If you know me well, you’ll know I’m a huge fan of Gilles Peterson and listen to his radio show every week without fail. Several years ago I learnt of his festival that he puts on in the south of France. It has been on my 100 things to do before I die list ever since. This year, things seemed to line up. We were living close to Barcelona, a three hour drive from Sete in France, we were due some kind of holiday, and this was to be our last holiday as a couple rather than a family (for…
Day 3. On paper the shortest distance, but the biggest climb, pretty much all of it relentlessly in the first 10km with no rest. A real mix. Woodland, moorland, wide continuous downhill, tight technical single track. An amazing ride, definitely glad we did this one last.
Day two. Even hotter, greater altitude gain, but a shorter distance overall. We cycled up and around Catalunya’s most distinctive landmark, Montserrat. It really is quite amazing, but I’ll let the photos show you that… A great ride, tarnished only by an impassibly overgrown section of technical single track which we had to walk back up again once we could get no further.
It was a pleasure to have Christian come to visit. We’d been planning it for a while, and although the initial April trip was cancelled, Christian made it over with his bike ready for a few days riding in Catalunya. Having been out on the bike very little, I was worried about my level of fitness (last time I rode with Christian we crossed the Alps… I was the fittest I think I’ve ever been, and he still left me standing). I was relieved to here that with him studying for his finals he’d done very little exercise too. Over…
Much like when I was living in Madrid, it was when people came to visit that I actually got out and saw things. With my parents visiting for several days, I had the perfect excuse to explore some of the national parks that I’ve mentioned in previous posts. Montserrat Our first trip was to Montserrat. A very distinctive land mark that I first spotted back in 2004 when Mats, Niki and I came up to Catalunya to watch the World Rally Championship. It truly is a unique looking lump of rock. And what does my family do with big lumps…
It appears that these days most of the pre season F1 testing takes place in Spain. Probably something to do with the weather and for that you won’t hear any complaints from me. The first testing was in Valencia, then Jerez, and finally Barcelona. Given that the Circuit de Catalunya is less than 20km from my flat, it would have been wrong to miss out. Besides, the testing is one of the few affordable ways to see F1 cars at full tilt. Good to see the the 2011 cars, although it would be a lot to ask for a more…
I wasn’t able to fit my bike into the car when we moved back to Spain, so I had to bring it on the plane on my way back after Christmas. One of the rules for packaging up the bike is removing the air from the tyres. Once unpacked, I discovered that my bike pump was broken. Visiting my local bike shop to get a new one I took the opportunity to find out about good routes in the area. Not only did they point me to the excellent www.wikiloc.com, but let me know about the monthly excursions they put…
Anyone recognise this place?