Viva Costa Blanca – Kash & Capt Hone go to Spain
Most of us dream of riding in the warm Spanish sun, especially at this time of year. Some of us would even dream of riding roads in the company of ex-Pro riders. Club Captain Paul Hone tells us what happened when he and Kash Sampat went to Spain and their dream came true!
Last December, Kaushal Sampat (Kash) & I went to the Blanca Bikes Hotel, Javea run by former club member Pete Murdoch for some warm weather riding. Kash rented a bike from Pete while I decided to take my own.
Also staying at the Hotel, were a number of Pros from various small teams getting in some pre-season miles along with the DS of the Ribble Team – Colin Sturgess who has a huge palmarès including World Pursuit Champion, GB Road Race Champ and former Team Mate of Greg Lemond.
The other lads were happy for us to ride with them, which consisted of steady rides and steady hard up the hills. While on our travels, we saw numerous pro teams and riders include Julian Alaphilippe in his World Champs gear and Caleb Ewan.
The speed however did increase whenever Colin joined us and despite being nearly my age, he still has a massive engine. On a long straight stretch of road by some orange groves Colin started to ramp up the speed while Kash was riding at the front next to him who lasted about 2 mins before having to pull off. Pete’s turn lasted about a minute before blowing up. Next it was my turn at the front next to Colin and the pace continued and if anything was accelerating – Pete at this point was dropped.
While I was weighing up my options (blowing up, sprinting in front of him to get him off the front or pushing him off), a pack of Wild Boars came charging out of the grove onto the road. I narrowly missed one in front of me while the others went behind with the riders in the group swerving everywhere except Kash who was caught out and crashed. Fortunately, Kash got away with a few scratches and the state of the boar is unknown but suspect he was a bit sore that night. To be honest, for me the incident happened just at the right time as meant I didn’t have to ride next to Colin anymore and I suggested we take it easy so Kash could recover.
For Colin’s Birthday he wanted to do a 110 mile loop around the mountains which included 2,600m of climbing. I was surprised that half of the lads didn’t want to do it with them moaning that he goes too hard but I dismissed their concerns as just being too soft. Personally, I like long rides, Colin is quite heavy and with the climbing, I couldn’t see what could go wrong. Kash, not known as a mountain specialist decided to leave 20 mins early while I went with the others.
Colin and myself were at the front at the start and while at nowhere near wild boar pace, I did notice I was averaging 260w for the 1st 12 mins which was ambitious for a 6 hour ride. At Calpe another pro rider joined us and we proceeded to Benidorm before turning into the mountains and was facing 90 mins of mostly climbing to the top of the Tudons. Colin was now ramping it up at the front and I briefly saw Kash as we caught up and went past him on the climb. I now realised I was punching well above my weight which turned into survival mode as we climbed further and then getting dropped.
I lost 4 mins but fortunately, they waited for me at the top but only allowed me enough time to put a gilet on before riding off leaving me to catch them up on a wet descent while trying to eat a banana at 40mph. Colin doesn’t like stopping but did allow us to rush into a store to get some water and kindly waiting for me again at the top of another 5k hill. The last 35 miles was mainly downhill with me sitting behind Colin who was relentless at the front. By the time I got back to the Hotel I felt spent & abused and retreated to my bedroom for a cry while I waited for Kash who didn’t have the advantage of being towed by Colin and arrived 80 mins later.
The evenings were spent going to restaurants or eating in the Hotel with Colin giving us a lesson on fine wine (he was a winemaker and ran a vineyard in Australia). He was very generous sharing his expensive wine but I didn’t like to have too much as he didn’t seem interested in drinking my 2 euro Red from Lidl.
Overall we had a very enjoyable but tiring time (29 hours riding, 530 miles & 12,000m climbing) and can recommend the area if you are looking to do a cycle trip.
