Wednesday 12th
November 2014. Stage 81, Villa La Angostura to San Carlos de
Bariloche. 86 kms, 100% paved, climbing 768 metres, summit 1000
metres. A fast and beautiful ride into Bariloche and our rest day.
Last night was a good night walking around the streets
of Villa La Angostura, a nice chilly night in a town that could
resemble many in Europe. Plenty of tourist shops, eateries, and all
the time in the world. I headed back to camp around 9.30pm and hit
'Tent Hilton' like a ton of bricks. I always say to Patrick my riding
buddy, 'I slept like a bear'.
Today is the day that Jan Willem and Carroll leave the
tour and head back to their families in Europe. I spent a great deal
of time with Jan Willem over the past 3 ½ months and I can say
without reservation, he is an absolute gentlemen, and a very strong
rider. Jan Willem has already ridden the section from Bariloche to
Ushuaia a couple of years ago, so now he can say he's ridden from the
equator to the end of the world.
Carroll is a Dr who joined the tour at Mendoza. He also
is a very strong rider and also a very determined rider. What's good
about Carroll is that he's prepared to get on the front and do some
hard work. There are some that never get to the front and always sit
on. Sometimes you have to make an effort and do some work.
We rolled out of camp at 9am and hit the pavement along
a beautiful paved road with pine forests on either side of the road.
It took me about 5kms to catch up to Barry who was riding on his own
and then we set a good pace to the lunch truck at 40kms.
The road in this area hugs 1 of the 7 lakes in this
region of Argentina. All the 7 lakes have huge snow capped mountains
surrounding them. It's pretty cool to ride a bike along the shoulder
of a huge lake looking out over the water and over to the mountains
in the distance.
Since we were on Route 40 all day the traffic was
getting pretty heavy. Huge trucks and buses were now coming down on
us at the rate of knots. Sometimes they came past at over 100kph
within 1 metre of us. Not a good feeling. With the lunch truck in the
distance Barry asked if I wanted to keep going, after all we only
rode 40kms in 1 ½ hours and we had plenty of food to get us to the
finish in 46kms. We pressed on with a nice tailwind pushing us along
at speeds of 50kph.
When we got within 30kms of Bariloche we hit a rise and
could see the town in the distance. We had to ride around the lake to
reach the town and as we turned with 20kms to go we got hit by a
stiff headwind. Now it was down to 20kph and pushing hard to make
headway.
We finally reached Bariloche and could see the fire
engine parked outside of the hotel in the distance. We made it to the
finish at 12 noon and could now start our rest day which will
continue till Friday morning 8am. We have a nice room with heaters,
don't need air con is this cold part of the world, TV, and poor WiFi.
After a nice shower and shave it was down to town and
see what this place has to offer. We stopped at McDonald’s for a
coffee and cake and then continued back to the hotel for an easy
afternoon. Tomorrow I'm going to walk all around this town and check
out the historical sites.
I waited for Jan Willem to arrive to take a photo of his
last metre on tour.
The photo above was taken 3 days ago. That's JR holding up my bike.
Not sure what we're going to do tonight, probably a nice
meal, followed by a movie or a concert.
Until tomorrow, safe riding.
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