Finally it's B-day!

Finally it's B-day or S-day if you wish. Yesterday I rode 500m on the Specialized Epic 29" of Tito's wife Ester. ( She's got my height at 1,5cm of difference. ) The 500m was enough to fall in love with it. 
Today I got it under my but for a full 55km.

I don' t feel well today, my nose is dripping and my head's heavy, the legs are leaking power. 
Understandable after 11 days of harsh biking and the symptoms of the flue I took in heritage of my man. But the Epic 29er made me feel light as a feather. I am not pro fully, I call it to heavy to be advantageous with my weight and after the Transalp on a 29er hardtail I became against 29er for my length (157,5cm). The handle bar was higher than the saddle and I couldn't take a decent race position. It didn't have the right geometry, I cursed more then I pedaled during that race. 

Me at the Transalp in 2012

This Epic was still a bit high on the front and the handle bar far to large for a racer like me, but with a negative stem and another handle bar we can sort this out. It felt like riding in a sofa. And the bike is surprisingly light, lighter then my Lynskey. Oh God, why did I try it? I don't want to go to the Absa Cape Epic with another bike then this one. It's power saving thanks to the suspension, I didn't have to go of the saddle for every little crack in the road and it makes you go more fluently over all kind of obstacles. Tomorrow there's another day in paradise with this bike and than it has to go back to its legitime owner and sad enough it is not me. 

Tito and Ester preping the bike 

Yesterday  I went out with Tito, his wife Ester and their friends. Nice trails and good local company what does a biker desires more? 

Ester 

The only biker who went down on this drop was this little Belgian girl and her Titanium hard tail. "Crazy woman", Victor called me! 

If you wonder what Tito is been doing here: picking wild asparagus! 

If you wonder how he takes them home?

If you wonder why he's been doing all this? 

In the local pub at the end of our trip, we were eating omelette with wild asparagus. A nice end of a nice biking day!

Biking Benicasim Part III

Yesterday was a try out. 
We drove 1,5h by car up to Penyagolosa where Yvan of the Toerist Biking left us behind with the mission to come back by bike. 80km on a track found on the internet, whole the way over the GR ( Grande Randonée ). We should have known better, but our enthusiasm took the advantage over our thinking. 
2,5h and 24km later, we found ourselves in a the local barrito of un pueblo en la medio del nada. Un boccadillo con jamon y queso and un cafe con leche descafinado, gave us new energy and we hit the road again. I was excited about the trails, we had to put in our high technical skills and we were rewarded with some extraordinary views and thrills. But the idea of another 56km of this nearly unridable trails was too much. As we tried to avoid the tricky parts, we found ourselves lost in the mountains and after another 3hours we decided to  take the fastest way back to Benicasim. We were longing for a sign of life and an asphalt road, can you imagine? 
25km over the asphalt and one more climb ( the shortest pain ) over the mountain brought us home to our hotel. 
It was a long, cold and windy day filled with ups and downs, but the sun hanging low over the last climb made me realize how lucky I am to be here in this MTB paradise. 
It was a try out and it didn't work out, no problem, at least we tried it. 

hit the road

As we stand here we don't realize this trail continues for at least 1kilometer. It starts fluently rideable but goes over in a rock garden. We remain concentrated and we reach the end without putting one feet on the ground. Thrilled and excited we are!

savely bur shakey we come down

In this little pueblo we find warmth and shelter from the heavy wind. We rode for 2,5h and are only 24km away from where we started. 

Check out our ride on: 
Penyagolosa - Benicasim door mertenssara op Garmin Connect - Details

Biker's best @ Benicasim

Yesterday as we tried to leave the room for breakfast, we couldn't open the door. It moved only 10cm. No comment needed when you see this picture.

We stay in a sport hotel and almost half of the guests are cycling teams. We find ourselves in the same corridor so we became part of the joke. 

The result of the Spanish tracks or my steering capacities. :-( I still went out with it today.

I'll need some blessings to guard me from further damage.

We went up on a single trail where normal bikers come down and we probably missed an exit somewhere since suddenly we were captured in a villa's garden. The owner let us out but wasn't really pleased with his unexpected guests.

Todays ride was a salvation. If I wasn't already yesterday, today I am convinced there is some great biking at Benicasim. 

Mark from De Toerist Biking is my personal guide en together with Mister Garmin we discover the trails. In october there will be an MTB week organized by De Toerist Biking and our favorite magazine O2Bikers. No date is set yet, but keep an eye on both the websites!

• http://www.o2bikers.com
• http://www.detoerist.be/biking/

Check out the details of the ride:

Benicasim ride II  mertenssara on Garmin Connect - Details