| | Ok, last weekend was the Maxiavalanche race up at Vallnord, Andorra. I rode my bike into Alicante on Wednesday, carrying a box, backpack, and wheel bag. Bike goes in box, wheels into bag, and everything else I need goes in the pack. The 7:30 bus never showed up on Thursday morning, so I got on the 12:00 bus, getting into Barcelona around 9 or so. Great, a 9 hour trip what takes 4 hours to drive normally. A taxi ride accross town and a private bus later, I'm at the border, and convincing the border patrol that I'm not part of al qaida. Camped out in a parking lot in the first town, from a nice 3am till 9am.
"Camping" in Andorra:
Saw a van in a parking lot with a bunch of bikes on its trailer. Waited around for awhile, and met the owners. They were French, speaking some English. They graciously took me up to the next town, right to the bottom of the lift. One of the guys is Jerome, he got third place, I believe. He's fast. That cute blonde girl got second in her race to Anne Caroline-Chausson, but I don't remember her name.
Got in two disastrous, chain-less runs on the course. That 36 tooth sprocket I've had for a year is more than worn out. The only chain ring available in Andorra was a 44 tooth, so I got it and rocked it. It's seriously bigger than my head. For dinner on Friday I bought some tomatoes, cilantro, onions, limes and hot sauce, making the biggest bowl of salsa EVAR. Delicious.
Friday night next to the river, homeless again, really sucked. My bag is freezing cold, and doesn't really offer any warmth at all. It's especially worthless at 4000+ feet. I met some Spanish guys earlier, so I went back and hung out with them for awhile. Not only were they totally cool, having a lot of fun, but they had a great vibe going, and offered an extra spot in their condo.
Lentejas Team:
The actual race was kind of a mess, I was number 293, so I was in dead last position at the start of the qualifiers. I got 20th in the qualifier, then 15th in the race. It's my first one, so I'm pretty stoked, there were like 300 people out there. This isn't really a race to see who is the fastest rider, it's more a race to see who can out battle other riders best on singletrack. If only my starts didn't totally suck...
This guy managed to wreck this badly in a nearly straight section of road, talk about not having a good day:
After the race, Alber offered to give me a ride to Lleida. We made it right after the last train to Tarragona left, so he let me crash at his place in Beleguer. Belegeur is the hometown for Portola, the discoverer who found San Francisco and Monterey. Alber's family is super nice, and he took me out for a little tour of the town. This is about 15km from the Tartareu race. Here's a view of the town from the 5th century town walls that surround it:
That's it, fun trip, good times, and a new adventure.
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| | Posted 5/23/2006 6:37 PM - 85 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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