So much is happening in my life now it’s getting a bit overwhelming but I thought I spend a few minutes telling you about my recent cycling holiday with Exodus Travels. It’s my third time with this company and they never disappoint. You can read about my Costarican adventure here.
I have already been to Spain with Exodus 2 years ago and not that far away from this year’s destination. We cycled around Sepulveda, & Segovia in Castilla y Leon region. It was hilly. It was May and it was freezing. Raining and freezing. Again I have mentioned it before.
This time it was a week and 300 odd kilometers from Leon to Santiago de Compostella. The ancient pilgrimage route. It was graded as moderate to challenging on the website but I must say it veered towards the latter.
Doing it in August was a good idea. Mornings were cold. Some of the early morning descents were freezing but then it would get nice and warm and then from 2pm it would get furnace hot between 36-40 degrees. Thanfully on a bike you get a bit of a breeze.
We really felt for all the poor souls who decided to walk the Camino in that heat. They looked like zombies…
Anyway, we did it on mountain bikes. This was my baby until the last part of the last day when I broke it:
It was then replaced with this Stallion:
These were serious MTBs with suspension and 27 inch tyres (or 26) so it took some getting used to. Also to the saddle which if you read my previous posts I have had various adventures with. But they rode great.
The route was challenging both on and off road with some crazy 7% descents and 11% climbs. It got high. It got fast – I managed to get to 61km/hour downhill on the road. It got sweaty and it got scary when a stray dog decided to insert himself between me and the group on a very narrow path and treat us as his pack… He wouldn’t take no for an answer for about 10min! I got hopeful when it stopped for a quick bowel movement but then it decided it was way too much fun to miss out on so joined us again. I had to use all my linguistic skills to get my message across…
It was stunning
Then it got steep…
and clearly sweaty…
but it was still beautiful all around
The best part was all that effort and the pain and the bad tan lines and the dirty legs were all a great excuse to EAT all those empanadas and tortillas etc
Can you see the SIZE of that doughnut?!
However it would not have been half as much fun if it wasn’t for all the people that were with me – our super fun group and the guides Jose and Alfonso who doubled up as a mechanic.
All the food, fun and sun factor aside, this trip gave me some ideas for some killer classes. You know me always trying to bring the outside in 🙂 Shame you can’t get the views inside the studio and shame about no breeze either.
So if you are considering going on a cycling holiday – just do it! Camino de Santiago? Sure. On a bike? Yes! Walking in August? Only if you have done something really really bad that you need forgiveness for.
Why the title? Because again: I was in the top two in our group on the climbs so yes, working hard indoors translates outdoors 🙂
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