Back to business in Spain

It’s been awhile since I’ve done any serious racing. After the nationals, I hung up the bike  for a week to  get a bit more recovery from the Giro and both Tour de Beauce and the national championships, which followed so closely afterwards. There wasn’t really enough time to  recover fully, so I needed a second, little break.

From there, I started the slow build up for the second part of the year: training with friends old and new in Vancouver and racing a few of the BC Superweek races before heading home to Spain for another year. The Vancouver stint meant sushi everyday and visiting as many different coffee shops as I could jam in. For me, the highlights where racing the Gastown Grand Prix with it’s incredible crowds, crossing Tojo’s sushi restaurant off my list and a good old fashioned afternoon barbecue.

Now that I’m back in Spain, it is truly back to business; I did some serious training and with the heat getting up to 40 C. With the jet lag, I was definitely feeling it for the first few days. Slowly, things started to come around and soon enough 35 C felt quite comfortable to train in. My wife had also quickly gotten back into her groove at the local markets and cooking up amazing meals. One thing I really missed while being away from Spain was my coffee machine. With only a few days practice in almost 10 weeks, I was definitely playing catch up in the brew department. I have been tearing through the bags of great beans I brought back from various roasters in the Vancouver area.

A pretty serious block of racing is coming up soon, starting with the London-Surrey Classic Aug. 3 to 4. Then I’m heading straight to the Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos (Aug. 7 to 11). More come later. For now its time for one more brew and training.

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