May 29, 2007

Texmelucan (Puebla), 27.05.07


Map Navigation: This dynamic Trackmap shows the GPS track (red line) and some geo-referenced photos (red dots) of the cycling tour. Wheel up and wheel down your mouse to zoom in or zoom out the map. Click on any point in the map to center it on that point. Or just drag the map with your mouse. To see the photos, hoover the mouse over the red dots. Click on the photo to go to the picture page.


Photoset Map

Photoset Show

GPS Track: GPX (MapSource, et al), or KMZ (Google Earth)

GPS Cycling Data:






Distance: 180 Km, Total Ascent: 2050 m, Total Descent: 2050 m, Cycling Time: 7:55 hr, Avg. Speed: 22.6 Km/hr, Max Speed: 65.2 Km/hr, Energy Expended: 35.43 MJ, Cycling Power: 311 W.

Travel Report:

This ride started at about 08:00 (or 3 hours later than self-proposed). On my way out of the city, I crossed with the first Cicloton ! What is that ? It is a city-sponsored Sunday 8 hours 30 Km long cycling circuit around Mexico City, that will take place once in a month. The streets are closed along the path of the Cicloton, so the cyclist can ride alone on their lanes.
I don't know if it is going to be the best of the ideas, but there we go :-)

After an hour or cycling I arrived at the beginning of the free highway to Puebla, where I could see several fellow cyclists also riding up the steep ascent to the Llano Grande summit (elev: 3200 m) from the ground level (2250 m) of Mexico City. There was also in fact, a cycling race, from Ixtapaluca to Rio Frio, both locations in the state of Mexico.

Somehow I could manage to insert myself along this race, trying not to be the last man in the race. But I had to pay the price. As I had five weeks of not having cycled, my so called technique was in bad shape, so I wasn´t cycling efficiently, putting instead too much force on the pedals in each stroke, resulting in a very bad cadence. The end result ? A broken chain :-(

Yep, I broke my chain 4 km before (and just 150 m under) the highest point at the Llano Grande summit ! My God ... Why me ? This new chain (Shimano DuraAce) has only a couple of rides on it ! I decided to walk to the highest point at Llano Grande, and from there, glide towards Rio Frio, a town on the other side of the mountain, where I could probably find a bike mechanic. Please do not forget that this day was Sunday ... God.

What else could I do ? I had no chain cutter, I (almost) always ride solo, there were no towns nearer than Rio Frio ... f*ck. It was lovely to see how the rest of the race cyclists were passing by me now ... After a short stop in Llano Grande to look for mechanics, I started gliding my descent to Rio Frio.

Once in Rio Frio, I looked for a bike repair shop, but all were closed ... yes, that was Sunday. But, in a stroke of luck, a local instructed me to talk to one music CD seller, as he was ... the bike repair man, in his Sunday office ! Luckily enough, he was eager to fix my chain :-)

In this way I could continue my way to Texmelucan, in the state of Puebla, just 22 km west of Tlaxcala, the capital of the homonimous state.

Thank you for reading. Till the next travel.

3 comments:

Hollito said...

Hi Erasmo, found your weblog by the reference in Roland`s blog. Very interesting! I will become a permanent reader of your reports now, even I only visit MX once a year for a few weeks.
Have a nice weekend, Holger "Hollito" from Germany (with wife from DF)

rolandmex said...

I wonder who told you about the thread in my blog. I didn't expect a reaction, even less that fast... - are there German-speaking spies sneaking thru my blog? ;-)

¡Saludos y felicidades! Ya sabes: lo bueno hay que apoyarlo.

Hollito said...

@Roland

Statcounter tells me, where people come from - maybe Erasmo just looked in his logfiles? :-)