At 37, I am feeling increasingly destructible each year. Football injuries no longer take a week to heal and physical symmetry seems to be leaving me by the month.
I have been living in Brighton for 12 years, working as an accountant at various companies, but an upcoming period between jobs, due to temporary relocation to Cambridge has given me the chance to take on a physical challenge, while I still can.
I decided upon a cycle tour of Spain, from north to south, Santander to Malaga, where three weeks later, I will meet my fiancée, Yolanda for a week's rest, recovery and rehydration.
Spain was the obvious choice, as being engaged to a girl from Catalunya has meant many visits there over the past few years and given me a strong affection for the country. I also have a (very basic) command of the language and the Costa del Sol was the perfect venue for a reunion and week of rest with my girl (which was in no way used as a negotiation tool while hammering out the terms of my three-week fiancé duties holiday time).
Along the way I will be wearing a Dark Star Brewing Co cycle jersey, as it ties together three things close to my heart - Sussex by the sea, cycling and fine English ales.
Following the decision about my destination came the concerns. How many miles a day would I have to average (50), would my road bike be suitable (not really), what would the conditions be like (HOT!)?
As I became mildly obsessed with all the potential pitfalls, I gradually worked my way towards being tour ready.
Road bikes are not designed to carry panniers and, thus, do not have eyelets on the seat stays that allow for a rack to be attached to the frame. In addition, the brake cabling across the handlebars will usually block the space where a bar bag would be fitted on a touring bike.
The guys in Sydney Street Bikes, however, supplied me with a seat post clamp that had said eyelets, allowing me to securely fit a lightweight rack and panniers.
To my great disappointment, I soon found that Spain has quite a few mountains. To facilitate my shameful avoidance of these, I registered on www.ridewithgps.com. Here I can map out routes, using a variety of different mapping options, while continually monitoring the total elevation and profile of each stage I am plotting. The saved routes can then be uploaded to my GPS cycle computer, providing navigation and removing the need for paper maps.
My approach to accommodation reservations will be to make them as I go, with the exception of the first week. Victor Baro, a Brighton resident originally from Badalona in Catalunya, says, “Between mid-July and mid-August the bed and breakfasts inland should have good availability, as most of the population migrates to the coast.”
This observation told me not only to make advance bookings for time spent on the Costas, but also that the timing of my tour will take place in the kind of heat that makes your teeth sweat.
Every Spaniard I have sought advice from, has responded to the idea of cycling 900 miles in July/August with the same raised eyebrows and concern for my state of mind. The heat will be a huge factor and apart from training rides in hot weather and keeping stocked up in water, sun lotion and electrolyte tablets, my main back-up plan is to cycle earlier in the mornings the further south I get.
Over the last few months I´ve been using Ditchling Beacon as a regular training tool and gradually increasing my training ride mileages, as well as keeping to a daily stretching routine prescribed by a qualified physiotherapist.
Apart from the fact that when not riding or playing football my favourite pastime is the art of reclining in all of the world´s wonderful and varied sitting apparatus (slothful immobility), my other worries include too much luggage, not enough luggage, mechanical breakdown, incorrect dietary selection, saddle sores, riding on the right (wrong) side of the road, bicycle theft, loneliness, Spanish traffic symbols, language skills (my lack thereof), my inability to quit smoking and basically rolling off the ferry on the north coast of Spain, with nothing but a bicycle and a funny pair of shoes.
I´ll be setting off from Portsmouth tomorrow and if you´d like to follow my progress, I´ll be aiming to post updates every five days here on The Argus website.
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