Today’s ride was literally a ‘Tour of Troodos mountains’. Started on the east of the highest peak in Cyprus (Mt Olympos, Troodos 1952m), in Agros village, the route descended towards the south and then followed the ‘wine route’ which rolls westwards through some of the wine villages of the Limassol district (Pelendri, Moniatis, Pera Pedi, Mandria – my late grandmother’s birthplace, Platres and Fini east to west). Then the route ascended northwards towards the villages Lemithou, Pedoulas and Prodromos before a long descend to Kakopetria. A long steep climb towards Kyperounta and then some rolling terrain (passing Chandria village) closed the loop and led back to Agros village.
A very hard route, with a scary descend (towards Pelendri), a very nice descend (towards Kakopetria) and everything else being more or less climbing. I felt generally well except during the last 5 mile ascend to Kyperounta, during which I thought I was melting due to the heat! A couple of kind people offered me water during the ride which was nice. The roads were quiet and with mostly good quality tarmac. So 55 miles with 6500ft climb in around 5 hours.
http://www.strava.com/activities/165798373
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- Pelendri village
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- getting hot (maybe it’s because my only jersey in Cyprus is Castelli, not Rapha – see what i did there 🙂 )
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- arriving in Mandria, my grandmother’s birthplace
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- Fini village
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- Mountains around Kykkos monastery. At the far right, there is a tiny tip on one of the peaks which is the ‘Throni’, the place where the first president of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios the third, is buried.
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- Pedoulas village, the white cross is the ‘Ypsosis tou timiou stavrou’ church (rise of the holy cross)
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- Kyperounta
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- Stylianos Lenas statue, in Chandria
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- Agros village
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- start/finish at ‘Glafkos Clerides sports centre’ in Agros village (Clerides served as president of Cyprus for 10 years; he served in RAF during WW2)
