When a friend of yours has a crazy idea there are two ways to react:
- Try to reason him
- Acknowledge that the first option has zero chance of working, and decide to get into trouble with him
How Our Delusion Began
That’s exactly what happened to me when Món shared with me that he committed to his family to ride from his current place to his hometown village, Cambil, in one go. 425km and close to 4000m elevation.
Don’t ask me why. I should have asked why. Instead, my immediate reaction was, “Let’s do it together”.
That’s how LaMónCambil® was born. (the “®” thing is only to illustrate how pedantic (arrogant?) I am).
We would cross the Provinces of Madrid, Toledo, Ciudad Real, and Jaén. Following the steps of Don Quixote de la Mancha.
I met Món virtually during the first season of ZRL back in October 2020. As we live close to each other we started riding together IRL, completing gravel events and 300km brevet. After all those hours together I can say we have become close friends.
We decided 26th August 2022 would be the day we would leave from Barajas in Madrid, at 5:30PM, ride through the night and arrive at Cambil around 1PM the following day. This would guarantee that we avoid the above 40°C temperatures of Andalusia during the afternoon.
Three Months Preparing LaMónCambil®
Preparing for a challenge can be even more rewarding than accomplishing it. Getting fitter, projecting yourself into the adventure, wondering how it will be. Talking about it with fellow zwifters, family, and friends.
When explaining to them LaMónCambil®, the reactions varied from hysterical dismissive laughs to uncontrolled jaw-dropping. Very few of them were really encouraging, which motivated us even more.
Món and I spent months preparing the ride. Track, food, stops, water, alignment of the stars and planets. Weeks and weeks of very disciplined neverending Zone 2 sessions made us feel invincible. Also Lorena, Món’s wife, would always be within 60km of us with her car in case of emergency.
This was our schedule:
Note to myself: always get a Plan B, C, and D.
Upon departure on the 26th of August, we pretty much had everything under control.
Note to myself: this assumption means you are the most arrogant bipède this earth has ever hosted.
The Highway to Hell
Weather forecast seemed totally positive, which got confirmed until 9PM, the moment we started perceiving some clouds on the horizon.
We had our first shower just before dinner at 9:30PM (Yes, in Spain it is not unusual to get dinner at 10PM). The rain was intense but very short, around 10 minutes, so we felt unlucky but agreed that, all things considered, it was not very important.
After 108km and 700m elevation, we had dinner with Lorena in Lillo. We were fully on schedule.
We started pedaling again at 11PM, and Món received a call from Lorena telling us that she was in the car 30km ahead and that a huge storm had hit her. Ten minutes later, we got served. Heavy rain and 50 km/h face-side wind at night. Not what we had ordered!
Things got even uglier when lighting started striking around us, and turned totally nightmarish when, at 1:30AM, hail was invited to the party, beating our helmets with a tremendous amount of noise.
We were supposed to be flying at 30 km/h in the flats, but were instead at maximum 15 km/h. It was as if all the power-downs I had imagined in January were applied to us at the same time, plus a double anvil before the Zwift September update.
We were in the middle of nowhere, with no place to hide, wasting an enormous amount of watts and, even more importantly, an enormous amount of willpower fighting the wind and the apocalyptic climate conditions.
That is when one of the most memorable moments of LaMónCambil® occurred.
Món looked at the sky and said, “We can see all the stars, where does the freaking rain and hail come from?”
It was impossible to explain. There were no clouds above us but it was still raining like there was no tomorrow. Later we were told that given the huge amount of wind the rain could come from very far away, but I started doubting that I had my entire brain with me.
I could not get out of my head the image of the weather forecast provided by Epic Ride Weather an hour before we left.
As the storm was getting more and more intense, we stopped on the side of the road to reassess the situation. It was dangerous to continue as we could barely see anything beyond 10 meters, but it was similarly dangerous to stay where we were because of the lightning and the cold. Even worse, given the weather conditions the likelihood Lorena would be able to find us was close to zero. Prisoner’s dilemma.
Món was really down. I was in shock and not able to make any decision. We were lost, and even a little scared although neither of us wanted to show it to the other.
There was no point in insisting, we were already an hour and a half behind schedule and there was no hope that the weather situation would improve in the short term.
We were very close to the premature end of LaMónCambil®…
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