Over old ground and into new pubs

There are just 3 days now before we depart on our big adventure.
I have rather neglected the blog over the last few weeks and so have combined several rides into one blog.
The 3 Amigos have really just been going around previous routes in different directions and trying out other pubs on the routes.







Many of the rides have started from my house with coffee and cake, and on one occasion I was half way to Faringdon before realising I had left my cycling shoes at home and was wearing these worn out old crocs.
One of the rides started off through the woods which made taking photos a bit tricky as you can see in one of these pictures.

Over the weir at Aston once again where the Canada Geese have stopped for a rest (A sure sign of Autumn in my book)
Then through Skirmet and Turville valley.














Then We were to tackle the very long steep hill up through Northend to Christmas Common, this is one that I have tried to achieve in past years training for the Pedal to Paris but as yet I have never made it all the way up without walking some of the way. Sally took the longer shallower climb through Turville Heath and Tim and I tackled the dreaded climb ( Sally just wanted to make sure someone else bought the drinks at the pub)
To my surprise we made it all the way to the top quite easily and I had to wonder why it had been so difficult before. It just goes to show how important the training is.

Lunch was at the Fox and Hounds as recommended by my Sister Celeste. We had Fish and chips, the fish scored 5 Saddles and the chips only 3, but it is a very good pub.


A little later we crossed the M40 at the famous cut through the chiltern hills and back home via lane and and Hambledon.



A couple more similar rides through Henley and surrounding area.
The fields are now mainly harvested another sign of Autumn approaching.

For the Henley rides I am usually leader as I know the area, so heres the view I usually get in my rear view mirror.

A couple of weeks ago 2 friends of mine, Bo and Kent were visiting from Sweden, Bo works at the Royal Palace in Stockholm and was formerley a Coachman at the Royal Stables there, and Kent works at the City Zoo caring for Bears, Wolves and Bison amongst other creatures. But the rides must go on so they were forced to come cycling with us.

This time we only made it to Hambledon and back, just 24 miles in total, but we stopped at the Huntsman in Hambledon where the chips scored a fairly poor 3 Saddles.
Over the past 3 Saturdays we have joined the Faringdon Cycling group to up our fitness levels, and I must say they don't half go hard and fast at it, for the first time this year my legs have really felt it. Not only that but they don't stop at the pub, but only for a banana at the roadside for 10 minutes. however we have usually done around 40 miles of hard slog by lunch time and then we retire to the pub afterwards.

Heres a quick puncture stop.

And here we are at the meeting point at 9am on a wet Saturday.

Apparently they even go out in the Snow.
They are however a very friendly crowd and we intend to continue to join them regularly for a Saturday ride, to stop the weight piling back on.


And the final chip score at a pub in Stanford in the Vale ( I'm sorry I have forgotten the name of the Pub) A very good 5 Saddles for the whole meal really, very good indeed, I will get the pub name from Sally eventually.

So this is it for the training, if we're not ready now we never will be.

Good luck everyone, and we will see you at the start line.

I hope you have a comfortable night at the Saddlers Hall. The 3 Amigos have opted for a luxury Hotel and a later start, let's face it I know what we are all in for.

There will be a final posting from me after the ride itself and I hope we can all appear in that one, so please let me have any good pictures that you take on the ride and any funny stories.

All the very best of luck to everyone.

Frances

Ultra Death - No Rain in Spain on this Plain!

In the knowledge that a link to this blog is now appearing on the RBL website, I felt the need to prove that I am taking the P2P seriously. With this in mind I am pleased to report that I have just returned from a two week training camp in northern Spain. Following in the footsteps of the US Postal Service cycling team who based themselves in Girona, I chose Pals as a base, 27 miles due east of Girona. OK, so I was at a camp but before I am rumbled by anyone else, this camp had a swimming pool and was in easy striking distance of the beach!

Without wanting to put my disciplined training schedule behind plan for the sake of spending time with my wife and kids on holiday, I did take my bike with me to continue training. Over the two weeks, I cycled 127 miles over 5 rides, the longest being 52 miles. For this I chose the hottest day – and the hottest part of it. Something about mad dogs and Englishmen!!

We were staying on the Baix Emporda (the “lower” Emporda) which differentiates itself from the Alt Emporda (“high” Emporda) as the Baix Emporda is predominantly a plain whilst the Alt Emporda sits in the foothills of the Pyrenees and is therefore much more mountainous. That said the Baix Emporda does have its fair share of hills. In the north there is the Toroella massif which is dominated by a fantastic hill upon which sits the Montgri castle. No guessing what this hill is likened to. I sniggered when I first saw it as a 6 year old, and I didn’t need to tell my kids of this when they first saw it 3 years ago. Consequently, we have always referred to it as “The Boob”.

Close to us and more to the south, the landscape is dominated by the Begur massif. I cycled up this and the coves around this part of the coast represent images upon which the Costa Brava gained its name in 1908. Costa Brava literally means Rugged Coast and this is the area where one has endless postcard beaches with turquoise waters to choose from. The beach in this photo is Sa Riera and is viewed from about two thirds of the way up the massif. When I reached the top, I did bottle it, opting to go back the way I came as I knew going over the other side would mean a second steep climb no matter which direction I was headed.

Much of my cycling was across the Pals rice fields which, whilst beautiful and relatively slow going given the nature of the tracks, was not challenging as it was so flat. Nonetheless, despite knowing the area really well from numerous previous visits to this part of Spain, this was the first time I had explored the area in such detail as the bike took me to places either not accessible by car or, so far off the beaten track that one would not think necessarily to drive to. Also, travelling alone and at a slower pace meant I could stop when I wanted and take detours as and when I pleased.

Crossing the rice fields took me to the Gola de Ter, the mouth of the Riu Ter. This is a beautiful lazy river which rises in the Pyrenees and flows through Toroella before discharging into the Med 4 miles to the east, just south of the resort of Estartit. In the background are the Isles Medes which became the first offshore nature reserve in the country. Before now we have visited the islands on a glass bottomed boat – an incredible experience.

From here I headed back towards Toroella, a beautiful medieval town, which sits at the foot of Toroella de Montgri, the castle on the massif. It take about 90 mins to walk to this castle and unsurprisingly the view from the top is magnificent – in all directions. Indeed, albeit not very visible in these photos, the Pyrenees are only about 40-50 miles away and therefore clearly visible to the naked eye. Needless to say, I kept well away from these!

Heading west of Toroella, I happened upon this beautiful medieval footbridge in Gualta. The worn stones are clearly visible.

Further illustrating the richness of this beautiful part of Catalonia, 3 miles further on, located on a small “hump” on the plain is the village of Llabia. Llabia is on a small spur road, one way in, one way out. The village afforded stunning views over the plain. This view looks out towards La Bisbal de l’Emporda, world famous for its ceramics.

The primary objective on my 52 mile ride was Pubol. Pubol is just east of Girona and was home to Salvador Dali and is wife Gala. It was here at the 11^th century Castell Dali y Gala that following the death of his wife, Dali almost died himself in 1984 when an electrical fault in his bedroom led to a fire that almost killed the bedridden Dali.

Whilst I did not visit the castle on this occasion as I had done so on a previous visit in 2007, I did stop at the café just outside the castle for an ice cream and glass of ortxata (a milky drink made with chufas – tiger nuts) and played with a couple of young kittens.

On leaving Pubol, I headed for Monells, yet another beautiful medieval village just a few miles away. I was beginning to wonder what the fuss was about when just before deciding to leave the place, I headed down a no through road and passing underneath an arch at the end of the road, I happened on this beautiful village square. I stopped for a quick photograph before wending my way back towards Pals.

On the way back I took a detour through yet another beautiful village (there is an endless supply of these beautiful villages in the area) with the intriguing name of Ultramort. I can only view a literal translation of this to mean Extreme (or Ultra) Death. I quick photograph of the village sign and tentative gander at the centre of the village, I decided not to overstay my welcome in case I meet with some ultra experience from which I may not recover!

The climate lends itself to fruit farming and away from the rice fields, there were many orchards lining the roads. The stacks of Girona or Costa Brava crates of apples left a lasting image in my mind.

The route home took me through the medieval villages of Palau Sator and Peretellada. Peretellada steals the thunder of the other medieval villages of the area and is firmly on the tourist trail. These photos hopefully do justice to the village where every turn warrants a postcard view.

Amongst all of these beautiful villages and stunning scenery, what I did not visit on this occasion (having done so in previous years), was a ruined ancient Iberian settlement, the largest and most important in the whole of Spain. This further demonstartes that aside from the stunning beaches (whether it be the pine clad coves that gives the Costa Brava its name or the long sandy beaches upon which the resorts are built), this area is littered with medieval villages, ruined settlements (there is also the largest Spain based Greek and Roman ruined cities of Empuries / Empurion just 10 miles up the coast) and of course the stunning scenery, much of which has the Pyrenees as a backdrop.

Other than ascending the Begur massif, I felt the real new element to my training was the stretches I cycled on the main roads which, being long, straight and exposed, meant long periods exposed to headwinds.

Training-wise, this was a productive couple of weeks in an area which I know really well and have always loved. Having the bike with me enabled me to discover even more new places, ones that I may never had discovered if it hadn’t have been for the bike.

I suspect there will be one more ride at the weekend and then the waiting and training will be over! Destiny beckons but will hope that ultramort will not feature in that destiny!

Just to cap it all, the route back home took us up the A16 from Paris. Whilst it was about 0300 on Monday morning, I was conscious of the fact that this autoroute runs roughly parallel to the P2P. I wish I could say it was flat as a pancake - but I can't! Rather I could say that, but it would be a lie!

Pig Meat!

Set off on Sunday with my good mate David Pearce for a pleasant ride following the line of the North Downs via the Pilgrims Way to Westwell near Ashford (Kent).

The Pilgrims Way is a favoured route of mine, gently undulating and beautiful scenery, the Downs on one side and views ove the farmland on the other.

Despite seeing paragliders on the escarpment on many previous occasions, this was the first time I had seen them doing anything other than sitting down! I wondered if they may be beginners as the three that took off were only in the air for about a minute, gently circling around the take off zone and landing in the same spot - thereby saving them a walk back up the hill!

The familiar route took us through Hollingbourne before crossing the A20 at Harrietsham and heading for Sandway, Lenham Heath and Charing Heath. This was the same route I took to Dover about a month ago so remained familiar.

Ordinarily on leaving Charing, the main road takes you up Charing Hill, a nasty nasty climb of about 2 miles to the top of the Downs. We rode up Charing High Street with the hill ahead off us but thankfully we turned off towards Westwell before having to ascend.

A quick map check saved us taking a wrong turn up the hill!

Our destination was The Wheel in Westwell. Westwell (like Lenham and Stalisfield mentioned in previous blogs, and all located within about 10 miles of each other) is another hotbed of Vants from the bygone days. On this occasion I wasn't on a family tree search, just a drink.

Unlike my fellow sore saddlers who seem to have developped an alcohol dependency and an obsession for chips on their training missions(!!!), we limited ourselves to a couple of pints of diet coke and a roast pork baguette.

Roast pork is a special treat for me as both Ali (my wife) and Nick (son) are allergic to roast pork and so this pleasure has always been denied me.

Dispensing with the bread and the green stuff people insist on putting on the side, the meat with a tad of stuffing and apple sauce was devoured in a matter of seconds.

I suppose the lack of alcohol and chips means that a saddle scoring would not be consistent with other scores however, being a Shepherd Neame pub, I know the Master Brew (my drink of choice) would have scored very highly! Chips were not available on a Sunday but the pork scores 4 saddles. The pub itself probably has to score 5 as the hosts were extremely friendly, welcoming and helpful.

These wagon wheels have been crafted into beautiful outdoor seats and, given the name of the pub, were crying out for a photo opportunity.

We basically backtracked as far as Sandway before veering off towards East Sutton and again following a well trodden route. The purpose of this was to add a few more miles and ensure we kept off the main roads.

In fact in the whole ride, I did no more than 300 yards on a main road. The discovery of all these country lanes within easy reach of home is just adding to the fun of the training. I can really see myself continuing with these rides long after the P2P has been completed.

I had targeted a ride of 40 miles and, without manipulating anything, hit 40.08! Average speed 14.5 mph.

Next week it is off to Girona in the north eastern corner of Spain with the bike to continue the training and explore the inland plains of the Baix Emporda, an area often featuring in the paintings of Salvador Dali. May sit on the beach for a couple of days too!!