Chilecito to Villa Union

Given that the paper map and route profile that we were handed this morning made absolutely no sense what so ever, I'm glad I was capable of keeping up with a few chaps who (A) Didn't want to ride on the unpaved section and found a ten kilometre short-cut and (B) Had Garmin devices with the GPX file, showing them where to go.

Essentially I rode with four others (Barry, Buck, Jurg and Terry) from Chilecito till we came across the lunch truck, which was unable to proceed to the top of the climb owing to roadworks where a quick bite of tucker was consumed. A tin of tuna with a couple of biscuits.

We then took off again shortly thereafter and it wasn't long before I was dropped. Basically it was a case of stopping to take a couple of photos and I then couldn't catch up, not helped by the fact I had to wait for a truck to unload some cement pilings.....

Whilst the road was closed to traffic owing to roadworks across the top of the climb, we were able to ride around / through it all, thanks to the generosity / kindness of the construction crew. 

Thanks fellas, it was most appreciated, particularly as the detour was a distance of some 300 kilometres.....

Once over the top and clear of the major earth moving road works, I subsequently put my head down, bum up and endeavoured to catch the rest of the group, something that I managed to do but only cause they had stopped to take some photos. Of course, everyone knows you should never stop on a descent.

Buck, Terry and Barry!

From there, we rode essentially in a peleton but only cause Terry ensured that the speed wasn't too fast as to have me falling off the back again. Now at this point and it is subject to a bit of controversy I'm going to claim that I "won" today's ride, cause I was the first to the Express Fire Truck. My colleague Buck claims the victory to be his however on the basis that he was first to the allotted finishing point, albeit three kilometres before we ultimately ended up tonight!