Epilogue

And so ends another epic Mad Bike Ride!!

We cycled further than ever before….430km more than last year.

We climbed more metres than ever before….68,067….but only pipping last year by a modest 500m! 

For the most part…the weather was shit! For the time of year. And I am not sure how much that affected the general feeling that this year’s ride was not quite as good as last year’s. 

Portugal and the Pyrenees aside…which were exceptional…the Spanish and Moroccan sections were interesting but not the best. In all cases…heading inland was so much better than meandering along the coast!

Notwithstanding the comparisons…..we all had a blast! Four very different journeys with four wonderful companions:

Corey (& Iain for five days) helped start it all off down the East coast of Spain, travelling around 1600kms over 16 cycling days…and climbing 13,902 metres.

Iain joined me for the 16-day beer hunt in Morocco…..travelling around the same distance….and climbing 11,934 metres.

John nervously took over in Jerez for the journey through Portugal….but soon settled into riding a very similar distance…again over 16 cycling days (amazingly similar distances!!)…and climbing a whopping 18,937m.

But after my break….it was Shennae who took Queen of the Mountains climbing 23,294 metres over 17 cycling days….over a distance of around 1,500kms.

I think they all enjoyed themselves…but poor old Nae was a bit sick, and possibly a bit jaded after three months in Central America! And she thinks she is now allergic to Spain!

The biggest climbing day of 2,594m was with John…which included  the record single climb of 1,571m.

Nae came close with a single climb of 1,469m during a day of 2,139m.

The longest distance was 158 km with Iain in Morocco…on the one and only day there was no beer to be found at the end of it!!

And the hardest day? It has to be our day of just 79km with a mere 278m of ascent! John’s first day! 30km+ of soft SAND. Neither of us will ever forget it!!

A close second was a gravel climb of over 1,000m with Corey….the day his first battery ran out after just 23kms! It was a long and gruelling day climbing up into the Sierra Nevada….into the wind!

But who cares about the stats (actually….we all did a lot of counting!)…it was just a fabulous twelve weeks!!

Thanks to Corey, Iain, John and Shennae!

Will they come again?

And so to thoughts of next year. I had been thinking of  doing a circuit of GB…or maybe the Arctic run up the coast of Norway….but really? The weather this year was miserable enough in Spain!!

So I can feel another Greek Odyssey coming on!!

Watch this space!

….in about seven months time!!

And if you are still reading…thank YOU too! It is good to be able to share the journey…and allow you to enjoy a bit of vicarious adventure!

Until next year……….