We took off straight up the mountain heading north at 9 AM or so & in no time were on the climb. It’s about 6 miles and 1900 feet of climbing so it’s a good effort. As we neared the top, I stopped to snap a photo, and Iggy passed me, then stopped to see what I was doing. Only 35 miles, 3000 feet, and one cappuccino, but a nice workout for us old folks. Tomorrow we will go to Iggy’s shop with the semi-famous Ken Whelpdale for a bike fitting!

Almost there. How many times have I heard that, even in my short (14 years) cycling career. Right after we restarted, it kicked up again, and when we got to the top, we turned around and waited for Chieko. Sure enough, in a few minutes she came around that last corner to the top.

I tell you, that is a thrilling descent, going back towards Selva! By the way, notice how nice the roads are? Even in a relatively less-rich place like Spain? They even paint lines in the middle of the roads and regularly repair them. It’s called “infrastructure “. Instead of using tax money to give corporations billions so that they can buy their own stock back so as to raise their stock prices, and then use the inflated stock values to justify paying the CEO’s of said corporations obscene salaries, they use the money to fix up their roads and stuff. Then the improved roads can be used by everyone, even poor people. In other words, it’s a socialist hell! But I digress.

We were heading north on the climb as you recall, but when we hit the top of the climb, we turned northeast, heading along the spine of The Tramuntana range and gradually descending. It was like 15 miles almost all downhill! My kind of ride! You can see the Mediterranean in the top left corner, and the road, as it descends, in the middle left.

When we hit Pollença we rode into the historic center of the town and stopped for coffee. Are you seeing a pattern emerge in our rides?

Iggy watched her walk, had her stand in one foot & balance, checked her flexibility and symmetry (and none of us, as you who have had a gait evaluation etc, know, are symmetrical), and then taped her up with a pile of technology!

You have no secrets from the computer masters! Just kidding. It takes a skilled fitter to do this but the computer vastly increases analytic power. Patches are placed on the fulcrum points of all the joints, plus the shoulders, hips, and feet and your movements are then analyzed scientifically by a group of cameras about 2 meters away which analyze the movement relative to these points.

Just then a couple of guys came in from a ride - the guy in your left is Alberto Torres, World Madison Champion (a track riding discipline named after Madison Square Garden, where it was popularized). On the right, Logan Owen, rider for EF Education First team, who has won TEN consecutive US national championships in cyclocross. He’s only 24 and is now riding on the World Tour with EF! Star-struck, I was!