Steve Cycles The World: S2 : Day 2

Ride Statistics
Date ....................... Monday January 8th 2018
Strava Link ................ https://www.strava.com/activities/1347547306

Departure Time ............. 8:42AM CET*
Departure Temperature ...... TBD
Time in Motion ............ 8:54:40 / 66%
Time at Rest ............... 4:30:34 / 34%
Total Time ................. 13:25:14
Arrival Time ............... 10:20PM CET
Arrival Temperature ........ TBD

Total Miles Cycled ......... 79.5mi
Total Elevation ............ 3,061ft

Steve Avg Pace|Max Speed ... 8.9 mi/h | 31.3 mi/h
Shruti Avg Pace|Max Speed .. 8.3 mi/h | 23.5 mi/h
Matt Avg Pace|Max Speed .... 9.9 mi/h | 36.7 mi/h
Going to remove Eric and Dad as they don't really use Strava
* Central European Time

Tour Statistics
I decided to be extra nerdy and keep a cumulative running total of some key stats. :)

Total Time in Motion ....... 18:07:41 hh/mm/ss
Total Time on Road ......... 27:57:59 hh/mm/ss
Total Miles Cycled ......... 155.3 mi
Total Elevation ............ 7,531 ft

Day 1 gave us a hard wake up in terms of what we were in for on this trip. We weren’t ready for the weather, temperatures, baggage and elevations and terrain to all hit us at once. This led us in to a day 2 where we started weary, hurting and a lot of our gear and clothing still wet.

The route took us from Salou to Peniscola clickng in at almost 80miles with a 3000 elevation gain. Personally i had only trained for about 1500ft per session, but I did do some running and stairclimber which I think helped.

So we head out at 8:40am, point ourselves south and down the coastline of salou towards our destination. The coastline is great and the teams spirits raised seeing the coastline. Within a few hundred meters we experienced our 2nd bicycle failure. Erics chain snapped. I was thinking to myself that this trip is jynxed. Bad weather, the team didnt Train collectively enough for the distances and our mapping preparation was not right.

So i took out matts multitool, was broke the bad link off of erics bike and reassembled the chain. He was down a couple of links, but the bik was working. We stopped for our morning coffee and pastry or tostado, selfied it up and headed off.

We cycled down the coast, through some small beach towns and had one of our 3 major climbs before lunch. We hit a great pier made from stones and after cycling to the end of the concrete i decided to risk it all and clamor out on to the stones.

at the end of the stone pier. Behind me is a light house.
The rock size is deceiving. Each one is half the size of a small car!

We stopped for a really nice lunch and more patates bravas in the town of
L’Ametlla de mar. We pretty much instituted a meal selfie routine that we only broke once or twice on the whole trip. ( you can guess that i am not writing this in real time )

After lunch we headed down the coast and had a bit of ups and downs with some cool tunnels and a bit more pushing. The weather behaved itself with sun and not too much headwind.

Eric's bike started causing us a bit of trouble as it just wasn't made for long distances and was wearing down on the poor guys knees. Shruti and I went ahead as the elevation + distance, plus the shorter amount of daylight hours was causing us to get a bit chilly and cycle in the dark. We have lights and clothing, but it isn't comfortable. Matt and my dad were on Eric duty, making sure he got through it.

I was waiting for the
McPollo ALLLLLLLLLLLLL day :)

Shruti was about to become a human icicle so we decided to stop at Decathalon where we bought her thinner tires, some gloves and a light windbreaker. [ it is very nice and I think I am going to buy one myself before I leave Spain. ] Matty, dad and Eric roll up to the Decathalon, get some supplies and we head over for a delicious Mcd's dinner [ it was too late and we were too tired to go any where else ] I have been seeing signs for the McPollo for miles and had to have one. It was tasty!

The ride was a success, but a bit tough because of the number of hours on the road waiting and making sure everyone made it through ok. This would be Eric's last ride for a long while, but he does make another appearance on Day 8.

We cycled up to our airbnb, which was up another mountain 0_o ... and all cleaned up. I spent the next hour opening up Steve's bike shop and cleaning/regreasing the chains, front and rear derailleurs and brakes. Thankfully, I found half a staple in Matt's tire and removed it before he had a flat. Will post a pic on day 3.

So we ended a bit cold, but we ended all together. It would be the first and last time for the rest of the trip that all 5 of us made it together through the day's journey.