GRAN CANARIA
Scritto il 05-01-2012
no stress
Christmas is gone and, considering that I feel a bit like “the Grinch”, I think it passed well. After the good lunch for greedy, with panettone, pandoro and various puddings, presents, greetings with all relatives, kisses and hugs and so on…now we go back to the training… here where I live a heat wave has come, but it’s about to end soon, even if it’s absolutely pleasant. Buuuuuuuuut I went to the isle, Gran Canaria. 25 degrees the whole year, good streets, uphills, plains, good cooking and beautiful landscapes. The ideal to pedal. Training without stress is too important. Being still away from home will be a sacrifice, but I know it will bear, it will be worth it. I will send some postcards in order to feel a bit closer. We’re a limited group, but motivated. 8 days are already gone and we rode truckloads of kilometers, rising many meters, in many hours with difficult ways. For example today we did the usual weekly distance: 6 hours rising 3100 meters, 180 kilometers, 30 km/h, 240 Watt in average. Good. We started when the sun was already shining, 25 degrees. Out of the apartment, on the right, in the direction of Mogan.
It’s hard to run through the coast, uphills and downhills without pause, but seeing the sea with the boats drives me crazy and makes me forget the effort of the start. After 2 hours we’re in San Nicolas zone, it’s a little village of farmers, struck between two arid and rocky mountains, where pines grow only on the top. A bit beneath only heavy plants and a few other weeds grow. But in areas like San Nicolas, where the earth is most fertile and where there are well-groomed greenhouses, grows the necessary for the civic requirements.
From there on we entered the valley which brings to Artenara. This too an arid valley, with two dams.
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After 10 kilometers of hard up and downhills, we started another climb of about 30 minutes. On the top there was a particular community. A population that lives on gardens cultivated on terraced grounds precipitous on cliffs and houses set among the rocks. From the top it was beautiful to watch back all the way just covered. With pain in the legs, but with satisfaction. That was also the point of no return, we had just done 3 hours, and going on or coming back there would have been 6 hours totally in any case. So, on to Tajeda, Roque, la Plata, San Bartolome, Santa Lucia. On the way to Vecindario then, we covered a lunar way. Everything around seemed dead, only some birds tried to fly, despite the damned wind. There was nothing around, only rocks. From far, through the valley, we saw the sea that we would have reached a bit later. From there the wind in favour threw us back to Maspalomas and then Arguineguin in a short time. If someone has the possibility to be in that areas and want to overdo by bike, can try it. He will enjoy a landscape that is to tell.
My biggest sacrifice is not to go skiing, in order to train in hot places.
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the Grinch
