My First Ride

(Wednesday February 7, 2007)

We finally woke up at noon and I rode for a couple hours with one of the kids from the team. He’s 19, from the Canary Islands, and is hoping to someday be a professional cyclist. He showed me the basic 2 hour route that we’ll do pretty much every easy day we have. Riding through town was exhilarating because I was trying to get a good look at Alcoy’s people and its buildings while weaving through traffic and avoiding motos. He spoke no English, but I was able to chat it up pretty well. Biking is a perfect setting for learning a new language: you’re immersed for several hours at a time, and there’s really nothing else to do besides pedal.