We rode into Banyoles then headed north to all the towns that started with the letter P in search of a climb up Rocacorba, a nearby mountain. As we looked at a streetside map a cyclist passed and said Rocacorba is over this way. We caught up to him and had a fairly functional Spanglish chat. He's a policeman based in Girona and did the world police and fireman games in Calgary in 1998 or whenever it was. He was riding a Scott CR1 but doesn't road race, just cross country mountain bike races. He was conversant with trails in Kananaskis, Canmore and Banff. Small world. We sort of hit it off.
After 10 minutes of pleasantries, we hit the base of the 14km climb and did what any normal cyclists do - put the hammer down for the climb. He's a relatively light little guy and I worked hard to keep up on the steep sections (every km was marked with grade, elevation, distance, etc. by nice signs put up by the Club de Ciclistas Banyoles). I was pretty spent by the top.
The top of the hill was steep, and I was glad it was over. I was overheating on the way up, except in the shaded parts. The top had TV and radio station, cell phone towers, an inrun ramp for paragliders, and a skinny little cat. We waited for Tori to join us.
After picture taking and pleasantries were done, he started the descent, the Tori and I made our way down later. Chilly - the air was clear, sun was shining, but it was probably only 10C at the top.
Once at the bottom main road, we turned left to log some more distance. This was a third tier main road, ie. Crowchild and Transcanada were the two sizes up. This had no real traffic to speak of, lots of picnic areas on the sides, little towns, lush green fields, and sloped gently upwards through natural preserves in the volcanic mountain park to the town of Olot. We stopped along the way at an incrdibly busy roadside restaurant for a coffee out in the sun, the continued climbing to Santa Pau, a relatively high mountain town with a giant cactus Tori liked.
The return trip was mostly downhill, we actually hadn't realized how much we were climbing until we were descending so fast that I couldn't take the turns in the windy road without braking.
On the way down we spotted tomorrow's destination, a road on the east of the valley at the top of a mountain peak. It's hard to describe how enjoyable the riding is here. No real traffic, totally smooth pavement, nice climate and sunny skies, with mountains and valleys all around. Picking good routes is easy, I honestly don't see any value in a guided trip. And the argument that guides provide food and water doesn't convince me either, as I can easily stick 6 hours of gels and such into my pocket, and water is in roadside taps, roadside "pop" machines, gas stations and coffee shops all over the place. All you need is a bike, snacks, and carbs for breakfast and dinner. Cyclists are fairly plentiful, and many seem Euro or local, as judged by the amount of flourescent colors on their jersies.
We showered, and I found some teflon motorcycle chain lube that the owner had in his garage, the rain the first evening took left my chain squeaky, and I left my tools and lube in the bike box in Girona. It's super slick stuff, I just don't know how long it'll stay on. When I was pedaling the chain backwards to put it on, the friction probably dropped by half after the first full rotation when I applied it. It was actually quite impressive.
We spent an hour and a half walking around Girona, beautiful city, although the downtown is cool, it's a bit like Banff for being touristy. All the buildings are 4-5 stories high and aren't very far apart. We ate a great dinner and now it's 11pm and bed time.
dude, so when do we move?
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