Andalucia Bike Race - day one

I am on a blind date. My girlfriend is alright with it, in fact she's along with us too. And so far we are hitting it off. My "date" however is a bike racer, his name is Scott, and we paired up online through common acquaintance for this parter-style race.

After arriving and spending 24 hours getting aquainted and meeting up with Erik, Cindy, Thomas, Kate, Jon, and Scott - it was late to bed and too early to rise with some jet lag still lingering.

Today featured a neutral roll out from the down town for 9km. Neutral in the context of 670 racers with pent up 6-day race angst roughly translates into 20 minutes of complete chaos, sidewalk riding, and surge & stop. Halfway through it occurred to me: there are former world champions (Jose Hermida, et al) at the front of this race, and everyone expects to hold their wheel. Surprisingly no crashes.

Once that cleared, it was a nice blend of climb and moderate singletrack. We seemed to be working forward more than back all day, which may be result of starting back in the start grid, and less risk taking.

How to blow the minds of 100 spaniards - Several sections must be known to the locals as challenging, and the roar of the crowd gives these away before they come into view. None of the trail sections (wether climb or descent) seem particularly difficult, yet 90% of riders in our vicinity were walking. Even to climb these challenges at the pace of walkers was often do-able, and to do so made the crowd erupt with cheers! Also, the ride-by high five is less known here, but still good to feed off the energy of the spectators.

We rode very steady all day, and I could feel the expected fatigue accumulate by days end. It was good enough for 12th of the 134 teams in our category. From my gathering all Canadians had a great day. Kate and Jon are 4th in the mixed category now.

Today I discovered the Gitanitos, or as I like to call it, the Git Bar. Imagine a Twinkie filled with chocolate mouse and dipped in chocolate. They have them at the feed stations and the finish. I have eaten 7.