Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The weeks go by and training is starting to give its fruits. It's almost summer and I´m feeling stronger. As always, and despite all the riding we've done during the first months of the year, base miles don't start kicking in until it's sunny and hot. The fields start turning golden, and the first sunflowers show up. Everyday on the bike feels good and brings memories of my childhood summers in Caldes. Sitting in the patio in the afternoons watching the Tour de France and going for a ride just after its finish. Emulating Perico and Indurain, trying to reach speed and keep their averages for a few kilometers. The stars were on tv and I only saw them during the Semana Catalana, La Volta a Catalunya, or the few times La Vuelta came by the area.
Girona has changed, changed a lot, but in our cyclist´s eyes, we still see and ride the same roads. Places that hold memories, attacks and falls; the first 100k, the first 200, that day it hailed or rained so hard, everything still exists and comes up when we ride by.
I still ride, more than ever and enjoy the company of friends like Jordi, Toni, and Oscar during everyday rides. Girona has also become home for many professional cyclists, whom we often see on the roads, sometimes at human speeds, where we can greet them and spend a few kilometers together. Other times, you are lucky if they go by going the other way, because if they pass you during an interval training on a climb like Amer, you start thinking what's wrong with me...