Bike Nirvana
Yet another cycling blog
Tagaytay: Reverse Palace, part deux
November 5, 2016
I got to ride today with my photography buddies after a long absence. In fact, I had to choose between them and my car club buddies. In addition, I also have to decide if I should bring the Propel or the Blockhaus 67. I favored the Eddy Merckx because it's supposed to be my climbing bike.
It happens to be that we both have the same plan, i.e., Tagaytay, so I got to meet Elbert first and saw his new Carrera helmet which is really nice. Both of us took the Skyway so we arrived in time, as the others were trapped at SLEX for taking the grade-level.
It was past 8am when the others started to show up, Elbert and his group was first to take off.
I suggested a warm up route to "Miriam College" which was actually La Salle but we didn't get to take that. Instead, we headed to Marcos Mansion.
I was finally able to climb the bitch without stopping and I felt I was rewarded upon reaching the top. I wanted Pocari Sweat and that's when I realized I left my wallet so I had to borrow money from Mike, but there is no Pocari Sweat.
Before the ride out day, Rolen suggested we go to People's Park. Since we're at the Marcos Mansion already, we decided to proceed so this became my second reverse Palace (in the Sky) ride.
There are two sections of unpaved road in this route and due to rains, they're still muddied. It takes extra effort traversing these sections because of the slick tires of my Eddy Merckx Blockhaus 67.
This is the entry to "2 km of pain!" a Strava segment classified as Category 3. I am relieved not to suffer from cramps this time. Although I have two packs of Gu with me, I try not to consume them. When I reached the area with bush taller than me, I still have to stop, push, pedal, alternately until I got comfortable pedalling all throughout once more.
We finally converged at the last store just before the junction where I ate Dinuguan and rice, it's pretty good.
At the junction, we found time to rest (again) and take photos.
After more photos at Palace in the Sky, we headed down Tagaytay-Sta. Rosa road to return to Nuvali, but Jason got a flat tire. Not once, but twice. Here we are parked at the road side as we attend to Jason and his tire.
In the end, we were all able to get back safe and finally had lunch at Blue Corner near Paseo de Sta. Rosa. I had the Sisig which is good, but the Papaitan ordered by Mike is "fake" as it is beef. How can you have Papaitan that is not goat?