Another Day Through Rupit

It was a beautiful day in Catalunya today. The New Mexico-esque winds of the last 2 days subsided a bit, and I enjoyed nearly 6 hours in the saddle with Jesse Sergent. I took him on the Rupit loop, which was new for him. I think he enjoyed it, which is always good! First story from the ride was taking pictures with some locals when we stopped for water in Sant Hilari. They were stopped refilling, and when we pulled up, they recognized the kits, which led to a little excitement. They eagerly asked us if it was cool to take a picture because it isn't every day they run into a professional (hard to believe around here!), and we gladly obliged. After the picture, they took off a bit ahead of us but in the same direction. Their group split into pieces as the road tilted upwards, but we were darn glad that they left ahead of us because the leaders in their group were going faster than us! We passed the stragglers but didn't really make any ground on the leaders.

After another couple hours of riding on the gloriously small roads to Rupit, which were quite busy today because of the weekend travelers, we had to make the traditional stop at the bakery. We ran into a local from Girona, David, who was out with a couple friends doing the same loop as us. It's crazy what the locals do around here. The weekend warriors go out and wreck themselves! Granted these guys are not the standard weekend warriors, but it is still impressive that they're doing such a big ride. Anyway, Jesse and I enjoyed a refill of bocadilla tortilla at the bakery and then ventured on. After climbing out of and descending from Rupit, we had a steady headwind to contend with for the last hourish of the ride. It was pretty difficult. We rode silently next to one another just turning the pedals in anticipation of reaching Girona. Finally we arrived, quite tuckered out, said "good job and thanks for the ride", and went out separate ways, a good day's work done.

Upon my arrival home, my nose was infiltrated with the smells of fresh baked goods: banana muffins! I happily devoured a couple muffins to assuage my hunger, and plopped down on the floor to just sit and relax for a bit after a long day training. I stretched a bit, watched Paris Nice, and got up a couple times for food/drink. The rest of the afternoon has been relaxing and recovering. Lisa made a delicious beef stew for dinner to help recharge. Now, I am looking forward to my recovery ride tomorrow!

I better make sure I don't forget the funniest portion of my ride today: the drunks sitting on the stone bridge. I rolled down to the stone bridge to meet Jesse, where there were two guys, clearly intoxicated (at 930 in the morning!), talking nonesense to each other and passers by. I'm not sure if it was nonsense because it was in Catalan/Spanish or just because I assume that drunk talk is nonsense, but it doesn't make a difference here. It took me a moment to realize the true funniness of the situation: they each had a pair of women's underwear! One of them had them on his head, while the other offered his to a woman walking by who ignored him (for obvious reasons!), so he proceeded to follow suit of his companion and put them on his head. It was the perfect, comical start to Jesse and my long day in the saddle. We wanted to stay and watch the circus, but we had training to do, so we rolled out for our big adventure. Adios!