After an eight hour car journey, fourteen hours in planes and a lot of hanging around, came the bus ride from Mendonza to San Luis.
Mendonza is a wine-producing region and is heavily farmed. For hundreds of kilometers there are well-arranged crop and dispersed housing, like an endless suburb.
It’s not picturesque.
After this agricultural area came an endless scrub, not even a mountain in sight.
The motorway stretched on as far as the eye could see and I began wondering about the nightmare it would be to race here with a strong cross wind – I’m not a big fan of pushing and shoving in for position in echelons.
At San Luis the bus driver drove round to get us to the door of the hotel and at the same time knocked down an electricity post and some other cables, which had this bus full of cyclists very amused.
The next day I got on the bike and had a great ride around San Luis and these mountains they have nearby.
We went up and down these twice.
Part of the road at one part turns into a bona fide race track round a lake; all grand and very impressive.
Up in the mountains it was cooler, the road fantastic and I have to admit that I really enjoyed this first ride in Argentina and it was a huge relief to feel the wind in my face and that ease of movement that a race bike provides. It was wonderful.
I got my first glimpse of Argentina and I was impressed.
