Ruta Maya : Day 15

Another tough day but what a beautiful ride! We rode for 113k/70 miles and climbed 9,363 feet. Most of the climbing was on dirt which makes it even more difficult. The steepness of many climbs had me in the lowest possible gear and pushing hard to ge up the hills. It is tough on dirt because you cannot stand up to crank some extra leverage. If you stand up you do not have weight over the rear wheel and then it loses traction and just spins. Then you lose momentum and you are dead... you have to then walk up the hill because you cannot get started on such inclines. Oh well, too much details on the hills.

Today started out a bit chilly. We were on the road before 7 am. We were at a pretty high altitude to start with but we climbed another 9k to get to the top of the mountain. Then before us lay a beautiful downhill. But I must inject here that I do have some semblance of sanity when it comes to descending down. This morning I had a bad feeling about the coming downhill. A true feeling of foreboding. So I heeded my inner sense and took it easy going down. Yes, I braked and braked often. I hit a set of speed bumps about half way down that were not marked and would have caused quite a bit of problems had I hit them at full speed. So the inner self was on the money today with the warning.

After the downhill we went into dirt roads that were of the goat cart types. They were tough going but took us way off the beaten path to see wonderful sights and little villages. It was great.

We finally hit pavement after a quaint village. A local gentleman on a bike came up to us. He spoke great English. We talked for a bit. He is 64 retired and does the route he was on 4 times a week for 120k (75 miles)! It is a rolling hills section of the highway with a great shoulder. He said he stays in good shape and looks at cycling to keep his mind and body in shape. He said you never know when the good lord is going to take you so stay in shape and do the things you want while you can. Good outlook on life! I rode with him for about 30k. He was a monster on the hills. I kept up with him on everything but the hills. He lose me a bit and then I catch him on the flats. We averaged over 30kph. Can't believe I had a tough time keeping up with a 64 year old guy. :)

We parted ways at our lunch stop. He wished me, vaya con dios (go with god).

After lunch we were back on dirt for the climb of our lives. It was tough but once again we were way off the beaten path in beautiful country. The dirt section took awhile as the going was slow due to the steepness of the grade.

Our last section after the dirt was on the main highway. But this time there was a great shoulder to the road. And we descended down out of a mountain pass into a valley. The descent was 10k and I hit speeds of 78kph. The speed limit was 80 kph. I was tucked in as aerodynamic of a position on the bike and keeping up with the cars on the highway. It was exhilarating!

Great day all in all. This was the first of four before the next rest day. Each one of the days is like today, a great deal of climbing. Each day has over 2,000 meters of climb. This tour is more designed for a mountain goat!

But it is fun... I certainly do know why they call it BRUTIFUL!