I don’t know how Julio did it, but he managed to convince me I was fit enough to complete a 90km bike ride with nearly 2,000 metres climbing the day after I competed in the Andalusian Duathlon cross competition the day before.  Before I was dragged kicking and screaming to Punta Umbria for the competition, Julio and I had planned this long bike ride for Sunday 24 November (which was potentially the only sunny and clear day we were going to have for another week) and we were being joined by our friend Steve. 

We woke around 7am and had a quick breakfast and coffee before heading into town to meet Steve at 8.30am to put his bike on the car for transfer to the starting point which was a lake about 45 kms away (where potentially the swim for a triathlon would take place), Embalse del Viboras.   A friend, Luis, kindly drove us there and then took our car back to the finishing point in Alcala La Real. 

We set off around 10.15am and after a short time I signalled to Luis I was feeling okay and he left us to take the car home.    The first 27 kms was nice and we stopped for a quick coffee in Fuensanta de Martos.    We then went through a lovely road to Castillo De Locubin.  Fabulous route, no traffic and gorgeous scenery.  At Castillo De Locubin we had another coffee, which is close to Alcala La Real but in effect only halfway through the whole route.    The next part of the ride was heading towards Alcala but just before entering into the town we turned right to Prado Llano and San Jose de la Rabita before following for La Hortichuela (a 8 km climb) to go past our house and then turning left on the Montefrio road and into Alcala.  After a short loop down to the Poligono we completed the 90km with an eventual 1,960 metres of climbing. 

Although this was always about a day out and definitely not racing I was surprised I had it in my legs to finish and in good shape with no cramping and feeling like I could have continued longer/further should it have been needed.

We all agreed that although it was a lovely ride and we enjoyed the route it would be too challenging for a middle distance triathlon, especially the last 8-9km climbing and we would need to give time for the biking element which would mean the whole event would just be too long.   The 21km run at the end is hilly and challenging and will also need a decent time to complete so we need to make changes to the bike route and probably cut the distance and metres of climbing down.    Julio needs to revert back to his ‘Plot a Route’ software.