Vuelta Andalucia MTB 2019

I've been going to this race for a few years with various success and bad luck. Now I'm in the master 50 I thought I would get myself trained up properly and have another go. It's a 4 day MTB stage race around various parts of Andalucia with a lot of climbing and luckily for me, enough technical single track that normally gives me a bit of an edge.
Day 1 was the usual fast start with the master 50s starting from the back of the field. One of my competitors was starting very well and cutting through the field so I had to go with him. I did my best to drop him but was caught on a long flat section and I just didn't have the legs to stay with him. I dropped off trying to recover but it never really happened and the last steep 8km climb really had me struggling. I ended up 2nd but lost 9 min, too much.
Day 2 I got on the wheel of 1st place and soon realized he was struggling with the technical sections, up and down. I made my move and tried to get away. I finished much stronger and waited as the time counted down, 12 mins, I was back in the lead.
Day 3 was the longest and had lots of technical sections, I rode flat out and took plenty of risks and got another 5 mins.
Day 4 I know well from previous years, 30 km up 30 km down. 2nd place attacked pretty hard on the start of the climb but I passed him on the 1st single track descent and didn't see him again. I rode hard to the finish with no problems and took the win. Very happy, we'll see what happens next year.

Guad Al Xenil 2019

Myself and Ramon went to race in the Guad Al Xenil race last saturday. 143 km with 3200mts climbing around our local mountains starting in the Lecrin valley. After the neutral zone me and Ramon had strong start, maybe too strong, but sometimes you have to try. It took in two of our very steep climbs past the village of Notaez and the tough puerto de Torviscon, a steep 10 km to the top of the sierra Contraviesa. After that it was quite a fast run with a very fast drop down the cork forest on fully closed roads. From here on it was time to save the legs for the los Guajares climb, unfortunatly the wheels came off and I lost 4 places in my age group finishing 52 o/a and 8 th master 50. Here is the Strava link for the ride.