The Pyrenees - Road Riding, Mountain Biking & Enduro Riding…… and more!

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Did a road ride with “Jose the Priest” and “Fermin the Sculptor” on Saturday afternoon. Beautiful day for it and the views are always worth the climb!

Fermin is 76 years old and climbed the first 7km – which rises 500 odd meters – without any problems. If I can ride like that at 76 I’ll be a happy man!

From FB:

A “Colombiano”, an “Ingles” and an “Español” riding together on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.
At one point Fermin (he’s a Sculptor who also sings Opera) and I were singing “El Mondo”……….

 

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Did another road ride with "Jose the Priest" and "Fermin the Sculptor" on Saturday afternoon.

Boltaña to Campo and back. 70km, with over 1000m of climbing. Worked the legs, caught some sun and Fermin, who sings Opera, sang to us a little on the climbs!

A great day out.

 

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Taking a breather on the way to the abandoned village of Muro de Bellos.....

 

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Remembering the "Jose "Pepe" Perez Memorial Race" held annually in October in Barbastro, a town about 50km south of where we live.

Jose was a policeman who was sadly killed on duty.

I raced this in 2018 and loved it. Hoping it will be on again this year. The race was well organized and had a great atmosphere.

 

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Living in the middle of "Zona Zero" isn't just about riding MTB!

Last week Mrs Bonus helped our friends Els VH and Pedro Montaner from "Aventura Entremontes" - a local adventure company - who were making a promotional video about Kayaking here on the Mediano Dam (Embalse de Mediano). She enjoyed it so much that the following weekend we asked Els & Pedro if we could all do it again, so that I could try it!

I have to say, it was totally amazing!!

The dam is currently almost full. Maybe a meter and a half lower than when it's at its highest level. Els drove us all down to the start point with the 2-man Kayaks. We had them in the water within minutes and off we went. The water was beautiful and calm. Paddling the Kayaks was so easy it was a pleasure. We headed over to the tower of the old Mediano church - the only bit of the submerged village of Mediano that can be seen when the dam is full. From there we headed over to the East side of the dam and into one of the dams many "barrancos". This one is where the Rio Usia that comes from the village of "El Humo de Muro" enters the dam. You can't get up as far as the village but we found a lovely little shaded spot halfway up to stop and have a picnic.

There is a knack to paddling a 2-man Kayak - you both have to work smoothly and in unison . . . . we struggled a bit with that!! but we did have a great and relaxing time on the beautiful blue water in the sunshine. I look forward to doing it again sometime soon. Happy Days

Many thanks to Els VH https://trailhunters.es/

Our Kayaks - and Els & Pedro setting off . . . .

The Tower - which you can row through . . . . as demonstrated by our friends

Pics of us on a beautifully smooth dam, then heading up a Barranco . . . .

What it looks like when the water is low at the end of Summer. . . . .

 

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Every year we get a week or so of crazy hot weather in August. I mean August is always nice and hot, but a week or so of temps exceeding 40 degrees. This year has been no exception and over the last few days we’ve topped out at 41 and 42 degrees several times. When it’s that hot you struggle to do anything, even thinking straight is hard! Like everyone, we do the best we can under the circumstances. Drop the outside blinds to keep the sun out of the flat during the day, drink plenty and swim in the river in the evening to try and cool our body cores down! Sleeping is hard, just sitting still is hard. I’m glad I finish work at 2:30 every day, because the afternoons are just too hot to work in unless you’re in somewhere with aircon! Yesterday the temps dropped a few degrees and today they should drop a few more. We’ll have 30 as a max instead of 40 – which will be lovely. I’m looking forward to getting on the bike again after a week off. Thankfully we did have a cracking thunderstorm in the middle of the very hot spell and that settled the dust for a day or so. Let’s see how the next week goes . . . .

 

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"We all have that one friend who becomes a stuntman on a ride . . . "

Just found this "video still" on my hard drive whilst having a tidy up. I can confirm that no Americans were harmed during the making of this video....

 

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I've been road riding with Mrs Bonus every afternoon this week.

The weather is warm & sunny and the roads of Zona Zero are quiet..... a perfect time to get some miles in!

 

[mustang1]

The "Pyrenees - Road Riding, Mountain Biking & Enduro Riding" thread is aimed at covering everything to do with Road Riding, MTB Riding, Enduro Riding, Social Riding & Local Races here where we live in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains.

I'll also try and post details of local Iconic Grand Tour Climbs, Nearby Attractions and Points of Interest....

(This will allow me to use the "Cycling B&B in the Pyrenees" thread for our house-build only)

For now, here's a picture from Sundays ride . . .

View attachment 442195

That's a lovely backdrop but (strangley) i like the bike even better!

 

[Bonus]

That's a lovely backdrop but (strangley) i like the bike even better!

Specialized Epic. It's an awesome bike. I love it.

Still riding the same bike, but that white frame, which was a carbon frame with an ally rear triangle, has been replaced with a black frame which is all carbon. It was a "manufacturer replacement" after the original frame developed a crack....

 

[mustang1]

Specialized Epic. It's an awesome bike. I love it.

Still riding the same bike, but that white frame, which was a carbon frame with an ally rear triangle, has been replaced with a black frame which is all carbon. It was a "manufacturer replacement" after the original frame developed a crack....

View attachment 612550

Cool. Yeah is aw that you had replaced it further down in the thread. You must have used it well which is great to hear!

 

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Yesterday we swapped our Road Riding lycra for Baggies & T-Shirts to go exploring on the nearly empty Mediano Dam.

A beautiful sunny day for a great ride with Mrs Bonus.... and now we know how to reach the dam wall by bike!

Hard to imagine we Kayaked through the windows at the top of the church tower back in the Spring when the dam was full! :-)

 

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Next Saturday (23rd October) the "Real Federacion Espanola Ciclismo" will be holding a round of the "Copa de Espana - Pump Track 2021" at the Ainsa Pump Track.

Our track hasn't been open long so this is a first for us here at Zona Zero and the Zona Zero team will be there to help out - much like we did for the Endure World Series back in 2018.

I'm looking forward to it and to seeing how the Pro's handle the course!

 

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Riding Zona Zero Route ZZ-019 with my friends Mark & Adele from the Isle of Skye on Saturday.

It was a beautiful day and the route itself, whilst still tricky in places, has matured nicely with use over the last few years. Lots of nice fast singletrack and some amazing views! A really good technical XC route.

 

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Todays Road Ride with my friends Fermin and Alejo in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

A great ride, hard work but lots of laughs too - as always.

Beautiful weather, well maintained roads with little traffic and Zona Zero information signs en-route to measure our progress!
A great day out