La Vuelta Day 1

Yes, I am just now posting... all that riding didn't leave much time to write about the adventure. The ride started promptly at 6AM (5AM EST) so we woke up at 4:30 (3:30 EST) and rode our bikes from the boat to the ride start with our backpacks. We dropped our bags at the luggage drop and were ready to go. It was required to have front and rear lights since each day starts in the dark. About two miles into the ride it started raining then all the sudden the rain was coming down sideways. Old San Juan in the dark with its cobblestone streets and potholes in a torrential downpour was quite a way to start. As one might imagine, there were a few casualties - one person went down right behind me. Even though it was a neutral pace we were all on high alert until we got to the first rest stop.

After the first stop riders break into 3 groups - A, B, and C. I signed up for the B group which would average 18 mph. The day was challenging complete with one big climb just before lunch, temperatures in the mid 90s, and a road closed to vehicular traffic due to a recent storm which also required us to stop multiple times, dismount, and carry our bikes over large piles of debris. I often felt that a cyclocross bike would have been more appropriate for this tour. At the bottom of one of the decents, apparently someone slowed down too quickly or the road narrowed and there was a pretty good crash right in front of me - I was very lucky to avoid it and also manage to not go over the side of the bridge. Yikes! After that crash, the group seemed to mellow out a bit and despite my back feeling a bit tweaked from avoiding the crash things were good until around mile 128 when I started cramping. Luckily there was a rest stop at mile 132. The first 5 miles after the stop were fine until the group started to pick up the pace and the cramping returned. Lucky me to have good friends like Jose and Savannah to pull me in the last 15 miles. We rolled into Ponce at 5PM dirty and totally exhausted but I was so happy to have the longest day behind me. 150ish miles done!