Words and photos by Epic Rider Sean Smith
Please follow this link to read part 1.
Barcelona, Day 3
Stats from todays ride: 34 miles, 4,250ft elevation gain, 2:57 minutes.
Back to training even when on vacation, and that means intervals, and thus far on my rides around Barcelona I've yet to find a road that is safe and uninterrupted for 30 minute threshold intervals (threshold means all out effort sustainable for an hour) besides the mountain climbs I've done already. So, since I needed to do two 30' intervals and another two hours of endurance pace I headed north to the hills. Getting there is a bit of a chore and requires lots of stops and starts, and couple that with my unfamiliarity of the roads a 5 mile ride to the start of the climb means over 30 minutes of really slow riding.
Barcelona seems to be perpetually hazy in the late morning, but after my two intervals I decided to go check out the Sagrat Cor perched atop Tibidabo Mtn. The route there offers amazing panoramic views of the city, and I tried again to capture the beauty of the urban sprawl of Barcelona. You can see kind of make out Sagrada Familia by Gaudi in the center of the photo sprouting forth from the ground competing against other high rise glass structures I'm unfamiliar with both to the right and left. Tomorrow we are going to go by foot to check out Gaudi's Guell Park and Sagrada Familia so I'll provide some better pics later!

I continued on and went through a small, beautiful village called Vallvidrera that overlooks Barcelona, simply stunning - I'd love to live there! - and stopped again along side the road when I was a few hundred feet higher in elevation to soak in the view. Two German tourists were there as well and offered to take my picture.

There was still more climbing to do before I got to the top of Tibidabo, so I clipped back in and continued on for another mile or so to the top of the mountain where Sagrat Cor is located along with a very swanky hotel.

The hotel was located slightly below the church, and had an equally impressive view and judging by the cars parked in the small vestibule, it costs a lot to stay there. Three cars were parked outside, and they were probably worth nearly 1 million dollars combined. One was boring and just a giant custom luxury car, but the other two were worthy of the Alize's company. I could tell the doorman was a bit nervous initially when he saw me near the cars, but he decided I was harmless and left me alone.




Barcelona, Day 4
Another boring day in Barcelona. Sunny, warm (70+F), no wind - simply beautiful. Perfect for a three hour ride.
Today I used a training route <--- see the route there, slightly modified by me, given to me by a local who is part of the NeilPryde Bikes epic rider program. He called it the "Allela Training loop" and it, in fact, does go through a small town of said name but also meanders along the Mediterranean for about 10 miles before heading north in to the small mountains that speckle the view no matter which direction you look away from the Sea. I slightly changed his route by adding in an additional climb, a great one I might add, and I also did a few repeats on the sole climb of the original route. The length of the first climb was perfect for my 4' v02 max intervals prescribed for today.
I hit the beach, and thoroughly enjoyed the view while pedaling along at an endurance pace. Looking to the left I saw the grand, very old majestic buildings of Barcelona overlooking the sea, and then straight ahead palm trees lined the route as far as the eye could see, and a slight turn to the right there's the golden, sandy beach with the shimmering sea stretching to infinity.

I had a bit of time to play before the workout started.

A beach shot taken while riding featuring the town of Badalona, Spain in the background.

Shortly after this picture I had to start working, but did take a few more photos when munching on a bar before turning around to slam out another interval. Here's one. I guess I just liked the trees:)

After my very satisfying ride, my wife greeted me with a wonderful egg sandwich with eggs that come from a different planet as far as I can tell. Richer in color and more flavor than even or fancy farmer's market eggs we get in the city, these things are what all eggs should aspire to, and they are only 1 euro a dozen at the boqueria across the street from our apartment. Add some fresh chives, shaved 4 year aged manchego, and sliced heirloom tomatoes on a wonderful fresh baked roll and she's the greatest person in the world as far as I'm concerned!
We then went for a walk to check out the still under construction until 2026 Sagrada Familia and Guell Park. Gaudi's church just barely surpasses my 'not another catholic church' status and is worth seeing with your own two eyes, and the park is really interesting as well and is sort of like a mild acid trip/ginger bread house contest. The details are stunning and I took about 30 photos to try and capture most the figures, but will provide one of the larger coverage photos here.

Getting to Guell Park was a long 2.6km hike up a hill that gradually got steeper and steeper as we progressed. After a hard workout, it was not ideal and I was dragging a bit but so was my wife who ran quite a bit today so it was all good!



Download GPX file of Day 3

Download GPX file of Day 4