Fermes

21st Feb
No Hangover – did a ride on my own then a long run with the green team and Malcolm from the club who was determined that we do the frontside of Fermes, the steepest climb on the island. SO he had told Laurent and that’s where we went. Once we had negotiated Playa Blanca and the garage where the proprietor got very hot under the collar because I had lent my 2K bike against his 2 euro knackered plastic chair! (What are these people on, do they recognise that the tourist pound is the ONLY income of the island?) Laurent was fuming! Anyway, it rained all the way out, and the grind up the hill to the roundabout at the bottom of the Fermes climb took at least 20 minutes me and Malc had been dropped by the green team at the start of the climb and as we got closer you could see these cyclists appearing again and again as they rode round and round the roundabout! From a distance it looked like they were shooting up the Fermes climb and then back down and round to do it again. Malc got to the roundabout as I completed my second circuit and then when asked if ‘we do Fermes now, eh?’ says, ‘No, let’s not bother!!’ I’m like, you what! We did all this work to get here and now we don’t do the final bit! Malc says well, haven’t you been up already? I quickly dissuaded him of THAT notion! So with cries of ‘come on, show some true Brit!’ We did the Fermes 1 in 4 slog. Made it without stopping which was wonderful.