met the mechanics and got very close to the bikes being ridden by Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer. 

Then we went into the hotel and got a private session with Johann Bruyneel, Levi, Andreas Kloden, Ekimov and "Chechu" Rubieru. Unbelievable!

We had about 90 minutes with these guys and in the end, Johann personally autographed his new book for all of us (I had mine signed for Cary Stenberg, who got me started cycling in 2001 (thanks, Cary!!!!)

Then dinner for the group, and while eating a fabulous European meal, all manner of cyclists walked by (including Carlos Sastre, who we didn't meet, but whose photo is part of the gallery below).

John & I were truly like two kids with backstage passes at a Led Zeppelin concert.

Off to bed - it's 1130PM local time and tomorrow we have two Cat 1 climbs, followed by the infamous Alto De L'Angliru (all the pros we met in the last 2 days said the same thing...this stage and the final HC climb is "very challenging")

Yikes! But what a once in a lifetime opportunity...to ride the same stage as the pros will, on the same day.

This evening's photos here

More tomorrow night!

JG

Day Four: 90K Loop - Santillana -> San Vicente -> Santillana

Greetings,

The skies cleared this morning (a little) but there was a bit of a chill in the air and windy, too. Nevertheless, after a hearty breakfast, we jumped on our Madone bikes and headed southwest, into the hills of Cantabria. It wasn't long before the 7% - 12% climbs appeared, and we humped it into the mountainous region of northwestern Spain.

We got a bit of rain along the way, but we were dressed appropriately and the scenery more than made up for it - we biked about 70K before we arrived in the gorgeous seaside town of San Vicente de la Barquera and stopped for lunch. 

We piled into a great little place right on the village's bay and enjoyed tuna salad, fresh bread, egg & potato omelets, fish & chips, sardines and strong Spanish coffee.

Our bellies full, we jumped back on our bikes for the final stretch of 20K eastward, through the gorgeous seaside town of Comillas (where we'll have dinner tonight) back into Santillana Del Mar to shower and relax a little. Today's total distance was just over 90K (54 miles).

Tonight we'll talk about tomorrow's ride into the mountains, to face the dreaded Alto L'Angliru!

Photos from today are here

Hasta Luego  :-)

John G.

Day Three: Burgos -> Suances

Amazing! How else to describe a day hanging around the best cyclists in the world, as they set off on the 120-mile Stage 12 race from the medieval town of Burgos, to the seaside town of Suances, Spain.

John & I were shuttled to Burgos (a 2-hour drive from Santillana Del Mar) early in the morning. We had about an hour and a half to kill before we met the team and crew, so we tooled around the center of town, toured the historic cathedral and watched the passersby.

At about noon we were escorted to "backstage" to the area where the pro teams assembled and prepared for the day's race. We were hanging out with Team Astana! John & I thought we died and went to cycling heaven..we were like giddy schoolkids. We met a number of famous cycling 'celebrities' like Johann Bruyneel, "Chechu" Rubiera, Yaroslav Popov, Levi Leipheimer, and Paol0 Bettini.

The it was time to get even giddier.

John & I loaded into one of three Astana team cars; these are support vehicles that accompany the cyclists during the entire stage race (providing mechanical assistance, replacement bikes, food, water, anything they need). And at the wheel of our car was none other than Viatcheslav "Eki" Ekimov ("Eki" was one of Lance Armstrong's domestiques during the heady US Postal & Discovery Channel days).

We rode with Eki during the entire stage, about 200K (120 miles) of fast flats as well as some of the most intimidating Cat 1 and Cat 2 climbing we've seen (certainly in person). The weather was cool and dry for about 50 miles, then as we headed into the mountains of Cantabria, the temps plummeted and the skies opened up. We watched some amazing cycling right up to the uphill finish in Suances, Spain, along the northern coast.

Once again, an amazing and once in a lifetime experience. A heart THANK YOU to our friends at Trek Travel for making this happen for us today!

More soon - tomorrow John & I will ride 50+ miles of our own westward, as we head towards the same Cantabrian mountains that hide the famed Alto De L'Angliru (a grueling set of climbs scheduled for Saturday). We are going to try climbing the same mountain that the pros will climb the same day, a few hours later.

Day Three photos are here

Ciao for now,

John & John

Day Two: Santillana Del Mar

Greetings!

Today John Tonner and I had a few hours to kill in the morning, before we met up with the Trek Travel crew and other cyclists. We strolled along the shoreline on Santander's Strand, took some photos, and then found a little breakfast spot to grab a bite and have some strong Spanish coffee. We enjoyed a traditional breakfast of fresh bread, ham and cheese. Our waitress was a cheerful conversationalist from Camaguey, Cuba, who'd been living in Spain for ten years. We asked her if she'd been to the States and she said no, and that she'd love to visit New York and Las Vegas!

It was time to hike over to the train station and meet the crew. We hauled our gear through a very busy 8-10 city blocks in downtown Santander. It was the middle of regular business day, and there were a great many people on the street. A very cosmopolitan place, with many upscale shops and restaurants. Felt a little like Michigan Ave. in downtown Chicago.

John & I met the others at train station and we all piled into two vans and drove about 25 miles to the 

gorgeous Hotel Casona Palacio Los Caballeros in the medieval town of Santillana Del Mar, about 2 km from the ocean.

After checking in, we met for a session of very professional bike-fitting with the good folks from Trek Travel. John & I stepped into a pair of carbon-fiber Trek Madone bicycles and immediately felt like we could bike 10mph faster :-)

Within the hour, we we enjoying our first 25-mile "warmup ride" on a nice hot afternoon. Our guides gave us two challenging hills to climb on our very first day, that weren't a helluva lot less challenging than the most challenging hills in all of Wisconsin, part of the Horribly Hilly Hundreds! And this was just the warmup ride :-)

The scenery was fantastic, and we all tumbled back to our hotel a short while later to shower up and enjoy a nice social with the rest of the group.

We all headed into town an hour or so later for a lovely dinner at the Altamira Hotel & Restaurant. 

Off to bed early because the real treat is tomorrow: we get to watch Stage 12 of the Vuelta Ciclista D'Espagne from inside the Astana Team car!

Photos are here