The others are pretty anxious too, but that didn't stop Roy and Laura polishing off a couple of bottles of wine last night!
This is a bit of a worry as Roy is joint leader today! (Clive was supposed to be joint leader, but we think he was too scared to join the Social/Intros, after our last few beer sessions!)
We set off just after 9 and ride at a steady pace past Campanet to Caimari for a subdued coffee (well I was subdued!). Caimari is at the foot of the climb, so once coffee is over there is no choice but to commence the climb.
It's a 5 mile climb, and last time was nothing but a horror story. I stopped 5 times on the way up, and felt like I arrived an hour behind the group.
I apologised in advance to the social/Intros of 2017 and asked if they wouldn't mind waiting at the cafe at the top and having a coffee, or possibly two.
So this year after grinding my way up at a much quicker pace and knocking 25 minutes off my last time I find that the group isn't in the cafe having coffee, but they are waiting at the top cheering me on.
What a tremendous feeling, I am knocked out by these guys. They cheered everyone up to the finish line and it felt great to be part of this group.
We were keen to have a team photo and as we assemble ourselves a guy waved to us to indicate he would take the picture. There was some discussion as to his fitness (on more than one level), but mainly that if he ran off with the phone would we be able to catch him. He then said, in a very English accent that he wasn't actually that fit. Oops, we'll shut up now!
Once we had finished celebrating at the top, we headed straight to the restaurant at the monastery at Lluc for lunch.
Laura committed what appears to be a cardinal sin of asking for mayo with her Serrano ham sandwich - the restaurateur said this was "catrostrophic" and that she should go to the church to pray for forgiveness.
We then have an amazing ride down to the bottom of the hill, although Roy may get fired as assistant leader as he didn't organise a group photo at the sign for Col de Formentor, although to be fair to Roy he wasn't told of this plan!
The views are amazing and this is probably the only one that was taken on the way down.
We then batter into Port de Pollenca, riding as a tight group, at 20mph. Stuart was heading for an ice cream and he likes his ice cream!
Clive needn't have been afraid, we were very restrained only having ice cream rather than beers as our post ride reward.
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