A delightful day in the Casa de Campo

well, the day was simply amazing. Blue skies, no wind and 24 degrees centigrade made for perfect conditions for some mountain biking in Casa de Campo. This is an enormous park, a forest rather, bordering the city center of Madrid. To give you a feel of its size, it is five times the size of New York´s Central Park.

Casa de Campo is also where the mountain biking world cup was held this year in May. So we were obviously keen to try out some of these WC trails. This was by no means our first time there, in fact we have cycled through it many times before. Its extremely convenient location in the city as well as its great tracks make it perfect for a few hours of MTBing.


All was well today as we ascended and descended, until I decided to gun it down one of the more challenging and steep world cup runs. It was very steep and somehow my front wheel got a bit stuck. I soon found myself airborn and doing a bit of a somersault, with bike and all. The landing, face first, in the dirt took the wind out of me for a bit. Part of the landing was broken by my helmet and I was glad to be weiring all finger and tough gloves. Besides some token blood (to impress the girls) I was fine and left the area of the crash unscathed. It happened right underneath the gondola, and am sure it must have provided some of its passengers with a spectacular scene. I aim to please of course... ;)

anyway, the bike will need to be tuned a little bit and will go in for service tomorrow, will want to head out again next weekend of course.

hasta la próxima
Douwe

La Pedriza, Madrid

I have done Pedriza twice before, once in April (although we did only a snippet of the entire trail) and once on June 20 of this year. An amazing circular trail, which we did counter clockwise. This meant that we had the steapest climb to start with with a long descent to take us back to where we had parked the car.


This trail is not particularly difficult, technically speaking. The difficulty is in the steep and long climb as you can see in below diagram.




Once you start to climb a little bit the views start getting better and better. There is a viewpoint (mirador) at the top of the trail, with stunning views of the peeks of Pedriza and down below Manzanares and the lake. In the distance you can also see the city of Madrid and its unmistakable 4 towers.



This trail is definitely worth going for, but don't underestimate the climb. If you stay on the track, a pretty smooth dirt track with small rocks and gravel, it is very easy going. Next time I am keen to take some of the forest trails that are around. The park, up until you reach the hight of the mirador, is pretty much a pine forest with huge rocks. Am looking forward to doing a winter wonderland trail once there will be snow later in the season, is supposed to be amazing.



We only had one incident happen yesterday, one that has now got Frans convince that he will in fact bring his gloves and helmet next time.

BajaBikesMadrid now on YouTube

With Baja Bikes you can explore Madrid in a unique way, you will see the best highlights of the city during a relaxed bicycle tour. You will cross the old city centre, the Retiro Park and cycle past many interesting sights. The BajaBikes Madrid guides know the city and its history very well, and will open up a complete new Madrid for you.

cycling through Madrid, awesome!!

at first I was a little skeptical about cycling through the center of Madrid, but after having been here for three years I have gotten to know the city quite well by cycling through it. It must be said, it is best done with someone who knows the best routes, better yet.. which streets to avoid as Madrid is quite the car-rich city and can be a tad chaotic. But if you know where to go and how to best navigate through the stunning center of Madrid it is really cool and a brilliant way to see the sights.

I recently came across a great guided bicycle tour company in Madrid who employ very knowledgeable guides. They take you through the center of Madrid in three hours, native speakers of English, Dutch and German. check it out on BajaBikesMadrid

Back on the saddle again

OK, so it has been a little quiet on the MTB front lately, partly due to the hot summer and vacation period, and mostly due to a fairly busy travel schedule. But, am back on the saddle and have started training. This week I started by going to work by bicycle. You might think, big deal.. but going from one side of Madrid to the other, which is far from flat, can be a bit of a workout. Click on below Google Map to get an idea of the distance... The route take me right across central Madrid.

View office home route 31 aug 2009 in a larger map

Besides the work-out it is also a learning experience. For instance, you get to know the city quite well. I have taken this route (back and forth) three times this week. Not once did I take exactly the same route, which helps me get a better feel of the lay out of the city. You also get a better understanding of typical driving behavior and how to anticipate. Luckily I have been on a bicycle in many cities, so it helps.

What´s funny is that many of the stereotypes are well confirmed. For instance, the typical BMW driver does not take it well at all being overtaken by someone on a bike. The (usually) male drivers of this type of vehicle cannot help but demonstrate their frustration of not being well endowed, and they need to have their revenge by overtaking you no... matter what it takes.

Other than that though, fairly easy to navigate through town. A refreshing way to leave a day´s of work behind and burn some calories.

We will be picking up the schedule again, and are in fact planning for an awesome 200 km mountain bike trail in the south of Spain in October. Will need to train for this as it appears to be a fairly tough and technical route.

Hasta la próxima
Douwe

From an MTB to a windsurf board

Ok, so nothing to report on the MTB front as I have been on vacation in the Caribbean for a couple of weeks. Not much in the way of mountainbiking on the island of Bonaire, but did manage to get a fair amount of windsurfing in whilst I was there. Check out below YouTube video for some of the footage.



Am keen to get back on the bike, check back soon for some more MTB stuff from Madrid and the Tarragona province in Catalonia.

Hasta la próxima
Douwe

30 K ride near Rascafria

We initially intended to do a rather tough ride around the mountains surrounding the town of Rascafria. What started real good ended up in us getting terribly lost, to the point where we ended up on a rather difficult and in the end impossible trail.


What followed was a lot of climbing where we had to dismount and carry our bikes across some very rough terrain. The surroundings were beautiful (see above picture), but it was not the one we intended to ride today.

We will do this trail again soon and will write a more inspired and detailed description of it. We'll make sure to prepare better to make sure we can find our way around. Even the GPS did not help us today. So more about this supposedly wonderful ride soon.

Hasta la proxima
Douwe