Backroads – days 5 and 6

Our final two days of biking transported us out of the mountains and down to the coast. I believe all 19 of us were looking forward to flat terrain and scenery other than mountains. The downside to biking along the coast (yes, there is a downside) was the hot and humid weather.

I failed to pay attention to the Thursday morning route rap and, therefore, Peter and I completely missed the bar stop where the rest of the group stopped and drank a beer before continuing on to the village of Calella de Palafrugell for lunch. Somehow, someway, we lost the group while biking through one of the seaside towns.

Unaware that the group had stopped and with no one in sight, I thought we were somewhere in the middle of the pack and was biking as fast as I could to catch the leaders or anyone in our group. Peter and I were chasing no one but ourselves while the rest of the group was doing this:

While the group was enjoying a seaside beer, Peter and I became stranded with my second flat tire in an area not accessible by the support van. We found ourselves a brick wall and waited for about an hour for our drunk group members to pass by and pass along our distress call. We could not have found a less scenic area of Spain to be stranded. Seriously.

Peter looks happy on the brick wall but we were on Wine Gums and Peanut M&M’s sugar highs because that is the only food we had with us. After a very long and unwanted flat tire pit stop, we finally made it to the village for lunch and as soon as we sat down, it started raining. I couldn’t believe it. It was raining on the only day I had planned to skip the afternoon ride and ride in the support van back to the hotel and spend the afternoon at the pool.

On Thursday, we biked 31 miles with a total elevation gain of 984 feet. I burned 1,151 calories. To recap:

Day	Details
Sunday	20 miles with a total elevation gain of 1,969 feet. I burned 739 calories.
Monday	38 miles with a total elevation gain of 2,296 feet. I burned 2,201 calories.
Tuesday	53 miles with a total elevation gain of 4,643 feet. I burned 2,342 calories.
Wednesday	44 miles with a total elevation gain of 1,345 feet. I burned 2,505 calories.

After lunch, everyone took the shuttle back to the hotel and Peter and I spent the afternoon in the hotel bar consuming the most expensive drinks on the planet. Thursday night was our final dinner with the group and while I was sad to see it come to an end, I was also happy because I needed a day off.

Friday morning Peter chose to skip the morning ride and sleep in and I chose to wake up at 7am and bike the final route through the local farmland. I biked 15 miles with a total elevation gain of 246 feet. I burned 451 calories.

In summary, we biked approximately 200 miles with a total elevation gain of 11,483 feet while burning 9,389 calories. Our six days of biking was difficult and I’m glad we did it. I felt a great sense of accomplishment after the Friday morning ride.

After the ride, we ate brunch at the hotel and boarded the bus back to Barcelona. We said our goodbyes and engaged in lots of awkward hugging and then hopped in a taxi for our fifth and final night of the trip in at Villa Emilia in Barcelona.

As I bring the posts on our Backroads trip to a close, Peter and I are currently debating a second Backroads trip, perhaps in Vietnam/Cambodia. Perhaps not.