BRM 200 - Polas Terras Altas#
As I wrote in my previous entry in the journal, the weather forecast did not look good for this weekend. Many of my usual colleagues and friends decided to skip the first Brevet of this season in Galicia (can’t blame them, honestly) but I decided to take my chances with the weather.
As I always do, I booked a room in a hotel near the Brevet departure place. This gives me a bit more sleep time the night before the Brevet, and it grants me a good night sleep (sleeping home is a bit of a gamble, my daughters have this “nice” habit of waking me up several times in the middle of the night).
When I got to the hotel the evening before the Brevet it was raining, not very hard, but constantly. I fell asleep with the sound of rain on the windows, just to wake up a few hours later with the sound of some birds singing outside.
“Cool” - I thought - “It stopped raining already!”
After a quick shower, I noticed the sound of rain hitting the windows again, hard. Honestly, it felt like someone pouring a jar of icy water over my head. Images of some of the previous Brevet’s I’ve ridden, when we had to ride under strong rain and wind for hours, started to come to mind.
Not in the best mood, I tried to push down some breakfast (I was able to eat only half the usual mix of cereals, fruits, honey and milk). I got ready and packed my things up, then left the hotel and headed to the starting point.
When I got there, all doubts dissapeared completely. I got the bike out of the car, prepared everything and went to get my Brevet card. At that moment, I did not care anymore about the rain or the weather, all I wanted was to start riding my bike.
Soon the place was full of cyclists. Time to get the Brevet cards, say hello to old and new friends and get ready to go. By that time, it had stopped raining completely.
At 08:00, someone took the usual “departure picture” and we left with lots of cheering, laughing and shouting.
The roads were all wet, with lots of water puddles, so I was happy I decided to mount full fenders/mudguards again on the synapse.
It was colder than usual, but not terribly cold. This Brevet starts at sea level and goes (almost) all the time “up” until km 52 (more or less). That helped keeping the cold at bay.
Usually at the start of a Brevet you pick up a relaxed pace, going a bit slower than usual, still saying hello and talking to people you met in previous Brevets. This time though, I found myself soon at the head of the group and going on a faster pace. I joined one of the friends I made last year, someone that is registered for PBP too. We rode for quite some time together, catching up first, talking a lot about the whole PBP idea afterwards.
We weren’t alone though, after a while I looked back and noticed we were quite the group, riding together.
We passed the dam of Cecebre and took some nice secondary roads with lots of ups and downs, like a rollercoaster. We have lots of those here in Galicia and they are a joy to ride. They are in very good condition and they do not have a lot of traffic on them.
After a while, we joined another bigger road with more traffic. With everything still so wet we had to be very careful, specially on some fast descents in the bigger roads, where it is tempting to push it a bit and feel the speed.
Luckily, there weren’t so many descents (yet) and soon we started the first bigger climb of the day, towards Coirós. This first climb split our bigger group in smaller ones. Me and 5 other cyclists kept on, riding ahead of the rest. A while after the climb to Coirós we left the main road again, taking another secondary road towards Torre Lavandeira.
This is the start of the most beautiful part of this Brevet. The roads from there up to km 120 are really wonderful. You ride fast, passing woods, farms, open fields, livestock… with (almost) no traffic (with the exception of a couple of connections between smaller roads, when you have to take a bigger road to get from one small road to the next).
Yesterday I would say it was also magical. We had thick patches of fog several times, and those gave the whole thing a very nice atmosphere.
The second control (first one is at the start point) was in Teixeiro, a small village where we did a short coffee stop and got our Brevet cards stamped for the first time. Our little group-of-six stopped at the first cafetería we found open, the bigger group arrived at the same time our coffee had been served. I really like these little re-grouping moments at coffee stops.
After getting a bit warmer in the cafetería, we hopped on our bikes and resumed our trip on secondary roads towards the next stop, Corredoiras.
This control is very close to the previous one (just 15 km) but going there means having to do an extra loop to get to the old village of Sobrado dos Monxes on our way to the next control in Friol.
As we had a coffee stop in Teixeiro, the stop in Corredoiras was one of those fast stops. There is a gas station at the entrance of the village, where we did stop to get the stamp on the Brevet cards.
A group of friends (all belonging to the same cycling club in Coruña) packed all their Brevet cards together, giving them all to one of the cyclists. Then, this is the one that puts the stamp on all the cards, writes down the times, etc. They do it like this in all Brevets, and this was no exception. In Corredoiras, only this guy (Edgar) stopped to get the stamps, while the rest of them kept riding. As I had to stop to get my card stamped, I decided to wait for him and help a bit.
I’m not sure I’ll do it again.
We left Corredoiras together but soon he started to push to catch up with the others. For a while I kept up with his pace, but at one point I decided to let him go, no use getting burnt this early in the day.
I’m used to ride alone. Most of my weekly cycling hours are alone and I’ve ridden solo for shorter and longer stretches in Brevets a lot of times. I’m perfectly fine with it and sometimes I really enjoy those times of solitude. And I did enjoy this one.
Letting this guy go didn’t mean going into a slow pace, I kept it allegro. The road to Sobrado dos Monxes is fast, without any big climbs or hills, and the tarmac was perfect. Soon, I was entering Sobrado dos Monxes and I was able to see the group ahead of me.
I wasn’t in a hurry to catch the group and I was running low on water, so I decided to do a quick stop in Sobrado to refill my bottles. There is a good water fountain in the main square, just beside the road I had to follow.
Leaving Sobrado, we took the road to Friol, which meant the start of the second bigger climb of the day, towards Marco das Pías and the line that separates the provinces of A Coruña and Lugo.
I’m no climber, but I was faster than this group on the climbs, so that was the perfect place for catching them. Also, arriving in Sobrado meant entering my territory. From that moment on, we were going to ride in roads I know well from all my training rides. The kind of detail that gives you a bit more confidence while riding.
After the climb came a fast descent, followed by a road mostly flat until we arrived in Friol, next control point. We decided not to do another coffee stop there, instead we got our stamps from a small shop that sells gardening stuff, tools, livestock food, etc.
As it happened in Corredoiras, the group split a bit, as people did not wait to leave as a group and instead they resumed riding by pairs, trios, etc. I left in the middle of some pairs and as soon as I was getting out of the village, I heard a “CLACK” sound and noticed something hitting my right leg. When I looked down I noticed something was wrong with the front derailleur, so I stopped to take a look.
Other cyclists were passing by, some asking if everything was ok - “Not sure - I replied - “I’m still trying to find out”. Something was odd, there was a small plastic piece that got loose and I was trying to find out what happened when another cyclist (Ángel, like in an angel, funny, isn’t it?) stopped to help. We tried to find out how to put the piece back in place, but we were not able to.
Another cyclist from a local cycling club, not participating in the Brevet, stopped too, to ask if we need anything. I asked if his bike had a Shimano Ultegra r8000 (like mine) to take a look, see if we could find out how to put that piece back in place, but no luck.
For a moment I got worried that maybe some other piece may have popped up on the road, but I decided to pick up a small piece of velcro tape I always bring to the Brevets and do a quick-and-dirty fix. We were wasting too much time there.
I did a couple of tests and gearing seemed to work just fine, no parts rubbing, nothing looked life-threatening or dangerous, so we resumed our ride.
I got a bit anxious about all the time we lost there and the fact that our main group must be quite ahead of us at that point, so I decided to push it a bit. As I’ve said, I know this road quite well. It is that kind of road where, once you reach a bit of speed, it is easy to keep rolling fast. So, no more talking, just pushing the pedals and keep a steady pace all the way to the next village, Parga.
Or so I wanted to do.
But when we were a few km from Parga, we noticed a couple of cyclists on the side of the road. When we got closer, we recognized them as two of the members of our little group. Alberto got a flat tire (third one already!). We stopped to ask if they need help. They didn’t need any help… but we decided to stay there and wait for them. It is always nice when you have company in these cases and it would be nicer to resume riding together afterwards.
With a new inner tube in place, we resumed our way to the next control point, in Baamonde, passing first through Parga without stopping, crossing the train railway track and leaving secondary roads again to ride on the bigger Nacional VI road.
When we arrived in Baamonde, the group was waiting for us in a bar by the road. They already had ordered food for us too!. We sat for a moment and told them about the incidents and why it took so long to get there. Food took quite the time to be ready (some simple bocadillos, but maybe too many at once for the poor cook there ;-D). We had time both to catch up about the status of the Brevet so far, and to get very very cold while waiting.
Most of the group went inside for lunch, while me and some others decided to stay outside, on the covered terrace. In cases like this, I prefer not to get too warm or I’d suffer a lot afterwards coming outside and resuming cycling.
While waiting for the food, I started to check all the other bikes, looking for another Ultegra r8000. When I finally found one, I took a closer look at its front derailleur and… BINGO, found out how to put that small piece back in place. I also confirmed that no other small piece was missing, which was a big relief, to be honest.
The food took so long to arrive that, when we finally got the bocadillos we wolfed them down super fast and we hurried to leave. I was still munching the last big piece when I clipped in and started pedaling again (bad idea, as I found out later).
Without digestion even started, we approached the third, final, and harder climb of the day. Going up a hill towards a Wind farm with a couple of steep sections reaching 15/16%.
Everybody took it easy, most of us already knew what was waiting for us, and those who didn’t, listened carefully to our suggestions and comments about it.
Digestion kicked in, not at the best moment, and made things a bit harder. Even so, we chatted a bit, made jokes and kept pushing the pedals all the way to the top.
At the top I did stop for a moment to remove my scarf (I should have done it after lunch, before starting the climb) and then I started another long descent, still on a smaller road which was a bit broken half the way down. I was solo once again.
After the descent, we had to take another bigger road for a few km before turning again into another little nice and quiet road, passing through villages as small as 3-4 houses together, most of them being (cow) farms. Again, lots of going up and down just before arriving at the last control point in A Tolda. There used to be one of those bars by the road here, but it has been closed for several years now, so instead of another stamp in our cards, we took a group picture.
This was the third time I rode this Brevet (I already did it in 2018 and 2019) and every time there is the overall sensation that all work has been done when we arrive at this control point. That is far from true though, as this control is at km 145 (more or less) and there are a couple of hills to climb on our way back.
A little after leaving A Tolda, the Sun came up, warming us up. We rode towards Guitiriz, where we left the secondary roads again and went on the Nacional VI one more time. That was the road that would take us back to A Coruña.
Leaving Guitiriz, we rode for another 20km before starting the last long descent of the day, first on A Costa do Sal and then down from Coirós (which was the first climb of the day, earlier). Those 20km felt like a neverending flat road, with a few “bumps”. I was eager to get to the start of the descent, and it wasn’t only me, everybody was making jokes - “Are we there yet?”, “When did they move A Costa do Sal?”.
At one point we noticed we were heading towards some dark clouds. “It seems we are going to finally get wet” - someone said. And before passing by Montesalgueiro it started to rain. The further we went, the harder it was raining. I was wearing a water resistant (not fully waterproof) winter jacket and my Rapha Brevet Gillet - “This should be enough, it will stop soon anyway” - I told myself. And I was right, after 10, maybe 15 minutes the rain stopped and the Sun came out again, just in time to get dry during the descent.
The last part of the Brevet, as it happens with all the Brevets that start in A Coruña, means having to get back to the big city, that is, having to ride among lots of traffic (cars, trucks, motorbikes, etc). Add the fact that we usually get back at rush hour (when people go back home after work) and things are even uglier. Luckily, we managed to pass that part without trouble and soon we took a turn right towards smaller roads with less traffic (but still traffic, plus lots of roundabouts where we had to be very careful).
We were less than 5km away from the finish line when we did spot another cyclist ahead of us. We recognized him inmediately, he was part of the little group I rode with at the start of the Brevet, when we were going up to Coirós. He was strong, and at one point he pushed it a bit, leaving us all behind. But it seemed like his energy was gone there. He looked tired and he was going slowly.
We decided to make a joke and we pushed it a bit, passing him a bit faster and shouted, trying to cheer him up - “Vamoooossss”, “Venga que ya está hecho!” - He smiled at us, surprised.
And we were almost there. Laughing, everybody telling what a good time we have had for the day. I prepared myself for the last short climb of the day, the arrival in INEFG, a short steep one before the finish line.
Another tradition of mine, when riding Brevets arriving in Bastiagueiro (and if there is anything left in the tank, of course), is to push it - sprint style - up that short steep climb.
I pushed as hard as I could at the turn where the climb starts and I heard Dani laughing behind me - “Are you going to sprint it? Seriously??” - I smiled and then heard him saying - “Wait, here it goes Edgar too!” - and all I could do was watching him passing me at the last turn. That was the icing on the cake ;-D.
After delivering our Brevet cards, we sat down for a while, cooling down and talking about the day, the plans for next Brevets and, of course, Paris-Brest-Paris.
And here is some data taken from my activity in Strava:
