Ready, set, go!

I am enjoying the 15th of August bank holiday to finish my setup.

Loaded my tracks in the GPS. Cleaned and lubed my bike. The packing list is almost ready.

And the bike ?

A good old vintage titanium Quintana Roo Santos from 2005 updated from TT to road bike, 11sp Ultegra 11/34, Campagnolo Zonda wheels, with Continental GP5000 28mm. Named Uli for Ulysses, a Rotor 2powerin powers him with Qring 50/34; he always finds his road home from Paris to Medellin and Malaga, now to Bilbao.

Topeak Backloader 10L for the extra layers, extra kit and repair tools. Restrap frame bag for care kit and electrics stuff. Restrap top tube to keep the food and sun protector. Front lights are Lezyne Macrodrive 1800XL and Moon Rigel. Two Moon shield-X as rear lights. Decathlon areobar. Extra kit: a pair of sandals to push in the track, a stabilizer for extra bottles and a swimsuit if I'm lucky or cross sirens.

Wish me luck and track me cap41 by the 19th of August 21h.

https://www.followmychallenge.com/live/transiberica23/

Transiberica my challenge for 2023

Being more and more into long-distance cycling, I decided to prepare Paris-Brest-Paris PBP in 2023. Paris-Brest-Paris is a 1200km race to complete in 90h.

Despite being a Parisian, I learned about this race when I met Oscar during a ceremony in the Alianza Francesa in Medellin in 2016 (maybe). He completed the race in 2015 and received his grade.

Since then, I have discovered the world of PBP, the brevets and ultra-cycling. In Medellin, it was not easy to do the brevets, and I kept interested in that. Now, living in Malaga, I did a couple of brevets in 2022, 200km in Espiel and 300km in Fuengirola. 

I was preparing myself for the 20th anniversary of PBP, following Garmin training plans and doing the first brevets of the year with Randonneurs Andalucía. 

But I found a more significant challenge, la TransIberica2023.

This event is usually in Bilbao, but in 2023 the start will take place in Malaga and will take us to Bilbao. I can't resist the adventure.

Thanks to the club and Diego, I'm doing the brevet in Benacazon (200km, 300km) and plan to complete the series. It will be my first time. I'm watching videos, for example, the excellent BuzzAlong video.

One of the specificity of the TransIberica is to be a free route which means the riders must design and follow their own plan to reach the mandatory checkpoints. The 10 checkpoints are creating two S covering around 2700km of Spain. Ideal for me to discover the country.

I'm spending much time designing the road and comparing the options.

I'm also testing the equipment and preparing training roads to adapt myself to different situations.

Luckily the next 400km will be in Castillo de Locubin, and the weather prediction is planning rain the whole day.

Wish me luck.