Day nineteen

A random ride aound the area, I ended up mainly on the good bike paths by the river and coast.

That's it...

Weather - Dry, chilly and windy

Day Eighteen

Today was a half decent road ride to the coast. I went past the unfinished nuclear power plant near Bakio. It's a sad story of ETA kidnapping and killing an engineer at the plant, so the government stopped it's construction. It's not my family, or country so it's proably easier to say that it's sad that they bowed to terrorism.

Personally, I think the govt. like ETA, they are murdering scumbags (ETA, obviously) but their impact is minimal compared to unemployment, low pay, job insecurity, lack of housing, pathetic saftey standards and a sickening road death toll but the govt. always wants to talk about ETA rather than these other issuse that have a far greater impact on Mr and Mrs Average Spaniard. 

I'm off to the Euskadi v Venezuela game this evening. The almost yearly football match of the "Basque National Team", they didnt have it last year because of a disagreement over the name. Should it be Euskadi or Euskal Herria? Silly people.


Anyway, here's the ride I did, ...Road ride

Day Seventeen

Today wasnt as planned. Have spent too long watching England thrashing Australia so was knackered today. Then watched Sunderland conspire to get beaten off Blackpool, not a happy chappy. Just grabbed my friends Kona (it's here for storage and I've put some slicks on it) , and gave it a good ragging round the block. Feel better now.

Weather - Niiiiceeee.

Day Sixteen

Busy day today, only had time for a quick spin on the road bike. In training parlance I think it's called a recovery ride.

Weather -  dry, sunny, nearly warm

Day Fifteen

A night ride today, just my usual local off-road route. Tried it in reverse though, just to see if it was better in the mud, and generally it was apart from the final descent which was off-camber wet rocks, dangerous but fun.

Think I've done ok for the last couple of weeks in that I've been riding every day but I think I need to up the milqge now. Busy day tomorrow but I think a road ride to Gernika an back on Tuesday is on the agenda.

Weather - cold but dry.

Day Fourteen - Merry Christmas

Just a tootle along the coast today. Didnt say any other riders but plenty of surfers, they are a dedicated bunch that lot. It's nice that when you ride a bike wearing a santa hat people say hello.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.

Weather - Bright and chilly.

Day Thirteen

Went for a "proper" ride to village of La Arboleda, whic sits on top of a big hill on the other side of the river. There's some really good tracks up there and normally I take the funicular up the hill and ride around the top before taking the downhill track back down. Today though, it was wet, really really wet, we are talking driving rain, hailstones, strong wind and rain, rain, rain. So, I changed my plan slightly to ride up the hill to La Arboleda, its a good climb, took me about an hour of spinning. So, I've ended up doing a decent road ride on an mtb with mud tyres and draggy disk brakes in a monsoon. Aye, I enjoyed it.

Definitely the wettest ride I've ever done, let's all praise Goretex, seal skinz and Ron Hill, I was always warm and acceptably dry.

Weather - wet