Monday morning is team photo day. Even though the weather forecast is not too bad the skies are probably a better indicator than a weather app!
Vivienne does an excellent job of making sure the photo call goes according to plan.
Group photo
Our group is heading to Arta today, the route that finished me off 2 years ago (on day 1!). They are however looking pretty relaxed about the day.
Unsurprisingly, it does start to rain, and we briefly shelter whilst Stuart gives us a quick pep talk on riding wet roads in Majorca. Much care is needed as the surfaces can get very slippery.
We then make the first alteration to the day's plan and have an early coffee (or two) to avoid the rain. There may have been more map reading involved!
I'm also very grateful that Lesley has brought a power pack and I can charge my Garmin and not lose precious Strava miles!
After coffee, the sun is out which means we can grab some lovely photos on the next part of the ride.
There is one part of the ride where we are climbing a hill, and I call out that this is the hill where there is a very sad picture of me being left behind 2 years ago and here is that picture
This year things are very different, although I am slow on the hills, on the whole I am keeping up! And today the group is riding really well together, riding properly as a group and riding in rotation as well. We looked pretty good in our VCC kit riding tightly 2x2 and although there is no photo of the neat formation riding, this is what we look like from behind (at yet another photo stop!)
We are planning to have lunch in Arta, but a delayed start in the morning and double coffees in Maria mean that it is nearly 2 o'clock when we get to Sant Llorenc, which is 10 / 18 km short of Arta, depending on the route you take.
A great decision is made by the group to have an early lunch, as everyone is starting to flag.
We arrive at the square and only cafe looks open, and the owner indicates the kitchen is closing, but he could possibly do a cheese and ham baguette. No decisions to be made, we'll take 10 of those!
We move inside to make sure we don't cool down too much and hoover down the baguettes at record speed!
We then decide to take the shorter 10km route to Arta. However, there is some confusion as to whether there is a col en route. It turns out that the 2017 edition of the map shows Col d'arta, whereas earlier editions do not.
So we conquer the Col d'arta, a brand new ride for 2017. Although to be fair it didn't really seem much more than a big hill, the 2017 map may have been exaggerating things a little. However, I can safely say that I conquered not vomiting on the way up the hill, as I was feeling pretty ropey after lunch, having accidentally taken a gel just before inhaling the baguette!
We then have a fairly easy ride back to Alcudia. Probably around 30 miles and a lot more downhills than the route out.
We happily arrive at the bar for large beers all round. The thought of these beers kept us going on the ride back!
The sun is out and typical Brits abroad make the most of the sun. Not sure what these three were saying, but Dianne looks a little shocked. These three are definitely trouble once on the beers!
Today was a fabulous day, great group, good riding, lots of laughs and well led and looked after by Stuart and Shaun (and of course Steve).
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