After the descent we passed thru the town of Buger, and although hardly anyone was much south of 40 years old, all seemed to enjoy calling it "Booger!" Those primitive joys of our childhood still bring pleasure... As we neared the end of this short ride, I slowed waaaay down, knowing tomorrow would be a tough one. Then I stopped, turned around, and shot this photo of the lovely road we were riding. Numbers - 29 miles, 2410 feet. Tomorrow - will Rick decide to go for 103 miles? (Hint - not bloody likely)

Well, I decided to do a full century after all. However, it was the metric century - 63 miles or 100 kilometers. The riders doing the full MILE century would take off from Selva (where we are based) and ride west, toward Palma, then head north into the mountains and follow the coastline, paralleling the Mediterranean, until they were northwest of Selva, where they would climb over the mountains and descend back into Selva. The climb total for the 103 mile ride was about 9500 feet, the shorter ride 7500. So - fairly gnarly, whatever route taken. Us less intrepid 63 mile riders would be taken by van to a starting point well west of Selva - so - we would do a point-to-point ride and the full century group would do a loop. A half hour or so after the 3 heroes took off, we all piled into the vans and drove for more than an hour to the start point - lots of traffic near Palma. Long story short - I remembered everything but my shoes. What can I say? I blame society. Us ADHD sufferers are a maligned and neglected group and the sooner that we receive the full respect due to us as disabled persons, the better. We need help and I'll take it in cash or similar compensation. Miraculously, the fast-driving Ina, one of the staff people, managed to drive me back to get the shoes. Then, using her cell phone and best guesses, since the guides were often out of cell range, she maneuvered back to a point just ahead of where the group had reached, 19 miles into the 63. This is a very well-run operation and their ability to react to unforeseen incidents was amazing - thank you, Rod, Ina, and everyone - you saved my day. Plus I did less work than anyone else! Everyone wins

Mallorca has changed hands every couple hundred years since pre-Roman times so there's lots of relics around. See that mountain? Up and over!

Lots of terraces buttressed with ancient stone walls abound. This is a super common sight. God knows who cut these terraces or when. Certainly there were no bulldozers involved. Love to talk to a local historian.

Seeing as I joined the ride 19 miles late, everybody but me was famished when we stopped for lunch at a little cafe in a seaside village. I'd ridden 15 miles, they'd ridden 35 already. The 100 milers were not caught up yet. Ham and cheese on baguettes, cappuccino, coke, apple tart, chocolate cake. Not everyone ate all of these but I tried.

All you have to do to get home is - climb over these mountains! Of course you can ride back in the van, but then your cost per mile goes way up. Right? I decided to push the last climb which was a long but not super steep one. Remember the beautiful 17 K descent from the first blog? Now it's a climb. I posted my time (your bike computer records the ride, including heart rate, power, speed, grade percentage - and then you upload the record to a website which lists hundreds of other rider's results), and guess what? 215th out of 395! I'm number 215! I'm number 215! I'm shooting for 190th place next time. Dream big!

Well, it was an amazing ride, and the 3 riders who did the full century ended up coming in just a few minutes behind the first riders from the 63 mile group (and the one 44 mile guy, whatsisname). Awesome! Great logistics also. You see Ken Whelpdale, manager of the US Olympic and World Championship cycling team, having a glass of red with some of the girls after the big ride. Along with the mechanical guru Russ and the local guides, plus Rod Connolly, owner of Live It Cycling, Ken helped to make everything seem - smooth. Talk about high-end talent! OK guys, does that plug entitle me to a discount next year? I won't tell anyone, swear to God.