3 days of incredible riding in the Andes.

Friday 7^th November 2014. Stage 76b. Chos Malal to Las Lajas. 161 kms, paved 100%, climbing 1278 metres, summit 1300 metres. Day 1 of 6 on the road to Bariloche.

After a rest day it's always hard to get out of bed. My tent was under a light in the campsite so it looked it was daylight at 11pm.

I rolled out of bed at 6.30 am to get ready for the big week ahead. 6 days on the road to Bariloche and over 700 kms. This should be a real hard week on the road to the end of the world.

We left camp a 8am and rode out through the centre of town and kept going south. We had 161 kms to ride today and we expect strong headwinds about 40 kms from our destination.

Right from the outset of the day I rode with a group who had Michelle, Joost, Hilde, Kristen, Jan Willem (who was on his last week of the tour), Buck, Brian and Deb. The first part of the day was mostly downhill with a strong tailwind. We had a good pace up all morning and made the 75kms to the lunch truck by 11.15 am. We still had another 85kms to the end of the day.

The group rode really well during the morning keeping a solid pace and most of the riders took a turn up the front. I don't expect the weak riders to get up their into the wind and try and keep the pace high. The scenery for the morning was mainly rolling hills, mountains along way away from the road and no trees. Quite a baron place out here and we have it all to ourselves. How cool is that?

Prior to lunch we had this guy stopping and taking photos of our group all morning. He must be a journalist or a retired cyclist who still loves cycling. Michelle managed to get a group photo which I'll have to get at the next opportunity.

After lunch it was the same group that continued on their way to Las Lajas. At the 120 km mark the road turned and headed west. As soon as we made the turn the wind hit us like a ton of bricks. From this point on the speed dropped to 15kph for the next 3 hours. Battling into a headwind is not only boring, but a pain in the ass. We all took turns and did our bit at the front of the bunch to get this day over and done with.

I could see the town appear in the distance, but it took forever to get their. The last hour of the ride was tough.

We crossed over the bridge and rode on down to the campsite. A quick pitch of the tent and I was ready to relax.

After a shower I went for a walk of the town and had a chat with a group of teenagers. There's is one thing I can say about the kids I've met in Argentina, and that they're very polite and well mannered. Always keen to try and chat with the Gringos and help us as much as they can.

I went to the supermarket to buy a drink and ended up in the bakery section by chance. I ordered these 2 buns full of chocolate and had a brief chat with the baker. He was pretty impressed with my ride and ended up giving me an extra bun to take back to camp. There was no way I could eat 3 buns, so I gave 1 to Joost and the other to Barry.

I returned back to the campsite and got ready for dinner. Tomorrow we have to get up at 5.15am, breakfast is 6am and departure is 7am due to the tough ride ahead. 2 years ago only 3 riders finished the stage. It snowed on the summit and the winds were so ferocious the riders had to take shelter in a ditch and wait for the lunch truck to pick them up.

Bring on tomorrow.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.

Saturday 8^th November 2014. Stage 77. Las Lajas to Alumine. 131 kms. Paved 51%, Climbing 1570 metres, summit 1900 metres. Race to lunch and called it quits.

I went to bed very early as we had to get up at 5.15am to get ready for the day. I did sleep well so I was ready to race and try and get the majority of the day over before the winds hit us.

All the cyclists headed out of town as a group and as soon we hit the base of the climb, Diderick attacked, so Joost, Alfred, Rob the Boss and myself jumped after him. Unfortunately for James he was not able to follow us. We stayed as a group up the climb that went from 800 metres to the summit at over 1900 metres. The major problem with the mornings ride was the strong headwinds that disintegrated the entire field. I heard later that people were scattered all over the mountain and some didn't reach the lunch truck till over 2 hours after we did.

We sat on a speed around 22-25 kph up the entire climb. I should say that at times I couldn't get to the front and help out. I can climb mountains, but when it's a strong headwind, you usually find me at the back of the bunch taking protection from the wind.

As we got higher the snow capped mountains got closer and closer. What I did see were the Monkey puzzle tree. Monkey puzzle tree is he hardest species in he confer genus Araucaria. It is native to south central Chile and west central Argentina, and is an evergreen tree growing to 40 metres tall and 3 metres in trunk diameter.

In Britain prior to 1850, it had been known as “Joseph Bank's pine” or “Chile Pine”, though it is not a true pine. The tree got it's name because one of the friends of Joseph Banks said it would puzzle a monkey to climb that tree. And the name has stuck ever since.

Back to the race.

As we powered up the mountain with all these monkey puzzle trees appearing all over the mountains, Joost kicked up the pace and put myself and Alfred off the back of the bunch. We worked hard into the headwind and stayed at a similar distance all the way to lunch at the 53km mark. It was at this point the road turned to dirt and sand. Whilst having lunch I decided not to continue on racing as there was no way I could ride with my thin tires for 80 kms against these boys. I left 5 minutes after Joost and Alfred and rode the rest of the day on my own listening to good quality music.

 Some of the beautiful scenery on our long 161 km ride over the past 3 days. Spectacular clouds to follow us all day.

The above map, slightly crooked, is from yesterdays ride.

Walter is the guy in the above photo and the man responsible for driving one truck and looking after us at lunch time each day.

 The above photo was taken on day 3 riding through the canyon with the crystal clear waters following us all the way.

 At the end of day 3 I wen up to the plaza and watched the local school kids do their thing. They sounded fantastic.

The above photo was taken on day 3. Every corner gave amazing views.

From lunch to the end of the day the scenery was just stunning. With beautiful green trees and the Chimehuin River down below it made for a fantastic afternoon of riding. At times the snow would get about 100 metres from the road, but not close enough to go and splash around in for that photo.

As I rode along the dirt road I stopped many times to take some photos. I took one in particular of an old house with an older caravan next to it. With the snow capped mountains and the dirt road in view it made for a great photo.

Pushing along on this terrible road I dropped down from the mountain to find a crystal clear lake with snow capped mountains falling away into the waters. The road after lunch was tough, there can be no doubt that, but the scenery keeps surprising me around every corner.

The last 10 kms on the dirt turned to a fine gravel about 3 cms thick. This caused me all sorts of trouble trying to keep the bike upright. I was going nuts trying to find the perfect line. Going from one side of the road to the other for about an hour drive me to braking point.

Eventually I hit the pavement with 15 kms to go. The road was excellent as it meandered adjacent to the river over gentle rolling hills. I rolled into camp around 2pm, 30 minutes after Joost and Alfred. I was happy with 3^rd place on the stage, but it would have been different if I had fat tires.

Arriving early in camp gave me the opportunity to wash all my gear, shower, eat, put up 'Tent Hilton' and relax. The other riders rolled in about an hour after I did up to about 5pm. It was a tough stage in the morning but the afternoon conditions were perfect and scenery amazing.

Tomorrow we have another 130 km ride with 50% unpaved. Although it is a race day, I'm going to take it easy.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.

Sunday 9^th November 2014. Stage 78, Alumine to Junin de los Andes, 120 kms, paved 49%, climbing 1245 metres, summit 1380 metres. Woke to zero degrees, ate in 1 degrees and started riding in 2 degrees.

I woke today at 6.15am to freezing conditions. Zero when I pulled my head out of the tent, and it was a slow job getting dressed and pulling down 'Tent Hilton'.

Whilst eating breakfast the temperature soared to 1 degrees, which made a huge difference. NOT. I was freezing whilst trying to eat my corn flakes and banana roll. No matter what I did I couldn't get my fingers warm. By the time we got on our bikes to leave the camp the temperature had reached a whopping 2 degrees. I had my gloves, jacket, leg and arm warmers, head scarf and was cold. I couldn't wait for the sun to pop its head above the mountain and belt down on us.

We rode the first 25kms on good pavement than hit the dirt, which would continue to the 110km mark. The first part of the morning once again followed the river through a beautiful canyon and pretty good dirt road. I rode with Barry and KB all morning and we had a great time chatting about life and what it would be like to live in this part of the world.

The photo above is of Lanin Volcano.

Around each corner would be a beautiful green valley with canyon walls, a fast flowing river and small homes starting to appear more frequently. The snow had left the mountains around us but we could see the huge snow capped volcano in the distance. I know I keep saying it, and perhaps too often, but I had a fantastic morning in a beautiful part of Argentina.

With lunch at the 60 km mark we stopped for a short while as we wanted to get into camp and have a look around the town. At the campsites we've been staying at they haven't had any internet, thus no stories posted.

I left lunch and rode on my own all afternoon, firstly up a 15km climb which was not difficult and then mostly downhill into the town of Junin de los Andes. It was on the descent from the mountains that I first got a glimpse of the snow capped volcano. The volcano is called Lanin Volcano which is an ice clad, cone shaped stratovolcano on the border of Argentina and Chile. It's amazing to see whilst roaring down the rocky mountain being bounced all over the place.

I rolled on down into town and found the campsite for the night. I had a quick shower and shave today, put up the tent and headed for town. I managed to see a young school group perform on the stage in the centre of town and the music was very impressive.

Buck and I went and bought and ice cream and took up a position to listen to the school band belt out a cool South American tune.

We headed back to camp for dinner and in the evening I'm going back up to town to try and get some internet stuff done.

Tomorrow we do it all again. Day 3 of 6 completed on the road to Bariloche.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.